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 sure by their vainness. Nonetheless, 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 energetic 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 is not a shock in any respect! Afterall, Workforce Asobi delivered the identical expertise in a bite-sized package deal 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 fastidiously crafted and lovingly realised full-fledged recreation. Sure, Astro Bot is mechanically a bit shallow — it doesn’t have as many transferring components as Tremendous Mario Odyssey. However the expertise it affords is in no way skinny — to see all its secrets and techniques and easter eggs and accumulate all bots, you may 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 talent. Most significantly, in a glut of video games obsessive about trying 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 get well 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 experience –– 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 own home base. As you carry 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 based mostly 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 will allow you to repair up the location and attain beforehand inaccessible areas that carry extra issues to find. You’ll be able to 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 group of uniquely crafted planets that every comply with a selected visible theme. One is made up of candies and confectionary; one other is a volcano planet, spitting fireplace 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 stage normal out of playing paraphernalia. There are, in fact, some ranges that really feel repurposed, with recurring belongings and repeating motifs, however sheer quantity of experiences on provide right here makes the occasional déjà vu planet forgivable.
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Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
Some particular planets are normal out of different PlayStation franchises like God of Conflict, Uncharted, and Horizon. Right here, Astro dons a novel avatar and acquires particular skills tied to these video games themselves. For example, within the God of Conflict stage, 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 stage, you change into Nathan Drake and shoot your approach via 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 don’t seem to be a large departure from what you expertise on common planets when it comes to exploration, however the brand new skills carry a recent strategy to navigate the area.
The usual planets are stuffed with surprises, too. They cover subterranean secrets and techniques, portals to altogether new ranges, they usually typically remodel fully, unfolding into unseen areas hiding unabashed wonders –– like unwrapping a sweet and discovering two inside. In a single planet, that begins as a nice backyard area, 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 stage is performed out on the branches of the towering tree as you climb upwards and onwards in your rescue mission. These methods of transfiguration, the finer particulars inside ranges, and the surprises normal 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. Actually, exploration is just not one thing you do on the best way to your objective right here; exploration is the objective. Along with the gathering of bots that you need to rescue to progress the story, every stage 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 fashion and themes, embracing a extra vibrant, zany aesthetic.
There are over 300 bots and 120 puzzle items to search 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 need to indulge within the collectathon. And albeit, you do not have to pressure an excessive amount of to uncover each prize within the recreation; it is not as rigorous an train as accumulating all of the Energy Moons in Tremendous Mario Odyssey (consider me, I’ve tried). Odyssey is way extra consuming, advanced 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 allure, I would not have minded a barely more difficult expertise.
Astro and the Beanstalk
Photograph Credit score: Sony/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul
The identical plainness is present in Astro Bot’s gameplay –– the main target is firmly on enjoyable, as an alternative of one thing layered and strong. Astro can soar 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 skills he acquires throughout ranges that add flavour to the gameplay. A few of these skills have been seen in Astro’s Playroom, however a bulk of them are ingeniously new. In a single planet, Astro picks up the power to shrink all the way down to the scale of a mouse. And the second you do this, you start to see your complete stage from a totally completely different perspective, discovering new methods to discover and have interaction with the identical area. In one other, he turns right into a sponge, absorbing water and spraying it out to forge new pathways. Some may discover the gameplay right here rudimentary, however I did not thoughts it in any respect. Actually, the simple mechanics carry a leisure to Astro Bot that goes completely with what it is making an attempt to realize. It is a recreation you sit again and revel in, not lean in and tackle.
It could be remiss of me to not point out the sport’s glorious soundtrack and the character it provides to each stage. The music in Astro Bot would not simply underscore the expertise; it goes so far as to breathe life into your actions. And all of your actions change into 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 metallic on ice, the mild thrum of your spaceship –– all of it performs out in your arms. It is delicate and by no means intrusive, and I want extra video games on PlayStation took an analogous 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
In the event you take a look at a few of PlayStation’s current releases, you may clearly see a swelling rut pervading the platform. A slate of pointless remakes and remasters, misfiring reside service bets, and a scarcity of tentpole exclusives have backed the PS5 in a little bit of a tough nook. 4 years on because the console launched, it looks like the present era has but to kick off. Possibly 2025 will change that, however for now, Sony ought to look no additional than Astro Bot for inspiration.
Large-budget triple-A titles, with eye-watering visuals and interminable improvement cycles aren’t the one approach ahead. And smaller video games aren’t simply an choice, they’re a necessity. With Astro Bot, Workforce Asobi has crafted the most effective 3D platformers since Tremendous Mario Odyssey. It is a recreation that’s dedicated to being a recreation, to being enjoyable and joyous and playful. It is onerous to discover a extra vibrant title in PlayStation’s secure, and Sony should spend money on comparable smaller video games going ahead. As a result of proper now, it appears PS5 homeowners 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 guardian 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.
Execs
- Enjoyable, partaking gameplay
- Vibrant visuals
- Rewarding exploration
- Free-flowing stage design
- Glorious soundtrack
- Glorious DualSense suggestions
Cons
- Lack of a problem
- Gameplay lacks depth
Ranking (out of 10): 9
Astro Bot launched September 6 solely on PS5.
Pricing begins at Rs. 3,999 for the Commonplace Version on PlayStation Retailer for PS5.
