Omega Factor is one of the top brawlers ever
Astro is now over 50 years old, and he struck big with the media. I'm talking about the comics and later the TV show, he just did it all. And now, Astro Boy: Omega Factor is sent as an envoy to GBA territory. Will it be able to hold it own in the gaming world? Thankfully, it's an emphatic YES! Omega Factor's storyline and immersive combat helps make it a Gamespot Editor's Choice, and one of the best action games I've seen. Here's the general breakdown:
Story: You play as Astro (duh) and you are in a world of cyber-homo racial tension. It's your job to keep the peace on both sides and to other save the world from other dangers. You would travel all over the world, from the lab of Dr. O Shea, to Antartica, to ancient Mayan civilization thousands of years ago and so on. The dialogue is very well written and you could see the character development of Astro, from a sort of naive boy to mature man. The twist is that most, if not all of Osamu Tezuka's (the originator of Astro) creations are also taking part as well. So even if you watched the original comics or TV show, be prepared to see the likes of Black Jack, Princess Sapphire, the Phoenix and so on.
Gameplay: The game is mostly brawler, with 10% being flying levels. The brawler stages is very good and combat rarely gets stale. Astro has a set of moves that is enough to understand, and not excessive to overcomplicate things. He can use jet boots, puch, kick, use finger laser, use a machine gun (from his butt!) and can dash. But the screen is constantly spawning enemies, they'll be all over the place, so button mashing is not going to carry you far. You would need to have your brain turned on during these situations. The boss battles are incredibly different from each other and the flying missions are passable, though not as good as the brawling portions of the game.
As you move along, you'll encounter people and sometimes you will take out your "Omega Factor". It's like a system where it allows Astro to grow stronger as he meets more people. So you could improve Astro's HP capacity, his jet boots and so on. But some of the changes in those things are hardly noticeable until later on in the game.
Presentation: The graphics in this game are good, although there are some things I hoped that SEGA could've given more effort. The stages and background looks great and the level design is diverse. That can also be said with the bosses. The graphics miss when enemies mostly look like the same except of the color of their stripes. Also, the bigger enemies/mini-bosses look exactly like their smaller counterparts and they don't look sharp. They looked more like they are scaled to a bigger size instead of being carefully drawn. And finally, the animations are solid, and the only time when you see a slight hit in the frame rate is when there are too many enemies on the screen. The sound is passable. Around half the tracks don't capture the mood of the stage, and even so the entire group of sound track is not memorable.
BARs (Bonuses, alternatives and Replay Value): To distinguish itself from other brawlers, Omega Factor decided to be a little bit non-linear, as you need to travel to different stages with the stage select screen to talk to people and to trigger events. Although it sounds good on paper, it falters a little bit in prractice, because you will be given a very vague direction and you can get stuck. There is a scoring system in the game, so anybody who would like to get their scores time and again would be satisfied. The game's story mode will last for some time, although there won't be alot to do after finising it, unless you wnat to improve your score, to finish the Index of all of Tezuka's creations, or to play to game again because it's good.
Overall: There are games that are for the fans of the genre, and there are games that are for any gamer. That's the difference between a three star and a four. Although Astro Boy: Omega Factor tries to go out on a limb to be a little different compared to other brawlers, about 80% of the game is still playing by the book. However, this does not stop me to say that this game is for any gamer, whether he/she loves shooters, RPG, turn-based stategy and so on. The combat is very polished and the story sets a good mood for the combat to thrive. Gamers won't be disapointed.
Score:
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Presentaion: 3/5
BARs: 4/5
Total: 17/20 (4.25 stars, round off to 4.5 stars)