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You mean to tell me PlayStation could’ve been making games like this the entire time instead of 9,000 photorealistic sad dad simulators?
Astro Bot, which is the third platformer starring Sony’s new unofficial robot mascot — but somehow the first one to be a regular full-priced non-VR game — is a breath of fresh air compared to most of the last decade of PlayStation. It’s not a competent prestige TV knock-off like God of War, or misanthropic edgelord misery like The Last of Us, or a bloated open-world mess like Horizon.
Rather, this is a colorful, whimsical, mechanically tight, and overall delightful 3D platformer that’s also packed full of references to PlayStation history. While Astro Bot’s reverence for the PlayStation brand occasionally feels forced, and probably can’t sustain itself beyond this game, it’s such a goddamn thrill for the 10 or so hours it takes to finish that I think it’s a must-play for any PS5 owner.
Astro Bot premise
Credit: PlayStation
Astro Bot, from the developers at Team Asobi, isn’t really a game about plot. A PS5-shaped mothership full of little robots encounters some trouble in outer space — and it’s up to one heroic Astro Bot to rebuild the mothership and save all the bots.
While narrative isn’t really something that moves the needle in Astro Bot, it does feed into the game’s main aesthetic gimmick: constant references to PlayStation. Many of the hundreds of stranded bots you need to collect throughout the game’s levels to progress through the game are dressed like classic PlayStation characters, which is carried on from a similar idea in Astro’s Playroom.
When you collect a referential bot, they go back to your hub world and hang out doing little animations related to whatever game they’re from. It’s cute! I got a big kick out of seeing Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza and Teddie from Persona 4 in there.
However, turning references into necessary collectibles for progress does drive home the point that this is the point of Astro Bot. While it’s a great 3D platformer with beautiful visuals and catchy tunes (as we’ll get to in a bit), Astro Bot is a game about basking in all things PlayStation. And at times, it can feel like an incomplete or flawed history of the brand.
For instance, there are a few allusions to things that I either don’t associate with PlayStation at all or are maybe best left in the dustbin of history. There is also at least one major franchise that I extremely associate with PlayStation that isn’t represented at all, for what have to be boring rights reasons.
It’s not the norm, thankfully, but a small handful of the references also feel like they were mandated by Sony corporate. I know Detroit: Become Human was a PlayStation exclusive, but we can pretend like it wasn’t. It’ll be fine.
Astro Bot’s referential nature, despite its occasional missed swings and inconsistencies, is a positive overall. 2024 is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the PlayStation, and if Sony itself as a broader corporate entity isn’t going to do a very good job of celebrating such a historic legacy, I’m glad this game is doing it, at least.
Astro Bot mechanics
Credit: PlayStation
If you played Astro’s Playroom (and anyone who owns a PS5 should because it’s free), you know the deal here. Astro Bot is a mechanically simple and straightforward 3D platformer with remarkably tight movement and a generally punchy, chipper feel to its mechanics. You can run, jump, do a little hover move in mid-air, punch enemies, and that’s about it. What more do you need?
Well, there is a little more. Many levels revolve around a series of wearable gadgets that give Astro unique abilities. One of them causes him to absorb bodies of water and become huge, while another gives him a pair of springy, extending boxing gloves. These are a good deal more fun than the vehicles that sucked up so much of Astro’s Playroom runtime, and while a couple of them are motion-controlled, you can thankfully turn that stuff off.
The basic mechanics of Astro Bot are lifted so thoroughly from Playroom that the overall design structure stood out to me more than the moment-to-moment action. This is the most Super Mario Galaxy-ass game that isn’t actually Super Mario Galaxy. Aside from the fact that the levels are literally spread across little solar systems, it also permeates how the levels are designed.
Credit: PlayStation
Most of Astro Bot is spent moving linearly from one little floating platformer island to another. Each one will have some tiny challenge to complete — and then you’ll move onto the next, having fun along the way. All of it is paced so tightly, it’s remarkable. Astro Bot leaves almost no room for boredom at any point in the process. Astro Bot is a constant firehose of pleasant brain chemicals.
Special mention needs to go to a handful of bigger levels that are themed to specific PlayStation games, giving Astro special costumes and unique abilities sourced from said games. There are distressingly few of these, and too many of them pull from the PS4 era, but one of them made me smile so much that I’m willing to forgive that transgression.
It almost feels reductive to say “Well, they made a longer version of the great pack-in game, so it’s automatically great.” But that’s pretty much what happened! That said, I’m very glad Astro Bot is as brief as it is. Getting 100 percent completion can be achieved in a weekend, which is hugely refreshing compared to the endless array of live-service forever games and 100-hour RPGs that have flooded the market in 2024.
Astro Bot graphics
Credit: PlayStation
Team Asobi’s penchant for colorful whimsy shines through in Astro Bot, which is one of the prettiest games on PS5. It’s got a relatively simple art style that pulls from a lot of inspirations; some levels straight up look like Mario, while the robotic animals that you fight harken back to classic Sonic. But, at least to me, it never feels like a rip-off. I think this game was just made by people with good taste.
Astro Bot is visually resplendent, but also fully readable, unlike so many modern games that sacrifice legibility for visual density. It’s exactly what a modern 3D platformer should look like.
Astro Bot music and audio
Astro Bot’s music was composed by Kenneth C.M. Young, who did the previous Astro games for Team Asobi, too. Put simply, each tune is eminently hummable and nearly perfect for whatever scenario it was written for. I especially appreciate the constant use of vocoders to produce robotic-sounding vocals.
The aforementioned themed levels also have fun remixes of songs from the games the levels are based on. Sorry for spoiling one of them (skip to the next section if you really don’t wanna know), but it turns out I’m the exact kind of person who would mark out at a dance remix of the Uncharted 2 title screen music.
Astro Bot difficulty
This isn’t one of those overly masochistic platformers by any means, but Astro Bot’s level of challenge is fair. Astro dies in one hit (except for in the excellent boss fights, where you can take three hits), so careful play is not only rewarded, but necessary.
There are times when enemy numbers can be a little overwhelming and deaths can feel slightly unfair, but checkpoints are frequent and load times are instant, so who cares?
I will say Astro Bot becomes an appreciably and enjoyably more difficult game if you try to 100 percent it. I recommend doing so if you want the full experience.
Astro Bot performance
I did not think the technical performance of Astro Bot would be a source of disappointment, but here we are.
While the game looks amazing visually and runs at a solid 60 frames per second (as far as I can tell without an on-screen frame counter), it’s got this constant, every-few-seconds stutter that I noticed right away. It lasted throughout my entire time with the game, and I was playing on the latest patch. I was able to quickly get used to it and enjoy the game regardless, but it can be seriously distracting if you think about it too much.
I assume this is something that can and will be patched out of the game, but for now, Astro Bot’s gotta lose some points.
Is Astro Bot worth getting?
Credit: PlayStation
Hell yeah, Astro Bot is worth getting!
While I assume some folks will not feel great about spending $60 for a game you can wipe out in a few days, the experience itself is more than worth it. Team Asobi has made what might be the most purely fun PS5 exclusive yet — and it’s easily one of the best games on that saddeningly short list.
Its referential nature works overall, even with some slight misgivings. I don’t think Asobi can keep that aspect of these games up if Sony commissions more Astro platformers, but for one game, it’s cool. Between that, its gorgeous visuals, catchy music, and excellent platforming mechanics, Astro Bot is one of the best games on the PS5.
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Sony’s ‘Astro Bot’ occasionally takes the references too far, but it’s such an excellent and delightful platformer anyway.
