Despite pre-loading its PS5 consoles with a surprisingly solid, free example of the genre in Astro’s Playroom, I’d honestly thought PlayStation’s days of goofy mascot 3D platformers were numbered as it chased big budget, cinematic blockbusters and shaky live service offerings. Looking at Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart as more of an “action-adventure,” there just hasn’t been anything on a PlayStation console that shows the same sense of rivalry as the company courting the likes of Crash and Spyro in the 90s to challenge Nintendo and Mario’s success.
That’s why it’s so exciting that Astro Bot, a full-blooded follow up to Playroom helmed by the same folks at Team ASOBI, so firmly lands as a worthy challenger to the portly plumber’s long-held domination.
Like all good 3D platformers, Astro Bot opens with the thinnest possible framing to the ensuing adventure. Blissfully sailing through space in the same PS5-shaped “Mothership” he inhabited in Playroom, Astro’s good times are abruptly upended when a huge, green alien named Nebulax yanks the ship’s core and sends its components and passengers flying across the cosmos. Thus begins a journey to rescue all of his Bot friends, as well as put the major components of the PS5 Mothership back in their rightful places – a journey that’ll take our intrepid little robo-hero across five distinct galaxies and dozens of joyfully unique “planets.”
In overall structure, Astro Bot is decidedly traditional to the platformer mission of giving players a steadily-growing choice of distinct and self-contained levels to play through, gating new ones behind collection goals (rescuing Bots, in this case) and the defeat of major bosses. And so, at least for the main levels, it’s a case of dropping into a stage and making your way to the exit while scooping up as many friends as possible along the way. It’s straightforward then, but the game’s more exciting qualities come in both the designs of the levels and the fact that more than half of the 300+ friends you’re rescuing are Bot versions of characters representing a huge history of PlayStation content, whether first-party franchises or otherwise important to the platform over the last three decades.
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Every single level feels absolutely unique, not just in visual theme or gameplay hook but often in their fundamental structure or pace and all are memorable enough that I could easily spend 1000s of words just gushing about each one individually. Plenty of them include nods to PlayStation characters you’ll find within, the stage where Shadow of the Colossus’ Wander can be found just happens to feature a climbable mid-boss encounter, for example, while Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us were fortunate enough to have crash-landed on a planet populated by dancing fungi. Even if you removed all of that though, ASOBI’s own ideas and designs are so wonderfully-realised and remarkable that they well and truly stand on their own and do far more to carry the game than its fandom bait.
The use of technology here, whether it’s the incredibly-impressive physics of environmental debris, destructible objects and liquid physics or the thorough implementation of the DualSense controller’s unique features, is more than just superficial, too. Asobi has put everything in its toolbelt to work to serve gameplay first and foremost, resulting in some truly innovative and delightful interactions, and like its best peers it never overuses any one idea and makes sure to evolve any that it does revisit over time. While Astro’s core moveset hasn’t changed much from Playroom, there are once again plenty of new gadgets for him to find and use through various DualSense interactions, though these are now much better integrated into standard gameplay rather than locked into specific sections, and much more fun overall.
Each galaxy also houses a major boss fight, some of which are reasonably challenging and all of which are visual spectacles with some great mechanics that build on earlier concepts in the regular levels, easily rivaling the best bosses in the business. All of these levels, and the game as a whole, strike a good balance between approachability and challenge, taking on the tried-and-true method of making sure that players of most skill levels should comfortably be able see the game through to its conclusion, while finding every last Bot and collectible and besting the impressive number of hidden/bonus levels will test even seasoned platformer fans – especially a final gauntlet opened to those whose who truly dedicate themselves to 100% completion.
It is worth noting that actual accessibility/approachability options are surprisingly thin for a PlayStation Studios title, at least compared to the likes of a God of War or The Last of Us, but there’s enough here to at least smooth out the experience in some small ways – like being able to switch motion controls to the left thumbstick or have the game automatically complete blow-into-the-controller mechanics when you’ve got the DualSense mic muted.
While the major bosses are all fantastic, the best part is what comes after – each world capped off by a special level designed entirely around a specific game and in which Astro transforms into the stars of those games, and the gameplay shifts to match. I won’t spoil these, but the first one in particular had me screaming as a massive fan of the long-dormant series. No doubt people will have similar reactions to the ones that come after, too, though they’re best kept a surprise. ASOBI has crammed these special stages with so many neat gameplay and visual tributes, genuinely hilarious gags and riffs on iconic moments that they’re definitively the highlight of the whole experience. If we could somehow get more of these as paid DLC, I’d happily indulge.
The fun and fan service doesn’t stop there, either. Your rescued Bot friends need somewhere to go while they await the Mothership’s repair, after all, and that happens to be the very crash site it now rests in. Here, you’re not only able to visit and interact with all of the special Bots you’ve found so far but also win them new props from a gacha machine and put them to work to help you access new areas, and unlock new facilities and features after collecting enough hidden puzzle pieces in levels.
I could literally spend hours here just walking around, inspecting all of the tiny, adorable details that ASOBI has put into each of them and snapping hundreds of screenshots (and to be fair, I’ve already done this). There’s plenty of obvious stuff here, like characters from The Last of Us, God of War, Crash Bandicoot and so on but also tons of deeper cuts that are sure to please PlayStation fans from every corner and era.
Naturally, much of my time putting words to page here has had me thinking about Astro Bot in comparison to the adventures of a certain overalled plumber, and I do think that sticking to a pretty standard format means this doesn’t quite feel as innovative and fresh as something like Super Mario Odyssey. I genuinely can’t recall a moment in the entire 12-13 hours it took for me to 100% complete the game and nab the platinum trophy, though, where I wasn’t grinning from ear-to-hear and having massive amounts of fun. From the second you hit that New Game option to the last lines of the credit roll, there’s simply no point in which you’re not doing something new and interesting, interacting with the world in some big or small way, often with no purpose but to delight in the immeasurable amount of glee and silliness stuffed into every inch.
It also helps that the game looks and sounds a treat. Playroom was already quite sharp for a launch freebie, but Astro Bot ramps the production values up considerably. Every level is absolutely dripping with detail, and ASOBI’s animation work is spectacular in giving it all a real energy that you just don’t normally get outside of Nintendo’s output. Being a PS5 exclusive, it’s also got the advantage of being razor shape and silky smooth while throwing in some astonishing material and effects work along with the aforementioned moments of stupidly fun physics interactions.
And while there’s no voice work to speak of, the audio side of things is just as impressive. Being a first-party PS5 title there’s naturally all manner of impressive audio work including plenty of added embellishment from the DualSense speaker, but easily the biggest success is the soundtrack from returning contributor Kenneth C. M. Young. There’s not one track that isn’t a bonafide bop, and those of us who were (rightfully) enamoured with the synthesised vocals peppered across the score in Astro’s Playroom are very well served here with some fantastic additions including a “secret level” theme punctuated by murmurs of the word “secret” or a giant tree that takes a moment to bust out some bars.
In other hands, this could easily have wound up just as creatively bankrupt as the concept of “game where your core mission is to fix a giant PS5 after it’s destroyed by a green alien” implies, but there’s so much wonderful originality and personality on display here that it never feels anything less than Asobi’s own fantastic creation – even when you’re crossing pits of flowing lava on top of loose DualSense thumbsticks.
