Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
I think one of the only complaints I’ve ever heard about Team Asobi’s recent run of Astro games was that they were a bit on the short side and could be seen more as tech demos than full-length games. Maybe that’s why they came back with everything and the kitchen sink for Astro Bot. This game doesn’t just improve upon the charm of Astro, their universe, and the very PS5 tech-specific gameplay. It also brings a bountiful buffet of levels showcasing a dazzling variety of gameplay design, music, and visuals, and it just might be a PlayStation 5 killer app from here on out.
Astro Bot’s lightest area of interest might be its story. It’s not bad. It’s just… kind of there as a stage for everything else to dance upon. The Bots as we know them are traveling through space on their PlayStation 5 spaceship when a green goo fellow in a flying saucer runs into them, wrecks their ship, steals its parts, and scatters the Bots across various star systems. Once again, Astro has to step up to the plate, and this time they’re tasked with exploring galaxies, finding their fellow Bots, and getting the parts back that will help repair their ship to working condition. It’s a simple enough plot that sets us on our journey.
And the journey through this game is full of amazement and amusements. Astro Bot is split into a number of galaxies, each with their own collection of “planetary” levels and a boss level awaiting at the end the galaxy. As you do more stuff in the levels, you can also unlock secret levels and challenges in each galaxy, or even unlock levels in a bonus galaxy that are particularly tricky.
Oh, but the level design here... I can’t gush enough over how happy I am with each environment Team Asobi put together. As you go through each level, the main point is to make it to the end where you blast off to the next challenge, but along the way, you’re supposed to collect Astro’s fellow Bots so that they can help unlock further content. Finding the Bots is a game of hide-and-seek through various themes. That includes a pirate cove area where you jump from broken ship to broken ship using a monkey hands power-up to climb and a casino level where you use a time stop power-up to slow falling poker chips and roulette tables so you can pass them. There are even secret levels whose completion activities are tied into some fun cameos.
It’s not just that Astro Bot uses themes we’re used to in its level design - beach, pirate, ice cream/confections, miniature/giant, etc. - it's that it explores those themes in impeccably fun ways. There are so many unique interactions and set pieces in this game that I was always amused as all get out by what I could find and do if I spent a little time looking around. And the levels are just gorgeous at that, aided by one of the catchiest soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time. My spouse won’t stop giggling and humming the “secret” robotic lyrics from the secret universe level select song and that’s just a little ear worm compared to the bouncy and delightful beats that thematically accompany every level throughout this game. I want this music in my day-to-day life and I suspect a lot of other players will as well.
In true Astro style, Team Asobi didn’t just make a pretty PS5 platformer. This game also goes out of its way to utilize the PS5 and DualSense controller's technologies to the best of Asobi’s abilities, and it comes out to a delightful variety of gameplay where there are fun surprises and challenges to discover in every level.
As mentioned above, the basic design of any level is reaching the end goal and collecting all the hidden Bots and secrets you can find along the way. As far as basic gameplay goes, you have a regular jump, a booster jump (which happens to shoot a laser under Astro and will destroy foes), a punch button, and a charged punch that will do a spin attack. It all handles quite well for basic 3D platforming. What’s more, level-specific power-ups offer all sorts of new actions and controls such as boxing gloves for distant punching, jet boosters for horizontal gliding, and a goop power-up that lets you cast floating platforms under your feet mid-jump, just to name a few.
There are also a wide variety of thumbstick, trigger pull, motion control, and even microphone interactions that pop out of the woodwork throughout Astro Bot. They’re not always top-notch fun, but they do break up the monotony of the usual control scheme and none of them ever feel so overused that they become boring. Again, it’s a testament to the sheer variety of interactions in each level, especially if you want to 100 percent the game, which takes around 20 hours if you want to get literally everything. A casual run, beginning to end, will likely fall closer to the 15-hour window.
These travels all culminate in a boss battle at the end of each galaxy, and those boss battles are also a menagerie of interesting gameplay and interactions. I wouldn’t say any of them are very hard, but some of the secret levels in Astro Bot can be quite the platforming challenge. It’s all worth it to collect each Bot and ship piece and bring them back to your hub base. It’s there that you can see your progress, unlock new base features and cosmetics, and plenty more. It’s known by now that you can find Bots based on video game characters from other games like Kratos from God of War or Crash Bandicoot. There just so happens to be an unlockable gacha machine full of props for your discovered Bots such as the Aku Aku Mask for Crash Bot. Finding the props for each Bot and seeing their animations out in the hub as they interact with each other is just fun cherries on top of an already delectable gaming sundae.
I would also like to point out that not playing on a PS5 DualSense controller isn’t a deal breaker for playing Astro Bot. It actually has options that allow you to take all of the interactions that would normally be confined to motion controls or things like the Adaptive Triggers and remaps them to traditional button and joystick functions. That means if you’d prefer to play on something like a Victrix BFG, you can. I personally feel like the interactivity the DualSense adds to Astro Bot is a plus that feels notably missing when playing on a third-party controller, but I’m happy nobody is being left out here.
It feels like it’s so long between when we get a truly breathtaking 3D platformer these days, and yet 2024 feels like a breakout year for them. I liked Penny’s Big Breakaway a lot, but I feel like Astro Bot is top-to-bottom perfect for what it is. This is, without a doubt, the game I would tell a family to get if they’re getting a PS5 and want something that everyone can enjoy. It’s the kind of game I not only suspect, but implore Sony to package with the console from here on out. Astro Bot is a charming and cheeky nod to a lot of PlayStation history and a powerful demonstration of PS5 hardware, but more than anything, it's just a ridiculously good game.
This review is based on a PS5 digital copy supplied to us by the publisher. Astro Bot comes to PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2024.