Astro Boy: Omega Factor

Omega Factor is a beat 'em up game starring Astro Boy, who must travel through stages to defeat enemies. Astro can punch and kick away enemies, as well as fire at them with a laser. Doing damage to the enemies will slowly fill the EX gauge at the top of the screen. Once the gauge is filled, Astro is able to perform a special attack, including a high-power laser, charging into the enemies, or guns that deal damage to every enemy on screen. Astro is also able to fly using rocket power, which is also sometimes necessary. as well as allowing the player to find hidden areas in levels. ==Plot==

Omega Factor features elements from Astro Boys different incarnations. The concept of robot rights, Dr. Tenma's ultimate plan for Astro and the robot city of Robotonia in Antarctica are lifted from the Astro Boy 2003 TV series. Plotlines from other Tezuka series include a time travel plot lifted from Marine Express, a journey to the lost continent of Mu, and a subplot involving Duke Red's daughter and her role in the "Death Mask" orbital platform. The game is divided into two episodes: Birth and Rebirth. The Birth episode follows Astro's adventures and other characters he interacts with, and ends with robots being destroyed by a device called Death Mask, after it determines that the robots are too dangerous to be left alive, leaving Sharaku able to conquer the Earth. In Rebirth, Astro is revived by a being called Phoenix, and has Astro go back to the beginning of the story and try to stop the Death Mask, giving him the ability to go back and forward in time to do so. The story includes characters from Tezuka's entire canon of work. The characters are listed in the "Omega Factor", an in-game encyclopedia of the Astro Boy fictional universe, which provides a detailed character biography, including each character's appearances and roles in Tezuka's works. ==Development and release==

Astro Boy: Omega Factor was co-developed for the GBA by Treasure and Hitmaker produced as part of a collaboration between game publisher Sega and Tezuka Productions. After a suggestion by Hitmaker president Mie Kumagai, Sega acquired the rights to create games based on the characters of manga artist Osamu Tezuka around the time the 2003 Astro Boy TV series started production to celebrate the in-universe birthday of April 7, 2003 of the titular character. This would also coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1963 Astro Boy anime adaptation. Omega Factor was developed in conjunction with Astro Boy on the PlayStation 2 from Sonic Team. After learning that this latter title would have 3D graphics, Kumagai signed on as video game producer of Omega Factor and proposed that it be a 2D side-scroller because its director, Tetsu "Tez" Okano, was very knowledgeable about this style of game and animation. As a self-proclaimed Tezuka fanatic, the director wished to "balance a different kind of consistency, between the black and white and the color". This meant introducing new story elements while maintaining what he thought late Astro Boy author Osamu Tezuka would have wanted. Okano intended the main theme to be Astro Boy cultivating the human side of his heart by meeting these other characters and accumulating impressions. Yaida explained that because Omega Factor only had one playable character, they wished to give the player freedom of movement and emphasized the dash mechanic to give the controls more variety. Yaida said they were added early to satisfy the director but that it was difficult to make them "meaningful" towards the end of production. Due to the GBA's limited RAM and video RAM, he said it was also challenging to program a mechanic which allowed switching between gameplay and menu screens while maintaining event and status displays. Sega waited until the overseas premiere of the new TV series before releasing the game outside Japan. During this six-month wait, the developers took the opportunity to rework some aspects for the localized version. Some level layouts were filled with more enemies, certain enemies were given different attacks, frame rate slowdown was improved, and a new third difficulty setting was added. ==Reception==

Omega Factor received positive reviews, with aggregate scores of 85 out of 100 from Metacritic and 86.72% from GameRankings. and later of the year overall. GameSpy writer Benjamin Turner likewise listed it as one of the best Game Boy Advance games of the year. IGNs Craig Harris called it a "technical marvel," especially praising the fluid animation of the bosses, and reserving criticism for the game's occasional framerate slowdown. The few instances of criticism the game received were mainly directed at the repetitiveness of the levels. Turner listed this repetitiveness, specifically for the shooter stages, as one of the game's "cons." ==Notes==