 Thank you to Anthony for requesting this one via my Patreon page. It's Astro Boy Omega Factor for Game Boy Advance, made by Treasure in tandem with Sega's hitmaker team. That's right, this is made in part by the same folks responsible for Genesis run and gun classics like Gunstar Heroes. Geez, I'm mentioning that game so much lately that it's starting to rival Ken Griffey Jr. on this channel. Anyway, Astro Boy Omega Factor is much more of a beat-em-up than a run and gun game, but play this game for just a few minutes and you'll find this has the same kind of feel and chaos and carnage that treasure games usually bring. I'll start with a story real quick. A genius scientist named Dr. Tenma lost his only son in a car accident, so he decides to build a ridiculously overpowered android in his memory named Astro Boy, complete with lasers that come out of his fingers and rocket-powered feet, but with something called the Omega Factor which enables Astro Boy to experience human emotions. Of course, most other robots in the world are used to serve humans, but robots are beginning to rebel, and there's a mysterious villain behind the rebellion that's stirring the pot and creating more tension that may lead to war. Mega Man, I mean, Astro Boy, meanwhile, is tasked with the responsibility of bringing peace between robot kind and humanity, and of course, he brings peace by beating the crap out of anything that gets in his way. Astro Boy Omega Factor is strictly a 2D beat-em-up, no 3D plane here like you see in games like Streets of Rage, so it's primarily a side-scroller. The controls here are very intuitive, especially if you've ever played a game like Mega Man X, for instance, Astro Boy can dash by tapping left or right twice. He can dash in mid-air, press down an attack, and Astro Boy kicks and tosses enemies, press up an attack, and he shoots a finger laser, which, sadly, is kind of a weaker attack, but you can at least use it in mid-air. There's also a secondary power meter for special attacks that build up the more enemies you obliterate, press R to unleash a more powerful laser, and press L to make Astro Boy shoot bullets out of his ass. Sure, okay, whatever. The game is laid out just as you'd expect a beat-em-up to be structured with some platforming elements put here and there, and there's an occasional shoot-em-up level thrown in, every so often, for a little bit of variety. These are nice, I guess, but nothing all that interesting. The further you progress through the game, you meet up with a number of these other characters, which I guess are from some of the Astro Boy and manga author's other works. Sorry, I'm not familiar with any of that. These characters are usually hidden, so these upgrades aren't necessary to beat the game, but they are really cool to have and make the game a bit more fun, like the dash upgrade that allows you to change directions in mid-air. That's awesome. That combined with increasing your flight speed is really fun. There's also this Omega Factor grid that shows you where each of these characters fit on a scale between justice, tenderness, evil, and braveness. I'm honestly not sure how this really fits in with the rest of the game. It's just kind of there. Oh well. One oddity of this game is that to get the real ending, you have to beat the game twice. Yes, that's right. This game goes all ghosts and goblas on you, but there's at least more to the story and some new hidden areas the second time around, and the game gives you more of an opportunity to utilize all the fun power-ups. There's also unlimited continues here and a battery save, so that helps a lot as well. It's worth mentioning that there was also an Astro Boy game released at around the same time on PlayStation 2, but it's just boring. It's your typical boring 3D licensed game of the time. Sure, it's got all the cut scenes and the voice acting and whatever, but the game itself is slow-paced with a ton of empty space. I think you're much better off with Astro Boy Omega Factor. It's one of those Game Boy Advance games that kind of fell through the books, but it's a really fun beat-em-up where your character gets overpowered like crazy that just blasts through anything standing in his way. I think one reason this game is so fun compared to other beat-em-ups is the size differential here. It's just more fun to beat up on enemies that are more than twice your character's size for some reason. But yeah, Astro Boy and Mega Factor is simple on the surface, but being so overpowered with so many abilities is what makes this game worth playing today. The cartridge is a bit pricey at around $30, but it's definitely worth checking out on an emulator if you can.