Astro Bot reminded me why I fell in love with gaming as a child.
As I jumped through each level in this beautiful 3D platformer, I was hit with waves of nostalgia for the gaming franchises I’d fallen in love with and a sense of awe and wonder.
Astro Bot, created by Team Asobi, is a 3D platformer that has you take control of Astro, a cute white and blue robot who also featured in Astro’s Playground for the PS5. The game’s premise is simple: Astro’s spaceship (which is a flying PS5) was destroyed by an evil alien, and his 300 friends became scattered across the galaxy. Astro has to venture across unique worlds to save his friends and rebuild his ship.
The premise and story may be simple, but Astro Bot oozes charm in every facet of its design. Every one of the nearly 80 levels found in the game is unique in visuals and tone. Astro jumps through everything from gardens filled with flamingoes to a haunted castle, and even locales from other video games.
The colors are vibrant, and the soundtrack is filled with joy. I still find myself humming Astro Bot’s title theme music because it’s just that good. The atmosphere alone sells the game for me, but the gameplay is even better.
The platforming and mechanics in Astro Bot are slick and well-polished. Each level has a different mechanic for you to play around with, and every one of them is a ton of fun. In one level, you might have a chicken powerup that acts as a jetpack, while in another, you gain the ability to slow time for brief periods.
While the controls are simple, there are challenge levels waiting in Astro Bot to test your platforming mastery. None of them are insanely difficult, but they offer a sharp jump in difficulty for people who are looking for a challenge.
Astro Bot even takes advantage of the motion controls and haptics of the PS5 controller. Certain sections have you tilt and move your controller to shift platforms and control your controller-shaped ship. I haven’t played a game with so much motion control since the days of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii.
The platforming mechanics and unique power ups alone make the game worth playing for anyone who loves the platforming genre, but there is so much more to find.
The biggest draw for me are all the bots scattered throughout the game. There are 300 to find, and over half are “Special Bots.” These bots are dressed up as characters from dozens of franchises in the PlayStation family (and they are adorable). There are even a handful of levels dedicated to specific franchises that offer a unique gameplay twist!
Every Special Bot I discovered during my playthrough filled me with joy and wonder. Astro Bot is a celebration of gaming as a whole, whether it’s finding Kratos and Atreus fighting a giant squid or even Sly Cooper trapped in a cage.
Each level comes with a host of bots to rescue, hidden levels to find, and puzzle pieces to collect that will give you access to a few different additions to your home base when a puzzle is completed.
Finding every bot and secret became an addiction, and I ended up 100% completing this game. Frankly, that is the only way to beat the game. Astro Bot deserves to be experienced in its entirety.
Astro Bot is the kind of game PlayStation needs to invest more into. It only took Team Asobi around three years with a development team of 60 people to create this gem of a game. This should be the standard of creating games, not the exception.
Astro Bot is earnest in its portrayal and execution. You can tell how much love and joy went into the game, and it deserves to be celebrated. I cannot recommend this game enough.
Games should be fun! Astro Bot’s thesis is that all types of gaming are fun, and it celebrates that.
It’s not often I play a game that brings such childlike wonder out of me, but this video game about a little robot trying to save his friends and rebuild his ship was something special. The ending even made me cry!
If you want to be reminded of why you fell in love with gaming, play Astro Bot. It’s a game for everyone, period.
And it might just be my game of the year.
