Astro Boy (the movie) is a delightful reboot of the 1960’s cartoon of the same name. Dr Tenma loses his son in a tragic accident while testing a giant robot powered by the red core – a power source made of negative energy. Grief stricken, he recreates his son in robot form, and powers that new robot with the far more stable blue core, which is made of positive energy. Astro spends the rest of the movie searching for his place in the world. Some stuff happens, some lessons are learned, and there’s a giant alien monster at the end that doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the movie – what more could you ask for?

Astro Boy (the video game) attempts to recapture the magic from the movie, but never quite hits the mark. The game takes the basic story, and attempts to expand it with additional foes for Astro to fight, and a slight reworking of some of the scenes from the movie. These changes pull some of the impact from the story. In the movie, Astro works to keep his robot heritage a secret from his new flesh and blood friends. In the game, Astro runs off frequently to fight off dangerous robots, which might tip off his human friends, unless of course they all have some sort of learning disability. Despite these changes, the game sticks more or less to the plot of the movie.

The game switches back and forth between two types of levels: platformer and side scrolling shoot ‘em up. The platforming levels feel uninspired and a little lazy. There’s just one path to take, and the game walks you down that path holding your hand the whole way. While most platformers have you collect coins, bolts, or something similar to trade for upgrades, Astro Boy just cuts out the middle man, and puts the upgrades and cheats in lazily hidden secret rooms throughout the world. While this makes the game accessible to very young gamers, and very casual gamers, it also helps to keep intermediate and advanced gamers of all ages from enjoying the experience.

The side scrolling shoot ‘em up levels feel a bit more polished and enjoyable than the platforming levels. Astro soars through the sky dodging enemy bullets and missles in order to make it from point A to point B, all the while shooting down a wide variety of enemies. I actually felt challenged by a few of these levels, and felt a sense of accomplishment when I reached the end of them.

Throughout both types of level, Astro has the same set of power ups at his disposal. These include a dash attack, a super big laser beam, a butt gun blast that sprays bullets in every direction, and the ability to regenerate some health. Each of these comes in handy in specific situations. The game is way too generous in handing out special moves. You start each life with ten available, and you earn points toward additional uses each time you kill or damage an enemy. Casual gamers and small children willhave an easy time with the game thanks to that generosity, but anyone who’s spent more than the smallest amount of time gaming will be turned off by the lack of challenge present in a game where you can regen some health at the press of a button whenever the need arises.

Astro Boy is a great game for small children who fell in love with the movie and just can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, older kids, and even some younger kids who happen to be avid gamers will feel let down by the lack of challenge present in the game.  If your kids want to go see the movie three times a week, this game might be a good investment for you – as long as those kids aren’t terribly good gamers.