Released exclusively in Japan for the Famicom in 1988, this is the first interactive adaptation of the classic manga and anime franchise Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) by Osamu Tezuka. Thieves have stolen all the money from Professor Ochanomizu and you in the role Astro Boy are send out to retrieve it.
First of all, the soundtrack along with the graphics make this game look like it wasn't mean to be released in 1988 and some of you would even mistake the game to be released in the mid 80s (either 1985 or 1986) due to how simple these are, thank to how bland the graphics and soundtrack are. The soundtrack is extremely bland and repetitive, with the exception of the theme song at the title screen (the only catchy music of the game as it is a faithful rendition of the show theme song; this is, however, the only good thing of the game), the soundtrack is very also generic with barely any catchy music in the levels, and you will likely get annoyed and ear-bleeding when listening to the soundtrack of this game or even downright make you want to sleep, it's also, as I said, sound more like an early NES game made in 1986. On the other hand, the awful graphics make it feel less like it's a 1988 Famicom game, as the sprites are very undetailed and the color palette is just terrible with washed-out color schemes, not to mention that with the exception of the first level, the backgrounds are very awful too, with either not many details or sometimes it's just nothing but just a color background with nothing except the colors, making the graphics extremely bland and again, as with the soundtrack, looking like it's came from 1986 and not 1988.
The controls, while not the worst, are quite awful, as they are very stiff, clunky, unresponsive and slippery at the same time. It is very hard to control Atom's actions well due to how poor the controls are; it's will also make you get tons of cheap deaths and make the levels harder to complete. It also doesn't help that in this game it is extremely easy to lose a life and get a game over with the awful level design that is not adapted for the awful controls; flying is also absolutely horrible to do, the absolute worst part of the controls, and even the worst part of the entire game, as you have to jump three times in a row to fly, but the problem is that it's barely working because of how unresponsive the controls are, not to mention that even in the air, the controls aren't great, and flying is really boring in this game.
The hit detection is extremely awful and probably the worst in an Astro Boy game, as your punches have a very short length, and despite you being closer to an enemy, it will not even be hit despite clearly having contact with your punch. Even the enemy's hit detection is dreadful as they can hit you extremely easily with projectiles, such as when they shot you, and after that, you immediately die.
The game is extremely short, as there are only 10 levels, and most of them can be completed in either 2 minutes or 4 minutes, meaning that you can beat the entire game in only 20 minutes or even less. In addition the level design is dreadful, with many levels that are completely frustrating for no reason and have a lot of fake difficulty in most of the levels, such as awful platform placements. Some of the levels also require a task to be done, but the problem is that it's either too hard to do because of the awful controls or sometimes because it is incredibly confusing to do. Due to how bad the level design is, most levels will be incredibly frustrating for no reason or very confusing to finish; this was likely done to make the overall length of the game longer than just 20 minutes.
- Level 1 is an extremely generic and bland level as you can just run straight to the end without stopping and flying at the end to get in the air for getting on the level 2, that it, even for a first level, this is horribly generic.
- Level 2 is another generic level with a horrible number of worthless sections that can be dodged just so you can go without losing time with these, in fact the only thing that isn't worthless in this level is the warp zone which give a bit better level for the level 3.
- Level 3 for both the real level and the warp zone level is absolutely horrible and it's where the nightmare of this game start with the difficulty, for the one where you don't take the warp zone is easily the worst of the two since you need to do noise in the right order but the problem is that the song effects are mostly the same and some would had trouble to remember them, in fact it so bad that it's literally a run killer and it's not the only level to be a run killer.
- Level 4 is another generic but somewhat hard level due to the horrible hit-detection and the absolute nightmare that is to flying in this game since in one part, to access to the end of the level, you need to flying and touch the ground in a specific part of it but the problem is: How are you even supposed to know that?!
- Level 5 is another awful level with horrible enemies placements that make the stage more harder than it supposed to be, not to mention that there's even some parts that have invisible pit and can make you getting cheap deaths and had to restart all over again!
- Level 6 is one of the absolute, and we mean, the absolute worst level of the game behind the horrible level 9 that will be talked about, since there's no light and you don't see anything, not to mention that of course it's not all we can said about this horrible level, it's also had some of the worst platforming sections of not only this game but also one of the worst platforming sections in the platformer genre in general, due to being horribly placed and being placed where you don't even see them, the level is filled with pits that are invisible and will make you getting cheap deaths for nothing.
- Level 7 is an awful level due to having slippery physics that make the controls even worst than they already are, there's also a terrible section of platforming where you can being slippery and die in a pit, after that you need to get the bird to escort you and that it, but it is still annoying to do.
- Level 8 is a very annoying level due to having awful platforms placements and also having an annoying task of stopping the electric and if you don't and trying to pass, you get instantly killed.
- Level 9 is the absolute worst level of the game, there's not even words to said how atrociously horrible this level is since it's just a 2 minutes level but it is so hard since the platforms fall and you had to get fast before getting cheap deaths for no reasons, the enemies that appear kill you instantly and are of course placed horribly and they are hard to recognize, not only that but you had to save two peoples and escape at the end, so you had to flying but as said before, due to how horrible the flying in this game is, it is nearly impossible to do it correctly for the first time, and you will also use the flying for the first part of the stage itself. This make this not only the worst level of the entire game but also likely one of the worst levels in video game history.
- Level 10 is horribly generic, as you just flying for 20 minutes without doing something until you finished it, is all I can say.
There are no boss fights; this is unacceptable considering that most 1988 NES platformer games had boss fights in them. This would be a sign that this game was rushed.
The difficulty is also completely unbalanced and all over the place. The game for the beginning is easy, but then you get to stage 3, which is hard, and after that stage, most of the other stages will either be too easy or too hard. For most of the time, it's the latter due to how confusing or how bad the level design is. The enemy placements also contribute to the unbalanced and fake difficulty, as most of them can shoot you down and kill you.
There are no continue, which means that if you get a game over or die way too much, then you have to start the game all over again, which is very cruel because of how hard this game is again due to its fake difficulty with the awful controls and terrible level design. There are also no checkpoints either, making the unbalanced difficulty even worse than it already is.
The game over is quite scary, as you can see the funeral of Atom dying with rather sad music that sounds scary too due to the screen. It's incredibly bad for a kid's game as they will be horrified and won't want to play the game again or even do a nightmare out of it. It's even on par with the atrocious game over from Perman 2 on the Famicom, which came out years later in 1991 and is a much better game, by the way.
Good luck to find your place in the world due to how bad the hit detection is and all the rest.