In 1963 the world was introduced to Tetsuwan Atom, which would later be known as Astroboy in the English languages; the title is credited for starting the anime genre and the creator of the Manga graphic novel series, Osamu Tezuka, is often referred to as the God of Manga. Though the Japanese market saw video game versions of the franchise on both the Nintendo and Super Nintendo, Astroboy is finally hitting a worldwide market with the release of Astroboy on the PS2 and Astroboy: Omega Factor on the GBA.

The story is a tale of a robot named Astroboy (he was dubbed this upon the series' English debut) who was created by Dr. Nagamiya Tenma to replace his lost son Tobio (both the Dr's name and son's name have been changed numerous times in English dubs). In the original story, Astro was sold to a circus after his creator realised a robot could never fill the void his fallen son left. Later, a new head of the Ministry of Science organisation called Dr. Ochanomizu (who became simply Dr. O'Shay later in the English dubs) found Astroboy and forced the circus leader to hand him over. O'Shay realized Astro's potential to feel human emotion and became his new fatherly figure, over time enhancing Astro with a variety of unique abilities (almost all of which are found in this game), as well as teaching him to deal with hard issues and help him fit into a human society trying to come to grips with the fact that robots are becoming as common as people.

The original anime and the numerous remakes are absolutely great and considered a masterpiece, dealing with some important issues mixed with great action, which is surprising given the cute, child-like nature of Astro himself. When I heard some games were going to be made (most likely to help generate buzz for the feature film coming this year), I cringed slightly as I wondered if any games could really be done well or if they would just turn out to be complete rubbish. Fortunately, it turns out that the PS2 version was pretty great, while this Gameboy Advance version just may be one of the best side-scrolling action games I've played, ever! Bringing back memories of the classic Megaman games, Astroboy mixes multiple side-scrolling genres into one complete, great playing action game.

Equipped with a laser beam, jet boosts on his boots that allow him to quickly fly around and dodge, plus incredibly powerful punches and kicks, Astroboy becomes a very addictive and challenging game for most who play it, despite that at first it doesn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary. What it does do however is very well done; when you kick enemies they fly across the screen and collide with any other enemies nearby, sending anything they touch rolling around the screen and bouncing off objects - in fact, you can even kick defeated foes to attack enemies who may have just come into view. You can do some simple combos by mixing punches with kicks, as well as using your handy laser beam (all these attacks are quickly accessed by pushing a different direction on the D-Pad with the B button) and Astro is even loaded with three special attacks and an incredibly handy dodge move/strike. The great thing about Astroboy is you have a limited number of special attacks (huge laser beam, machine gun, or a jet-boost punch combo) however, you can earn more by doing the incredibly fun combos on enemies, giving the game a good balance in attacks.

Developed by acclaimed Japanese developer Treasure (creator of cult-games Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga to name but a few), Omega Factor also features some flying sections that are very similar to old-school shooters like Gradius and offer a good balance to the on-the-ground running gameplay. One of best aspects of this game is the variety in levels; each one offers a different experience from the last in terms of both setting and objectives. For instance, one level has almost no gravity and allows you to jump high and have aerial brawls with foes, some challenge you to fly through a variety of enemies whilst dodging obstacles and others force you to use special senses to overcome visual challenges (one level has the lights almost completely off but if you upgrade your sense ability then Astro can see the level completely lit).

Which leads me to another unique aspect for a side-scrolling beat-em-up/shooter; Astro can level up! For every character you meet, Astroboy logs them into a database, which gives him one upgrade point that can be used on each separate attack, your life bar, your sense abilities and more. Furthermore, each character you meet usually has something interesting to say; sometimes they reveal the location of another character or sometimes they help you unlock a hidden area. In fact, to get the best ending for the game you'll need to go back and meet all the characters in the right order and get all their hints, giving the game a large quest feel to it that most action games lack, one of Treasure's trademarks.

Another Treasure trademark is, unlike Megaman, that the boss battles here are actually incredibly cool and completely unique, each with different attacks, abilities, personalities, looks and sizes. Some are very difficult to overcome, but the gameplay is so fun and addictive that it most likely won't bother you at all. Each boss has unique attack patterns and trademarks, some even growing in size right on the spot, such as a boss in level two who gets larger every time you attack.

Players who are familiar with the Astroboy universe will be pleased to see that the game is very faithful to Osamu Tezuka's original vision and Manga stories, featuring a good storyline that doubles as a mystery and a compelling take on racism in society. Numerous supporting characters appear and stay true to their characters, with some characters created by Tezuka for other stories even making cameos as well.

Astroboy: Omega Factor is a delight to not just play, but also to look at. The colourful graphics match the Astroboy universe very well and the backgrounds are a joy to see. Astro's animations are fluid and true to his Manga/animé counterpart and even the countless enemy sprites all look and act great - especially when bouncing into each other after a powerful kick. Using Astro's arm cannon pauses the game as he transforms his hand and charges it up for a powerful blast, much like Ryu's classic super attack from Street Fighter. Whilst attacking enemies you'll notice their faces react to your attacks, instead of simply being knocked back - in fact when they're beaten, small X's appear on their eyes! The Game Boy Advance is taken to the limit with changing colour schemes, enemies that change sizes at will, great looking beam attacks, breakable items and multiple things happening on the screen at once, as well as separate background layers that scroll in parallel. There is a bit of slowdown in places but who cares? The game is fun and looks spectacular, sometimes the effects are so cool to see that the slowdown is a blessing in disguise and makes it feel like a kick ass scene from the Matrix!

The sound in Astroboy rivals the graphics with some perfect voiceovers, nicely digitised voices and a great selection of music (including some throwbacks to classic Megadrive titles by Treasure including Alien Solider and Gunstar Heroes). Each and every attack has a unique sound effect to go with it and none of them are a letdown at all; the effect that accompanies enemies cascading into each other is priceless.

After six months of improvements for the Japanese version, the English version of Astroboy: Omega Factor has hit the market and redefined what a side-scrolling action game should be. Completely addictive and fun as hell, Astroboy is a nod to great side-scrollers of the past and shows that the same style of gameplay can easily top the generic third person 3D action games any day. Compared to many other action titles on the GBA, Astroboy is a challenging triumph with sumptuous visuals and wonderful audio. Encompassing plenty of replay value, if you own a Game Boy Advance you need to own Astroboy: Omega Factor.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).