Review: Astro Boy – Omega Factor (GBA)

Medium: Video Game (Game Boy Advance)
Genre: Action
Designer: Tez Okano (Director/Game & Visual Concept/Story)
Developers: Treasure, Hitmaker
Publisher: SEGA
Release Date(s): Dec. 18, 2003 (JP), Aug. 18, 2004 (US), Feb 18, 2005 (EU)
Rated: E for Everyone

I bought this game in early 2005 and, to be utterly blunt, I would have passed it by entirely if it had not been for the prominent logo of the developer on the box. Gunstar Heroes on the Mega Drive/ Genesis is a cornerstone of my youth and as a result I have a rather shallow policy of buying any Treasure game I see.

At the time of Omega Factor’s release I was starting to get into anime in a serious way. Instead of just passively watching, I was starting to do background research — finding names of directors, checking the Internet, crawling about for more information on what to watch.

In its own way this game was a massive help as an introduction to Tezuka's work as it incorporates a great number of the Star System of characters, and even includes a barebones mini-reference guide in the options screen. Some of the characters are flat-out obscure even now, but if you know who they are it is endlessly gratifying to see them all line up and take part in the plot. Hell, one of the pivotal moments in the plot has you protecting Black Jack while he operates on someone — an honestly badass moment.

Omega Factor puts you in the role of Astro Boy (bet you didn't see that coming), and follows a complete storyline from his initial activation onwards through a series of discrete stories that are initially independent but slowly coalesce into a single, larger plot. The storyline is well-paced and simply presented, told primarily through static cutscenes with text dialogue. The storyline sucks you right in, however is deeply marred by the fact that the entire story arc requires you to play the bulk of the game's levels twice in order to complete it. However, so engrossing is the gameplay that even on my recent playthough it took a good long while to actually notice that I was replaying the majority of the levels for a second time with very little change apart from the toughness of the enemies.

Towards the end there are one or two easy-to-miss links in the storyline, particularly if you are ham-handed and accidentally skip past some key dialogue like I did. These small slip-ups required me to go scurrying to GameFAQs in order to find out how to continue. I also experienced a rather irritating glitch where a plot event would not fire properly and so I had to reset the console and re-do some earlier events in order to make the game progress.

But these small issues do not detract from the games very satisfying resolution — it is (surprisingly) emotionally powerful, especially for an action game.

The moment-to-moment gameplay comes generally under one of two main types — some stages are laid out like a side scrolling beat ‘em up and others like a shoot ‘em up. Both modes share the same controls and attacks, allowing the gameplay to shift quickly and frequently between the two without needing to explain the change each time. Neither play style is outstanding on its own but the frequent switching helps to keep the game fresh, especially as levels will often drag on a lot longer than is enjoyable, with too many waves of enemies showing up to the party. The same can be said of the game's bosses — due to a quirk of the storyline you will end up fighting all of them at least twice, each time more difficult than the last. The endgame boss rush event is difficult to the point of wanting to throw your console at the wall; I have only ever completed it once on Normal mode, no matter how often I try. Still, it was an amazing feeling when I finally managed it.

Another complaint to level against the game is that it contains a particularly aggravating quick-time event — they were a lot more novel in 2005, but even then the idea of pressing the "A" button 12 times in succession without missing once to progress the plot must have seemed bonkers.

The game shoves a remarkable amount of action onto the Game Boy screen, causing rampant slowdown in some places due to the number of enemies that are visible on the screen at one time — the fact that each time you strike an enemy a collection of stars fly out to show the damage doesn't really help this.

The different difficulty modes Omega Factor offers are very well-made, with each mode feeling like an entirely different game and providing a nice chunk of re-playability. Just don't try playing on Hard mode the first time around; otherwise you are going to sound silly when you have to explain to the doctor that a fight against your asshole robot brother on the moon is the cause of your sudden high blood pressure.

The game includes a very light RPG-style element with the application of an upgrade system over the course of the game. This is nothing outstandingly original, but the source of the upgrades is rather inventive and in keeping with the general "feeling" of Astro Boy — as you meet and understand the motivations of other characters in the story you are awarded extra points to upgrade your abilities. By the end you will have everything maxed whether you go looking for additional characters or not, so there is no need to worry about having to trawl through an FAQ to avoid being horribly gimped for the later game stages.

Shortly after I agreed to write this review, I was hit by a sudden worry. "Oh crap," I said to myself, "It's going to be a kick in the pants to the reader if I review this and it turns out you can no longer get a hold of it." A quick bit of searching shows that you can quite easily nab a copy, even so many years after its release date. Hell, you may have walked past a used copy in your own local games store before. Despite my many gripes, the core of Astro Boy: Omega Factor is solid gold. I would honestly recommend picking up a copy if you see one.

[Recommended]

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This review is based on a retail copy of the DS game purchased by the reviewer.

Check out more articles about Osamu Tezuka in our March 2010 Tezuka Theme Month!

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Exiled Hardcore: Can SEGA tap Nintendo's lost demographic?

It was a feeding frenzy. Lots of sweaty men crowded around a small TV screen, watching the blood splatter as a stylized video game character was thrown into a saw twice his height. The crowd cheered as bullets broke through the carapace of a giant alien bug. A startled gasp was heard as a zombie leapt out toward the camera. And in the hands of these gamers was not a black gamepad, but a remote control: sleek, white, and all-too-familiar.

There were no grandmas playing these particular Nintendo Wii consoles, which were on display at the 2009 New York Comic Con. In fact, your grandma would probably disown you if she ever caught you playing the brutal cartoon action game MadWorld. I'd venture a bet that she wouldn't be too keen on the zombie game House of the Dead: Overkill either, and the science fiction shooter The Conduit is quite a far cry from Wii Bowling.

Welcome to the new SEGA on Wii.

Japanese publisher SEGA's move toward "mature" Wii games has struck a major chord with Nintendo fans and gaming journalists alike. On its release, the Wii split Nintendo fandom in two, as many disillusioned gamers felt that the game maker had abandoned them, choosing to focus its efforts on titles appealing to a "casual" demographic. Nintendo has tried in the past few years to hold onto its image as a publisher that appeals to all types: casual and "core" gamers, Nintendo's euphemism for the more commonly used "hardcore."

Early in the console's life cycle, Ubisoft released Red Steel, a violent first-person action game on the Wii that was already riding a hype wave that it couldn't handle when it crashed into gamers' homes in late 2006. The game was pulled down to a Teen rating due to the removal of blood (and the necessity for "Red" in the name), and the gameplay attracted widespread ire from video game critics. Ubisoft's highly-publicized flop seemed to spell certain death for mature games on the Wii.

It is natural, then, that the gaming community jumped straight out of its seat when High Voltage Software announced almost a year ago today that they were developing a science fiction first-person shooter along the lines of Perfect Dark or Halo. The game, called The Conduit, had no publisher when it was announced. This bizarre decision was made in order to give the developers (who self-funded the venture) complete creative control, so that they could make a Wii game "that we ourselves wanted to play," according to High Voltage's Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger, who I spoke with at the New York Comic Con this February.

Mr. Nofsinger animatedly explained his team's creation, to the extent that sometimes it was possible to forget that I was talking to a developer and not a fellow gamer. When asked about the stigma against mature games on the Wii, he spoke with an optimism that I have heard only sparingly since the launch of the console. "The Wii deserves it," he said quite bluntly. "[The Wii] is a powerful enough system in order to make compelling content, but more importantly, it's a really unique input peripheral, and provides you a type of gameplay that you can't do on the 360 or PS3."

Months ago, fans began to fret over The Conduit, worrying about when it would get a publisher, and who that publisher would be. Mr. Nofsinger described the unusual process of development-sans-publisher as "scary as hell. We believed really strongly in what we were trying to do," said the designer. "We put our money where our mouth was." In November of 2009, High Voltage reached a publishing agreement with SEGA, and The Conduit finally had a home amid the publisher's growing libary of "hardcore" Wii games.

These included MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill, which were both on display beside The Conduit at the New York Comic Con 2009. Overkill built on the existing House of the Dead arcade franchises in an attempt to bring light gun zombie action to the Wii. MadWorld, on the other hand, was to be an outrageous, cel-shaded action game about a man trapped in a twisted game show and forced to kill his opponents in order to survive, in a game that is equal parts The Running Man and Sin City.

Nofsinger seemed very happy with High Voltage's publishing partner, telling me that even after the publishing agreement had been made, SEGA "let us continue to do our thing." And naturally, he thought that SEGA had just the right environment for an aspiring hardcore game on the Wii. "I don't see a lot of third parties really pushing the system outside of SEGA," said Mr. Nofsinger. "SEGA's doing some really cool stuff, and I'm really proud to be a part of that."

But can a game like The Conduit succeed on a system in which most hardcores seem to have lost all hope? When even the gaming press has largely given up on the console (well, not everybody), it's hard to argue that "core" gamers are still flocking to the Wii (or even turning them on).

Mr. Nofsinger hopes that The Conduit will solve this problem by relying on the philosophy of a game made by gamers, with input from gamers. "We realized that even within our own office, there were a lot of opinions about what a good Wii first person shooter could be. So we reached out to a lot of the fan community, the Nintendo fans, and the media, and we got a lot of opinions," said Nofsinger. "What we landed on was [that] there was no one right answer, so we opted for a great deal of customization." That all-inclusive development style is a break from the practices of most third-party Wii developers, and it shows High Voltage's acute understanding of how important its game will be. The Conduit, MadWorld, and House of the Dead are all referendums on the demand for mature gaming on the Wii. Their rise or fall will ultimately determine if there is truly a viable market for games on the Wii that break outside of the casual.

House of the Dead and MadWorld have received some great press desite a lack of promising financial performance. SEGA said that the former has "absolutely met our expectations" and described the sales of the latter as "very encouraging," but the numbers tell a different story. Both games have performed significantly under par, with each taking only a middling or low position on the top 50 charts for its respective release month, then promptly dropping off the chart. It is not clear if SEGA's strategy will ultimately find success in the fickle world of game sales. Will The Conduit be the saving grace in SEGA's desperate pursuit of the "Exiled Hardcore"?

No one knows just yet. But one thing at least is clear: These aren't your grandma's Wii games anymore.

The Conduit hits stores in North America on June 23, 2009. MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill are currently available wherever video games are sold.

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SEGA picks up publishing rights for The Conduit

Wii fans have been frothing at the mouth for going on a year waiting for The Conduit, High Voltage Software's new Wii-exclusive first-person shooter that will reportedly "revolutionize" the way mature games are played on the Wii. However, High Voltage has been working on their game for months and months without a publisher - yes, their entire development effort was self-funded. Now that they have been able to exercise complete creative control over the game, they have settled on a publisher to bring their cherished creation to the masses: SEGA.

I know what you're thinking: "SEGA? The guys who butchered my Sonic games? The guys who promised Aliens: Colonial Marines and haven't shown anything since?" Don't you worry, though, SEGA, publishers of the highly-anticipated (and hyper-violent) MadWorld for the Wii, have a "belief in the Wii's gaming potential beyond the casual market," according to Sega of America President Simon Jeffrey. The Conduit hits shelves in Spring 2009, so cross your fingers that we don't get another Red Steel.

[via Joystiq]

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Valkyria Chronicles Arriving Stateside Nov. 11th

Last week, Sega announced that Valkyria Chronicles, a tactical RPG set in a fictional 1930s Europe, will be gracing American PS3s this coming November. This PS3 exclusive, which has already been released in Japan since April, has been receiving a lot of positive buzz for both its art book style, cel-shaded graphics and its wide array of combat mechanics – which have you both managing large forces as well as controlling individual units.

In addition to the release date, Sega also announced that the game will feature both English and Japanese voice tracks. “We translated it directly,” says Christopher Kaminski, Valkyria Chronicles’ Associate Producer, in an interview with Siliconera. “We wanted to stay true to the original. As a matter of fact we keep the original Japanese in there.”

Since its release, Chronicles has seen some downloadable content come its way. When asked about whether this extra content will make it to America as well, Kaminski simple replied that such content will not be on the game disk itself. If you haven't already, be sure to look this one up!

[via 1UP]

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Aliens: Colonial Marines, Others Revealed in March GI [EDIT 1]

The March issue of GameInformer magazine just arrived at my doorstep, with a big, ugly xenomorph head staring out at me. After shooting it out the airlock, I quickly proceeded to read GI's special on Aliens: Colonial Marines, SEGA and Gearbox Software's newest iteration in the iconic science-fiction horror franchise.

Colonial Marines will take place long after the deaths of the main characters of James Cameron's Aliens film (including Ripley), and will follow the story of four new marines. Sent to investigate the spaceship Sulaco, you will have to survive through the inevitable Alien attacks and nerve-crushing bouts of fear.

The developers are creating a world ripped directly from the film, and they hope to maintain a level of character development, alien design, and terror consistent with Cameron's film.

The game supports up to 4-player online co-operative play, and will release for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC in early 2009 (EDIT: now it's '08). Also included in this month's issue of GameInformer are specials on Champions Online (a new superheroes MMO) and Red Faction: Guerilla (the sequel to the cult classic FPS).

EDIT 1: SEGA just pushed the release date up to "late 2008."

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