Astro bot has been a sort of unofficial Playstation mascot since I think the Eyetoy was released. The developers behind the cute little bot serve as Playstation tech demo makers with a frankly incredible ability to make a tech demo into a fun and charming little experience.
When the PS5 launched it released with a lovely platformer called Astro's Playroom, a game designed to showcase the PS5's power and the capability of all of the new controller features. For being a little tech demo game it was really rather fantastic. So fantastic that Sony gave them free reign to turn Astro's Playroom into a full length game. Which is exactly what Astro Bot is, a direct sequel to Playroom in the guise of a full modernized Mario World type of game.
Your Ps5 spaceship is attacked, parts are stolen and scattered across the galaxy. It's up to you to find all the bots and puzzle pieces to help you rebuild the Console and...save the day I guess.
If you've played Playroom, you know what to expect here. You'll traverse a series of levels, gathering bots and puzzle pieces along the way. Where the game gets the charm comes in two ways. The first is the creative level design seen throughout the game, I am 70% complete with the game and I have yet to see repeated level ideas. Each level feels unique with new enemies and sometimes new bot suits that grant new abilities to Astro for that level. Some powers we saw in Playroom like the money suit, but there are many more that are new like the metal ball suit which makes Astro a heavy steel bar to roll over spikes, be immune to crushing, and able to roll into small passages. Speaking of small, there is a size suit allowing you to become tiny or big at the push of a button allowing you to traverse the level in different ways.
The second part of the charm is all the bots you find and save. Some are generic bots that will build and work around your crashed mothership in the hub zone, while other bots are video game characters posing around the area doing little cute robot things related to the game they are from. Like the Ryu and Ken bot that constantly punch each other back and forth, or the Solid snake bot that crawls around in a box. It's all referential and leans heavily on video game nostalgia, but also leans really hard into Playstation's history. This is as much a love letter to Playstation as it is to the games along the way. And in some ways that could turn people off because it's product placement the video game, which hasn't really been a thing since the death of the movie game.
For the most part Astro Bot is the perfect platformer, the only negative I can really find is the shilling of playstation products which I could see upsetting people who aren't long time Playstation fans. As far as the gameplay is concerned, I can't really find a fault in it. The secrets are clever without being frustration, the boss fights are fun, the charm is delightful, it's just a great little game if you don't mind the heavy handed branding.
When the PS5 launched it released with a lovely platformer called Astro's Playroom, a game designed to showcase the PS5's power and the capability of all of the new controller features. For being a little tech demo game it was really rather fantastic. So fantastic that Sony gave them free reign to turn Astro's Playroom into a full length game. Which is exactly what Astro Bot is, a direct sequel to Playroom in the guise of a full modernized Mario World type of game.
Your Ps5 spaceship is attacked, parts are stolen and scattered across the galaxy. It's up to you to find all the bots and puzzle pieces to help you rebuild the Console and...save the day I guess.
If you've played Playroom, you know what to expect here. You'll traverse a series of levels, gathering bots and puzzle pieces along the way. Where the game gets the charm comes in two ways. The first is the creative level design seen throughout the game, I am 70% complete with the game and I have yet to see repeated level ideas. Each level feels unique with new enemies and sometimes new bot suits that grant new abilities to Astro for that level. Some powers we saw in Playroom like the money suit, but there are many more that are new like the metal ball suit which makes Astro a heavy steel bar to roll over spikes, be immune to crushing, and able to roll into small passages. Speaking of small, there is a size suit allowing you to become tiny or big at the push of a button allowing you to traverse the level in different ways.
The second part of the charm is all the bots you find and save. Some are generic bots that will build and work around your crashed mothership in the hub zone, while other bots are video game characters posing around the area doing little cute robot things related to the game they are from. Like the Ryu and Ken bot that constantly punch each other back and forth, or the Solid snake bot that crawls around in a box. It's all referential and leans heavily on video game nostalgia, but also leans really hard into Playstation's history. This is as much a love letter to Playstation as it is to the games along the way. And in some ways that could turn people off because it's product placement the video game, which hasn't really been a thing since the death of the movie game.
For the most part Astro Bot is the perfect platformer, the only negative I can really find is the shilling of playstation products which I could see upsetting people who aren't long time Playstation fans. As far as the gameplay is concerned, I can't really find a fault in it. The secrets are clever without being frustration, the boss fights are fun, the charm is delightful, it's just a great little game if you don't mind the heavy handed branding.
