For a number of console life cycles, PlayStation has fostered a model constructed on gritty anti-heroes, fantastical worlds at battle with themselves, and a trope colloquially known as „unhappy dads.“ I like most of these video games and discover the reward they obtain in lots of instances to be well-earned, however Astro Bot is a reminder of one other aspect to the PlayStation DNA. Not solely does it really feel like a revitalization of an vital a part of the model, however it additionally seems like a highlight shifting to a personality who has been lurking within the background, beforehand unable to see over the hulking Kratos, the war-ready Aloy, or the tortured Joel. Workforce Asobi’s Astro Bot shortly, persistently, and joyously launches its titular hero into the pantheon of all-time greats, each in its first-party household and style, with a platformer whose unimaginable ambition is matched by its good execution.
Stranded in area following an assault from a googly-eyed alien, Astro’s mission is to restore their ship and rescue all 300 friends scattered throughout 5 primary clusters of planets, every composed of particular person ranges. Naturally, the story is just not the main target right here, and but I used to be so immersed within the 15-hour recreation that I beat it in two lengthy sittings. It might be 2024’s most immersive recreation, and it achieves that with out a line of dialogue. As a substitute, every degree tells a narrative, clear as day, about the place you should go subsequent and what it is best to do there.
There may be each depth and breadth to most ranges, and frequent checkpoints imply you will not often be punished for exploration or lacking a soar. Ranges take solely 5 to 10 minutes normally, however are overflowing with character. Robotic animals climb bushes alongside the periphery or soar out of the ocean far beneath the levitating worlds you discover. Every part always strikes round you, imbuing each degree with life past the scraps you will have interaction in with the sport’s enemies. Every degree’s theme is delivered to life with aesthetic belongings and design concepts that strengthen their themes. Throughout a Japan-themed degree during which Astro can absorb water to turn out to be one thing like an enormous squishy kaiju, you will merely plow over enemies the robotic would in any other case have to be cautious of, topple bamboo partitions as the bottom shakes round you, and soak in scorching springs, all whereas string music evokes the nation’s signature sounds.
In one other that sees Astro shrink to the dimensions of a mouse, the miniature world reveals new woodsy and backyard-like surroundings that regular-sized Astro could not attain. Due to the sport’s Smash Bros-like method of bringing in dozens of acquainted faces, some ranges purposely evoke a number of video games without delay, like a desert degree that’s titled like and begins off like a Prince of Persia reference earlier than finally ending with an ascent to a wonderful mountaintop a la Journey. Some ranges even drastically change the artwork fashion, as seen in a collection of voxel-art ranges I used to be glad to find every time, or some others I dare not spoil.
Quite a few dazzling aesthetics in Astro Bot are by some means solely used as soon as or little or no, like a on line casino degree with shiny multicolored lights and betting chips floating via the sky, or a degree meant to appear like a child-friendly haunted graveyard and close by fortress, which is amongst my favorites in the entire recreation but–again–somehow is featured simply as soon as. These belongings certainly take many human hours to make, and once more, Astro Bot presents them with the arrogance to wordlessly recommend, „Yeah, we all know these rule, however look what else now we have for you,“ earlier than the subsequent degree wipes the slate and begins anew with one more never-before-seen aesthetic. I have never seen a platformer marathon via so many assorted, whimsical, and blatantly cool concepts like this earlier than.
My favourite facet of the sport is the way it appears to learn my thoughts. Each time I would divert off the primary path searching for a secret or reward, I might discover one. Workforce Asobi understands its level-design ideas so effectively that it could actually reliably predict the place and when gamers will get sidetracked, and it ensures there’s all the time one thing ready there for them, like a shock present within the mail whose sender cannot wait to be taught it is arrived. „Can I climb this crane?“ I would marvel to myself. Sure, I can, and for scaling it to the very high I would discover cash to spend on cosmetics. „What if I peek over this ledge?“ There is a hidden cave under, hiding one other puzzle piece used to open outlets within the recreation’s hub world. Each time I would marvel if my instinct was main me to one thing precious, I would discover I used to be proper.
In tandem with professional degree design are the sport’s numerous and thrilling mechanics. At first of almost each degree, Astro jumps right into a go well with or straps on a backpack of some type that provides them a brand new potential. In a single degree, it is spring-powered boxing gloves resembling cartoon frogs. In one other, it is a robo-dog that provides the bipedal bot a wall-smashing rocket increase, or in one other, a time-freezing instrument that enables Astro to scale in any other case impossibly fast-moving sections. Throughout the sport’s dozens of ranges, you will see many skills like these, and in almost each case, they’re a convincing success.
Whereas some skills are extra enjoyable than others, they almost all work seamlessly. As Astro, you will strap on the power and intuitively perceive it. You sense its limitations and use instances instantly, and although the sport disposes of skills at an unusual tempo, many will resurface later in a brand new setting or be used to defeat the sport’s enjoyable bosses–including a last boss and credit sequence that can certainly go down as certainly one of 2024’s greatest online game moments.
Even inside a degree, a capability is utilized in a number of completely different and artistic methods, however all the time stemming from its singular mechanic featured in that degree. It ramps up the platforming and fight sequences by way of an approachable however difficult incline and chains these little moments collectively in such a means that there is by no means a lull in any degree. Whereas many platformers might drill down on a key characteristic or small set of options, Astro Bot shows confidence by typically disposing of thrilling new instruments shortly after introducing them. It expresses iteration in cycles of 5 minutes every, fairly than iterating on one concept for 5 or extra hours, which I discover each refreshing and daring. The one different recreation I’ve seen that is equally prepared to get rid of cool concepts like that is It Takes Two, and Astro Bot does it extra typically and with extra gratifying mechanics.
Like several wonderful platformer, Astro Bot’s motion feels responsive and reliable. Regardless of the sport persistently supplying you with new methods to traverse its puzzling pathways, you will virtually all the time really feel like you might have a very good grip on clearing gaps, timing assaults on enemies, and dodging bosses with experience. The digital camera induced just a few uncommon situations of what felt like promoting me out, however the recreation’s checkpoints are so quite a few and the load occasions are nearly non-existent, such that this by no means turned a ache level for me.
The one potential that does not work as cleanly as others is the one utilized in an underwater degree. Meant to imitate a dolphin-like dive potential, the controls used for this one by no means really feel as intuitive as these for different skills. On this degree, I discovered it unusually difficult, albeit not precisely tough, to gather all of the secrets and techniques. A number of of them demanded a deft diving potential the backpack is supposed to supply, however it would not have the identical accuracy of different skills within the recreation, which led me to whiff on some sections in a means that was distinctive to this degree. It was manageable, but when any secret levels–which are usually a few of the recreation’s hardest–also use this mechanic, I count on them to turn out to be a few of the recreation’s few frustrations.
Within the few situations the place the hero is not sporting a capability, the sport nonetheless finds methods to reinvent itself. A mid-game degree that evokes the kid-friendly vibes of a preschool presents a intelligent day-and-night-switching mechanic that tosses the world on its aspect forwards and backwards everytime you press a button, permitting Astro to unravel puzzles and attain the top. However as soon as that superior degree was completed, I by no means noticed the mechanic used once more. Astro Bot feels prefer it’s displaying off at occasions, however by no means in a means that pats itself on its again. It is ceaselessly cute and intelligent, and feels extra like just a little child delighted to indicate you their toy assortment than a braggart displaying their trophies.
Every galaxy you arrive in homes a number of secrets and techniques to uncover within the overworld, and even ranges themselves have hidden bonus phases. This recreation’s secrets and techniques have secrets and techniques, with extra hidden ranges being revealed at a gradual clip everytime you inch nearer to sharpening off every galaxy’s to-do listing. The most effective of these secrets and techniques are the hidden bots themselves. There are 300 in complete, although you solely want 200 to face the ultimate boss, and over half of them are dressed up as iconic characters from online game historical past. Many of those are first-party heroes, like Ellie and a Gran Turismo racer, however many others are cameos of characters from collection intently tied to PlayStation’s previous, equivalent to Tomb Raider, Persona, and even traditional and modern indies like Journey, Stray, and Humanity.
Every bot you discover returns to the (largely) protected zone, the Crash Website, which acts like a hub world you may discover and embellish. Right here, the sport carries ahead the identical PlayStation Museum vibe seen in Astro’s Playroom, albeit to a lesser extent. You will not discover previous PlayStation consoles, however the mothership you are making an attempt to restore is only a big PS5, and the spaceship you employ to discover the overworld is a DualSense controller with wings. It feels a bit like that meme of Obama awarding Obama a medal, however it’s not distracting, so finally, it is nice.
Spending cash within the recreation’s store unlocks dioramas, ship paints, and costumes for Astro, even some based mostly on sudden collection equivalent to Bloodborne and Gravity Rush. The dioramas are particularly enjoyable, as they flip all of your collected bots into animated statues, like one which exhibits Nathan Drake enjoying a recreation referred to as Dude Raider on his sofa. Even essentially the most critical of characters are changed into caricatures, like a scene you may create during which The Final of Us‘ Joel goes to throw a brick, however it slips out of his hand and bonks him on the pinnacle. The entire 169 cameo bots fill within the would-be barren desert sands like a digital shelf of Funko Pops.
Discovering every of those characters is a continuing spotlight of Astro Bot. Some are positioned proper in entrance of you, however most require the aforementioned curiosity to drag you off the crushed path searching for the sport’s bountiful secrets and techniques. Probably the greatest mechanics–which I very a lot hope turns into normal within the style transferring forward–is a robotic chicken companion who can be a part of you in any degree you resolve to replay. The chicken pings for collectibles and leads you proper to the remaining bots, secret Void ranges, and puzzle items you have not but discovered. This makes enjoying the sport to 100% completion a pleasure and by no means a grind. I’ve by no means cared about PlayStation Trophies earlier than, however I count on to unlock all of them in Astro Bot, if solely by the way as a result of I need to see and do every part this recreation affords.
It appears odd to say I do not need to spoil a recreation that successfully has no story, however a few of the recreation’s greatest secrets and techniques actually have to be found with your individual eyes. To speak round Astro Bot’s most entertaining of those surprises, I will point out that it’ll sometimes rethink its mechanics as a complete, almost swapping genres at occasions, in ways in which pay homage to PlayStation’s illustrious previous. These particular ranges arrive towards the top of every galaxy’s primary mission path and bestow to you a bundle of themed bots in addition to one more cool new mechanic to not be seen ever once more within the recreation. Its soundtrack–already an array of bubbly earworms–reimagines acquainted overtures from different video games. In doing all of this for these most-special one-offs, the promise of its world comes into full view. Astro Bot swarms the participant with shiny concepts, sparking virtually infinite pleasure.
Astro Bot can be meant to be a DualSense showcase, and it actually does lots there, although I proceed to really feel just like the controller’s most passionate followers are throughout the firm itself. I do not thoughts the DualSense, however I do not really feel like a lot can be misplaced if I performed the sport with out options like secondary noises popping out of my controller, blowing air into it to propel a fan, or utilizing the gyroscopic movement controls to bodily restore the ship every time I completed a galaxy and located one other elusive ship half.
Its greatest attribute, a rumble characteristic extra nuanced than what different controllers present, can be easier than all the DualSense’s high-end skills that generally come off as gimmicky. Astro Bot additionally did away with a few of them from Astro’s Playroom, equivalent to utilizing the middle touchpad to unzip some blockades. As a substitute, that is finished with the joystick, suggesting Workforce Asobi discovered it greatest to maintain gamers‘ palms off the considerably clunky touchpad this time round.
Past the underwater degree that does not shine the best way others do, my solely different frustrations with Astro Bot come within the type of a few of the recreation’s hardest ranges, which is able to seemingly be too tough for youthful or less-experienced gamers. Usually, these ranges are as temporary as 30 seconds, however they require perfection and provides the sport a style of trial-and-error it in any other case consciously rejects.
I perceive the sport is cut up into tiers, permitting most anybody to have the ability to beat the bottom recreation earlier than the diehards go the additional mile, however since a number of cameo characters are locked behind these ultra-hard mini-levels, it is a bit of a letdown that a few of the recreation’s youthful followers might seemingly by no means discover all the must-have bots to deliver again to their hub world. On this means, Astro Bot gates a small however not insignificant portion of its greatest materials behind a talent test that a few of its viewers will not go.
The sport additionally crashed on me twice, each occasions erasing extra progress than I would have anticipated since I assumed it auto-saves after every degree, however I would misplaced about three or 4 ranges of progress in each situations. Nevertheless, I admit these crashes got here on the finish of my lengthy 11-hour session with the sport on my first day with it, so perhaps it was a difficulty Workforce Asobi will tackle. Nonetheless, the arduous crash backpedaling on my saved knowledge was unusual and considerably soured what was a marathon of smiles for about 10 hours of that day.
The merely titled Astro Bot is supposed to be the lovable robotic’s first important foray into video video games following a 2018 VR unique that earned reward however was caught in its headset-only bubble, and a 2020 pack-in tech demo that hinted at extra to come back. The fantastic thing about the sport, as steered by its title, is that even gamers returning for his or her third Astro journey will discover hours upon hours of latest experiences, collectively and magnificently introduced as a parade of joyous sights, sounds, and adventures. It is a grand re-opening for Astro Bot, and it certainly marks the beginning of what’s destined to be a beloved collection taking pictures for the moon.