Astro Bot Review

The Playstation brand has always had excellent platformers throughout its history, starting with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon on its debut console. When the Playstation 2 released, those evolved into Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper. The Playstation 3 was a little devoid of platformers, although it did have LittleBigPlanet, as well as the lesser known Puppeteer. It wasn’t until the Playstation VR came out that Sony would develop a newer platformer, Astro Bot. However, the limited exposure didn’t exactly hit it rich, despite it being critically acclaimed. The debut of the Playstation 5 saw a bite-sized experience with Astro’s Playroom, but it left players wanting more, which led to the present day and the release of Astro Bot, the newest iteration in the series.

The majority of platformers out there don’t really have much of a story, and Astro Bot isn’t going to create a new trend. All of the bots are flying through space, on a ship modeled after the Playstation 5, when an alien creature appears and snatches a part from the inside of the craft. This causes the vessel to explode, sending all bots and other parts hurling onto some nearby planets. It’s now up to a lone bot to go out on his own and rescue all the other bots, as well as reconstruct the ship. While it’s a basic premise, it at least sets up the idea of the game, so if you’re looking for anything deep here, you’ve come to the wrong type of game.

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Astro Bot has a lot of varied locations and is quite vibrant with colors.

Cute and Clean

As you start exploring the various levels, you might think that Astro Bot isn’t anything special to the eye. However, while it doesn’t excel at reaching the pinnacle of modern visuals, it definitely shines in establishing the finer details. It is especially vibrant, with a lot of varied locales, and is very clean in its presentation. The game runs very smoothly, with nary a frame drop or anything of that sort. Anyone who has grown up with the various Playstation consoles will have a smile on their face at all the nods to the plenty of franchises in its history.

At its core, Astro Bot is a platformer that doesn’t really have much in the way of moves. The Bot has a jump button, obviously, as well as a basic punch attack. If you hold that button down, he can charge up a spin maneuver that can devastate foes and even activate some objects. Holding the jump button while in the air will allow Astro to hover for a short time with some lasers, which can actually be used to defeat enemies, too. Scattered throughout the levels will be some power-ups you can utilize in those stages, which are definitely one of the real highlights of the game.

Powering Up

There are plenty of power-ups that Astro can yield, like spring-loaded boxing gloves that are frogs, a chicken that acts like a rocket, and even a monkey that helps you climb walls. There are more than that and while more appear throughout the levels than others, they are still very fun to use. Most of the main levels will have one of these gadgets for you, but if you’re looking for pure, platforming enjoyment, there are other stages for that. Each world will usually have four or five main stages, then a boss, but other levels can be unlocked by simply finding them. These hidden levels are more often than not shorter ones that give you that pure run-and-jump feeling, with some of them also bringing the pain, as they can be somewhat difficult to what you might’ve experienced up to that point.

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There are plenty of power-ups in Astro Bot, increasing the fun factor.

One of the biggest surprises, in terms of level design, are the special stages that appear after defeating a boss in a world. These levels are themed around the various, well-known Playstation characters. One of those will be modeled after God of War, complete with the Leviathan Axe to use as your weapon during the stage. You don’t just carry it like a melee weapon, but you can toss it at enemies to freeze them, as well as at objects to make your way through the level. These Playstation-themed levels really highlight the special nature of Astro Bot, since it showcases more than just the typical gameplay, especially if you’re a fan of other PlayStation first-party IPs..

While the bosses were very briefly mentioned, let’s go over them again in a bit more detail. They are another bright spot of the game, since they truly showcase the brilliant design. There are also minibosses that you will sometimes face throughout the levels, whom also add to the overall enjoyment. On the other hand, there is a lack of variety of normal enemies, especially at first. It’s one of the few bad things about the game, but later levels do add some new deviants, so it’s more of a minor nitpick than anything. The majority of the familiar faces are also dispatched in similar manners, but some of the later enemies might require a little more finesse, utilizing more of your arsenal and skills you’ve gathered.

Bot Bonanza

As mentioned above, the main premise of the game is to find all of the bots scattered throughout the levels. Some of these bots are out in the open, while some of them are hidden quite well. There are two types of bots in the game, generic ones that don’t have anything special, and ones that are cameos of characters from other games. It isn’t just restricted to Playstation’s first-party characters, either, as there are plenty from third-party companies. For example, Capcom is well represented, as they have characters from Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Okami and even Ghouls n’ Ghosts. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of Square-Enix, you won’t find any cameos from them here, which is a real shame but there are enough characters from other franchises that do show up.

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Cameos from both first and third parties make their appearance as bots.

Of course, these bots are just cameos and don’t really do anything. There is a hub world and as you progress through the game, you can open up other buildings, one of which is a gacha machine. Don’t worry, though, as it doesn’t use real money but just in-game currency. This gacha can earn you prizes that correspond to the various cameo bots you’ve found, which will allow you to interact with them a little bit in the hub world. As an example, you can have Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter enact some well-known moves on each other. It is definitely cute and can put a small smile on your face, especially since there are so many of these cameo bots.

You will also find that there is another collectible in the game, called Puzzle Pieces. These are also hidden throughout the stages and collecting them will open up extra buildings in the hub world. Another thing that should be highlighted is the fact that Team Asobi has done an excellent job with utilizing the haptics and other features of the DualSense controller. There are some instances where you have to blow into the controller to provide air to something, plus a lot of the same functions from Astro’s Playroom return here. It is quite impressive that Astro Bot is one of the few games that really take advantage of the DualSense, although all of these functions is going to drain the controller’s battery really quickly.

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Bosses in Astro Bot are very enjoyable and are a highlight to fight.

Like a lot of platformers, Astro Bot is not going to be a terribly long game, as it should set you back around 10 hours or so to just finish the main campaign. It’s not going to overstay its welcome, though, even with the variety from all the power-ups and levels. You’re going to get more longevity from the game if you try to go for 100%, which could put another 10 or so hours onto the timer. Once you do that, though, there really is no incentive to replay the game, unless you just want to have a good time in doing so.

Overall, Astro Bot is a simply pure, unadulterated fun game to play and highlights the importance of having great gameplay standing at the forefront. While the price might seem a little steep, since it’s a $60 game, the content provided within is worth every penny, despite the shorter length. Not every single game needs to be a 100-hour epic! Other studios could definitely take a page in design from Team Asobi, although they did have a rich history in which to draw inspiration. Whether you like platformers or not, Astro Bot should be on the list for every PlayStation owner to play.