Astro Bot review – Pure bottled joy for these dark times

It’s simple to lose pleasure as an grownup. With a backdrop of terrible world information, and persistently dour financial updates, staying constructive is a marathon effort. You need to wish to consider the world is healthier than it appears, and that ultimately, every little thing shall be okay. If you happen to’re seeking to encourage that perception, then Astro Bot is an effective place to begin. As a result of for all intents and functions, this recreation is pure, unfettered pleasure.

Astro Bot cribs quite a bit from nostalgia, however is a beautiful, impactful platformer as standalone. There’s familiarity in its design – 5 worlds full of particular person ranges, and funky collectibles to be discovered – however the creativity on this journey is immense at each flip. As Astro, you’ll flit throughout the celebs, defeating all method of creatures, all whereas encountering grand, spectacular sights delivered to life in vivid splashes of color and creativeness.

You’ll go swimming with dolphins, and chart terrifying volcano programs. You’ll enterprise right into a dream-like land the place gravity is an insignificant idea, and face down intergalactic threats towards a backdrop of stars. It is sensible that Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot each seem as collectible bots on this recreation – regardless of their rights being owned by Microsoft – as Astro Bot remixes a number of the finest concepts of those franchises right into a grander scale trendy format.

Increasing horizons in Astro Bot

It’s not simply eye-catching worlds that shock on this recreation. Astro Bot presents recent quirks with every new stage, introducing extra mechanics (a rocket increase, an enormous punch, a floatation gadget, a time-stopper) to broaden your horizons. It persistently asks you to rethink your method, presenting new and extra complicated environmental puzzles that power you to discover extra totally. There’s puzzle items and bots hiding in every stage, and so they require ever-more-clever pondering to uncover.

Dolphins leap via the air, and you’ll marvel at their ascent – however in case you assume deeply, you’ll realise you should cease time, and leap off their backs, to rescue a bot stranded on a far distant construction. A flower is reasonably fairly, however it might additionally allow you to nab a brand new puzzle piece, or escape the evil slimes of a close-by beastie. It’s these little options that outline Astro Bot – a recreation which inspires experimentation and evaluation as you chart lovely worlds of hazard and delight.

Learn: Nailing the Astro Bot aesthetic: An interview with Group Asobi’s Nicolas Doucet

There’s a beautiful sense of problem in finishing every little thing it has to supply, however it’s additionally completely viable to take a seat again and breeze via every stage, and also you’ll nonetheless be happy with every little thing you encounter. It’s a beautiful recreation past its mechanics, with ranges crammed with flowers, and clouds, and beautiful sights to ponder. Within the later levels, you’ll even unlock a particular digicam mode that permits you to seize your joys as you journey, making a digital scrapbook of your time with the sport.

It’s a neat contact, and provides to the bright-eyed, joyful sense of journey that defines the sport.

A splash of nostalgia

After all, Astro Bot can also be distinctive for its corralling of dozens of famed online game franchises. Whereas the first motion revolves round exploration in beautiful 3D worlds, you’ll additionally discover an array of easter eggs littered all through every stage, as there are “particular bots” to gather that are impressed by traditional PlayStation characters.

What wasn’t spoiled by early advertising materials is that lots of Astro Bot‘s particular tie-in characters are literally themed to sure ranges – so in case you enter a dream stage and abruptly end up greeting acquainted little creatures, you shouldn’t be shocked. Likewise, in its Japan-inspired ranges, you’ll discover faces from Ghost of Tsushima, and past. Sure characters additionally get their very own particular ranges – and one specifically is liable to trigger tears for many who keep in mind the sport finest.

There’s an actual area of interest array of characters chosen for highlighting, which makes for a beautiful feeling of shock and appreciation when the most recent bot you stumble throughout is a forgotten favorite. (We nonetheless love you, Cole MacGrath.) There’s additionally loads of surprising crossovers, lent courtesy of an array of Sony’s greatest companions.

The search to search out your favorite characters pushes you alongside in Astro Bot, however not alone. It’s in a mixture of the sport’s glorious platformer mechanics, its idyllic and various worlds, and its satisfying steadiness of enjoyable and problem that conjures up fixed return.

This can be a recreation designed with purity at its coronary heart. Actually, it’s the cutest product placement you’ll ever see. Whereas it’s a celebration of PlayStation as a model, and a pat on the again for years of excellent enterprise, it’s one which feels well-earned. It’s a nod to the numerous adventures that PlayStation has created and supported, and a beautiful tribute to a long time of constructive reminiscences.

It evokes the enjoyment of childhood in its design, and retains these brilliant, glad emotions alive with its fixed sense of shock and delight. It’s simple to play the sport and really feel your cynicism washing away, as you keep in mind that true pleasure exists on the earth. It’s not solely present in Astro Bot, however this recreation is definitely a very good begin for these soul looking out.

5 stars: ★★★★★

Astro Bot
Platform(s): PlayStation 5
Developer: Group Asobi
Writer: Sony Interactive Leisure
Launch Date: 5 September 2024

_{A code for Astro Bot was supplied by the writer and performed for the needs of this evaluation. GamesHub opinions have been beforehand rated on a five-point scale. As of 29 July 2024, they’ve been rated on a ten-point scale.}