For the previous few years, first-party Sony video games have been marked by their singular preoccupation with graphical constancy. Uncharted 4, The Final of Us Half 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, God of Battle, and Spider-Man — all good video games — are sure by their self-importance. Nevertheless, of their drive to realize near-realistic visuals –– that dour, dirty look –– they depart behind the throwback vibrant online game aesthetic, now discovered solely in Nintendo titles or indie video games.
And that is why Astro Bot is an anomaly. As a cute, vibrant, candy-like 3D platformer, it sits distinctly within the PlayStation catalogue of video games. There’s nothing fairly prefer it in Sony’s roster proper now; even Ratchet and Clank, with its shiny, new ray-tracing coat, wasn’t spared. And past the charms of its vigorous visible presentation, Astro Bot is an unbelievable and unmissable journey that leaves your coronary heart singing. Its childlike authenticity, plain earnestness, and endearing simplicity stand out amid glum, self-serious PlayStation exclusives that appear to be straining to be greater than only a online game.
And it is not a shock in any respect! Afterall, Crew Asobi delivered the identical expertise in a bite-sized package deal with Astro’s Playroom when the PS5 launched in 2020. From a cute mascot that served as a free-to-play tech demo for the DualSense controller, Astro has advanced right into a bonafide PlayStation icon with a fastidiously crafted and lovingly realised full-fledged sport. Sure, Astro Bot is mechanically a bit shallow — it doesn’t have as many shifting components as Tremendous Mario Odyssey. However the expertise it affords is in no way skinny — to see all its secrets and techniques and easter eggs and accumulate all bots, you would spend 15-20 hours hopping round its bouquet of planets. And it isn’t utterly missing a problem both; it is a easy journey, however there are ranges that can check your persistence and talent. Most significantly, in a glut of video games obsessive about wanting good, Astro Bot stands out with its obsession with being enjoyable.
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There’s a Saturday-morning cartoon-style story in Astro Bot that frames the galactic journey you go on. Astro and his bots are spacefaring on their mothership — the PS5 — earlier than his nemesis Nebulax assaults the merry crew and steals the CPU powering the console. The PS5 sputters and blows up, spitting out its core components throughout a number of galaxies. The lovable bots are bucked off the ship, too, which crash lands on a desert planet with Astro onboard. Our titular robotic hero then goes on an intergalactic journey, very a lot within the vein of Tremendous Mario Galaxy video games, to rescue his scattered crewmates and recuperate the misplaced components of the ship earlier than a ultimate confrontation with Nebulax.
With PS5 mothership out of fee, Astro will get a brand new journey –– the Twin Speeder, a smaller craft that is principally the DualSense controller. That is the place the sport primarily begins, with six galaxies and over 70 ranges unfold throughout distinctly themed planets ready to be explored. On the coronary heart of all of it is the crash web site, which turns into your house base. As you convey again stranded bots from different planets and repair up your PS5 by gathering its misplaced components, the desert blossoms into an oasis. Over time, Astro’s crewmates populate the crash web site and assist him craft new experiences and attain duties that had been beforehand locked away. The location additionally turns into a museum of PlayStation memorabilia as you rescue and produce again VIP bots based mostly on iconic online game characters.
The crash web site populates as you rescue extra bots
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
If the remainder of the sport represents the problem, the crash web site turns into a haven for leisure. Right here, you run round together with your bots, discover hidden trinkets and unlock prizes. As soon as you’ve got rescued sufficient bots, they’re going to show you how to repair up the location and attain beforehand inaccessible areas that convey extra issues to find. You may work together with VIP bots –– there are over 150 of them! –– simply go as much as them and smack ‘em within the head and a cute animation, particular to the sport the bot is from, performs out. My favorite was the bot representing the Hunter from Bloodborne. Once you attempt to hit him, he gun parries you!
The six different galaxies that encompass the crash web site include a set of uniquely crafted planets that every comply with a particular visible theme. One is made up of candies and confectionary; one other is a volcano planet, spitting hearth and ash. There are tropical ranges, with the solar shining and the ocean glistening; One planet is rendered in Minecraft-style pixel artwork graphics, and one other is a on line casino degree normal out of playing paraphernalia. There are, in fact, some ranges that really feel repurposed, with recurring property and repeating motifs, however sheer quantity of experiences on provide right here makes the occasional déjà vu planet forgivable.
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Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Some particular planets are normal out of different PlayStation franchises like God of Battle, Uncharted, and Horizon. Right here, Astro dons a singular avatar and acquires particular skills tied to these video games themselves. For example, within the God of Battle degree, cheekily dubbed “Bot of Battle”, Astro turns into a cute, robotic Kratos and takes up his Leviathan axe that he can throw and name again, like Thor’s hammer. And within the “Dude Raider” Uncharted degree, you develop into Nathan Drake and shoot your manner by way of an action-packed maze with ambushes ready at each nook. These worlds, that additionally home the lacking items of the PS5 ship, unlock after you beat the principle boss of the galaxy. They don’t seem to be an enormous departure from what you expertise on common planets by way of exploration, however the brand new skills convey a contemporary option to navigate the area.
The usual planets are stuffed with surprises, too. They conceal subterranean secrets and techniques, portals to altogether new ranges, and so they generally remodel utterly, unfolding into unseen areas hiding unabashed wonders –– like unwrapping a sweet and discovering two inside. In a single planet, that begins as a pleasing backyard area, you see an unassuming sapling, you water it, and a colossal tree burst out, its cover piercing the clouds and kissing the sky such as you’re in Jack and the Beanstalk. Now, the entire degree is performed out on the branches of the towering tree as you climb upwards and onwards in your rescue mission. These tips of transfiguration, the finer particulars inside ranges, and the surprises normal out of skinny air make Astro Bot really feel routinely magical, dedicated to beguile you at each flip.
BOY!
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Exploring each nook of those wonderous worlds is the true deal with of Astro Bot. In reality, exploration shouldn’t be one thing you do on the best way to your aim right here; exploration is the aim. Along with the gathering of bots that you have to rescue to progress the story, every degree hides non-compulsory puzzle items that unlock the present store and particular customisation choices for Astro and his Twin Speeder again on the crash web site. Some planets additionally include hidden gateways to secret ranges tucked away within the Misplaced Galaxy –– these planets are extra eclectic of their visible type and themes, embracing a extra vibrant, zany aesthetic.
There are over 300 bots and 120 puzzle items to seek out, and when you do not want all of them to complete the sport’s story, doing so is greater than well worth the effort. Astro Bot is, in essence, a museum of cool issues. And to see all its cool reveals, you have to indulge within the collectathon. And albeit, you do not have to pressure an excessive amount of to uncover each prize within the sport; it is not as rigorous an train as gathering all of the Energy Moons in Tremendous Mario Odyssey (imagine me, I’ve tried). Odyssey is way extra consuming, complicated and cavernous, its depths seemingly unplumbed. Astro Bot, alternatively, is comparatively easy. And whereas the simplicity is intentional and a part of the sport’s allure, I would not have minded a barely tougher expertise.
Astro and the Beanstalk
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
The identical plainness is present in Astro Bot’s gameplay –– the main focus is firmly on enjoyable, as a substitute of one thing layered and strong. Astro can bounce and hover, smack enemies, and execute a spin assault that additionally helps in exploration. Past his repertoire of ordinary strikes, it is the varied particular skills he acquires throughout ranges that add flavour to the gameplay. A few of these skills had been seen in Astro’s Playroom, however a bulk of them are ingeniously new. In a single planet, Astro picks up the flexibility to shrink right down to the dimensions of a mouse. And the second you try this, you start to see your complete degree from a very completely different perspective, discovering new methods to discover and interact with the identical area. In one other, he turns right into a sponge, absorbing water and spraying it out to forge new pathways. Some would possibly discover the gameplay right here rudimentary, however I did not thoughts it in any respect. In reality, the easy mechanics convey a leisure to Astro Bot that goes completely with what it is making an attempt to realize. It is a sport you sit again and luxuriate in, not lean in and tackle.
It could be remiss of me to not point out the sport’s glorious soundtrack and the character it provides to each degree. The music in Astro Bot would not simply underscore the expertise; it goes so far as to breathe life into your actions. And all of your actions develop into bodily and actual with the suggestions on the DualSense controller. Like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot utilises the haptics and resistive triggers on the PS5 controller to its fullest. The gentle rustle of strolling on fallen leaves, the sharp friction of steel on ice, the light thrum of your spaceship –– all of it performs out in your arms. It is delicate and by no means intrusive, and I want extra video games on PlayStation took the same method to designing controller suggestions.
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Driving the Twin Speeder comes with immersive controller suggestions
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
In case you take a look at a few of PlayStation’s current releases, you possibly can clearly see a swelling rut pervading the platform. A slate of pointless remakes and remasters, misfiring reside service bets, and a scarcity of tentpole exclusives have backed the PS5 in a little bit of a tough nook. 4 years on because the console launched, it appears like the present era has but to kick off. Perhaps 2025 will change that, however for now, Sony ought to look no additional than Astro Bot for inspiration.
Massive-budget triple-A titles, with eye-watering visuals and interminable growth cycles aren’t the one manner ahead. And smaller video games aren’t simply an choice, they’re a necessity. With Astro Bot, Crew Asobi has crafted probably the greatest 3D platformers since Tremendous Mario Odyssey. It is a sport that’s dedicated to being a sport, to being enjoyable and joyous and playful. It is exhausting to discover a extra vibrant title in PlayStation’s secure, and Sony should spend money on comparable smaller video games going ahead. As a result of proper now, it appears PS5 house owners are caught enjoying remakes and remasters whereas ready for the following God of Battle and the following Spider-Man. Sony is sitting on a number of beloved IPs of yore, and the PlayStation father or mother certainly should realise that individuals like all types of video games, not simply triple-A open-world, action-adventures. And Astro Bot resides proof of that.
Execs
- Enjoyable, participating gameplay
- Vibrant visuals
- Rewarding exploration
- Free-flowing degree design
- Glorious soundtrack
- Glorious DualSense suggestions
Cons
- Lack of a problem
- Gameplay lacks depth
Score (out of 10): 9
Astro Bot launched September 6 solely on PS5.
Pricing begins at Rs. 3,999 for the Normal Version on PlayStation Retailer for PS5.