The game not only forces you to spam a hard-to-pull-off move so you can get rid of the enemies faster and make it on time but also uses the resource of making the protagonist so weak that even a small lamp can send him flying through the stage, having to wait for him to regain consciousness and making you waste more time.

Half a star because the sound design is very cool.
Half a star because that teddy bear boss is pure nightmare fuel.
And a last third-half star because I have definitely seen worse.

The story goes like this:

Treasure approached Sega so they could make games on the Mega Drive since they were striving to create fast-paced titles that simply could not exist on either the Super Nintendo or the PC-Engine.

Sega told them sure, but as a trial, they assigned them to develop a game based on Ronald McDonald's, a petition made by McDonald's themselves after seeing how well the Sega Genesis was doing in both the American and European markets. And so, Treasure made this.
Sega was so pleased with the result that not only did they allow Treasure to release Gunstar Heroes as their first game (which was basically their main project at the time), but they even gave Treasure carte blanche to release whatever they wanted in their system.

If this story wasn't proof of this game's quality, I honestly don't know what it is.

You could tell Treasure was trying to find their identity at this time; tons of ideas will later be implemented in their future games, especially Dynamite Headdy, with its similar use of the color palette and scenery. The mechanics are super simple, but the level of design makes up for it. The variety of situations in every stage will also become a vital part of the company's identity.

Also, say what you will about this game, but that one scene with the rabbit ballerinas dancing Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky is absolute peak gaming.

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.

2D platformer in which grabbing is the primary mechanic. You grab, you throw, and you shake stuff and see how every enemy, projectile, and object reacts (they almost never do what you expect them to).

It has some low points in the later levels, especially in the second part of World 4, but goddamn, the highs are incredible. I'll be remembering that final battle for the rest of my life.

Innovative on every level, silly when it has to, and consistently enjoyable from start to finish.
And, at least for me, that's what video games should be all about.

This is the most creative, charming, and fun 2D Mario game we've had since... Mario 3, honestly.

My only complaints are that the game's a tad too easy, even the 5-star levels, and the boss battles (even though they are a massive improvement over the New Super Mario games) are significantly less inspired than the rest of the game, which offers a vast amount of variety is constantly throwing in new ideas to keep things exciting.

Other than that, excellent, excellent game!

You are too weak.
Enemies take forever to beat.
You can steal enemy attacks; they're all useless.
The game is very slow; no, it doesn't suffer from slowdowns; it just has a lot of sections where absolutely nothing happens.
There's no instant respawn; you die, and you get to the last checkpoint.
There's no way to earn extra lives if you die; it starts all the way from the start.
Do you think this review feels artificially generated? Wait until you see the enemy's patterns.