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 circumstances to be well-earned, however Astro Bot is a reminder of one other facet to the PlayStation DNA. Not solely does it really feel like a revitalization of an necessary 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. Group Asobi’s Astro Bot shortly, constantly, 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 unbelievable ambition is matched by its good execution.
Stranded in house following an assault from a googly-eyed alien, Astro’s mission is to restore their ship and rescue all 300 buddies scattered throughout 5 important clusters of planets, every composed of particular person ranges. Naturally, the story will not be 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 an alternative, every degree tells a narrative, clear as day, about the place you must go subsequent and what it is best to do there.
There’s each depth and breadth to most ranges, and frequent checkpoints imply you will hardly ever be punished for exploration or lacking a leap. Ranges take solely 5 to 10 minutes typically, however are overflowing with character. Robotic animals climb timber alongside the periphery or leap out of the ocean far beneath the levitating worlds you discover. The whole lot always strikes round you, imbuing each degree with life past the scraps you will interact 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 by which Astro can take in water to grow to be one thing like a large squishy kaiju, you will merely plow over enemies the robotic would in any other case must be cautious of, topple bamboo partitions as the bottom shakes round you, and soak in sizzling springs, all whereas string music evokes the nation’s signature sounds.
In one other that sees Astro shrink to the scale 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 in the end ending with an ascent to an excellent mountaintop a la Journey. Some ranges even drastically change the artwork fashion, as seen in a sequence 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 one way or the other solely used as soon as or little or no, like a on line casino degree with vivid multicolored lights and betting chips floating by way of the sky, or a degree meant to appear to be a child-friendly haunted graveyard and close by citadel, 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 we have now for you,” earlier than the following degree wipes the slate and begins anew with yet one more never-before-seen aesthetic. I have never seen a platformer marathon by way of so many various, whimsical, and blatantly cool concepts like this earlier than.
My favourite side of the sport is the way it appears to learn my thoughts. Each time I might divert off the principle path in quest of a secret or reward, I’d discover one. Group Asobi understands its level-design ideas so nicely that it might probably 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 study it is arrived. “Can I climb this crane?” I might marvel to myself. Sure, I can, and for scaling it to the very high I might discover cash to spend on cosmetics. “What if I peek over this ledge?” There is a hidden cave beneath, hiding one other puzzle piece used to open retailers within the recreation’s hub world. Each time I might marvel if my instinct was main me to one thing invaluable, I might discover I used to be proper.
In tandem with professional degree design are the sport’s numerous and thrilling mechanics. Initially of practically each degree, Astro jumps right into a go well with or straps on a backpack of some sort that provides them a brand new capability. 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 practically each case, they’re a powerful success.
Whereas some skills are extra enjoyable than others, they practically all work seamlessly. As Astro, you will strap on the power and intuitively perceive it. You sense its limitations and use circumstances 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 remaining boss and credit sequence that may certainly go down as one among 2024’s greatest online game moments.
Even inside a degree, a capability is utilized in a number of totally different and inventive 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 could drill down on a key function or small set of options, Astro Bot shows confidence by usually disposing of thrilling new instruments shortly after introducing them. It expresses iteration in cycles of 5 minutes every, somewhat 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 eliminate cool concepts like that is It Takes Two, and Astro Bot does it extra usually and with extra pleasing mechanics.
Like every wonderful platformer, Astro Bot’s motion feels responsive and reliable. Regardless of the sport constantly supplying you with new methods to traverse its puzzling pathways, you will virtually all the time really feel like you’ve a very good grip on clearing gaps, timing assaults on enemies, and dodging bosses with experience. The digicam precipitated a number of uncommon cases of what felt like promoting me out, however the recreation’s checkpoints are so quite a few and the load instances are nearly non-existent, such that this by no means grew to become a ache level for me.
The one capability that does not work as cleanly as others is the one utilized in an underwater degree. Meant to imitate a dolphin-like dive capability, 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 tough, albeit not precisely tough, to gather all of the secrets and techniques. A number of of them demanded a deft diving capability the backpack is supposed to supply, however it does 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 number of the recreation’s hardest–also use this mechanic, I anticipate them to grow to be a number of the recreation’s few frustrations.
Within the few cases 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 facet forwards and backwards everytime you press a button, permitting Astro to unravel puzzles and attain the tip. 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 exhibiting off at instances, however by no means in a means that pats itself on its again. It is ceaselessly cute and intelligent, and feels extra like somewhat child delighted to point out 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 gentle clip everytime you inch nearer to sprucing off every galaxy’s to-do checklist. One of the best 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 sequence intently tied to PlayStation’s previous, corresponding to Tomb Raider, Persona, and even basic and up to date indies like Journey, Stray, and Humanity.
Every bot you discover returns to the (largely) protected zone, the Crash Web site, which acts like a hub world you possibly can discover and beautify. 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 attempting to restore is only a large 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 in the end, it is fantastic.
Spending cash within the recreation’s store unlocks dioramas, ship paints, and costumes for Astro, even some based mostly on sudden sequence corresponding to Bloodborne and Gravity Rush. The dioramas are particularly enjoyable, as they flip all of your collected bots into animated statues, like one which reveals Nathan Drake taking part in a recreation known as Dude Raider on his sofa. Even probably the most severe of characters are changed into caricatures, like a scene you possibly can create by which The Final of Us’ Joel goes to throw a brick, however it slips out of his hand and bonks him on the top. 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 in quest of the sport’s bountiful secrets and techniques. Among the finest mechanics–which I very a lot hope turns into normal within the style shifting forward–is a robotic hen companion who can be part of you in any degree you determine to replay. The hen pings for collectibles and leads you proper to the remaining bots, secret Void ranges, and puzzle items you’ve got not but discovered. This makes taking part in 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 anticipate 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 gives.
It appears odd to say I do not need to spoil a recreation that successfully has no story, however a number of the recreation’s greatest secrets and techniques actually should be found with your personal eyes. To speak round Astro Bot’s most entertaining of those surprises, I will point out that it’ll sometimes rethink its mechanics as an entire, practically swapping genres at instances, in ways in which pay homage to PlayStation’s illustrious previous. These particular ranges arrive towards the tip of every galaxy’s important mission path and bestow to you a bundle of themed bots in addition to yet 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 vivid concepts, sparking virtually limitless pleasure.
Astro Bot can also be meant to be a DualSense showcase, and it actually does rather a lot there, although I proceed to really feel just like the controller’s most passionate followers are inside the firm itself. I do not thoughts the DualSense, however I do not really feel like a lot could 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 function extra nuanced than what different controllers present, can also be easier than the entire 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, corresponding to utilizing the middle touchpad to unzip some blockades. As an alternative, that is executed with the joystick, suggesting Group Asobi discovered it greatest to maintain gamers’ fingers 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 number of the recreation’s hardest ranges, which is able to possible 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 break 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’s kind of of a letdown that a number of the recreation’s youthful followers could possible by no means discover the entire must-have bots to convey again to their hub world. On this means, Astro Bot gates a small however not insignificant portion of its greatest materials behind a talent examine that a few of its viewers will not cross.
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The sport additionally crashed on me twice, each instances erasing extra progress than I might have anticipated since I assumed it auto-saves after every degree, however I might misplaced about three or 4 ranges of progress in each cases. 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 possibly it was a difficulty Group Asobi will handle. Nonetheless, the onerous crash backpedaling on my saved information 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 advised by its title, is that even gamers returning for his or her third Astro journey will discover hours upon hours of recent experiences, collectively and magnificently offered as a parade of joyous sights, sounds, and adventures. This can be a grand re-opening for Astro Bot, and it certainly marks the beginning of what’s destined to be a beloved sequence taking pictures for the moon.