A love letter to a small, robotic boy from a developer that loves 2D action.
Astro Boy is one of the most pervasive Japanese characters ever created, born of the man lovingly referred to as the father of anime. For the uninitiated: After his son dies in a tragic accident, brilliant robotics expert Dr. Tenma builds Astro Boy to replace the son he lost, creating a robot that can do more than just follow orders; Astro has a soul. The charming robotic kid with 100,000 horsepower strength and an electronic heart is often trusting to a fault, accidentally placing himself in dangerous situations time and time again. Thrust into a world filled with conflict, Astro wants nothing more than to see everyone – robot, human, alien, or otherwise – coexist peacefully, even if he needs to bash a few skulls to make this dream a reality.
Rather than follow any of the innumerable adventures Astro has undertaken since his debut in 1951, Omega Factor instead fashions an entirely new storyline from the patchwork of Osamu Tezuka's life's work, featuring over fifty characters created by the prolific manga artist. Each character is faithfully represented in both on-screen sprite and simply animated character portrait, capturing Tezuka's trademark bright, cartoony style. This massive cast of characters is more than just window dressing, however; besides factoring in the game's incredibly complex plot that explores themes of racism and personal responsibility, the cast itself also forms an integral gameplay element. The titular Omega Factor refers to Astro's robotic soul, which can be strengthened by establishing meaningful human connections. Bonding with others and earning their friendship – or failing that, at least their respect – allows you to upgrade Astro's capabilities. Before the end, Astro will be an unstoppable powerhouse, but in the meantime, this allows you to customize Astro to best suit your personal playstyle. Upgrade his sensors or jets to improve mobility and more easily locate hidden characters or improve the power of his punches and increase his health total to stand a chance against that next boss. Each character is also cataloged in a ridiculously thorough in-game encyclopedia that includes character biographies and detailed data concerning the books and television series they appeared in.
Unlike other Treasure action titles, Omega Factor isn't the sort of brutally difficult game that takes days to master before you're beating the game in under an hour. This isn't a game you beat in a single sitting; Omega Factor should last you between 6-8 hours, depending on difficulty level. Most of the game plays like a traditional side-scrolling brawler, complete with epic, Treasure trademark boss battles. Here, Astro punches, kicks, and posterior-mounted machine guns his way through waves of diverse enemies. The game makes good use of the Game Boy Advance's sprite scaling, mixing things up and staving off repetition by varying the size of the enemies you face. While it doesn't always make logical sense (six-inch tall mobsters, for example), it forces you to rethink your approach when battling monstrous versions of previously tiny enemies. And best of all, despite the sheer number of sprites on screen and the many layers of parallax, the game rarely suffers from any slowdown. Occasionally, the diminutive hero takes to the sky and blasts down baddies with his patented finger laser. In the sky and on the ground, combat is fast and chaotic, hinging on careful management of Astro's EX powers.
In addition to his standard move set of punches, kicks, and finger laser blasts, Astro also comes armed with three powerful EX attacks. Besides dishing out heavy damage, each of these abilities also provides some sort of limited invulnerability. Enemies hit hard, regardless of their size, and managing the temporary invulnerability and the massive damage potential of these abilities is the key to continued success. The system in place here is simple, but allows for a tremendous amount of depth. Using standard attacks replenishes your EX power cache – limited to 99, 5, or 3 on easy, normal, and hard, respectively. Once charged, you can unleash a powerful laser beam from your arm cannon, destroying projectiles and enemies in its path with equal prejudice, but leaving Astro completely vulnerable from all angles but the front. His machine guns, on the other hand, deal a small amount of damage to all enemies on screen, but stun them temporarily and leave Astro completely invulnerable for the duration of the attack. Finally, the EX dash allows Astro to rocket across the screen, delivering a powerful punch to a single enemy and sending him catapulting along for the ride. Regardless of difficulty, you're always a few punches and kicks away from another EX attack. These powers are carefully balanced both offensively and defensively, and in order to successfully survive the often-cluttered screen, you'll need to make full use of their potential.
The game unfolds mostly linearly, with an unexpected plot twist changing the structure of the game about halfway through. Eventually, you'll find yourself replaying altered versions of the game's first seven levels, bouncing between stages out of order to unlock secrets and prevent a full-scale robot-human war. This time traveling, nonlinear mechanic greatly lengthens the time you'll spend with the game, and allows you to really explore the details of Astro's world if you choose. Having every stage available to replay at any time, even after beating the game – which everyone will be able to do, if not on normal then certainly on the game's easiest difficulty option – makes replaying your favorite boss battles easy and painless. Unfortunately, unlocking the game's savagely challenging final level where all of the game's myriad subplots come to a head is unnecessarily cryptic, requiring some clever guesswork or liberal consultation with your favorite walkthrough. Even after completing the game there's plenty to keep you occupied, including a clever scoring system that encourages speed and survivability.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor is a welcome throwback to a genre that once ruled the market and now is little more than a footnote in gaming history. Still, even back then they never made them quite like this. With a lengthy adventure, an involving story, and nonstop, wall-to-wall action, the game is more than just a nostalgic trip back to the 2D action well. Omega Factor is a finely crafted game and one of the most charming titles on the Game Boy Advance. Fans of Astro Boy or just Tezuka's work in general will be in fanservice heaven with Omega Factor, but be forewarned: if you're not yet completely enamored with Tezuka's boy robot with a big, electronic heart, you soon will be.