Astro Boy is a short but modestly entertaining diversion that stays true to its bright, kind-hearted roots.
User Rating: 7.2 | Astro Boy: Tetsuwan Atom PS2
At first glance, Sonic Team's Astro Boy may strike many gamers as kid fodder. It is, after all, based on a modern Japanese anime television series, which is, in turn, based on Osamu Tezuka's comic and its corresponding 1960's animated series, known as Tetsuwan Atom. Dismissing this charming title would be a mistake, though. Astro Boy for the Playstation 2 may be suitable for all ages, and may not provide any legitimate challenge to most adult gamers, but it is a colorful, vibrant title with a surprising variety of gameplay and an array of good, old-fashioned fun. While some of its play elements may not be fully implemented, and an irritating camera and targeting system often get in the way, Astro Boy is a short but modestly entertaining diversion that stays true to its bright, kind-hearted roots. As Astro Boy, you are the creation of the super-intelligent Dr. Tenma, a scientist determined to create the world's most powerful robot, and convinced that robots will one day rule the world. Adopted by the kindly Dr. O'Shay, Astro lives the life of a normal boy with gifts so extraordinary, even his creator doesn't know their full capacity. But now, Astro's home of Metro City is under siege by evil robots, and it's up to Astro to stop them. No familiarity with the comic book or TV series is required, and the story is told via cutscenes lifted right from the series - and within the game engine itself. The tone is bright, cheery, and irresistable, setting the stage for an enjoyable superhero romp. Your main playfield is the sky above Metro City, from where you choose your destination. You will be given missions along the way that advance the story and allow you to develop new powers as the game progresses, but there is a certain amount of free-form exploration to be had as well. Each map features a variety of inhabitants that can give an interesting variety of side quests: in one, you will need to solve a simple word puzzle to guess a dog's name, so you can retrieve a woman's purse; in another, you will take part in an odd, turn-based battle to free a neighbor from the grips of the evil necklace that controls her. Not all of these quests are as involving or interesting as what you would find in a full-fledged RPG, but they provide a nice break from the continuing action. Other diversions include ring courses, where you can fly the course for the best time; and card -collecting for Astro's sister Zoran. These cards will be given to you for the successful completion of missions, or you may simply find them under rocks or vending machines – which you can conveniently pick up and throw around as needed. Even if the NPC's don't always have a quest to give, they may have comments regarding your heroic deeds, or unnecessary hints to assist in your adventuring. But it's all about the combat, and what fun it is, mostly. You can walk and jump, of course, and even whack your enemies with a good punch or two, but who needs all of that, when you can zoom around the skies and use your spin attack to circle your enemies with your rocket feet and pound them in succession? Of course, you can melt them with your digibeam, or blow them up with your arm cannon as well. A few other additions, such as your X-ray vision and analyzation skills, are helpful in certain puzzlers, but the crux of combat is in the simple but useful abilities you gain along the way. Even better, you can perform other nifty moves, such as picking up light poles off the streets and battering your adversaries with them, or twirling around your stunned victim and throwing them into the destructible environments. Most of these battles occur in controlled playfields, and are presented in linear fashion; once combat has begun, you fight your enemies until you are victorious. Charmingly, your enemies don't usually die in defeat, and often turn out to simply be misunderstood outcasts that just didn't know any better. You won't find any of this very difficult: Astro Boy is easy to a fault, and defeating your enemies generally involves knowing their pattern and the appropriate way to counter it. You possess a health meter, with an obvious function; and a force meter, which gages the amount of power available for special attack, much the same way the V-meter works in Viewtiful Joe. You will find power-ups on the streets, but you will rarely need them, and after a successful boss fight, the meters will replenish on their own. Afterwards, you can trudge forward to the next story mission, or mess around with your card collection or the side quests. You can save the game by using the robot Nora, either at home, or at Dr. O'Shay's office, and the game is also auto-saved after boss battles. And while you will never need to, you can also fill up your meters by using Sammy, another robot. It's too bad that all of this great fun is hampered by a difficult camera and an unforgiving targeting system that make it difficult to see your foe – and then attack him with ease. Most of the controls themselves are simple and easy to use: the right analog stick controls Astro's altitude in flight, the left stick directs him, and the buttons and triggers control his powers and the camera. While you can switch to a static first person view to look at your surroundings, the option is virtually meaningless in the midst of action. The camera has a very annoying tendency to get stuck behind objects, or worse, behind the invisible barriers that enclose boss fights or other regions. This wouldn't be so bad if you could lock onto an out-of-sight target easily, but you can only pinpoint a new target when in clear view, and even then, there is no guarantee that your targeting reticle will appear. While the targeting is similar to that in Kingdom Hearts, you can't easily cycle through the options, as the game will automatically select a target for you. Considering the ease with which you perform Astro's abilities, it's unfortunate to find yourself held within the clutches of your unwieldy controller. Astro Boy looks pretty good, and holds true to its comic-book/anime roots. Environments are colorful, detailed, and remarkably varied. In fact, some of the special effects are downright spectacular: vivid explosions, bright displays of laser fire, and brilliant lighting bring Metro City to life. Alas, if too much is going on at one time, the framerate suffers from major slowdown, a highly noticeable glitch in the game's bright artistry. The levels themselves look quite large at first, until you run into the artificial boundaries and realize that much of it is window dressing. The cheery graphics are accompanied by similarly good-natured music that lends to the ambience, even if it lacks true drama and gets caught up in its own cartoon-ness. Voice acting is on par with most English translations of Japanese animation: sometimes a tad awkward, but usually a good fit, nonetheless. Sound effects are good, and we love a few details, such as the screeching sound Astro makes when he comes to a halt. It is all solid enough, if not spectacular. The game clocks in at a too-short 6 hours or so, including plenty of free exploration. Too bad: we like Astro Boy and wished there was more to it; it's akin to getting into a good book, only to find yourself reading the last page, just as it started to get interesting. Collecting cards and flying the ring courses add some replay value, as does the very nature of the entertaining gameplay. We can't fault the slightly lower price tag, but it does little to alleviate the short length. Because of this, we can really only recommend a rental, which is too bad, because this is a highly likeable game that plays better than the sum of its parts. Rarely a challenge, often frustrating to control, and lacking fully-implemented features, Astro Boy is still worth a good, close look, if only because like its title character, it has a really big heart. Isn't that worth something?
