ASTRO BOT (PlayStation 5) Review

I feel I used to be as shocked as anybody that ASTRO BOT got here into existence in any type—the PlayStation 5 sport, not the character. After I wrote my piece Nintendo and Microsoft Want an Astro’s Playroom, I feel I settled on the concept that ASTRO was a superb consultant of Sony’s {hardware} however I by no means foresaw him internet hosting his personal little sport. 

I assumed that ASTRO’S Playroom being a “genuinely enjoyable platformer with lots of love and care put into it” was only a bonus function to it being a technical showcase of the PlayStation 5, but it surely appears Workforce ASOBI had sufficient concepts to pack a whole sport after which some. ASTRO BOT is extremely enjoyable, extremely inventive and an unimaginable love letter to the historical past of PlayStation video games.

The story is pretty easy: ASTRO and his cohort of BOTS are blasting via area within the PlayStation 5 Mothership when a nasty inexperienced alien cracks the console open and steals the CPU. Unable to carry itself collectively, the PS5 Mothership breaks aside, scattering the Bots and its 4 element elements all through the galaxy. ASTRO wakes up on a barren planet however, with the assistance of his trusty Twin Speeder, is ready to discover the bottom of the PS5 Mothership. The plucky BOT units off to rescue all of his stranded mates and restore the Mothership to its former glory.  

It’s a foolish, lighthearted little story that does an excellent job of creating the premise of the sport’s primary promoting function, the gameplay, in a enjoyable method. However ASTRO BOT didn’t actually need a correct “three-act” narrative—though it undoubtedly wouldn’t have suffered from having one. The expanded sense of narrative makes ASTRO BOT a way more thrilling sport and permits it extra room to experiment with completely different concepts. 

In some methods, ASTRO BOT appears like an extension of ASTRO’s Playroom, sort of in the identical method The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was an extension of Breath of the Wild. Workforce ASOBI primarily took all the greatest concepts from ASTRO’s Playroom and constructed a whole sport round them. 

It’s unimaginable as a result of the basics are primarily the identical, however the creativity on show is astronomical. Very similar to ASTRO’s Playroom, at its core, ASTRO BOT is an extremely tight and absurdly polished motion platformer. Gamers will information ASTRO via a plethora of insanely inventive ranges, rescuing misplaced BOTS—which successfully substitute the PlayStation trinkets from Playroom—and looking for puzzle items alongside the way in which. 

Nevertheless, each the BOTS and the puzzle items have been given a bit extra depth in ASTRO BOT since discovering BOTS is important to exploring new areas of the Crash Website Residence Base to be able to unlock the 5 completely different galaxies that make up the sport’s ranges. The puzzle items unlock numerous bases that permit for numerous customizations—from giving ASTRO a brand new costume to giving the Twin Speeder a recent coat of paint or unlocking particular objects for the PlayStation-themed BOTS. 

“Very similar to ASTRO’s Playroom, at its core, ASTRO BOT is an extremely tight and absurdly polished motion platformer.”

However except for being an unimaginable platformer on a technical degree, ASTRO BOT persistently shakes up the gameplay with distinctive mechanics which are repeatedly applied in ingenious methods. On one degree, you’ll have slightly octopus that’ll blow ASTRO up like a balloon, permitting him to drift for a short time; on one other, you’ll get a mouse that means that you can shrink at will, to a rooster that acts as a rocket booster. Moreover, mechanics from ASTRO’s Playroom, just like the Monkey Swimsuit and the rolling ball, have additionally been included however made a bit extra streamlined and player-friendly.

I’ve typically lamented video games like Tremendous Mario Bros. that can generally introduce a gimmick or two and design ranges round it relatively than combine them naturally into well-crafted ranges. However the charge at which mechanics are launched is so fast that it all the time feels inventive—as quickly as you assume you already know what the sport has to supply, they offer you a PSVR that permits you to cease time. 

In actual fact, Tremendous Mario appears like an apt comparability for ASTRO BOT as a result of each degree and each design determination feels so intentional and so directed in direction of having enjoyable. I don’t assume there was a single level throughout my intensive time dedicated to this sport that I didn’t have an enormous, goofy grin.

However the final end result of this—and arguably the crown jewel of ASTRO BOT—are the degrees impressed by iconic PlayStation video games. After all, after I noticed the debut trailer for the sport, I used to be initially enthralled by the concept that these icon BOTS would issue into the sport’s story in some way. Nevertheless, because the sport doesn’t actually have a narrative per se, these moments turn out to be the finale of every galaxy, the place completion will get you one of many 4 important PS5 elements.

It’s not simply that these ranges are lovingly crafted representations of the video games they’re primarily based on, or how they mix the enduring imagery and design of every sport with ASTRO BOT’s extremely tight platforming, however how they discover a approach to incorporate a key mechanic from these video games into the extent to make it so ridiculously enjoyable. 

Within the first world primarily based on Ape Escape, you’re working round with Spike’s web and scanner to search out BOTS dressed as the enduring simians. Within the God of Conflict Ragnarök world, you’re utilizing the Leviathan Axe to freeze gears to cease shifting mechanisms or turning pillars of water into makeshift platforms. I do know I hold saying it, however every degree is simply bursting with creativity and a loving appreciation of the supply materials and I used to be genuinely excited after each boss combat to see what PlayStation sport I’d be taking part in subsequent. 

After I began enjoying ASTRO BOT, there was part of me that felt it was nearly an extension of ASTRO’s Playroom—insofar that when you hadn’t performed the latter, this may really feel a bit like a tech demo. However truthfully, I don’t assume that’s the case. ASTRO BOT is without doubt one of the few video games that truly takes benefit of the PlayStation 5’s {hardware} in a significant method that derivatively calling it a tech demo fully undermines how inventive it’s being with the instruments it has. 

If ASTRO’s Playroom was the proof-of-concept, ASTRO BOT is the idea made manifest. The best way it makes use of each distinctive side of the DualSense controller—from the distinctive modifications of vibration when shifting over completely different surfaces to the way it maps sounds to the controller’s speaker for an added degree of immersion to its fixed inventive use of the adaptive set off. ASTRO BOT flies within the face of each “AAA” sport that may’t appear to search out one attention-grabbing approach to make the most of this unimaginable gadget—and wouldn’t you already know it, it remembered the sport has gyro controls.

“ASTRO BOT persistently shakes up the gameplay with distinctive mechanics which are repeatedly applied in ingenious methods.”

Visually, ASTRO BOT is past gorgeous. There was a sure level the place I couldn’t assist however snort to myself that this sport in some way out-Nintendo’d Nintendo. Each degree is EXPLODING with color, life, surprise and an obscene consideration to element. No two ranges really feel the identical—you’ll go from a large singing tree to a Japanese Tub Home, to a haunted citadel, and a lot extra. Nearly all the pieces from fauna to flora has little BOT faces, which is simply lovable. Every part is rendered in unimaginable element, from bricks to blades of grass; mushrooms mild up and make little chimes if you stroll over them

And the soundtrack, Candy Child Ray THE SOUNDTRACK. Kenneth C M Younger, Kemmei Adachi, Tadashi Yatabe, Sachiko Miyano, Takuro Iga, Hirofumi Sasaki, and Masso Kimua completely crushed each monitor they labored on in ASTRO BOT to such a level that after I was enjoying in the identical room my spouse was working in, with out even wanting on the sport she stated to me, “I actually just like the music on this sport.”

“If ASTRO’s Playroom was the proof-of-concept, ASTRO BOT is the idea made manifest.”

Like the numerous ranges and gameplay, the music runs the gamut of genres from funk to pop, jazz to rock, and so many extra. Each monitor is high-tempo and energetic, including to the enjoyable on an audible degree. To not point out the methods they remixed the music for the PlayStation-themed ranges in order that they embody ASTRO’s theme however nonetheless really feel thematically correct is nothing wanting unimaginable—I used to be a extremely massive fan of the BOT of Conflict theme. You realize you probably did one thing particular with the music when even within the aforementioned haunted citadel degree, the music was so good my spouse was truly dancing alongside to it. 

However it’s not simply the soundtrack that makes the sport stand out. The audio design as an entire is so extremely detailed and encompasses such a variety {that a} sport so visually cartoonish feels so extremely plausible and actual. From the way in which ASTRO’s little toes clang on steel surfaces to the pitter-patter or rain on his little head umbrella, the soundscape is so extremely wealthy and delivered to life in distinctive methods by the DualSense controller’s accompanying speaker and rumble. 

I may hold going, however I feel by now you get the purpose. ASTRO BOT is one in all the standout video games on the PlayStation 5 and, possibly subsequent to Ratched and Clank: A Rift Aside, the one sport I’ve performed that’s finished something attention-grabbing with the system’s distinctive {hardware}. 

I feel some avid gamers is perhaps postpone by the sport’s asking value of $59.99 (or $79.99 CAD), however truthfully, I might say it’s nicely price it. It’s acquired one thing to supply everybody from avid gamers, younger and previous, new and skilled, and even newcomer or veteran PlayStation followers. ASTRO BOT is a sport that by no means stops being enjoyable.