Astro Bot is an action and platformer game for the PlayStation 5 which features Astro. Jump on your Dual Speeder and explore tons of planets, and meet up with iconic PlayStation characters across the game. Stephen has been part of the Push Square team for over six years, bringing boundless enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of video games to his role as Assistant Editor.
If 2020’s Astro’s Playroom was like a museum – albeit one with fun playable exhibits – Astro Bot is like a theme park, throwing a new thrill at you around every corner and after every double-jumped gap. It doesn’t always deliver the bonkers creativity that drives the likes of Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey, but that’s hardly damning criticism when swings of that size are rarely taken outside of Nintendo’s walls. What developer Team Asobi has designed here, though, does successfully evoke the spirit of those great platformers by birthing novel stages full of visual flourish that never cross the line into becoming mere novelties. Customers appreciate the game’s creative levels, with one mentioning that the world is filled with secrets and another noting how it encourages players to think creatively. Customers find the game suitable for all ages, with kids particularly enjoying it, and one customer noting that the main levels are great for young players.
Every planet in Astro Bot provides its own unique challenges, often requiring players to think outside of the box or make use of special power-ups or hero skills. Fully completing every stage in Astro Bot will likely take around 16 hours, and many, many failed attempts. If you haven’t played Astro Bot yet (and seriously, why not?), it’s currently on sale for $39 as part of the PlayStation Black Friday sale.
Astro Bot embraces that by turning each of its levels into playgrounds that give players plenty of space to poke around in the name of fun. With the basics on lock, Team Asobi lets players focus on Astro Bot’s wildly inventive level design. In one level, I get a power-up that lets me shrink Astro down to the size of an ant on command. That leads me through a fantastic puzzle-platformer gauntlet where I need to shrink down to climb into a lock or hop up a tree’s leaves. Another level drops me in a casino and puts a time-slowing PSVR on Astro’s head. I use that ability to freeze a giant slot machine as it rains down chips, turning them into platforms.
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Team Asobi’s success with creating a game to showcase new PlayStation technology led to its next game, The Playroom VR. Similar to its predecessor, The Playroom VR was a free launch game for the PlayStation VR that functioned as a showcase for Sony’s venture into the world of virtual reality. While the team’s focus was on creating a collection of short multiplayer experiences, there was one exception.
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Customers appreciate the controllability of the game, particularly the DualSense controller with its phenomenal haptic feedback and intuitive controls. Team ASOBI is a collective of passionate game creators from various nationalities, ages, genders and backgrounds. They are brought together by our love of “Play” in all its forms.
Most of the Astro Bot cameo characters are pretty easy to identify, but there are a few VIP Bots who are obscure and thus can be difficult to place. For more PS5 game deals, check out the list of PlayStation console exclusives that are still up for grabs for major discounts this holiday. Unfortunately, the future is a bit uncertain for Astro Bot, as Team Asobi hasn’t revealed what’s next after this DLC pack. Considering the popularity of the game, it’s easy to assume more DLC is on the way, though as of now, nothing is official. What fans do know is that Sony has been thrilled with Astro Bot’s reception and performance. In fact, Sony announced more games like Astro Bot are being planned, expanding its family-friendly offerings.
We need to give a shout-out to the DualSense support here, because as you might expect, it’s best in class. Team Asobi asserted dominance in this area with Playroom, but the range of effects delivered here through haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers outshines it. These conditions do drain the battery, but the implementation is too good to really worry about that. There are even gameplay mechanics that utilise the haptics in ways we haven’t seen before, like feeling particular walls for a rough texture to reveal a secret. It really shows what the DualSense can do like no other game before it. Many themes are unique to a single stage; Sky Garden’s flamingo paradise is never revisited, nor is Construction Derby’s building site.
Astro Bot has proved incredibly popular for PlayStation, having sold 1.5 million units in its first two months on sale and earned a 9/10 in IGN’s review. “A fantastically inventive platformer in its own right, Astro Bot is particularly special for anyone with a place in their heart for PlayStation,” we said. “Unlike our last update Winter Wonder, which was a walk through the Xmas park, this new update features harder levels to test your jumping skills,” said director of developer Team Asobi, Nicolas Doucet. While it may seem simple enough, there are a lot of things to do in the over fifty levels Astro Bot has to offer. Check every corner, hit every object or look below every platform and you may find a secret cord or passageway to a Puzzle Piece, Bot or even a Vortex to a secret world! Master Onion is the secret 301st bot, the last one you’ll unlock in the game.
The fact that Team Asobi’s games have the potential to become someone’s first game is something that Doucet takes seriously. “Team Asobi’s studio is just across the street from our building, so they were always the first to prototype with our hardware,” says Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, product director for the DualSense controller. It could be said that the combination of futurism with cuteness perfectly embodies the identity of the Japanese roots of the PlayStation brand that Kutaragi started.
This is a game that celebrates the entire history of video games and one of the few 3D platform games I’ve played that truly goes toe to toe with the best Nintendo has to offer. One of the biggest announcements during last week’s PlayStation State of Play livestream was Astro Bot, the full-fledged sequel to the excellent Astro’s Playroom that comes preinstalled on PS5. Just like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot is a 3D puzzle-platformer that pays homage to PlayStation history and makes heavy use of the PS5 DualSense controller’s many unique features like haptic feedback and dynamic triggers.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is a 3D platformer where players control Astro Bot, a small robot navigating various levels using a DualShock 4 controller. The game is designed for VR, so players experience the game world from a first-person perspective, essentially becoming a giant robot that interacts with the environment. This includes actions like smashing walls with head-butts, dodging attacks, and using the headset’s microphone to blow petals around.
It’s a highlight of how great Astro Bot’s level design is, which easily ranks high among other action platforming gems with its reasonably hidden secrets and gravity-challenging stages. Still, SC88 LINK fails to feel as revolutionary or varied as games that pushed the genre, like Super Mario Odyssey. While the game has many exhilarating moments, Astro Bot’s desire to showcase PlayStation gear and characters can feel like it’s holding the game back from being something unique. These special cameo bots are rescued from the galaxies’ main boss fights, which are a real highlight of the experience. Like the rest of the game, Astro Bot bosses are inventive, defying player expectations while still rooted in 3D platformer tradition.
The developers at Team Asobi didn’t reinvent the platforming wheel here, but like any good platformer, it’s the unique ways the powers are used that make them special. Instead of water, that F.L.U.D.D. power-up sucks up a green goo it then spits out to create platforms of grass. I giggled like a toddler using it to defeat a special enemy by literally sucking its green, goopy brains out.