Astro Boy: Edge of Time reimagines Osamu Tezuka’s hero for cyberpunk card game

The characters of Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka — often referred to as the "godfather of manga" — are coming together in a new digital collectible card game called Astro Boy: Edge of Time, publisher Active Gaming Media and Tezuka Productions announced today.

Astro Boy: Edge of Time will be a crossover featuring Tezuka’s most famous works — Astro Boy, Black Jack, Phoenix, Hyakkimaru, Ambassador Magma — joining forces in a futuristic cyberpunk city known as the Sprawl. Astro Boy and his allies are transported to the city that exists outside the normal flow of time to combat a dark, evil force.

The collectible card game will see players building decks composed of Tezuka’s roster of characters and battling other players and computer-controlled opponents.

Astro Boy: Edge of Time will feature position-based gameplay, its creators say. Players can "deploy their cards to one of two planes on their side of the board, defending themselves from incoming attacks while initiating attacks of their own."

Active Gaming Media promises a single-player campaign mode featuring a new, original Astro Boy story and multiplayer gameplay. The developer plans for ongoing support of the game with new cards, new story mode episodes and new multiplayer modes.

The cast of Astro Boy: Edge of Time will feature versions of Tezuka characters re-imagined by well known manga artists and illustrators. Confirmed artists include Hiroya Oku (Gantz), Satoshi Yoshioka (Snatcher, Policenauts) and Hiroaki (The King of Fighters, Street Fighter 4, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin). A teaser website also mentions the participation of Hiroshi Matsuyama (president of CyberConnect2), Seiichiro Hosokawa (.hack series), Nekoshowgun, Goichi "Suda 51" Suda (Grasshopper Manufacture) and musicians Akira Yamaoka and Giovanni Giorgio Moroder.

Active Gaming Media is taking Astro Boy: Edge of Time to Kickstarter, where it’s seeking $50,000 in crowdfunding to complete development of the Linux, Mac and Windows PC game. Console versions of the digital card game are listed as stretch goals.

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Astro Boy has previously starred in a handful of video games, notably Mighty Atom for the Famicom, Astro Boy: Omega Factor for Game Boy Advance and Astro Boy for PlayStation 2. Tezuka’s Hyakkimaru from Dororo was the star of 2004’s Blood Will Tell for PS2.