Stage notes!
Japan’s Ministry of Science is where the story of Astro begins. A world leader in robotics engineering, and producer of most of Japan’s high-end machinery, the ministry holds a powerful position within the futuristic world of 2003. Contained within its walls are countless rooms and departments, conducting a myriad of research projects and experiments, most of which are kept under tight security so as to prevent foreign spies from stealing Japan’s cutting-edge technology.
The Ministry is responsible for creating all sorts of things, from experimental rockets to mind-reading devices to subway systems, but by far their most prominent role is the creation of newer and more advanced autonomous androids.
Robots are a mainstay of life in 2003, conducting jobs ranging from the lowliest of janitors to the most powerful of CEOs. As robotics has advanced, so, too, has AI technology, allowing Robots to function on a level comparable to the most able of human.
Still, though, their induction into society is relatively recent, which means a good amount of negative opinions and resentment exists within the human populace. Though a recent act was passed giving robots rights nearly equal to humans, they are generally viewed by the masses as second-class citizens and actively persecuted, an outlook exasperated by Article 13 of the Robot Law: Robots may not injure (or kill) humans. This, coupled with a biased police force, means Robots are regularly illicitly framed, detained, and/or destroyed.
It’s in this atmosphere that the Ministry of Science attempts to maintain order, helping to clean up and control robot-related disturbances, recycling scrapped robots into new ones and handling various issues regarding their activities.
Because of its responsibilities, it has a very sizable budget, which is partly what allows Astro to be born in the first place. Astro’s father goes a little off the deep end upon Tobio’s death, and squanders much of the budget and resources on Astro’s creation, with the intent that he be a work of art, a robot peerless in power and beauty. While many question the wisdom of creating a super-powered robot armed with lasers, machine guns, and rockets, it all ends up working out in the end – Astro’s father abandons him, O’shay picks him up, and Astro becomes a sort of monkey wrench for the Ministry, getting deployed whenever there’s a problem that needs fixing.
As far as the game goes, the Ministry is…not really all that exciting. Admittedly, it’s just a tutorial area, but still, the Ministry has enough of a history that they could’ve gone a little further in designing it than just using a generic computer sim backround. And, if you were wondering, the only real differences in difficulty are the EX skills being limited to 99 in easy, 5 in normal, and 3 in hard, as well as steadily more ridiculous damage enemies are capable of giving and receiving.
Intro movie!
(that pic’s a link btw)
While the devs may have neglected to show their stuff in the Ministry proper, they DID demonstrate their knowledge of the source material elsewhere. If you linger on the title screen, you’ll shortly be deposited into a little movie sequence as an extended version of the title screen music plays, with added singalong subtitles.
What makes this special is that each of the images shown here is actually taken from an extra chapter Osamu Tezuka wrote for the compilation books of Astro Boy, titled “The Birth of Astro Boy”. It serves as an intro to readers as to who exactly Astro is and how he came to be, seeing as Tezuka structured the compilations in a manner of his choosing, not in the order of initial publishing. Moreover, the song playing is VERY similar to the original 1960s show opening theme, with that opening bit on the title screen with Astro’s head and the radiating splash being pulled straight from said opening.
It’s a stupid amount of attention to detail, and it’s a level that really does get maintained throughout the game.
As for those images, here’s links to four pages containing most of the ones included in the movie. They’re all basically outlining how technology got to the point that Astro was viable, showing various scientists and their inventions.
PAGE 1, PAGE 2, PAGE 3, PAGE 4.
Astro’s moves!
Being a beat-um-up, Astro’s offensive powers are a key part of the gameplay, and he has a sizeable amount of them. I’ll be going into them a bit here.
Punching
Punching is Astro’s most basic of powers, possessing low reach but moderate damage. When punching an enemy, time will slow down for both Astro and the enemy, allowing you to hang in the air and continue your combo while also delaying the enemy’s retaliation, but leaving every other on-screen enemy to continue moving at a normal pace. Additionally, enemies without resistance to stun (which, for now, is pretty much all of them) will go cross-eyed and limp for as long as you’re beating them up, allowing you to stack enemies on top of each other and really lay on the damage. All attacks but the weaker laser finger and machine gun also make a bunch of colorful stars fly out of your enemies in a very satisfying manner, and this one probably produces the most, which makes it super fun.
Astro’s fists are real instruments of destruction on other media, too, being capable of taking down steel doors without breaking a sweat.
Kicking
Kicking is your main alternative to punching, usable with the command down+b, or else being executed automatically after a 3-punch combo. Kicking is a fairly strong move all by itself, but its true strength lies in enemies that aren’t resistant to stun – kicking them will cause them to careen across the stage, knocking into every enemy they touch, and bringing said enemies along for the ride if they’re not immune either. Generally speaking, this remains a great method of damage-dealing even late into the game, as you’ll usually get at least a few non-immune enemies in each wave, and can use them to inflict multiple safe hits on the ones that ARE resistant.
In addition to being really useful combat-wise, it’s also super satisfying – there’s a musical effect to this move, where a chime will play for each enemy knocked into, gradually rising in pitch and splendor until everything is left decimated in your wake. Both punching and kicking can be amplified in power with a “Punch” upgrade.
Astro’s not really known for kicking, to be honest, probably due to his short, stubby legs and preference for flying, but it’s still a cool move.
Finger laser
Astro’s finger laser is your go-to long range attack, extending in a straight line the length of the screen and piercing through enemies, making it most effective when used at the extreme end of the screen. The finger laser isn’t overly powerful, but does multiple hits, so if you manage to hit a sweet spot where the beam stays over an enemy for its duration you’ll get some very respectable damage. Furthermore, upgrades in the “Laser” category increase both the power and, eventually, the width of the beam, allowing you to keep it on top of enemies more easily.
As stated in the video, Astro’s finger laser was added in the 1980s animated adaption , and was often used as a kill move versus minor enemies and robotics, leaving them with smoldering holes where their important bits used to be. It’s a highly accurate, useful tool.
Arm cannon
In terms of EX attacks, the Arm cannon’s your go-to damage dealer, and what you’ll be using against the game’s plethora of bosses and mini-bosses. Mechanic-wise, it’s the finger laser x10, and like the finger laser it enjoys both infinite horizontal range and piercing damage. It’s super-powerful, but for both laser types, you’ll get locked in spot upon usage (including when in mid-air), and it’s that fact that acts as the arm cannon’s greatest weakness: when using, any enemy left behind you basically gets a free shot at your back, so smart positioning prior to usage is a necessity.
Like the finger laser, the “Laser” upgrades are this thing’s friend, making it even bigger, more powerful, more colorful, and even increasing the size of the little energy balls that come out when you activate the move. It even obliterates energy projectiles it comes in contact with!
Astro’s Arm cannon was introduced in the 2003 animated show, shocking both Astro himself and veteran fans upon its discovery, and is generally about as powerful as you’d expect. Anything within its range enjoys a quick and merciless disintegration.
Dash/EX dash
I’m grouping the normal dash together with the EX version because they’re functionally identical, save for damage-dealing capabilities.
For Astro, his power of flight is hands-down the most iconic and memorable power in his repertoire. While laser beams and bad-guy punching are all well and good, there’s something about his ability to collapse his hands and feet into his body and blast off with rocket limbs that really captures the imagination of kiddies. It’s a super cool feature, and often gets used extensively in works to allow him to buzz like a super-powered hornet around his much larger enemies.
In terms of the game, you don’t get quite as much freedom of movement, but you DO get to boost at high-speeds in any of the cardinal directions or their diagonals. Moreover, whenever Astro’s in a boost, he’s COMPLETELY INVINCIBLE, and can harmlessly fly through enemy proectiles. Your dash doesn’t recharge and can’t be used until you touch ground again, but for each upgrade in the “Jets” category, you can use it one more time without touching ground, meaning you can just boost back and forth willy-nilly.
The EX dash, as said in-LP, isn’t really all that useful, primarily due to the fact that the other two EX skills are a button away whereas this requires you to press a couple simultaneously, but it IS potentially useful in that you can use it to get another mid-air dash when you run out. It, too, makes you invincible, and gives you the added benefit of damaging anything you come in contact with while dashing. It doesn’t do nearly as much damage as a Laser cannon, but it’s still respectable.
The EX dash is also something of Astro’s “Power-pose”, given that he, like superman, likes to extend an arm in front of himself while flying. This is actually often used as final blow in flights, with him blasting through an enemy’s core or vehicle to take them out for good, which makes its relative weakness here kind of odd.
Machine gun
Astro’s silliest-looking move, his machine guns are nestled firmly in his metallic buttocks, presumably because his hands were already decked out with the lasers. The machine gun isn’t as powerful as the arm cannon, but it covers the entire screen, and enemies that it doesn’t outright kill become stunned and immobile for a good bit after the move ends, making it as useful in normal encounters as the arm cannon is in boss fights. Upgrading it boosts damage, shot size, and general coolness, but I’d personally recommend you leave this thing for last and instead focus on laser, life, and punch, using the Machine gun for crowd control and finishing up with some well-placed smacks.
Astro’s butt has been armed and dangerous from the very beginning, and I have to imagine this particular attack was added mainly for its humor value. Still, Astro’s shown some remarkable accuracy with it in the past, in stark contrast to his random firing here, and he can be quite a crack shot when need be.
Music!
A decent amount of music gets dropped on you at the beginning of the game, and they’re all fairly good. This game has an excellent soundtrack, but most of the really stand-out ones come later, so these one’s aren’t as good as it gets. Still, though, a couple are pretty cool, like the title screen theme being a reference to the 1960 anime intro.
Incidentally, I wasn’t able to find an official OST, so all of these names are made-up by yours truly.
#1: Title screen
#2: Save select
#3: Tragedy
#4: Science ministry
#5: Upgrade menu