Last Dance: Astro Boy: Omega Factor
In honor or the new DSi being launched this upcoming weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at a different kind of Last Dance. The Phat and Lite DS's have been out for years now, but I've always taken their GBA slots from granted. Since I'll be shifting onto new hardware soon, I figured that I would look at one of the games I'm going to miss once I no longer carry my Lite with me.
There's few times in this hobby when you know for certain that a game will be quality and this phenomenon is even more of a rarity on handhelds. In all honesty, there's so much for a publisher and developer to screw up! The small screen space, limited hardware resources, weird licensed characters, condensed time schedules, smaller budgets... none of these things generally help a game become great. But this Last Dance is a wonderful exception that manages to turn all of these things into positives. It is as if the handheld gaming moons aligned for a brief moment and created a spectacular eclipse that anyone that witnessed it know will never occur again. Somehow the team behind it was able to produce a game that is one of the most replayable experiences on the GBA while upholding a near-impossible standard of art and animation. No, I'm not talking about Gunstar Super Heroes, but if that game popped into your head you wouldn't be far off.
There is so much that can be said of Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the GBA. The game manages to accurately portray an artist's entire body of work, showed up its console counterpart, was crafted by one of the greatest developers to ever set up shop, and made it all look easy. Released in North America in the summer of 2004, this title was one of the last GBA games to be released worth talking about.
Based on the insanely popular anime/manga title of the same name, this GBA marks the first Astro Boy game to make its way over to our shores. The game weaves together some of Astro's most beloved tales across the adventures starting with Astro's origin as a human known as Toby. After a fatal car accident, Toby's father places his heart inside of a robot that he has been working on and renames him Astro Boy. From that day on, Astro tires to do good and fit in world where he doesn't quite fit since he's not exactly human, but not a full robot. The story of Astro Boy still packs a punch as over the years the character has had to confront abstracted forms of racism, totalitarianism, and choosing between moral rights and wrong. Not bad for a children's comic from the 1950's, right?
Astro Boy: Omega Factor uses this setup for one of the most well constructed Beat-'em-up / shoot-'em-up hybrids to grace any system. Since Astro is seen combating enemies with his high-tech gadgets throughout the books and shows, Omega Factor spares no opportunity to take advantage of Astro's unique forms of fighting with gameplay reminiscent of old school classics like Streets of Rage, Contra, Gradius, and Star Soldier. If there is one reason why this mashup of genres comes together so well, it's because of the involvement of the legendary developer known as Treasure. Having mastered each of these genres previously with titles such as Ikaruga, Gunstar Heroes, and Guardian Heroes, the team seamlessly blends these experiences together for something that nearly all players can enjoy, even if they've seen a bullet hell game before.
One of the most unique aspects of this game is how it accurately incorporates the entire realm of characters that manga legend Osamu Tezuka created over his life. Omega Factor visually displays this web of characters to the player by including a directory of characters that the player has met throughout the game. A quick run down the list towards the end of the game reveals a "who's who" list of classic manga characters that includes references to Metropolis, Black Jack and Phoenix. Even if the action doesn't draw you in, anime fans will find plenty here to dive into.
Omega Factor's aspirations may not have been set on creating a brand new experience, but was more interesting in genre refinement. The fighting system is as deep and complex as Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) or any entry in the Devil May Cry series. The shooting sequences earn their rightful place next to Treasure's other highly celebrated titles. The game presented here comes off as one of the most polished games that the GBA would see and in turn made the PS2 version of the game (developed by Sonic Team) look like the garbage that it was. One any other system or platform, Omega Factor would have received high praise for its depth, incredibly tuned difficulty curve, and outright "fun" it offers the player. Sadly, this game arrived at a time when even the greatest handheld experiences didn't (and in my not so humble opinion, they still don't) receive the attention and dissection that even the worst console releases get. But luckily for us, we'll still be able to revisit Astro anytime we pick up a Lite.
Game-Boy
Posted to Video Games on 1 April 2009
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: astro boy, astro boy omega factor, gba, last dance, osamu tezuka, sega, treasure
Lack of a GBA slot is my #1 reason for not being interested at all in the DSi.
Shin, why? You can still play GBA games on your DS.
Also, Astro Boy Omega Factor is the single best GBA game I ever played. I loved how it wove post-ending level select into the story. And the overarching story is actually better than the story of the 2003 show it's based on (which actually lacks a grand-over arching story, outside of Dr Tenma). It was like Lost with robots.