Astro Bot Very Good – Review – WGB

Nintendo is the undeniable king of mascot platformers, having dominated the genre for years with a red plumber whose penchant for mushrooms is best ignored. Over the years, other games have come close to matching Nintendo’s icon, but the likes of Xbox and PlayStation were reluctant to let Mario take the crown. But then the PS5 launched, and with it came Astro Bot’s Playroom, an endlessly charming freebie that captured people’s attention with its clever use of Dualsense and nostalgic PlayStation vibes. But at its core it was a hell of a platformer, and a few years later Astro Bot would star in a 3D platformer that might rival Tiny Plumber.

Part of the fun is how cool it is to play a big-budget triple-A platformer that isn’t severely limited by rudimentary hardware. There are some amazing indie platformers out there that rival the best of them in terms of gameplay and overall atmosphere, but Astro Bot is the whole package: it’s a great platformer with a massive hardware budget to back it up, making it Make a splash. It has the magic of a Nintendo and a dazzling PlayStation. Mario and Kratos’ physical swagger.

One thing that Astro Bot hasn’t lost since its last appearance is its strong attachment to the PlayStation brand. Part of me worries that Asobi and Sony are too focused on tying Astro Bot to the PlayStation, I hope that in his next adventure, Astro Bot can stand on his own two cute little feet again. This is a concern for the future, though, so we’ll put that aside for now.

We’re immediately greeted by Astro and hundreds of his friends, who are cruising around the galaxy in their mothership (which happens to be a PS5) when the Space Bully Nebulax stops by Looking for a fight. He stole the mothership’s processor, causing the PS5 to crash-land on a nearby planet. Astro Bot needs to rescue 300 of his missing comrades (most of them dressed as classic PlayStation characters) and find the loose parts needed to repair the PS5 so they can hunt down the space bully Nebula and beat up his aliens people.

So much of the story. Like most classic 3D platformers, Astro Bot doesn’t spend too much time on the narrative, as it wants you to dive right in and enjoy exploring dozens of small levels spread across multiple galaxies. What started out as a simple premise led me to about 10 hours of some of the best platforming and adventure I’ve ever had with robots. Just when you think you’ve figured out everything the game has to offer, it turns up another great boss fight or cool set piece, or you discover another cute little detail.

If you’ve played Astro’s Playroom, you’ll be immediately familiar with the available movement options: simple jumping, laser-powered gliding, and two types of attacks. In fact, one of the few criticisms I have about Astro Bot is its limited moveset, especially when compared again to the Mario series. Although Astro’s moveset is simple, it’s fun to use thanks to its precise, responsive controls. It’s almost indescribable – you have to hold the controller and move Astro Bot’s astro butt to appreciate the crisp controls.

The result is a game that’s really good at getting you into that magical zen-like flow. The way the levels are designed and the sharp controls make it easy to stay motivated, reading so quickly where you need to go and what you need to do that your brain can switch off and just go with the flow. It’s a magical feeling that only a few games can achieve.

Of course, it also helps that Astro Bot is so charming on every imaginable level. You can find it in everything, from the cute enemy designs to the catchy, energetic music that I still find myself humming under my breath. At one point, I jumped on a cow (every creature is a robot of some kind) and discovered a custom animation in which Astro Bot rode the cow and then hugged it. Plenty of little details like this help bring the game to life, and the Asobi team poured their love and passion into Astro’s journey in countless small ways. Just when I think I’ve seen everything the game has to offer, it gives me a magical level about a musical tree or saving a giant starfish. Team Asobi’s imagination and appetite for entertainment seems to have no end.

When it comes to bringing games to life, Team Asobi are undoubtedly the kings of getting the most out of their Dualsense controllers. Each level begins with gliding on a custom Dualsense controller, using gyro controls to land carefully (or not so carefully). As Astro jogs along the metal, you can feel the gentle patter of his feet and the steady drumbeat of raindrops hitting his little umbrella. Yes, these details are subtle, but they also help immerse you in the world. I can’t help but wish more companies would take advantage of Dualsense’s features, although I guess I can understand why they don’t – it takes a lot of development time and money to invest in something that most people probably don’t care about.

Astro’s moves are enhanced by power-ups in the form of a variety of adorable animals that jump on his back and ride around. Where Mario games choose to scatter multiple power-ups around, Team Asobi prefers each level to have one power-up so that the entire area can be built around it. There are some absolutely explosive power-ups here, but let’s talk about a few of them – my favorite is probably Freeze, because of how you jump over speeding obstacles to reach a platform, and make it to the other side in the nick of time. There’s also a magical ability to shrink Astro Bot, which is used in some fantastic sequences. oh! There’s also one that lets you absorb water like a giant robot sponge! This really cool chicken will send you flying upwards like a rocket! And… there’s another one that builds platforms in mid-air! And…yeah, you get it.

Collecting the 300 little robots scattered throughout the levels is a major attraction. Many of them are generic Astro droids, but a large number of them cosplay classic PlayStation characters or reference other games. You can collect Nathan Drake, Lara Croft, Dante, a bunch of monkeys from War for the Planet of the Apes, Kratos, and more. Basically, it’s PlayStation Pokemon.

Collecting the little robots scattered throughout the levels like gifts is fun in itself, but the game does it better by sending them back to the crash site. You’ll be greeted by every robot you find whenever you come back, and they’ll all gather together to cheerfully welcome you back, before they scurry off to hang out and have fun while waiting for you to visit them. It’s like being welcomed home to 300 dogs who adore you! They also serve a practical purpose – they form ropes and bridges that help you reach new areas of the crash site, but that’s secondary to the larger purpose they serve: they’re just fun. It’s cool to see them all hanging out, and you can spend coins on the gacha machine to unlock items for them.

However, there’s a strange undercurrent to collecting all these pieces of PlayStation history that most people probably don’t even think about. You see, a large portion of the missing bots represent IPs and games that you can’t even play on PlayStation today. For that matter, only one of the current IPs requires a PS5 to play. The rest are playable on PS4 or elsewhere. None of this really affects your enjoyment of a top-notch platformer, but I found it to be a lot of fun nonetheless. It explores PlayStation’s past and celebrates the many games that made the brand successful, but it also highlights how unnecessary the PS5 can sometimes feel. While this is a celebration of the company’s history, it’s not a celebration of PlayStation.

Each small galaxy level has a special themed area, with Astro Bots dressed in PlayStation icon costumes that inherit their spell abilities. The first is Ape Escape, where Astro Bot runs around wielding a classic web to catch pesky apes hiding in the bushes and running around. In another level, you play as Astro Kratos, armed with a throwing ax and a remix of the God of War theme music. Of course, these levels are one of the highlights of the game, so it’s a shame there are so few of them. I would have liked more titles like this covering a wider range of PlayStation IP, but I guess the Asobi team has to save something for the future. And, maybe, if they focus too much on Astro Bot’s costume, it will take the spotlight away from the little robot.

The boss fights at the end of each galaxy are another highlight in an already excellent game. Some people have complained about Team Asobi reusing bosses from the Astro Bot games, and that’s true – however, the actual combat mechanics are completely different. I actually found it really cool to see the bosses return. After all, if Mario can fight Bowser for the millionth time, why can’t Astro Bot take on some returning enemies? Like the rest of the game, the boss fights are pretty simple (aside from a few slightly tricky optional levels, this isn’t a game that challenges you), but very fun.

I think Astro Bot can be summed up in one word. Well, two words, but only because I’m a bit of a dork: Fucking delightful. What a delight. It’s so refreshing. Very fun to play. It looks very pleasant. man, It’s really delightful.

While Astro’s past ventures into VR and the tech demos on PS5 have been great in their own right, Astro Bot proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this mechanical marvel can not only star in his own triple-A full-priced blockbuster game, but if He could also become PlayStation’s new mascot if the company is interested. While he may not be as popular as PlayStation’s more serious characters, he has family appeal that the brand doesn’t have.

Astro Bot has everything you want in a 3D platformer; crisp controls, gorgeous visuals, great level design, fun power-ups, and tons of charm. Mario has competition, and unlike the Plumber, this hero doesn’t need mushrooms to have fun.