This is by far the worst Treasure game I have played yet, and the only one I'd truly call bad.
Innovative, clever, and enjoyable are the most important words that come to mind when talking about Treasure's games. Words that will be completely absent in this game's review after this sentence
Let's stop beating around the bush. As pretentious as it may sound, Astro Boy: Omega Factor has both fundamental flaws and horrible design choices.
Let's start talking about the leveling system and its different stats.
Every once in a while, either by just progressing the game or by finding them hiding somewhere in the stages, you'll encounter some of Astro's characters. Each time you do, you'll get the chance to invest in one of these six different stats:
Life - Absolutely crucial if you want to get far in the game, and the very first stat you should max out. If you do not level up your life points at least once on every stage, you'll find yourself getting wrecked over and over again by even the most insignificant enemies. A simple punch from an enemy can drain almost half your health, starting Stage 3. I'm not kidding.
Punch - Self explanatoiry. Surprisingly useless since the game punishes you by engaging in physical combat: Astro is extremely delicate and would be sent flying all over the other edge of the screen by a regular enemy attack. Combine that with Astro's awful defense, and you have a match made in hell.
Laser - The only attack stat you should max out (there's three of them total) since it has penetration damage (hehe), which means you can hit multiple targets at once. You can also use it both on the ground and midair from a very safe distance with no real consequences, so you are going to be using it for more than 80% of the time.
Shot - Spread shot attack. Really pointless since your laser does basically the same and more efficiently.
Jets - The number of times you can dash. After beating the game, I can guarantee you that there's no need to level this stat more than once.
Sensor - Completely useless. The game will force you to level up this stat at various points in the game in a desperate attempt to try and prevent you from breaking the game by maxing out Life and Laser sooner.
The thing is, there's no way to know that you've invested in the wrong stats until it's too late, making the game unbearable to beat if you did. So yeah, the leveling-up system is a complete rookie's trap.
As for the levels, well, they are just really boring, uninspired, and tiny, really fricking tiny. There's no room for exploring, and the sprites are too big; it makes you constantly feel as if you are trapped in a fish bowl.
Spawning a horde of enemies in a straight line seems to be the only thing the game knows how to do to fill the gaps between the rare instances in which a fun section appears.
But the worst of the worst is that in order to get the true ending, you must beat it more than once, except that there's nothing different from the first time: no changes whatsoever, no cool remixes, no neatly reimagined enemies or situations—it's the same boring game you already beat once but a second time.
The music is good, the controls are tight, the graphics are beautiful, the vertical shoot 'em up stages are not bad, and there are a couple of great boss battles, but at its core, Omega Factor is simply a defective video game.
I can't believe these are the same guys that made Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes, Mischief Makers, Silhouette Mirage, and Radiant Silvergun. Hell, even the McDonald's game might be better.
Innovative, clever, and enjoyable are the most important words that come to mind when talking about Treasure's games. Words that will be completely absent in this game's review after this sentence
Let's stop beating around the bush. As pretentious as it may sound, Astro Boy: Omega Factor has both fundamental flaws and horrible design choices.
Let's start talking about the leveling system and its different stats.
Every once in a while, either by just progressing the game or by finding them hiding somewhere in the stages, you'll encounter some of Astro's characters. Each time you do, you'll get the chance to invest in one of these six different stats:
Life - Absolutely crucial if you want to get far in the game, and the very first stat you should max out. If you do not level up your life points at least once on every stage, you'll find yourself getting wrecked over and over again by even the most insignificant enemies. A simple punch from an enemy can drain almost half your health, starting Stage 3. I'm not kidding.
Punch - Self explanatoiry. Surprisingly useless since the game punishes you by engaging in physical combat: Astro is extremely delicate and would be sent flying all over the other edge of the screen by a regular enemy attack. Combine that with Astro's awful defense, and you have a match made in hell.
Laser - The only attack stat you should max out (there's three of them total) since it has penetration damage (hehe), which means you can hit multiple targets at once. You can also use it both on the ground and midair from a very safe distance with no real consequences, so you are going to be using it for more than 80% of the time.
Shot - Spread shot attack. Really pointless since your laser does basically the same and more efficiently.
Jets - The number of times you can dash. After beating the game, I can guarantee you that there's no need to level this stat more than once.
Sensor - Completely useless. The game will force you to level up this stat at various points in the game in a desperate attempt to try and prevent you from breaking the game by maxing out Life and Laser sooner.
The thing is, there's no way to know that you've invested in the wrong stats until it's too late, making the game unbearable to beat if you did. So yeah, the leveling-up system is a complete rookie's trap.
As for the levels, well, they are just really boring, uninspired, and tiny, really fricking tiny. There's no room for exploring, and the sprites are too big; it makes you constantly feel as if you are trapped in a fish bowl.
Spawning a horde of enemies in a straight line seems to be the only thing the game knows how to do to fill the gaps between the rare instances in which a fun section appears.
But the worst of the worst is that in order to get the true ending, you must beat it more than once, except that there's nothing different from the first time: no changes whatsoever, no cool remixes, no neatly reimagined enemies or situations—it's the same boring game you already beat once but a second time.
The music is good, the controls are tight, the graphics are beautiful, the vertical shoot 'em up stages are not bad, and there are a couple of great boss battles, but at its core, Omega Factor is simply a defective video game.
I can't believe these are the same guys that made Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes, Mischief Makers, Silhouette Mirage, and Radiant Silvergun. Hell, even the McDonald's game might be better.