Everything constantly moves around you, imbuing every level with life beyond the scraps you’ll engage in with the game’s enemies. Each level’s theme is brought to life with aesthetic assets and design ideas that strengthen their themes. Stranded in space following an attack from a googly-eyed alien, Astro’s mission is to repair their ship and rescue all 300 pals scattered across five main clusters of planets, each composed of individual levels. Naturally, the story is not the focus here, and yet I was so immersed in the 15-hour game that I beat it in two long sittings. It may be 2024’s most immersive game, and it achieves that without a line of dialogue.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission
There are 200 cameo characters in Astro Bot, most of whom first appeared in iconic PlayStation franchises. Unlocking all of them can be incredibly difficult, but not half as challenging as trying to figure out which games and series all of the cameo bots are from. I read the review, not worried about spoilers in a platformer, and I’m wondering how many of the different one off play mechanics felt gimmicky? I really like platforming but going back to Playroom I really hate that climbing gyro mechanic, doesn’t feel fluid or natural at all. My wife and I enjoyed It Takes Two but some of the one off I was glad to get rid of. My kid on the other hand hated how you kept learning new stuff only for it to be dropped and never return again, just like this review, and I was getting this for them for their birthday.
Djinny Of The Lamp Secret Exit
The ball form in Astro Bot is sort of like the ball form in the Metroid series with Samus. Samus, unfortunately, is still vulnerable to attacks in her ball form, so in a one-on-one dual, Astro Bot will probably come out on top. There is another rolling device worth mentioning in passing via an Armadillo which appears mostly in bonus stages. Players can ride on it but this Armadillo is more of a vehicle than a power-up as it doesn’t strap onto Astro Bot and thus doesn’t give him invulnerability. TG88 are more difficult and aim to test jumping skills. And of course, each comes with a new Special Bot to rescue, too.
As a casual fan of platformers, Astro Bot blew me away and reminded me of the nostalgia and fun that is to be had with the genre. The last time to do this was Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey, which is a very high standard to beat or match in recent years. Needless to say, Astro Bot exceeded my expectations by being nearly perfect in almost every aspect of the 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.
The bots turn around and shake their booties at Astro right before he punches them into the DualSense. On the pause screen, you can flick all of your collected bots out of the digital controller and they flail in mid-air before landing safely back inside the touchpad. Even before picking up any cool new toys, Astro has a laser-propelled hover ability that lets him destroy enemies while jumping over them, plus a standard punch and a chargeable spin move. These three abilities, plus whatever tool he picks up, are the entirety of Astro’s arsenal. This mechanical focus allowed Team Asobi to perfect each move and then apply them all in a thousand different ways, and the result is a rewarding and robust platformer.
Final Encore Bot Locations
You can count the first-party PS5 games geared toward kids on one hand — and two of them are Astro Bot games. I feel like I’m always discovering something new in almost every level. Find out about Astro’s origins and learn how to draw your favorite bot from the playful hands of team Asobi artists.
The only other game I’ve seen that’s similarly willing to dispose of cool ideas like this is It Takes Two, and Astro Bot does it more often and with more enjoyable mechanics. There is both depth and breadth to most levels, and frequent checkpoints mean you’ll rarely be punished for exploration or missing a jump. Levels take only five to 10 minutes in most cases, but are overflowing with personality. Robot animals climb trees along the periphery or jump out of the ocean far beneath the levitating worlds you explore.
But maybe the PlayStation didn’t need an answer to Nintendo and Sega’s beloved mascots. Games were entering an era in which more realistic human characters like Cloud Strife, Solid Snake and Lara Croft were becoming the new industry icons. As this more mature stream of gaming culture evolved, cutesy mascot characters and the 3D platformers they called home became less and less common. When Microsoft entered the industry with the Xbox in 2001, Halo’s Master Chief instantly shaped the console’s image.
I was sunder the impression that Astro’s Playroom especially blew their minds to people who never played the actual VR game. Now bring back Jak and Daxter, Sly Raccoon and Ape Escape please. A good game is a good game yes, but a game that may appeal to one person will not appeal to another. However reviews and scores you would think would then be balanced.
Time trials and secret areas that unlock after collecting enough hidden materials can provide many more hours of entertainment, especially if time trial modes exist for friends to compete against one another. While there are hidden levels to discover in Astro Bot, after those are completed, there is little incentive to revisit previously conquered stages. This means that after the thrill of the game’s nostalgic moments wears off, there is not much reason to play after its 15 hours are up. [newline]Finding each of these characters is a constant highlight of Astro Bot.
It will also be interesting to see what kind of new experiences Team Asobi can deliver with its deep knowledge of the DualSense controller. By paying respect to PlayStation’s heritage in new interactive ways, Astro Bot also seems like the perfect game to mark PlayStation’s 30th anniversary. The result was Astro’s Playroom, a 3D platformer that was, once again, released as a free game designed to showcase a new piece of hardware.
