Astro Boy: Omega Factor is quite the remarkable game, especially amongst its peers on the GameBoy Advance.
The story is enjoyable, but maybe a little tangled at first. First you’ll start in a bustling city, then you go to an island, then space, then the arctic, then to the past, then to the future where you’ll fight in a tournament of robots. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being thrown around to different areas with no true direction in the story. Narratively things start to make more sense after you see the credits for the first time. After those credits, the real game begins. Fortunately, the story not only starts to make more sense, but also gets more interesting after you start the Rebirth portion of the game. The story will have you going around from place to place finding NPCs to guide you and give you clues to your next destination. There will be twists, intrigue, and revelations to make your experience all the more enjoyable.
I believe most aspects of the art in this game are done really well. The backgrounds are gorgeous and detailed. There wasn’t really a time in the game where I was bored at what I was looking at. Even the enemies, despite maybe not having a variation of types, are all distinguished by sizes and colors. The bigger they are, the stronger they are. Different colors on enemies will also dictte how those enemies will attack.
I think the mechanics of this game shine the most. It’s not just a brawler, portions of the game will have you flying at high speeds incorporating a bullet hell style gameplay, and other portions will have you flying at low speeds fighting a boss. These gameplay styles are switched up at normal intervals, so the gameplay never gets too stale or repetitive. Dashing gives you invincibility frames, so you can fly through enemies and avoid their projectiles and punches without taking any damage.
NPCs not only play a massive part in the story, they also play a big part in how the mechanics enrich gameplay. Astro Boy will upgrade his abilities by finding and interacting with NPCs. Astro Boy can have his health, punching power, laser power, dash abilities among others upgraded to help him in combat. The more you upgrade, the more powerful they get and the more useful they get. Upgrading your senses with let Astro Boy see in the dark, or see through fog, it will even sense the presence of a hidden NPC. Upgrading your lasers not only increases the damage, but it also increases the area of attack which can be useful in many parts of the game. The only problem with the NPCs is that maybe there are a bit too many included in the game. There is a pretty large gallery of all the NPCs, some of which you may forget that you found. This may be a problem especially if the story requires you to find them again.
Gameplay is mostly fluid, but can be severely punishing and the combat mechanics take some getting used to. I think I may have had a GameShark when I played this when I was younger because I don’t remember dying so much. Even on normal mode enemies hit considerably hard. Mid to end game some of them can take you down in two hits and a boss has the ability to take you down in one even if you have your health maxed out. Enemies could attack you and you wouldn’t even notice because maybe they’re hidden. Some of the bosses take up more than half of the screen making them near impossible to maneuver without getting hit.
At this point you may be thinking, “But why not just use your dash to avoid damage?” While, as mentioned above, dashing does give you invincibility frames, it requires you to press the D-pad in the desired direction twice. This is also paired with an animation of Astro Boy doing a flip before he dashes. An animation in which you can still get hit…if the system even detects that you’ve done it. Sometimes the system my not detect that you’ve done your input, or maybe you get too anxious and mash the button in hopes of getting out of a sticky situation. A situation in which you’ll do multiple flips and be able to get hurt. A costly mistake especially if you’re fighting bosses or larger enemies which could cause knock back…tremendously so. The knock back is a speedrunner’s worst nightmare and it kills the flow of the game. It may sound manageable and insignificant when I say your knock back will last three to four seconds, but with how fast some of these fights are it feels like an eternity. I think the combat could have been greatly improved if there was a dedicated button on the system or controller for dashing.
Despite all of it’s flaws, this is a remarkable game on the GameBoy Advance. It outshines the overwhelming majority of the competition. I think this is a game I could recommend to a lot of people interested in trying out games from this generation.
The story is enjoyable, but maybe a little tangled at first. First you’ll start in a bustling city, then you go to an island, then space, then the arctic, then to the past, then to the future where you’ll fight in a tournament of robots. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being thrown around to different areas with no true direction in the story. Narratively things start to make more sense after you see the credits for the first time. After those credits, the real game begins. Fortunately, the story not only starts to make more sense, but also gets more interesting after you start the Rebirth portion of the game. The story will have you going around from place to place finding NPCs to guide you and give you clues to your next destination. There will be twists, intrigue, and revelations to make your experience all the more enjoyable.
I believe most aspects of the art in this game are done really well. The backgrounds are gorgeous and detailed. There wasn’t really a time in the game where I was bored at what I was looking at. Even the enemies, despite maybe not having a variation of types, are all distinguished by sizes and colors. The bigger they are, the stronger they are. Different colors on enemies will also dictte how those enemies will attack.
I think the mechanics of this game shine the most. It’s not just a brawler, portions of the game will have you flying at high speeds incorporating a bullet hell style gameplay, and other portions will have you flying at low speeds fighting a boss. These gameplay styles are switched up at normal intervals, so the gameplay never gets too stale or repetitive. Dashing gives you invincibility frames, so you can fly through enemies and avoid their projectiles and punches without taking any damage.
NPCs not only play a massive part in the story, they also play a big part in how the mechanics enrich gameplay. Astro Boy will upgrade his abilities by finding and interacting with NPCs. Astro Boy can have his health, punching power, laser power, dash abilities among others upgraded to help him in combat. The more you upgrade, the more powerful they get and the more useful they get. Upgrading your senses with let Astro Boy see in the dark, or see through fog, it will even sense the presence of a hidden NPC. Upgrading your lasers not only increases the damage, but it also increases the area of attack which can be useful in many parts of the game. The only problem with the NPCs is that maybe there are a bit too many included in the game. There is a pretty large gallery of all the NPCs, some of which you may forget that you found. This may be a problem especially if the story requires you to find them again.
Gameplay is mostly fluid, but can be severely punishing and the combat mechanics take some getting used to. I think I may have had a GameShark when I played this when I was younger because I don’t remember dying so much. Even on normal mode enemies hit considerably hard. Mid to end game some of them can take you down in two hits and a boss has the ability to take you down in one even if you have your health maxed out. Enemies could attack you and you wouldn’t even notice because maybe they’re hidden. Some of the bosses take up more than half of the screen making them near impossible to maneuver without getting hit.
At this point you may be thinking, “But why not just use your dash to avoid damage?” While, as mentioned above, dashing does give you invincibility frames, it requires you to press the D-pad in the desired direction twice. This is also paired with an animation of Astro Boy doing a flip before he dashes. An animation in which you can still get hit…if the system even detects that you’ve done it. Sometimes the system my not detect that you’ve done your input, or maybe you get too anxious and mash the button in hopes of getting out of a sticky situation. A situation in which you’ll do multiple flips and be able to get hurt. A costly mistake especially if you’re fighting bosses or larger enemies which could cause knock back…tremendously so. The knock back is a speedrunner’s worst nightmare and it kills the flow of the game. It may sound manageable and insignificant when I say your knock back will last three to four seconds, but with how fast some of these fights are it feels like an eternity. I think the combat could have been greatly improved if there was a dedicated button on the system or controller for dashing.
Despite all of it’s flaws, this is a remarkable game on the GameBoy Advance. It outshines the overwhelming majority of the competition. I think this is a game I could recommend to a lot of people interested in trying out games from this generation.