Astro’s first full-fledged outing continues celebrating PlayStation, putting a spotlight on its famous characters while solidifying their position as a mascot for the brand.
Astro’s Playroom on PS5 was a great little game that served in some ways as a tech demo of the DualSense controllers, as well as a showcase of PlayStation’s history, and to a lesser extent the PS5 itself. For being a free game primarily meant to just give an idea of what’s possible on the new controller, it was a lot of fun, and I stated in my review I hoped to see a full game. Now here it finally is.
Now in the lead up to this game, Astro’s Playroom received updates with new levels and other things, giving a hint of what’s to come. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to partake ahead of release, but I remained excited for this game. Let me tell you, the hype for this game was appropriate. Team Asobi managed to deliver a game that continues building upon Astro’s Playroom, celebrating iconic PlayStation (and other video game) characters this time around and occasionally allowing the player to get a taste of those games with special levels. The game is also gorgeous, running smooth with high-fidelity visuals that make the PS5 seem like a worthy upgrade to the PS4.
The controls are once again a standout part of the game. Being so deeply integrated with the DualSense controller, taking the form of the Dual Speeder in the game, the game truly comes to life and immerses you. Haptics change as the ground you walk on changes. Damage similarly delivers an expected effect that effortlessly enhances the experience. Noise from the controller’s speakers at the right moments similarly is a minor touch that just really makes the game a pleasure to play.
Similarly the levels are engaging, with lots of little things hidden to discover. I appreciate that generally if you miss something it’s fairly obvious you’ve gone past it, and in most cases you can still go back to get it, saving time from replaying the level. Indeed the fact there’s no limit on lives or time as well as levels remaining open as you progress makes the game far more enjoyable as you don’t worry about dying at a part as you figure it out or try to find a collectible you missed. Does it remove some challenge from the game? Perhaps, but for those of us who aren’t fans of some of the things needed to 100% a game or who simply don’t want games to waste our time, the choices made here make this a great entry in the genre and an alternative to some other games. That being said, I haven’t gotten all the collectibles in the game, but I will happily be continuing to play to do that at least.
The mechanics of different powerups are a lot of fun, and with the levels crafted around them it presents a good amount of variety and fully takes advantage of the DualSense controller. The game may in some ways play similar to Mario Odyssey as you combine with items or bots in the world, and while there isn’t perhaps the same in-level mixing of these different ways to play it still culminates in a fun game. The learning curve is minimal as even switching between powerups the controls feel intuitive, with a certain amount of consistency in how they are expected to work.
Overall Astro Bot manages to deliver a fun, vibrant game that competes with the greats of the 3D platformer genre. While I have been playing fewer games in 2024, I think for me this is a GOTY contender. I hope Team Asobi continues to deliver more adventures with Astro, as the addition of this title to the PlayStation 5 lineup has given the console its best reason for existing.
Verdict
Definitely Play
Bonus: The Completion Review
Now after beating the main game (that is, playing through every main level once), I went straight into completing the next day. Now when I say completing I only mean collecting in-game items; achievement hunting brings me no joy. Spoilers follow if you want to discover things for yourself.
Some levels contain a second exit that unlocks a Lost Galaxy level, which are all just shorter levels, having 5 bots and 2 puzzle pieces compared to 7 bots and 3 puzzle pieces in the other levels. They’re fun and unlock a special stage that follows the same collection pattern, so it’s just some good content for when you want more of the game.
Now within each world are a few extra stages. One set focuses on fighting the voxo enemy, which is extra resilient, having a core to take out. Another requires eliminating the ground to drop enemies, which proved much more challenging than anticipated. There were a few other types here and there, but what I really want to talk about is what I’ll call the challenge levels. These each focus on one of the PlayStation controller symbols in theming, and usually focusing on a certain skill, enemy, or powerup as well. What makes them a challenge is there are no checkpoints, you have to make it through the whole level at once, and usually there’s not a good point to assess what’s next. That is to say these levels are more about memorizing and executing, which was very frustrating to me. Now if you complete all the main levels and these extra stages to collect everything, you get a special level: The Grand Master Challenge.
Now I would say this challenge is less about skill, once again being more memory and execution. I found elements, like enemies, were inconsistent run to run in what they did, making it harder to have a solid execution even when a part was well-known. Like the challenge levels, this requires everything in one take without checkpoints, and while I found each individual part generally easier than some of the challenge levels, the real enemy here was the length of the stage. It was very frustrating to continuously repeat the same actions over and over. While I likely improved on time in the early stages of the game, once that plateaus it becomes a very repetitive endeavor. Again, the inconsistency made it all the more frustrating. The normal challenge levels were at least all short, but in this level there’s a real sense of progression with distinct areas, so coming back to the same part over and over again just made me wish I could start from there. Regardless, I persisted, and eventually was met with success.
There’s likely something to be said that the game design here is dead simple. It is very easy to get into a certain flow when playing, and it’s satisfying to pull off the movement that gets you to the end. However, I don’t know if the challenge stages made that clear or instead subverted it. Regardless, despite any frustration, I can look back and say I’m quite satisfied.