Osamu Tezuka would have really loved Astro Boy for the PS2. He'd be amazed at the technology, of course, but the game also does a great job of presenting the characters and settings he created more than fifty years ago. The story and control bring the player right into Astro's world and we watch as he develops and interacts with a large cast of characters. And there are even more characters and incidents illustrated in the game via collectible cards. By the time you find the whole set, you'll have a nice introduction to the backstory and dozens of models of people and robots you can rotate and zoom in on.

But, as I've said about so many titles based on a license, if you came here to play and not for a reunion, we might have a problem. Like countless Batman and Simpsons games before it, Astro Boy does a great job of hitting all the recognizable spots story-wise, but it doesn't quite hit the spot gameplay-wise.

Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (A Hero's Life for Me)

Thankfully, Astro's a little better than a lot of the offerings from Bruce Wayne and Bart. The meat of the game is a series of boss battles seasoned with some RPG-type interactions - so it's not too long, but it's not artificially drawn out with repeated backtracking and other nonsense like some adventures (with one weird exception, noted below), so that's all right. It's about five or six hours of things to do, find, and pulverize - not a bad rental or bargain bin game. It's also ideal for younger gamers, say 10 and up, because of its coming-of-age theme and forgiving difficulty.

The controls are somewhat less forgiving, especially when it comes to flight. The left analog stick guides Astro forward and back, left and right, while the right stick adjusts his altitude. Decide where you want to go on the left side and how high you want to be on the right. The Square button provides a speed burst, complete with streaming trail. It sounds easy enough, but in practice turning is cumbersome and way too imprecise.

One of the diversions (in case your attention span wanders during the few hours of gameplay) is a group of five courses made up of rings Astro has to fly through. Not only do you get to deal with the clunky turns, but passing through one ring propels you at double speed in the general direction of the next, further screwing with your technique. Some might say it adds play time and helps you master Astro's lock-on and flight capabilities as you try to stay on course. I say the lock-on function is simple enough and both the ring course and the flying in general are needlessly frustrating. The bonus time-runs after you beat the original Sly Cooper were added challenge done right. The rings in Astro Boy are just magnifying glasses that call attention to how much the hero could have used a powerslide and a more intelligent camera.

When you're not flying through hoops or zooming around an enclosed area hunting for something, the controls are pretty good. The lock-on comes in handy whether you're shooting your arm cannon, swatting the enemy away with an uprooted lamppost, or picking up a robot to throw him into the ocean, and if you lock on and hold down Square, you'll perform a circling spin attack until you run out of energy or the enemy runs out of life. Just when you're really getting into the movement, however, you will probably run smack into the invisible wall that surrounds the heart of the Metro City hub and each of the five areas that leads off it. Mastering flying is that much harder when you keep running into barriers you didn't know were there.

But Astro Boy's more fun that frustration in the end. Sonic Team still has much to learn about 3D cameras (I flashed back to the airship stage of Sonic Adventure at one point), but there are some real treats in the visuals. The look and sound of the game stay true to the source material and are authentic in ways both great and small. For such a simple game, there are many little details to admire.

Fly low to the ground and loose paper will rustle below. Cars can be picked up and tossed. Some background objects can be smashed or used as a target to throw helpless foes into. Astro's eyes reflect the glow of his charging arm cannon and he generates a cartoony skidding sound when he makes a sudden stop while running. In a sort of related note, I . . . er . . . accidentally found out that an (adult) NPC wearing a mini could not be rotated in the trading card view to an angle that would let you see up her skirt. Tezuka would have been proud indeed.

"Say out loud the word 'Ugh!'"

During the time you are actively pursuing the storyline, fighting bosses and gaining new abilities, the game is simply wonderful. It's the extra stuff that can be weak - everything but the collectible cards themselves. Even beyond the bonus rings I already discussed, the s-l-o-w moving text scattered throughout various conversations is irritating. Sometimes a line of dialogue is spelled out letter-by-letter for seemingly no other reason than to drag out the experience that much longer. I-t b-u-g-s t-h-e h-e-l-l
o-u-t o-f m-e a-n-d I-'d b-e s-u-r-p-r-i-s-e-d i-f i-t d-i-d-n-'t a-n-n-o-y
e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e e-l-s-e. And worst of all . . . wait, this deserves it's own paragraph.

Still with me? Okay. Worst of all are the "tests" you go undertake to earn some of the cards. Sometimes you talk to a dog only to find it wants to sniff or bite you. Sometimes you are presented with a sign that says, "Say out loud the word 'Woof,'" and you just have to choose to say it. Stupid, stupid, not charming, and stupid. This isn't just once or twice, it's common in the game. I am not sure what Sonic Team was thinking. Even if the humor is lost in translation - and it seems more like lack of imagination or time than a cultural difference, it comes off as lazy and even a little insulting. Maybe in a Barbie game you could get away with this, but Astro Boy fans can handle something a little more challenging than these tacked-on little non-puzzles. If there were more worthy tasks, maybe some of the slow-talk could have been excised.

I guess the game is like its star: it flies high at times, it's fast, it's short, and it shows a lot of room for growth. But that's why God invented sequels (and Game Boy Advance versions).

· · · Nick Vlamakis