Astro Bot is the first PlayStation exclusive since then that truly believes in that mission statement. As I wistfully reflected on that, I was hit by a pang of bittersweet sadness. Most of the colorful mascots I was reuniting with simply don’t exist anymore. Over the past 10 years, PlayStation has entirely narrowed its focus on a few key franchises. God of War and The Last of Us have become standby franchises, while the Crash Bandicoots and Ape Escapes of the world die out.
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Astro Bot is developed by Team Asobi, who also worked on previous titles where Astro appeared, including the PS5 console’s tech demo Astro’s Playroom. Entire levels are built around Astro Bot’s power-ups, but most aren’t just one-off gimmicks. The story kicks off as Astro is sailing across the cosmos with hundreds of his buddies on their PS5 mothership, just enjoying their quant robot lives. That nirvana is thrown into disarray when a dastardly alien interrupts the party, stealing the mothership’s parts and scattering hundreds of bots across the universe. It is merely a resource, and it absolutely makes all the sense in the world to have it ready as soon as possible and there’s nothing wrong with that approach at all. If they make Rescue Mission compatible with psvr2 I’ll play through that again as well.
Astro Bot is one of the year’s biggest and best titles and it’s easy to see why. There’s a lot to do, it’s visually stunning and it’s a welcoming platformer. You can jump onto the title even if you haven’t played Astro’s Playroom or a PlayStation game in general. Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet thanked his development team and PlayStation for believing in Astro, and also paid tribute to Nintendo, recalling how he played Super Mario Bros as a child.
I also very much enjoyed the mouse mechanic, which reduces you down to a super small size, effectively turning on a “Toy Story” mode that lets you clamber up oversized shelves and leaves in search of secrets. Customers praise this platformer game for being a champion of arcade-meets-open world gameplay, with beautiful visuals and an amazing soundtrack. Moreover, the game features worlds brimming with creativity and secrets, and customers find it appropriately challenging with just the right amount of difficulty. Additionally, they appreciate its accessibility for all ages, with one customer noting it’s particularly suitable for mixed-age households. Unlike ASTRO’s Playroom, ASTRO BOT is a standalone, full-sized adventure that offers over four times more worlds, 300 bots to rescue and dozens of new powers and features to discover.
Whether it’s something subtle like rain pattering on Astro’s umbrella or louder like the spaceship’s rocket boosters, Astro Bot shows how game-changing the speaker, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers can be when used together. It’s a shame that most other PS5 games don’t even come close to utilizing these features to their full potential. For those hoping to get as much playtime as possible out of the package, Astro Bot packs in plenty to do. There are secret levels to find, puzzle pieces in each level, a gacha machine filled with outfits, and a home base that evolves into a full-on playground over time. The most alluring feature, though, is its PlayStation-themed collectibles.
It even feels like some popping candy has smuggled its way into your controller as it fizzes and pings away, sweetly reacting to whatever is happening on screen. Astro Bot is a showcase for the DualSense’s bells and whistles unlike anything since, well… Triggers tighten in your fingers and rumbles are sent through your thumbs. I found my whole body involuntarily drifting from side to side as I guided Astro’s ship with the motion controls. I’d also recommend turning your controller speaker volume up if, like me, you have it muted by default – you’ll be missing out on some fantastic audio flourishes otherwise.
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As you rescue more bots, they will make their own little spaces out and about, all in the area around the ship. You’ll track down puzzle pieces across each stage as well, with these working towards unlocking a habitat that grants you additional collectibles such as skins for Astro Bot or the controller you fly around on. The puzzle pieces unlock these areas in order, so you’ll have these locations granted to you in the same order as everyone else. Once the PS5 ship has crashed, Astro Bot will explore the space around the crash site. This is the hub world that allows you to unlock more of the galaxy map. You’ll track down a satellite-centric bot and it will ping the next destination.
But in actuality Astro Bot isn’t a very good celebration of PlayStation’s history. It is, however, one of the best 3D platformers ever made and an absolute joy from beginning to end. Oddly, Astro can only ever survive one hit, which can be annoying as 90% of the time the only thing that ever kills you is enemies firing projectiles, but the game is so heavily checkpointed it’s never really a problem. Others are less straightforward, such as boxing gloves that concertina out but can also be used to attach to objects (that appear to be covered in jam) to pull them or use them to swing onto other platforms. One power-up can suck up various liquids from the ground to create platforms of different consistencies, while another slows down time and is used in a variety of clever ways. The enemies being copycats are a slight shame, but the visual design is very good, with everything also clearly being mechanical, rather than just organic, which looks great when it’s subtly cybernetic trees and animals.
Astro Bot Gameplay – 10/10
Astro Bot won multiple awards including Game of the Year at the Game Awards 2024, the 21st British Academy Games Awards, and the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. We also cranked up the number of baddies too with over 70 new types, including massive bosses at the end of each galaxy. Special mention to the deadly cobra queen Lady Venomara who appears in the trailer, waiting for you in her golden lair. Defeating each boss will uncover a wonderful secret but we don’t want to spoil that, so our lips are sealed😊. And for the brave ones of you craving even more challenge, the game comes packed with die-and-retry levels to test your reflexes. luck8 is a love letter to video games that sets a new standard in 3D platforming, with ridiculously creative stages and gorgeous visuals.
Each aspect of the game is superb and should be taken as the gold standard of how to release a game. The stunning visuals, great sound design, interesting story, and amazing gameplay round out a near perfect release of a game. The story of the game isn’t all that compelling; however, the fact that it’s able to tell a story and make it understandable without a single line being spoken means something. The motivation of the game is to rescue the missing crew members of the now-broken PS5 mothership due to the damage caused by their nemesis. It’s nothing fancy, yet somehow it’s able to sneak in amazing interactions between the bots, and that just makes everything a lot better than I think it actually is. To start the year on a good note, we are delighted to announce new Astro Bot content is coming starting today.
It’s fun putting them to work when revisiting the crash site, too, calling upon them to help lift heavy objects and create structures like human bridges to help you continue your adventure and rescue yet more robots. I can’t recall the last time I had so much fun jumping on platforms. Every action I performed with the little robot was not only incredibly satisfying but also addictive—almost like a drug.
This has been one of the few websites that’s given this game the coverage it deserves. The game is very streamline I would have thought no way I am missing this stuff lol. In addition to new levels, Sony as part of its June State of Play announced a new limited-edition Astro Bot DualSense controller, one with a slightly different expression from a previous Astro Bot controller.