Astro Boy: Tetsuwan Atom (GBA)

[Spatial]

I found it quite challenging even on Normal mode.

Its quite clever how they've added a bit of replay value into the game by fiddling with the story.

Its a fun game but I wouldn't say its outstanding. Old Skool action done very well, and fun for a quick game session ( but then isn't that what the GBA is about in the first place )

[ElAlcesDiablo]

DVDBO's finally got mine in the post... can't wait.
I had some impression you had to unlock hard mode or something. Perhaps I'll stick it straight on that then... probly get my arse kicked.

[jide]

I found it to be button mashily average (nice Tezuka fan service though).

You obviously haven't played this game if you thought it was a button masher.

[optimusomega]

Just got to level 5 on hard, I found that level 4 was easier than the previous levels (rescue president level), the game giving me a deliberate breather? ^_^ , I'm expecting the rematch fight with Atlus to be much tougher, he was easy!
(don't see the point in playing on normal seeing as you get 70+ supers (judging from screenshots), guess thats why people found it simple)

[taurusnipple]

I think the games great, full of character and for me reminds me of Mischief Makers. Well worth getting, hardly 'button mashily average' either. English text helps, I wouldn't have known there were characters hidden throughout to boost your stats otherwise.

[Briareos]

Just got this free with my GBA micro and what a treat, I thought the game was pretty short, but after researching it on Gamefaqs I realise it's meant to be played through twice, as the 'Birth' and 'Rebirth' sections differ, even unlocking an 8th stage, (which I haven't got to yet...)

[nekroxide]

I just got this today, too, thanks to it being so cheap from Play Asia.

Really liking what I've played so far, it takes me back to the 16 bit days of 2D glory.

[k0pp0]

Great game, finished it the other day but still need to find 2 people. Class graphics, but impossible not to die in some places..

[Ady]

Got this recently and started on hard mode straight away. It's pretty good, even if some of the sprites look nasty and blocky in places. The overall design ethic and audio is very Treasure.

I have a problem, though.

->Open Spoiler<-

I'm stuck on the second stage's main boss (the large rotating sphere with the tentacles). I cannot figure out what to do here at all. The more I shoot, the bigger it gets, until it eventually fills the whole screen and kills me! How on earth am I supposed to do this!? I've tried dashing past the tentacles, but that doesn't always work, and isn't really practical when you only have about 1/16 of the whole screen to manouvre.

Maybe I should've started on normal until I learnt the game instead of trying to be a hero? I dunno.

Are all the bosses in the game this unfair? (The first boss, that ant thing that keeps jumping on you when its about to die was a bit cheap as well).

[Shearie]

None of the bosses that I can remember are unfair.

->Open Spoiler<-

The rotating boss is a pretty big difficulty spike when you're playing on hard but I have defeated him a few times without getting hit. It's all about dashing and stoping at the absolute correct time, especially when he gets really big. I suggest instead of trying to dash into the safe spots when he gets real big, because that's pretty hard to do if you haven't learned where to dash properly, I suggest saving your super laser until the point where he is too big to handle but close enough to death to kill him with that one shot. Before he has the tentacles, it's all about mad dashing; I suggest using the dash super every once an awile while on that part.

[Shearie]

Oh, and you should have started on normal. You will be running into these frustrating moments way too much on hard. Even on normal it's pretty challenging...

->Open Spoiler<-

...and later on you will be going through the rebirth phase where you play the game over again but with a harder difficulty. You get to keep your stats though.

[Emir]

That boss was a bastard to kill in the harder mode...
Took me bloody ages.

[Ady]

Thanks for the tips guys, but I managed to do it in the end. I also decided to restart on normal as hard mode just wasn't fun after a while. I'll resume my hard game once I'm more familiar. I'm up to stage 6 now I think.

Overall though, whilst the game is reasonably entertaining, it's not one of Treasure's better games, IMO. The enemies seem really unimaginative (just scaled variants of the same 3 or 4 baddies per stage) and the overall flow of the game is somewhat repetitve (bash some enemies around the screen, fire off a few lasers, fly onto next screen, repeat etc etc...).

I raelly don't care for the story either, or the way some parts of the game restart from the dialogue if you die (at least they had the decency to make the dialogue skippable though).