I can now pass away with the knowledge that I used an elephant’s trunk to shoot honey bubbles skyward, leaped up on them to get to the top of a triple-stack of hens hiding in eggs, and then used that same trunk to remove the yolk from those eggs. I can, therefore, pass away contentedly. While Sony has provided us with a huge library of excellent PlayStation games for the past thirty years, no mascot platformer has ever been able to match Nintendo’s Mario’s regular heights. Try as Crash Bandicoot did. Jak and Daxter ran fairly well. Thank God, even Knack gave it a shot.
But now a serious competitor has emerged. Astro’s latest game puts him front and center, with dozens of vibrant stages and unique powers. A supporting cast of prior PlayStation characters round out the experience, promising hours of sheer fun. Astro Bot is a creative, nostalgic platformer of the finest caliber, brimming with charm.
While 2020’s Astro’s Playroom resembled a museum with interactive displays, Astro Bot functions more like a theme park, offering fresh experiences at every turn and after each double-jumped obstacle. Though swings of such magnitude are hardly ever taken outside of Nintendo’s confines, it does not always produce the insane inventiveness that propels games like Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey. However, by creating brand-new stages with graphic flourishes that never veer into being simply novelties, developer Team Asobi has succeeded in evoking the essence of those classic platformers.
A few of the many highlights include a clever level where the floors and walls dynamically shift depending on whether a day or night button has been pressed, a time-bending casino, and a Japanese bathhouse-inspired level with an amusing sponge system that is soaked with fun. That last one in particular makes amazing use of 3D space and feels like a page torn straight out of the Fez playbook. Astro Bot is essentially the video game equivalent of seeing Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory; it is a great blend of fun and experimentation without putting kids in danger.
Instead of chocolate death pipes and bubbly lifting beverages, you will find treasure-hiding sinkholes and an inflatable companion that assists you in reaching floating platforms.
It even fizzes and pings away, sweetly responding to whatever is going on screen, giving the impression that some exploding candy has snuck its way into your controller. Astro Bot is the most unique demonstration of the DualSense’s features since, well, Astro’s Playroom during the PS5 launch. Rumbles travel through your thumbs and your fingers’ triggers stiffen.
A drop of rain tickles your palms. I was using the motion controls to maneuver Astro’s ship when I noticed that my entire body was uncontrollably swaying from side to side. If, like me, your controller speaker is muted by default, I would also suggest turning it up because you will be losing out on some amazing audio embellishments. Even with the greatest will of a gigantic singing tree, nothing can match the GPU earworm from four years ago, yet the music is consistently enjoyable throughout.
While the majority of the levels are quite straightforward, others are quite intricate and enjoyable.
The levels in that soundtrack are straightforward at first, but they quickly reveal fascinating depths and surprises. While the majority are somewhat linear, a few go over and above to create delightfully intricate places that resemble sandboxes where players can seek goodies. Even though the levels are not as expansive as the Mario Odyssey levels, there are still enough nooks and crannies to explore. Within levels, there are even whole new levels to discover, complete with warp points that transport you to different parts of the “Lost Galaxy” and are concealed like buried treasure. This Russian doll structure and the way it presents new places are appealing to me. For the course of Astro Bot’s approximately nine hours, it guarantees a steady stream of shocks.
Among the most amazing unforeseen surprises are the new abilities Astro acquires on his quest. Our little robot friend has excellent basic mobility; his jump, double jump, and hover all fall into that perfect balance between floating and precise. The real excitement, though, comes from the transient powers that are unlocked at each level. The Twin Frog gloves are especially well-liked since they may be used for grappling swings thanks to their sticky tongues sticking out. Additionally, because they are spring-loaded, any projectiles that come in can be deflected and explode in the face of an attacker. The mouse mechanism, which shrinks you down to an incredibly small size and essentially activates a “Toy Story” mode where you may scramble up enormous shelves and leaves in quest of secrets, was another feature that I liked.
To remarkable effect, even powers from earlier Astro adventures are reinvented. The Monkey Climber, for instance, is an advancement over Playroom’s climbing capabilities. With the help of a tiny robotic monkey with enormous hands, boulders can be thrown and the ground hammered with great joy. Laurels also never takes a break, introducing fresh concepts and technology up to the grand finale. Thankfully, when such powers are replicated in later levels, they are recontextualized and given slightly fresh uses, even though some mechanics are reused a bit more than I would want.
For example, the previously mentioned Twin Frog gloves reappear on a level that resembles a cave. Here, their grapple-swinging function becomes even more useful, urging you to drag worm-like adversaries out of the earth from a distance.
At first glance, the variety of enemy kinds seems limited to bosses and minibosses. Even though some of them have varied paint jobs or outfits to blend in with their environment, they are all defeated by the same basic sequences of jumps and hits. However, the design book opens up later and presents some of my favorite enemies. One of these is an anthropomorphic playing card that can launch a spade and club hand in your direction. You can then use it to propel yourself in the direction of the adversary and deliver a lethal blow of your own.
After nine hours, I reached the end credits, but along my adventure, I had only collected 206 of the 301 possible bots. After completing the primary stages, there is still more to do, such as locating the rest of the crew, completing the hub base, and discovering additional treasures hidden among the stars. There is so much that it took me an additional nine hours—or eighteen hours total—to complete Astro Bot 100% and obtain the accompanying platinum award. It took a few tries to overcome some monsters and obstacles, but none of its main worlds ever approached being truly “tough” in the quest for 100% completion. Fortunately, checkpoints frequently provide ample.
However, the semi-hidden trial-like stages discovered by venturing among the stars of the overworld offer an additional challenge. These quick sprints are filled with obstacles that move quickly, lots of adversaries, and exact gaps that you must hop over to trip you up. These assignments rank among the hardest in Astro Bot, especially when you consider that there are not any checkpoints at all. The final level is particularly challenging. I had to piece together what I had studied up until that point in a hectic, yet still enjoyable, test that was an endless maze of quickfire threats.
Verdict
I smiled the entire time while using Astro Bot. With a plethora of incredibly creative levels and delightfully entertaining skills, it is a joy to play and never gets boring or monotonous. Even if you do not need to have a lot of experience with Sony systems to appreciate it, people who still harbor fond memories of the PlayStation will find a wealth of enjoyable nostalgia therein. Assuming that the PS5 marketing slogan “play has no limitations” means more than you might think, Team Asobi has created a mascot platformer that can compete with Nintendo’s finest attempts, and that is about the highest praise I can offer it.
