Ever since it was first formed within Sony's now-defunct Japan Studio, Team Asobi has put out one high quality game after another. The Playroom was a fun little tech demo meant to show off the unique features of the PlayStation Camera and the DualShock 4, while The Playroom VR filled a similar niche for Sony's PlayStation VR headset. With Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Team Asobi proved that it was more than capable of creating a remarkable full-length game. Asobi's winning streak continued with Astro's Playroom, a pack-in PS5 launch title that did a great job of showing off the DualSense's haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Astro Bot is Team Asobi's latest, biggest, and greatest game. Simply put, Astro Bot is the studio's magnum opus and, quite frankly, one of the best 3D platformers ever made.
Like Team Asobi's previous games, Astro Bot revolves around a community of tiny white robots. Following the events of Astro's Playroom, they are attacked by the evil green alien that served as the final boss of Rescue Mission, destroying their PS5 spaceship and scattering them across the cosmos. After acquiring his DualSense controller ship, Astro has to travel to various galaxies and rescue the bots. The twist is that some of the bots are made-up to look like classic video game characters, from recognizable faces like former PlayStation mascots Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon to far more obscure characters from the massive catalog of first- and third-party games that have been released for PlayStation consoles over the years.
Astro Bot is pure joy in video game form.
Longtime gamers will find rescuing the bots in Astro Bot to be an absolute treat. It's exciting to see who will pop up next, especially since there are a few very unexpected cameo bots that I won't spoil here. Some of the cameo bots even have a direct impact on Astro Bot's gameplay. Each galaxy concludes with a special level themed after a PlayStation game, with Astro taking on the abilities of the hero from that game. For example, there is a God of War level in Astro Bot where Astro gets his hands on the Leviathan Axe. The axe functions similarly to how it does in the actual God of War games, meaning Astro can use it as both a weapon and as a tool to freeze objects for puzzle-solving purposes. I won't mention any of the other games that are given this kind of treatment in Astro Bot as part of the fun is getting to the end of the galaxy and seeing what's next, but trust that each one of these stages is incredible.
These special cameo bots are rescued from the galaxies' main boss fights, which are a real highlight of the experience. Like the rest of the game, Astro Bot bosses are inventive, defying player expectations while still rooted in 3D platformer tradition. The boss fights deliver on visual spectacle, have a nice challenge to them, and above all, are fun to conquer. Besides the main bosses, mini-bosses pop up in other levels unexpectedly, and they are also a lot of fun to fight.
Astro Bot Makes Great Use of the DualSense Controller
I don't know if I've ever played a platformer before where I enjoyed literally every single boss fight and level, but I can confidently say that about Astro Bot. The stages constantly surprise and delight as they take full advantage of the PS5's hardware. Astro Bot levels are beautiful, brought to life by genius art direction and some of the best graphics on the PS5. It all feels so alive thanks to how the DualSense controller reacts to what players see on the screen, with Astro Bot making great use of the DualSense's haptic feedback and speaker. Whether it's something subtle like rain pattering on Astro's umbrella or louder like the spaceship's rocket boosters, Astro Bot shows how game-changing the speaker, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers can be when used together. It's a shame that most other PS5 games don't even come close to utilizing these features to their full potential.
As I journeyed through Astro Bot's gorgeous worlds, I was constantly blown away by the clever new hook each level introduced. While a traditional 3D platformer collect-a-thon at its core, Astro Bot is always throwing in a new gimmick to make each level feel fresh and distinct from all the others. Oftentimes, these gimmicks add a new exploration tool, in turn giving the developers the freedom to build levels in completely different ways. The sheer variety Astro Bot delivers is breathtaking, and like I said, there's not a bad level in the bunch. After the first two worlds, my only complaint was that things were a little too easy, but those concerns were alleviated when I reached the game's far more challenging, checkpoint-less stages that really put one's 3D platformer skills to the test.
Astro Bot's Hub World Will Make You Want to Collect Everything
Astro Bot levels challenge players to collect all the stranded bots, but there are other things players will want to keep an eye out for as well, like coins and puzzle pieces. Everything players collect goes to Astro Bot's hub world, the Crash Site. Here, hundreds of rescued bots congregate and can be used within the hub to rescue even more bots. Puzzle pieces are used to create images of objects that then become additional buildings for players to interact with in the hub world. The first one players build is the gacha machine that they will remember from Astro's Playroom, and that's where the majority of one's coins will be spent as well. Items from the gacha machine fill the hub world out further, and it soon becomes an interactive monument to PlayStation history.
I won't talk about the other buildings players can build in Astro Bot's hub world, but rest assured they are great as well, giving players extra incentive to hunt down every single collectible. Having such great rewards makes going for 100% in Astro Bot super rewarding, and with the levels so much fun anyway, players will have absolutely no problem going back through ones they've already completed to look for missing collectibles and other secrets. Other 3D platformers can become frustrating when players can't find what they're looking for, but Astro Bot circumvents that by giving players an optional bird companion when revisiting levels to help hunt down missing collectibles. The bird costs 200 coins, so players have to give up some gacha pulls to use it, but it's a great way to keep players from getting stuck.
Beating Astro Bot's main story took me about 10 hours, while getting the Platinum trophy took a little over 15 hours.
It really feels like the developers thought of everything, and thanks to their efforts, Astro Bot is pure joy in video game form. I went into it with high expectations thanks to Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Astro's Playroom, and it not only met my expectations, but completely exceeded them. It's the best 3D platformer since Super Mario Odyssey hit the scene in 2017 and will be remembered as an all-time classic of the genre. Everyone with a PS5 should get their hands on this game ASAP, and hopefully, Team Asobi gets to continue making masterpieces.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- September 6, 2024
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
- Team Asobi
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Franchise
- Astro Bot
WHERE TO PLAY
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
- Gorgeous worlds with a ton of gameplay variety
- Uses the PS5's unique features to their full potential
- Rewarding unlocks and collectibles
- Amazing boss fights
- A love letter to PlayStation and video games in general
Astro Bot launches September 6, exclusively for PlayStation 5. The Best War Games was provided with a code for this review.