Yes, it has been said that if a game
is based on a movie, it probably is going to stink. And for the overwhelming
majority of games, this is very true. It is almost secondary that when a
children’s movie drops, the owners of that license immediately begin shopping it
around to the developers who specialize in platform games and begin making their
play for the right to produce said title. Every once in a while a good idea for
a game is matched with the right style of game and we get a game that is fun to
play, manages to capture the fun of the movie and deliver an enjoyable
experience.
That being said…
I know Astro Boy, I grew up watching
the original Astro Boy cartoons and several years ago I actually bought a DVD
set of the most popular Astro Boy episodes and my youngest son was hooked. The
story originally involved a brilliant robot scientist who, while too busy for
his own son, was racked with guilt when he died in an accident. He managed to
pull it together and make an exact replica of his boy (Toby) and hoped to
recreate the bond with his son by treating this robot like his child. It failed
miserably and he abandoned the robot to his partner who renamed him Astro Boy
and set out to make him like a real boy, only with serious firepower and a need
to rescue the city from all sorts of marauding villains. Yes, the original show
is very cheesy, and sad, but it’s also very cool. So it was with much fanfare
that the new movie came out along with the game, and the whole thing felt
incredibly underdeveloped. Astro has lost his charm and the fun that seems to
ooze from those episodes was completely forgotten (and I’m not the only one who
thought so, the dismal box office should speak volumes).
Ok, so in the game, you get to walk
through many of the movie’s scenes, and play them out in a varied form of
action. Astro runs around odd-shaped building punching bad robots and kicking
flying baddies, then he’s flying through the air and his hand cannons
miraculously now work but where were they when we needed ’em on the
building? Blasting more robots and fighters who are assuming that a flying boy
must be brought down immediately and with massive amounts of firepower. And now
you know how Astro Boy plays. You read through a scene from the movie, then
engage in the expanded version of that scene with much aplomb. Wash, rinse,
repeat.
And here is why this is a big bummer
– Astro is a fine commercial license, heck, the mere fact that he was written
and turned into a cartoon all those years ago influenced countless movies,
books, comics and games. He’s what every boy dreamed about being, heroic, can
fly, takes on bad guys of all varieties, shoots lasers out of his hands and has
a machine-gun butt … yes, you heard me, a machine-gun butt. However, what kept
his character grounded was his need to do the right thing even at great cost to
himself. He had an actual innocence that resonated with his core audience and
even managed to share a lesson or two with his fans even if they didn’t realize
it. This new Astro comes on too heavy and misses the whole appeal thing
completely.
Now I will admit, the graphics are
better than I honestly thought. Astro is a small little fellow in the featured
levels, but you can clearly see the detail in his character. He also has a
pretty varied set of baddies to deal with, some are featured in the movie, some
they simply made up specifically for the game. Yes, the developers often choose
sheer numbers as a way to create challenge, but there are some good graphics
found here. I was surprised at how dark the screenshots that came directly from
the movie appeared. No, there isn’t any movement from the footage, just stills
and plenty of dialogue that you read.
Controlling Astro can be
distracting, when you must engage in hand-to-hand combat, you must really get up
and close to your enemy and in some cases, they will just blow right through
you, causing you damage. The developers clearly did not understand their source
material as Astro is kind of a smaller, child-sized version of Superman. The
waves of baddies you face should not pose the problems that they do to Astro
Boy, and yet they do. The difficulty on the game, even when you set it to
normal, is way off. Things are harder than they should be, especially for a
child’s game. My son, the one who loves Astro, cannot get past the first couple
of levels.
The audio doesn’t really add
anything to the game, a looping techno-lite beat makes you think you could be
running in place while you play, but it gets old. The weapons’ effects and other
sounds are passable, but aren’t really flashy or cool sounding.
Gameplay: 6.0
Astro’s controls are adequate, but it isn’t anything that really made me want to
keep playing.
Graphics: 7.0
They are better than they should be, but instead of A.I. the developers just
choose to throw lots of bad guys at you. Crisp clean lines on all characters and
for a 2D side-scroller, there is a sort of depth to the game.
Sound: 5.0
Its really low on the audio meter here. Bland sound effects, no voice work, lots
of looped music.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Tough for adults, very tough for kids.
Concept: 5.5
Not much new to be explored here. A side-scroller that’s based on a robot kid.
Overall: 5.8
Astro Boy is simply not where it needs to be. Not too much fun found here and
the fun that is found, is so tough to get to, it will alienate its core
audience.
