January 20, 2026

Astro Bot Just Received Five Free Levels And Some Long-awaited Cameos

This includes actions like smashing walls with head-butts, dodging attacks, and using the headset’s microphone to blow petals around. For https://ok365.best/ , this is quite literally the best platformer out in the current year. There’s so much to collect, levels to conquer, and secrets to discover that it actually feels weird that it’s not charged at the normal AAA premium.

In the game, the player plays as Captain Astro, who aims to rescue his lost crew scattered across different worlds. A lot of modern entertainment, including video games, has a real problem with nostalgia bait, playing off people’s memories and trying to capitalize on that, without making anything new or original in the process. That’s why we keep seeing so many remakes and remasters, but Astro Bot doesn’t fall into the same trap. It feels like a celebration, with deep meaningful references that truly understand the quirks of the series it’s featuring.

Absolutely! Everyone With A Ps5 Should Play This Masterpiece!

You might have noticed that a, yet unreleased, level of Astro Bot was featured at the PlayStation XP Tournament Final in London, England on January 18. That very level, along with 4 additional ones will be coming your way inside the brand-new Vicious Void Galaxy, starting today. @Yousef- I never said it was for “helpless people who already can’t beat the game”. It’s fine as a resource, but I don’t think it makes “all the sense in the world” to have it ready on day one. We never used to have guides like these from day one, and had lots of fun figuring things out.

Like some of these developers I swear have little imagination, enough but not broad enough for the gameplay, just the bare minimum. For audiences to be ‘simple’ or devs really are just those types of people with no good ideas to think deep up to prototype them. Their skills, their time, their visions, their publisher demands, whatever the case.

If they make Rescue Mission compatible with psvr2 I’ll play through that again as well. It wouldn’t be an Astro Bot update without new Special Bot cameo appearances, and now we know a few that players can discover. One is the protagonist of Sucker Punch’s upcoming Ghost of Yotei (which is receiving a special State of Play). The developer teased in a blog post that completing the new galaxy “might lead to something really cool,” so players will have to dive in and see what surprises are in store. Astro Bot just received its latest free update, adding five more levels and new bot cameos to Team Asobi’s Game of the Year-winning platformer.

Astro Bot Limited Edition Ps5 Dualsense Controller

All these power-ups combined with the varied level design make for a game that never runs short of ideas, and it’s brilliant. While the protagonist may seem plain in design compared to a mustached plumber or chilidog eating hedgehog, Astro is memorable in his own rights. I have said a lot of words, but none truly capture the emotions of curiosity and bliss felt while playing. Gameplay Programmer, Akira Ishii speaks on this better than I ever could. He explains, “This ASTRO BOT is a love letter to our game fans…We created this game with love, and we hope the love letter reaches everyone”.

How Many Bots Are There To Collect In Astro Bot?

The Playroom was comprised of a collection of mini games intended to demonstrate the PlayStation camera and DualShock 4. Although at the time, the bot we would one day be gushing over, looked slightly different. In the demo, a hoard of intentionally simple-looking designed bots would swarm and interact with the player in a very, “Gru commanding an army of Minions” kind a way. Astro Bot is filled to the brim with Easter Eggs, but there are also some secrets to find and special unlockables to earn for finding bots and puzzle pieces. Here’s what you can earn by collecting Astro Bot’s many collectibles, and the many, many easter eggs to look out for.

It doesn’t always deliver the bonkers creativity that drives the likes of Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey, but that’s hardly damning criticism when swings of that size are rarely taken outside of Nintendo’s walls. What developer Team Asobi has designed here, though, does successfully evoke the spirit of those great platformers by birthing novel stages full of visual flourish that never cross the line into becoming mere novelties. For 30 years, Sony has given us a vast library of top-quality PlayStation games, but there has never been a mascot platformer among them to rival the heights that Nintendo’s Mario regularly reaches. Packed with dozens of colourful levels and experimental abilities, Astro’s latest outing thrusts him onto centre stage, joined by a supporting cast of PlayStation’s past heroes to provide hours of pure joy.

However, some long-time players of platformers produced by Sony will be disappointed in Astro Bot’s current endgame offerings. Besides many of Astro Bot’s creative and exciting boss battles, nostalgia fuels much of Astro Bot’s most thrilling moments, especially with the few stages specifically themed after PlayStation’s most beloved properties. However, those experiences risk feeling hollow for those who haven’t played the games that Astro Bot seems desperate to reference.

Later updates introduced four Special Bots to Astro’s Playroom, who can be saved and transferred to Astro Bot. A release party also took place in-game, where Bots celebrated upon the game’s release. As for the is-it-fun thing, Astro Bot’s solution is even more winning. But what I really love about Astro Bot is that it’s also just filled with bits and pieces. Stuff to roll around in, stuff that forms little piles that can be kicked about.

Creativity can be two things you sort of understand combined in a way you didn’t expect. The gimmicks introduced in the game are reminiscent of Super Mario Odyssey’s level design, where stages have a central gimmick that you have to work around. These could range from dashes, magnets, extendable arms, or anything of the sort. While some of these are repeated, these same gimmicks are mixed with more interesting overall level designs to keep things fresh. Speaking of the use of DualSense, the game uses all of the controller’s features to the max.

This comparison is further drawn when you actually clash with the behemoth who starts throwing items in the player’s path, to prevent Astro from reaching him. It’s in this moment that if you realized where the inspiration for this fight came from, you will find yourself breathtakingly admiring just how far video games have come. Working in tandem with this are unique abilities specifically designed for each level, keeping each one feeling fresh. One standout being a Mouse power-up in a level titled Downsize Surprise. This ability sees Astro shrinking down to the size of a mouse and growing back to normal size at the command of a button.