One of the best games Sony has ever made

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Astro Bot is not just for kids. Team Asobi is clearly designed for players of all levels, even kids and beginners, but at its core, Astro Bot It feels like it was made for video game fans. The game is a skill-focused celebration of everything that makes the gaming form so memorable and fun, while also being a great introduction to the language of games. With precise and responsive controls, lovable characters, and an exciting variety of mechanics and environments, Astro Bot It’s definitely one of the best games Sony has ever made.

Astro Bot is technically the fifth installment in the Astro series, but it is the first fully-fledged (and fully-priced) entry in the series. Playroom (A collection of mini-games for PS4 from 2013) Playroom VR (PlayStation VR Jam 2016) Astro Bot Rescue Mission (A 2018 PS VR platform game that features only robots as protagonists) Astro’s Playroom (2020 DualSense demo preloaded on every PS5). Astro Bot has taken the ideas from these earlier works and boiled them down into a focused 3D platform game with dozens of main worlds, a ton of extra unlockable planets, and a wide range of satisfying mechanics – plus, a robot protagonist who’s super cute in any situation. Astro Bot Being recognizable from popular video games makes the whole thing even more appealing.

Players are on a mission to rescue all 300 of their robot friends after their spaceship, a supercharged PS5, is commandeered by aliens and scattered across six dangerous galaxies. Sitting atop a single DualSense, Astro must explore a total of 50 planets, punching and collecting other robots (in a friendly way, of course), then store them within the touchpad of the on-screen controller and launch everyone off to a safe world. At the same time, Astro is searching for lost parts of the PS5 spaceship, which are guarded by bosses from each galaxy.

The hub world, home to the spaceship and rescued robots, features a customization portal for DualSense and Astro, a Gacha machine with items to bring your robots to life, a Safari Zone where you can take photos with animals you find, and smaller regions where you solve additional puzzles for Astro and friends. Outside of the hub planet, the basic game loop is to collect coins, puzzle pieces, and robots by completing platform challenges and surviving enemies like Bowser, but new dangers and more tricky environments appear around every corner.

Many of the planets Astro lands on introduce new mechanics, such as spring-loaded boxing gloves like a frog’s face, an octopus that inflates Astro like a balloon, a mouse backpack that shrinks Astro at will, a penguin-propelled swimming booster, and a stopwatch that stops time for a short while. Levels are designed around these unique mechanics, and the variety on display is impressive, from a spooky castle filled with poisonous green ghosts and invisible platforms, to a deconstructed space station in a fascinating space setting, to an entire planet made of giant neon-lit casino props.

Even before he gets his cool new toys, Astro has the laser-propelled hover ability, allowing him to destroy enemies as he leaps over them. He also has a standard punch and a chargeable spin move. These three abilities, along with the gadget he’s got, make up Astro’s arsenal. This mechanical focus allowed Team Asobi to perfect each move and apply it in a thousand different ways, resulting in a challenging and robust platforming game. All the cuteness is just icing on the cake.

Astro Bot It’s not demanding, but it’s not easy either – many levels require patience, attention and advanced platforming skills, but resets are generous and failure doesn’t cost you anything except time – so completionists will have a lot of fun with this game. So many You have to find secret passages and hidden bots, most of which are well hidden and easy to miss unless you actively look for them. Astro Bot Also, because it offers a planet of platforming challenges with very responsive controls.

There are 300 bots to find, many of which are culled from the gaming world. Many of the branded bots come from outside of Sony, with big names like Capcom and Sega also well represented. A few of them definitely made my partner scream in excitement, but were adorable in their own right. Some of the more memorable levels are centered around popular Sony series like God of War, with Astro swinging Kratos’ axe on one planet. Team Asobi has dug into Sony’s vaults to go far beyond simple Crash Bandicoot. Callbacks, weird and wonderful games, and more LocoRoco and Bib Ribbon.

Now, let me really impress you. Astro Bot is beautiful. And not just cartoonishly beautiful: the landscapes are crisp and lifelike, with interactive detail galore throughout, and every pixel seems polished to perfection. But it’s the game’s physics that really bring it to life: When Astro lands on a giant, inflated daisy, the material flexes under his tiny feet, denting with every step, every sway, and the whole scene looks as if it’s being clenched in its lap.

When skating on a snowy stage, Astro picks up speed and changes direction instantly, and the DualSense responds with sounds and vibrations like a sharp knife slicing through thick ice. (As an aside, playing a whole game just about ice skating is fun… except… Astroglide) Piles of tactile objects like sprinkles, dice, skulls, and glass stars are scattered throughout the levels, and running through them is not only satisfying in an ASMR sense, but sometimes you’ll discover new secrets. When rain hits Astro’s transparent umbrella hat, the sound is perfectly reflected on the DualSense along with the feel of raindrops on your grip. Each stage has matching background music – some funky, some big band, some synthesizer-esque – always with a catchy hook. Astro BotThe sound effects, haptics, graphics and physics work perfectly together to transform any surface into a playground. It’s truly magical.

On the cuteness front, Astro reacts to his environment with adorable animations, shivering from cold, trembling from fear, or stomping his little metal feet in excitement, and his bot friends are similarly expressive. When Astro hits his head on an impassable ceiling, he does a very cute flinch; the bots turn around and wag their tails at Astro, just before he punches them into the DualSense. During the pause screen, you can flick all of your collected bots out of the digital controller, and they’ll flop around in the air before landing safely on the touchpad. Nearly all of the bots’ actions are endearing.

Astro Bot It emphasizes the importance of play. Super Mario Bros. For a new generation of video game enthusiasts, it’s both an introduction to common mechanics and a major challenge for seasoned players. Astro Bot Radiate joy. This is along with new titles such as LEGO Horizon AdventuresI’m excited to see what the future holds, if it signals a new, less rigid direction for Sony. But for now, I’m 100% Astro Bothe kept on laughing and cursing from start to finish.

Tip: Astro Bot has now joined the hallowed ranks of our favorite PS5 games guides. You can see all of our picks, which number 21 at the time of writing, here. .