Astronomical.
“Can I watch this one?” my 8-year-old daughter called from the doorway. Expecting my usual response of “sorry, mate, this one’s for grown-ups,” her eyes lit up when I welcomed her in. “ As she sat down, she asked why I was playing a kids’ game; seeing her eyes fixated on the screen and hearing the occasional, “aww that’s so cute,” escaping her grinning face as I found yet another little robot, I didn’t bother answering her. Anything I said from that moment on was guaranteed to go in one ear and out the other.
On the surface, Astro Bot is a fairly standard 3D platformer featuring all the tropes. You’ll visit four main zones featuring, at minimum, nine levels each along with hidden levels in each zone, plus an additional separate hidden zone. While the primary goal is of course to get from point A to B in order to complete a level, the generous dusting of collectibles neatly tied into progression will have you searching high and low for hundreds of little robots which, in many instances, are ingeniously hidden across the universe.
While exploring the universe, Astro and his hundreds of buddies ran into a nasty alien which stole parts of their mothership causing it to crash on a deserted planet. Naturally Astro is tasked with recovering the missing ship components yet in order to do so, and in order to progress he also needs to rescue a minimum number of his mates. It’s standard fare from here: complete levels, find collectibles, defeat bosses.
What stands out in Astro Bot though is the product placement: Astro’s mothership is a PS5. He flies from level to level sitting on a jet powered dual sense controller and so on and so forth. As was the case in Astro’s Playroom, in the later stages of the game more Sony products make appearances from old memory cards to PSPs.
There’s two ways one could look at this. Is this a celebration of the history of Sony’s gaming legacy? Or is it just blatant self-serving product placement? I’m on the fence regarding how I feel about it. This publication’s experience (or lack thereof) with Sony over the past few years has admittedly left me somewhat jaded about its general attitude towards marketing, giving me reason to think the product placement in Astro Bot is less about paying homage to Sony’s history and more about self-promotion. Days Gone director John Garvin certainly thinks it’s the latter.
I’d even go to the extent of calling what’s presented cringeworthy if it wasn’t for two factors. The first being that Astro, and the world of Astro Bot, is so damn adorable. The second being that if you take away the specific Sony product placement, Astro Bot includes such loving tributes to so many PlayStation affiliated games, in both character and level designs.
As you go through the motions of completing levels, as stated you’ll be searching for little robots. While many of them are generically styled and look quite similar to Astro, a surprising number of them are dressed up as characters from other Sony exclusive or affiliated games. Characters from Metal Gear, Horizon, God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Demon Souls and more make an appearance.
“Why are you laughing Dad?” my daughter asked at one point. “You see that robot? She looks just like Aloy from my game about the robot dinosaurs!” These little moments occur very frequently as you play through Astro Bot. Literally each one will elicit, at the very least, a little internal spark of joy.
But it’s more than just a few skins thrown on some robots to make them look familiar that makes Astro Bot so fun. Several levels in Astro Bot are entirely dedicated to specific PlayStation exclusive titles and it’s clear these have been designed with love. The God of War level arms Astro with a Leviathan Axe which is thrown and returns on command, and the level even borrows specific puzzle-solving mechanics from the series.
A Horizon Zero Dawn level has Astro climbing up a Tallneck and using a bow and arrow along with Aloy’s slow down mechanic allowing extra time to aim at targets. As a long-time fan of many of these games, I found myself exploring these tribute levels and appreciating all the tiny Easter-egg-like details scattered throughout. It’s all this that really makes Astro Bot a joy to play. These little micro moments of fun that will make you chuckle for just a second as you work your way through the levels in search of bots.
That said, for the levels that are a little more standard in nature; to keep things interesting, Astro is often powered up with backpacks that grant him level-specific abilities. These, of course, tie-in to how a level is played or traversed. In a casino-themed level, a stopwatch powerup slows down time, allowing you turn fast moving projectiles into the platforms necessary to reach new areas. A chicken-shaped jetpack launches Astro to great heights, sometimes bursting him through ceilings above him.
In my personal favourite, Astro is transformed into a literal sponge. In sponge form, soaking up water makes him huge thus enabling him to destroy anything in his path. Ringing himself out, on the other hand, spews water ahead of him which is used to extinguish fire-based obstacles. The list goes on well beyond what’s described here and it’s all worth seeing for yourself. These little changes in the gameplay mechanics from level to level keep things interesting and make excellent use of the detailed vibration and haptic triggers in the DualSense controller.
But if after reading about all the cuteness, all the tributes and even the ever-changing game mechanics you still aren’t convinced Astro Bot is for you, it’s worth considering the difficulty of the game. While lives are unlimited and checkpoints are incredibly forgiving, most levels will result in a death or two as you progress. They’re challenging enough to test younger gamers without driving them mental and platforming sections are very forgiving. Though each world features a number of incredibly challenging, yet optional mini-levels which have no checkpoints and are clearly designed for speed running.
While the kids can be left to their own devices for the main line levels and they will succeed, these mini-levels — themed by the four shapes of the PlayStation face buttons — will have young players calling out to their parents or older siblings to help them get through it. From a challenge perspective, there’s literally something for everyone in Astro Bot.
The amount of dedication and passion that’s gone into Astro Bot is obvious in every pixel of every texture; there’s not a single bug, glitch, or texture issue to be seen. Its controls are easy to understand and incredibly tight, with Astro moving exactly how you need him to. In the 15 hours I’ve spent so far in finishing its campaign and going back to replay levels to pick up missing Bots, I’ve not encountered a single moment of frustration. It’s beautifully designed both in its self-contained levels and those dedicated to much-loved, Sony-exclusive franchises.
Astro Bot was reviewed using a retail disc on PS5, as purchased by the author. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale and why our Sony first-party reviews come after a title’s launch date.
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Astro Bot6 SeptemberPS5
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