Astro Bot

I have a long history with Sony’s first two consoles. Let me back up a bit.

The original PlayStation was the second console to find its way into our household. I can’t say for sure, but it must have been sometime in the late 90s. 1998, 1999? Something like that. Before that, my brother and I had already spent some time with our Super Nintendo and were completely hooked on Super Mario and the like. Our Gameboy Color with Pokémon and the like did the rest.

As was often the case at the time, we heard about these “new” consoles (new is relative, as they had already been on the market for several years, and the PS2 was already looming on the horizon) more from hearsay. How exactly it came about is a mystery to me, but one day it was there: this legendary gray box with controllers that had strange, joystick-like knobs (you can tell we weren’t early PS1 players) and were called DualShock.

Wow.

At first, it wasn’t possible to save the game due to a lack of other mystical accessories, but we were happy with the demo CD that came with it and could spend hours and hours playing it. Crash Bandicoot, WipeOut, Formula 1 – we had a lot of fun with it. Demo. Let’s remember that for a moment.

The PlayStation 2, which left a lasting impression on many of my generation, followed a few years later and came with an equally packed disc, which in our case was blue. All I can remember here is Dynasty Warriors (2?), which was thrilling for us at the time. We played it through with our cousin, up, down, left, right – you know how it goes. For many young gamers at the time, these demo discs were a way to get information about games, apart from magazines, and to try them out.

Pure madness.

Many years later. The year is 2021. The second autumn of the coronavirus pandemic is slowly but surely stumbling into winter. The new generation of consoles had an extremely bumpy start last year. Availability was and often still is sluggish. A colleague of my partner is selling his virtually new copy. Sold. There’s the mothership. And what’s hidden on the PS5’s lightning-fast solid-state drive? A demo, you might say?

Nope.

A tech demo, packaged in a (not so) small game, I would say. A typical game that aims to showcase the features and capabilities of the hardware. It’s called Astro’s Playroom.

I bought my PS5 second-hand in a bundle with Horizon Forbidden West and borrowed a few games from a friend. Precisely because I’ve been in the Xbox camp for the last two console generations, I’m missing all the Sony exclusives from the past – yes – two decades. Sadly.

It was a special time for a special console. My partner was pregnant that fall, and we had many evenings where we just sat on the couch and had time to play the new console extensively. But where to start? Sure, even without having played Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West sparked my interest. But more on that another time. I started with little Astro. And guys: what fun! I finished the game in a few hours, but ladies and gentlemen – what fun! You immediately grow fond of the little bot, and it never lets you go. It immediately brought back memories of moments from my childhood and youth that are indelibly etched in my brain. Team Asobi knows its craft. They are masters at triggering my nostalgia without seeming contrived. It all feels like a tribute to the history of Sony’s consoles that is worthy of the consoles and their success. What could possibly follow?

No way.

They’re just taking a few years off and doing it all over again! Only even better! This time, the focus is slightly less (but only slightly) on the cult hardware and more on the characters from the games, which most players associate with warm, nostalgic memories or which they are just discovering for the first time. From Ratchet and Clank to Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake (I have so much catching up to do), Jak and Daxter, Psychomantis, Solid Snake, and Crash Bandicoot to Kratos and Atreus or Aloy. We encounter these beloved characters everywhere in the game. But I’m starting in the middle. Let’s start at the beginning.

The story is somewhat banal, but hey – what Super Mario story isn’t banal? Good. Now that we’ve cleared that up.

A nasty alien in his flying saucer quickly destroys our PS5 spaceship and scatters the important parts across all kinds of planets, with all kinds of levels and all kinds of boss enemies. On top of that, we also lose our flying bots. Three hundred of them. With the pitiful, smoking remains of the ship, Astro crashes on a planet.

So here we are.

Some may see parallels to the Mario Galaxy games, but apart from the general setting, that’s not really appropriate. Whereas Mario Galaxy features tiny, spherical mini-planets, Astro hops and glides across – how best to describe it? – planets and their biosystems that appear to be appropriately large in scale and relation. And my goodness, how beautiful it is! There is something to discover everywhere. Small animals that bring the levels to life. Puzzle pieces that want to be collected. Coins that unlock new collectibles (skins, matching objects for the rescued bots…) in the gacha machine at the “crash site,” and of course the missing bots. There are two types: generic bots, which are just that, generic, and bots that look like the Sony heroes mentioned above. For the big, important (and, from a marketing perspective, highly exploitable for Sony) franchises, there are special levels in which we slip into the metal suits of protagonists such as Nathan Drake or Aloy. The levels are fairly easy, but you have to keep your eyes peeled to find all the hidden bots and advance further in the game. Another neat feature are the super cute little helpers that add some spice to the gameplay in many levels. There’s a dog that lets us dash forward with force, or a chicken that lets us do something similar vertically – with a little less force – or a frog(?) that gives us boxing gloves to turn all kinds of level parts and enemies into scrap metal.

So far, so 3D jump ‘n’ run.

Due to my limited time, I played a few planets every now and then in the evenings over the course of a few months. After about two-thirds of the game, I made a discovery: there are secret levels! And WOW! They’re great! Some levels are completely voxel-based, which I really like (even though Minecraft completely passed me by), while others are a bit harder to actually crack. Again: WOW, that was fun! There are several such levels scattered throughout the galaxies, once you’ve found them. These additional levels kept me glued to the screen for many more hours. I also have a soft spot for difficult platformers like Celeste or The Messenger, or classics like Mega Man X. These challenging levels completely satisfied that need.

Note to self: Google and watch Astro Bot 100% speedrun.

Another aspect of the game that should not be overlooked is the sound. What I could have done without, however, is the sound coming from the controller. I would have preferred to hear it through my headphones. But it doesn’t really bother me. It’s a gimmick, and I wonder how it affects the already limited battery life of the DualSense controller. That reminds me: I should check if it can be turned off. The volume is definitely adjustable.

Like the red carpet on Oscar night in February, the game rolls out this brightly colored soundtrack in front of me. The melodies are bursting with fun and masterfully underscore the mood of the game. If you listen closely, you can even understand what is being sung in the songs, because in addition to the driving melodies, they often have reasonably funny lyrics. Astro also constantly chirps and whistles away, commenting on what is happening around him. The fun for the ears is in no way inferior to that for the eyes.

Once all parts of the spaceship have been collected and enough bots are back on board, the end of the game begins. A final boss battle that truly lives up to its name in terms of visual spectacle brings the story to a touching conclusion. While playing, I found myself repeatedly letting out loud cheers and comments. This happened again and one last time in the final story sequence. It was a “You can’t be serious?!”

With that, I can only recommend this game, which was named Game of the Year 2024 at the Game Awards in Los Angeles. If you don’t have a PS5, then now is the time to think about getting one. This game is so incredibly simple and honest fun. I really felt transported back to a childlike joy that usually only Nintendo titles can achieve. Nothing in this game feels grindy, nothing wants to pull your hard-earned money out of your wallet. It’s a game that, at this scale, is almost out of this world. No service aspect and no microtransactions.

Bravo, Team Asobi!