Astro Bot Review – Rediscovering The Power Of Play

For those who have been gaming for years, have you ever stop to recall the moment you fallen in love with the hobby? What’s your first game? How did you get your hands on it? How was that experience? What got you hooked?

For me, it was a mix of platformers (the original Spyro The Dragon rules) and point-and-click adventures (Humougous Games’ library of edutainment titles also rules). What really drawn me into games was the ability to interact with a virtual world, and see it react to my actions. Clicking on random stuff on and see silly things happen. Trying to jump and hit something that seemingly out of reach only to find a secret. Getting lost and immersed into a wonderful, imaginative world.

That, to me is the power of play, something only video games as a content medium can provide. It invites you into their world and play in them. In fact, “Live in your world, play in ours” is a marketing tagline Sony used during the heydays of the PlayStation 2.

I’m old now. Games don’t feel as magical as they used to do- not because games are dying, no. It’s because I’ve played so much that the same magic tricks just don’t bring me the same joy as I was a twinkle-eyed boy used to. Graphics got more real, games are bigger in scale, but today’s AAA blockbuster hits just don’t hit that playful joy of games from simpler times.

And that’s where Astro Bot comes in. Astro Bot first appeared in an app for the PS4’s webcam. And then it had a VR game. And then it had a short pack-in game free for all PS5 consoles. And 10 years since their debut, Astro Bot finally has a mainline game. And it’s a mascot platformer harkening back to games from simpler times.

And it’s the most fun I had from a video game this year so far.

Presentation

In my previous hands-on time with Astro Bot, I remarked that the game isn’t a graphical powerhouse. I stand corrected and have been proven wrong.

The more I looked at the game the more impressive it appears. Despite its cutesy art style and smaller scope in its worlds (it’s not an open world game), it is just packed in with so, so many little details that leaves me in awe.

Astro Bot really is flexing the power of the PS5 (the fans have kicked into full speed on a couple of ocassions while I was playing- I’m not kidding). There is a riduclous amount of physics objects just scattering around the levels for just as clutter. Sometimes it has a gameplay gimmick (there’s something hidden under this waterfall of falling crystals, ooh). Sometimes it’s just there for you to have fun smacking and kicking it all about just to see all that trash fly around.

And Astro Bot’s not done there, there’s also fluid physics where you can see liquids sputter and obey the laws of gravity, as well combine and seperate with each other. And there’s cloth physics that bends and stretch just as you would see a rag would. Snow physics where not only you can see foot steps and other decals appearing on the floor, but also removing thick snow as you pass through. Glass physics that behaves as you’d expect when you shatter them.

And that’s to mention the amount of destruction you can lay waste. The many levels in Astro Bot invites you in to play, and there’s usually more avenues of intereaction that you would expect. And all of this running at what my eyes perceive as 60 FPS.

The graphic details can also be very minute that you’lll have to stop playing and stare at the screen too notice. By default, Astro has a reflective chrome finish at the back of the head and you can see (presumably ray-traced) reflections from it. It doesn’t seem to reflect moving objects, just a static environment, but still, that’s impressive to see.

The animation work is also top notch. Team Asobi (Asobi means “play” in Japanese) nails the playful nature which the Bots exude, applying cartoon slapstick when needed. And the animation team has to be very proud with their work capturing the many bots, especially those cameo VIP bots. It’s all good stuff.

I mean, look at Astro’s running animation, for someone with wide hips, he’s doing his best with his leg-forward struts when moving at full speed. The footstep sounds Astro make, little clickity-clangs that goes about when he’s runnig on metal and glass surfaces in particular, adds to the adorableness.

Speaking of sounds, it’s good. The sound effects pack a good punch. Astro and the bots quips are mostly gibberish wees, woos and welps yet some of the vocalisations are discernable enough to be actual words. The bots can say “thank you”, do Japanese-style sound of exertions (something like a “yosh”, a “nyaaaahh” and the like) and none of it comes off annoying or off-putting, gladly.

The music is killer. It can be a bit too familiar if you’ve played Astro’s Playroom a little too much (some of the songs from the pack-in game reappear as remixes). And not all areas have bespoke music though at least there are good. Shout out to the cave song that plays in all the caves in the game. That song alongside the fungi doing a chill dance as fun guys do, will forever be my mental image of what’s it like to mellow out and having a good time. With mushrooms involved.

Gameplay

Astro Bot, in this new mission, was crusing through outer space with fellow bots in their first-gen PS5-shaped mothership until they crashed against an alien, which ripped the guts out of the ship causing them to crash. Astro Bot now has to do a rescue mission, save the bots and repair the ship.

It’s a simple premise, and that’s what a mascot platformer should do. It’s just enough to tie together a bunch of levels together in a set-piece-heavy collect-a-thon.

Tighter Controls

With Astro Bot being a full game now, I’m glad to report that the controls have been significantly tighten up since Astro’s Playroom.

Astro can transition from punch to hold-to-punch much more seamlessly. Button timing seems to be tighten. I can regularly jump very late just as Astro is at the edge of a platform and it still registers as a jump and not a hover. It feels better overall.

That’s not to say the controls don’t have its quirks. Astro still turns like a tank (I blame those wide hips) as he doesn’t magically turn to the direction the analog stick is pointed at. He turns change direction naturally and not abruptly, which means miliseconds worth of input adjustment won’t register.

A lot of the gameplay is built around the controls, so it doesn’t feel like an issue, so it’s something that platformer veterans just need to adapt to. It’s not standard, but it’s far from unplayable.

More Challenging Than It Looks

In the early parts of Astro Bot, you’ll feel like this is a typical kids/family game. It’s all jovial, fun, and easy to play. But don’t let that feeling sink in. As the game progresses, you’ll eventually find that the level designers are cunning and devious.

Outside of specific boss fights, Astro dies in one hit, and one hit is all it takes for you to restart a good chunk of the level. The enemies seem simple and brain-dead, but that’s how you can get caught off-guard. Some enemies are just there to swarm you and won’t even able to kill you so you’d assume it’s safe to just punch every enemy.

Then there’s the ones that can bring out spikes, which usually clumps together with the non-threathening goobers.

And then there’s those that can only be dealt with by hovering on them.

And the peskiest of them all, those goobers that shoots out a projectile that’s basically an anti-air canon and the projectile is so small that you might not even notice it in the air.

In fact, there are special challenge levels, all adorning the sacred symbols that adorned all the PlayStation controllers, that are extra challenging. No lives. No checkpoints. The fact that the intense music that loops and loops as you attempt these challenge is called Preseverance says it all. These are proper challenges that will get platfromer veterans their kick, and turn casual players into becoming these veterans.

Tolerable Controller Gimmicks

I’m also happy to report that Astro Bot doesn’t go too wild with using every controller gimmick. There are levels where gyro controls are requried but it’s forgiving to use and is rarely a central mechanic. If you’re annoyed by the gyro sections in Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot uses some of those ideas again but for shorter bouts, just to spice up the gameplay a bit. You can opt to just use stick controls replacing gyro which is nice.

That said, some of Astro Bot’s gameplay mechanics don’t appear as intuitive as how the gyro controls are.

Astro Bot doesn’t have a tutorial level. Instead, whenever the game thinks you’re stuck or not sure what you’re doing, a picture-in-picture video will show explain the mechanics and controls with a video. Some mechanics require getting used to (like finding the right wall to push/right floor to hover on based on tactile feedback on the controller), some only makes sense in hindsight but something a player might have problems figuring out at first glance (enemies that’s shaped like a nut and bolt is defeated when you do a full hold-to-spin-punch attack to unwind the nut out). But there’s one particular mechanic that’s only used once, to enter one secret level, that had no tutorial at all and it took me too long to figure that out (the solution was to hover on the floor- and I thought I haven’t cut enough bamboo).

At least the gadgets (where Astro Bot equips a thing and you get access to a new move on the triggers) or a consumable (where Astro holds a thing that can be thrown) have clear onboarding. I never second-guessed what I can do when those come into play.

Every Corner A Secret

I love that Astro Bot is designed knowing there’s always a player that will always poke and prode to find every nook and cranny that can be explored. If a platforms seems reachable, you can find your way there. Is there a secret lying somewhere here? Probably. Why is there some markings like a treasure map etched on this stone of wall? Only one way to find out.

At the very least, if you found your way up on a high-up platform, you’ll find yourselves uncovering a big PlayStation coin as a sign of thanks by the designers as well as “yeah we’d expected that you went up here, good job”. The devs do think of everything, well, at least it left me that impression.

At its best, you’ll find secret bots to rescue and even secret levels, which themselves have secret collectibles to go collect.

Even the level select screen, where Astro Bot drifts around outer space, has some exploration goodies if you wander around the galaxy long enough.

This game wants you to be curious, and rewards you accordingly for being ever the more adventurous.

Overall, the gameplay of Astro Bot is solid. It checks all the boxes what I think a platformer should be. It only distinguishes itself just a little bit from any other 3D platformer out there, but given that this genre is now niche, Astro Bot has a chance to shine (unlike Concord, which is closing down servers just as Astro Bot is launching).

Content

You don’t need to complete every level in Astro Bot to progress, but you’ll be tempted to collect all the collectibles and earn a lot of those coins to put into the gacha machine. Unlike Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot figured out how to add more stuff to unlock in the gacha machine that are actually enticing, and just more stuff in general. More often than not you’ll be running short of coins rather than having more coins than sense.

There’s an in-game solution on how to find the last few missed collectibles when replaying past levels. Completionists should be happy with this system.

Astro Bot feels like a long journey, yet to my surprise I only spent 10 hours or so to 100% the game. I collected all the bots and did all the optional levels available.

For those who calculate the value of a game purchase based on how many hours of play divided by how much you pay, of course Astro Bot’s value becomes rather questionable. But I implore you not to do so with this game.

I suggest you to consider another metric for game value, smiles per hour. How much you enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay within throughout the game until you beat it. On this metric, Astro Bot’s top speed is off the chart. It just makes me grin from ear to ear with eac new level and each new mechanic introduced. It’s just really, really fun!

Though I also suggest not to consume Astro Bot like any reviewer has done. Please, take your time, relish every session. Because structually, Astro Bot can feel rather repetitive when in longer play sessions.

Every level of Astro Bot can be cleared in 10 minutes or so. Longer if you’re out combing through them to find all the collectibles. The flow is, go to the first level, then go to one of the multiple new levels unlocked, then go do the next newly unlocked level, and then go do the boss fight level, and lastly do the special level themed around a specific PlayStation franchise. After that, you repair a ship part, and explore a bit of the crash site and then do it again in another collection of levels. Repeat the flow four more times.

If you follow the flow, it gets boring quick.

Thankfully, the levels themselves don’t feel repetitive, every level has a good fleshed-out gimmick, so you can expect some interesting new ideas and mechanics that come and go as you progress through the game. The aesthetic changes will also keep your eyes and ears from feeling the slog.

Thankfully Astro Bot has enough interesting ideas to last a whole playthrough. The game’s length feels just right. I highly recommend to play in short, one hour bursts.

Personal Enjoyment

I grew up with PlayStation and 3D platformers, so of course I love to see team blue attempting another mascot platformer game again. I know the record is spotty- Knack 2 has its fans but it has a cult following at best and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, while decent, just doesn’t do enough to grab that zeitgeist like the LittleBig Planet days. Ratchet & Clank are still around (the latest game, a PS5 launch title, is great) but the series has evolved beyond a 3D platformer these days.

So I’m glad Astro Bot picks up the baton to be this generation’s PlayStation mascot, as mirrored in the game where Ratchet’s one of the first VIP bot Astro Bot rescues. The endearing charm is one thing, but the bots being able to cosplay as characters make them the perfect conduit to celebrate the many characters and worlds the PlayStation brand has created.

I mean, where else do you get to see Kratos do the floss?

Scratch that, he probably can do that in Fortnite.

But my point is, Astro Bot allows for the many franchises in PlayStation’s history to reappear again. It works to introduce younger fans (and maybe some executives) the vast wealth of backlog PlayStation Studios has that lay dormant. It’s big dollop of nostalgia hit seeing an old friend in this new game. There’s so many instances where I am agape and saying to myself “YO! THEY REMEMBERED! THEY BLOODY REMEMBERED!” each time I rescue one of these VIP bots.

There are obvious heroes for sure, all the previous PlayStation mascots are here, as they should. But they are some deep, deep cuts. Games only the European gamers of the time would know and love. Obscure games only sold in Japan. And the deep cuts go into the PS1 generation. How deep? Astro Bot shows that PlayStation made RPGs way back then. And there’s plenty of representation from the now-defunct Sony Japan’s creations.

I love that they figured out ways to represent franchises with non-humanoid characters, so that games about cars and vehicles can get referenced. And like Fortnite, there’s also some nice crossovers from third-party publishers. If you have a favourite PlayStation exclusive game made by other publishers, they might be in here to say hello.

My favourite deep cut reference, without spoiling too much, is a character found in the casino level. That isometric screen gave me a Ratatouille moment for that one particular PS1 game. They’ve gone and done it. It’s missing some key details but it is on point enought to induce that nostalgic hit for me.

And if you’re a long-time PlayStation fan, one of the 170+ cameos will hit you like a truck. Though your mileage may vary if you’re unfamiliar with these characters.

Of course, there’s still plenty of missing franchises that dissapointingly didn’t get a nod, so maybe that can be save for the next Astro Bot game. Though I doubt the nostalgia kick I had with this game will be as strong when the next one comes around and does the same gimmick again but this time with even more franchises we didn’t expect PlayStation remembered.

A deserving shout out has to be given to whoever that wrote down all the names and descriptions of these bots. None of them are named explicitly, it’s a you-know-if-you-know kind of affair. And if you do know, you’ll appreaciate the lengths these one-line descritpions go to reference the character and franchise without saying the character and franchise names outright. Imagine making a trivia quiz out of guessing the characters using those descriptions and their Astro Bot appearance. As a person who writes a lot, I am here just watching a master (or masters) at their craft showing off their copywriting prowess. I kneel.

More importantly, Astro Bot rekindled something in me. I finally felt joy where every button press and analog stick movement is meaningful. I found a game world that truly rewards my time and effort for overthinking and doing something extra. I finally remembered what it means to play video games, like how I used to as a kid. Being able to feel that sensation again is enough to make me personally felt deeply attached to Astro Bot.

Video games are fun, man. You just have to find the right one for you. And for me, my safe haven for a fun time is indeed 3D platformers. And Astro Bot does everything in its power to make me remember how fun it is to play a 3D platformer, just like the good old days.

 

Verdict

Astro Bot is a joyous platformer that serves waves after waves of fun. Its fundamental movement and control tightness are sound, the level design is brilliant, and it absolutely exudes the charm that befits a platform mascot.

Its reverence to PlayStation history with its references will really pull the strings of older PlayStation fans that have been playing through multiple console generations though it may not land as hard should a sequel does the same trick, and its progression structure do get repetitve quick. But Astro Bot has found enough good ideas for it to stand on its own as a premium game.

Most importantly, Astro Bot understands the power of play. The level of interactivity offered gives this platformer more meaning than just another collect-a-thon. The many different systems that interact meaningfully with each other makes it so much fun to mess around and find out.

And what are video games if not a safe space to experiment, be curious, and discover the world from the comfort of your home?

If you’re set to play Astro Bot at launch, you’ll have a blast. I know I did, and hopefully you too would discover (or rediscover) how much fun it is to play video games.

Played on PS5. Review copy provided by the reviewer.

9

Astro Bot

Astro Bot is a joyous platformer that serves waves after waves of fun. Its fundamental movement and control tightness are sound, the level design is brilliant, and it absolutely exudes the charm that befits a platform mascot.

  • Presentation 10
  • Gameplay 8
  • Content 8
  • Personal Enjoyment 10

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