For the previous few years, first-party Sony video games have been marked by their singular preoccupation with graphical constancy. Uncharted 4, The Final of Us Half 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, God of Conflict, and Spider-Man — all good video games — are certain by their self-importance. Nevertheless, of their drive to realize near-realistic visuals –– that dour, dirty look –– they depart behind the throwback vibrant online game aesthetic, now discovered solely in Nintendo titles or indie video games.
And that is why Astro Bot is an anomaly. As a cute, vibrant, candy-like 3D platformer, it sits distinctly within the PlayStation catalogue of video games. There’s nothing fairly prefer it in Sony’s roster proper now; even Ratchet and Clank, with its shiny, new ray-tracing coat, wasn’t spared. And past the charms of its vigorous visible presentation, Astro Bot is an unbelievable and unmissable journey that leaves your coronary heart singing. Its childlike authenticity, simple earnestness, and endearing simplicity stand out amid glum, self-serious PlayStation exclusives that appear to be straining to be greater than only a online game.
And it isn’t a shock in any respect! Afterall, Group Asobi delivered the identical expertise in a bite-sized bundle with Astro’s Playroom when the PS5 launched in 2020. From a cute mascot that served as a free-to-play tech demo for the DualSense controller, Astro has advanced right into a bonafide PlayStation icon with a rigorously crafted and lovingly realised full-fledged sport. Sure, Astro Bot is mechanically a bit shallow — it doesn’t have as many shifting components as Tremendous Mario Odyssey. However the expertise it affords is certainly not skinny — to see all its secrets and techniques and easter eggs and acquire all bots, you could possibly spend 15-20 hours hopping round its bouquet of planets. And it isn’t fully missing a problem both; it is a easy journey, however there are ranges that may check your persistence and ability. Most significantly, in a glut of video games obsessive about wanting good, Astro Bot stands out with its obsession with being enjoyable.
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There’s a Saturday-morning cartoon-style story in Astro Bot that frames the galactic journey you go on. Astro and his bots are spacefaring on their mothership — the PS5 — earlier than his nemesis Nebulax assaults the merry crew and steals the CPU powering the console. The PS5 sputters and blows up, spitting out its core components throughout a number of galaxies. The lovable bots are bucked off the ship, too, which crash lands on a desert planet with Astro onboard. Our titular robotic hero then goes on an intergalactic journey, very a lot within the vein of Tremendous Mario Galaxy video games, to rescue his scattered crewmates and recuperate the misplaced components of the ship earlier than a remaining confrontation with Nebulax.
With PS5 mothership out of fee, Astro will get a brand new trip –– the Twin Speeder, a smaller craft that is principally the DualSense controller. That is the place the sport basically begins, with six galaxies and over 70 ranges unfold throughout distinctly themed planets ready to be explored. On the coronary heart of all of it is the crash website, which turns into your property base. As you deliver again stranded bots from different planets and repair up your PS5 by accumulating its misplaced components, the desert blossoms into an oasis. Over time, Astro’s crewmates populate the crash website and assist him craft new experiences and attain duties that have been beforehand locked away. The location additionally turns into a museum of PlayStation memorabilia as you rescue and convey again VIP bots primarily based on iconic online game characters.
The crash website populates as you rescue extra bots
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
If the remainder of the sport represents the problem, the crash website turns into a haven for leisure. Right here, you run round together with your bots, discover hidden trinkets and unlock prizes. As soon as you’ve got rescued sufficient bots, they’re going to enable you repair up the location and attain beforehand inaccessible areas that deliver extra issues to find. You possibly can work together with VIP bots –– there are over 150 of them! –– simply go as much as them and smack ‘em within the head and a cute animation, particular to the sport the bot is from, performs out. My favorite was the bot representing the Hunter from Bloodborne. While you attempt to hit him, he gun parries you!
The six different galaxies that encompass the crash website include a set of uniquely crafted planets that every comply with a particular visible theme. One is made up of candies and confectionary; one other is a volcano planet, spitting hearth and ash. There are tropical ranges, with the solar shining and the ocean glistening; One planet is rendered in Minecraft-style pixel artwork graphics, and one other is a on line casino degree original out of playing paraphernalia. There are, in fact, some ranges that really feel repurposed, with recurring property and repeating motifs, however sheer quantity of experiences on supply right here makes the occasional déjà vu planet forgivable.
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Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Some particular planets are original out of different PlayStation franchises like God of Conflict, Uncharted, and Horizon. Right here, Astro dons a singular avatar and acquires particular talents tied to these video games themselves. As an illustration, within the God of Conflict degree, cheekily dubbed “Bot of Conflict”, Astro turns into a cute, robotic Kratos and takes up his Leviathan axe that he can throw and name again, like Thor’s hammer. And within the “Dude Raider” Uncharted degree, you turn out to be Nathan Drake and shoot your means by an action-packed maze with ambushes ready at each nook. These worlds, that additionally home the lacking items of the PS5 ship, unlock after you beat the principle boss of the galaxy. They are not an enormous departure from what you expertise on common planets when it comes to exploration, however the brand new talents deliver a contemporary strategy to navigate the house.
The usual planets are stuffed with surprises, too. They cover subterranean secrets and techniques, portals to altogether new ranges, and so they typically rework fully, unfolding into unseen areas hiding unabashed wonders –– like unwrapping a sweet and discovering two inside. In a single planet, that begins as a pleasing backyard house, you see an unassuming sapling, you water it, and a colossal tree burst out, its cover piercing the clouds and kissing the sky such as you’re in Jack and the Beanstalk. Now, the entire degree is performed out on the branches of the towering tree as you climb upwards and onwards in your rescue mission. These tips of transfiguration, the finer particulars inside ranges, and the surprises original out of skinny air make Astro Bot really feel routinely magical, dedicated to beguile you at each flip.
BOY!
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Exploring each nook of those wonderous worlds is the true deal with of Astro Bot. In reality, exploration is just not one thing you do on the way in which to your purpose right here; exploration is the purpose. Along with the gathering of bots that you have to rescue to progress the story, every degree hides optionally available puzzle items that unlock the reward store and particular customisation choices for Astro and his Twin Speeder again on the crash website. Some planets additionally include hidden gateways to secret ranges tucked away within the Misplaced Galaxy –– these planets are extra eclectic of their visible model and themes, embracing a extra vibrant, zany aesthetic.
There are over 300 bots and 120 puzzle items to seek out, and when you do not want all of them to complete the sport’s story, doing so is greater than well worth the effort. Astro Bot is, in essence, a museum of cool issues. And to see all its cool displays, you have to indulge within the collectathon. And albeit, you do not have to pressure an excessive amount of to uncover each prize within the sport; it isn’t as rigorous an train as accumulating all of the Energy Moons in Tremendous Mario Odyssey (imagine me, I’ve tried). Odyssey is much extra consuming, complicated and cavernous, its depths seemingly unplumbed. Astro Bot, alternatively, is comparatively easy. And whereas the simplicity is intentional and a part of the sport’s appeal, I would not have minded a barely tougher expertise.
Astro and the Beanstalk
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
The identical plainness is present in Astro Bot’s gameplay –– the main focus is firmly on enjoyable, as a substitute of one thing layered and strong. Astro can leap and hover, smack enemies, and execute a spin assault that additionally helps in exploration. Past his repertoire of normal strikes, it is the varied particular talents he acquires throughout ranges that add flavour to the gameplay. A few of these talents have been seen in Astro’s Playroom, however a bulk of them are ingeniously new. In a single planet, Astro picks up the flexibility to shrink right down to the dimensions of a mouse. And the second you try this, you start to see your entire degree from a totally completely different perspective, discovering new methods to discover and have interaction with the identical house. In one other, he turns right into a sponge, absorbing water and spraying it out to forge new pathways. Some would possibly discover the gameplay right here rudimentary, however I did not thoughts it in any respect. In reality, the easy mechanics deliver a leisure to Astro Bot that goes completely with what it is making an attempt to realize. It is a sport you sit again and luxuriate in, not lean in and tackle.
It might be remiss of me to not point out the sport’s wonderful soundtrack and the character it provides to each degree. The music in Astro Bot does not simply underscore the expertise; it goes so far as to breathe life into your actions. And all of your actions turn out to be bodily and actual with the suggestions on the DualSense controller. Like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot utilises the haptics and resistive triggers on the PS5 controller to its fullest. The delicate rustle of strolling on fallen leaves, the sharp friction of steel on ice, the light thrum of your spaceship –– all of it performs out in your arms. It is refined and by no means intrusive, and I want extra video games on PlayStation took an identical strategy to designing controller suggestions.
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Using the Twin Speeder comes with immersive controller suggestions
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
If you happen to have a look at a few of PlayStation’s current releases, you possibly can clearly see a swelling rut pervading the platform. A slate of pointless remakes and remasters, misfiring stay service bets, and a scarcity of tentpole exclusives have backed the PS5 in a little bit of a difficult nook. 4 years on because the console launched, it looks like the present era has but to kick off. Perhaps 2025 will change that, however for now, Sony ought to look no additional than Astro Bot for inspiration.
Huge-budget triple-A titles, with eye-watering visuals and interminable improvement cycles aren’t the one means ahead. And smaller video games aren’t simply an choice, they’re a necessity. With Astro Bot, Group Asobi has crafted probably the greatest 3D platformers since Tremendous Mario Odyssey. It is a sport that’s dedicated to being a sport, to being enjoyable and joyous and playful. It is onerous to discover a extra vibrant title in PlayStation’s steady, and Sony should put money into comparable smaller video games going ahead. As a result of proper now, it appears PS5 house owners are caught taking part in remakes and remasters whereas ready for the subsequent God of Conflict and the subsequent Spider-Man. Sony is sitting on a number of beloved IPs of yore, and the PlayStation father or mother certainly should realise that individuals like every kind of video games, not simply triple-A open-world, action-adventures. And Astro Bot resides proof of that.
Professionals
- Enjoyable, participating gameplay
- Vibrant visuals
- Rewarding exploration
- Free-flowing degree design
- Glorious soundtrack
- Glorious DualSense suggestions
Cons
- Lack of a problem
- Gameplay lacks depth
Ranking (out of 10): 9
Astro Bot launched September 6 completely on PS5.
Pricing begins at Rs. 3,999 for the Normal Version on PlayStation Retailer for PS5.
