Items from the gacha machine fill the hub world out further, and it soon becomes an interactive monument to PlayStation history. These special cameo bots are rescued from the galaxies’ main boss fights, which are a real highlight of the experience. Like https://hm88.cafe/ 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.
Chocolate death pipes and fizzy lifting drinks are instead swapped out for sinkholes leading to treasure and an inflatable friend who helps you reach floating platforms. Astro is revived by his Dual Speeder, a smaller spaceship resembling the DualSense controller, and together they begin reactivating satellites and exploring galaxies to rescue the crew and rebuild the mothership. Along the way, he rescues V.I.P. Bots (guest characters from other games) and explores planets based on Ape Escape, God of War, Uncharted, LocoRoco, and Horizon. Each one of these colorful worlds is crafted with meticulous detail and creativity. The Sponge appears in the Bathhouse Battle stage of Astro Bot and has similar powers to the Elephant.
I remembered why games were so important to me growing up and how they shaped my creativity. Naysayers will say that no childhood memory comes from sitting in front of a TV, but that was never true for me. Unlike ASTRO’s Playroom, ASTRO BOT is a standalone, full-sized adventure that offers over four times more worlds, 300 bots to rescue and dozens of new powers and features to discover. In Spring-LoadedRun, you will strap on your twin frog boxing gloves and traverse a sunken city ruins. Punch rolling barrels, swing over daring gaps, and pummel your way to the top of the tower to rescue the special bots.
There are even more surprises to be found, but players will have to discover those for themselves. Scattered across its intergalactic world are literally hundreds of hidden bots for Astro to find. A good chunk of these are PlayStation/gaming-themed, making them more than just a simple collectible to discover. While 3D platformers are not necessarily considered the most technically demanding genre, Astro Bot takes those sorts of preconceived notions and jettisons them into the vastness of space. Getting bigger is great, but shrinking down leads to some better creativity in the level’s design. From hopping around tiny mushrooms to grinding on clotheslines, Downsize Surprise overall is a delightful level thanks to the Mouse power-up and unfortunately, Astro Bot doesn’t feature it as much as it should.
I’ll open a chest and there will be lumps of gold rolling around at the bottom. In one completely dazzling level I was given a magnet, and soon I was vacuuming up metal bars by the dozen and spray cans by the hundreds, all ready to form a bait ball I could fling at a distant target. As of writing, there is no information regarding the game receiving a PC version.
And of course, with a new set of challenge levels comes a whole bunch of new VIP Bots. We know that Ghost of Yotei’s Atsu is joining the crew, but the rest are being kept as a surprise for now. Considering how requested they’ve been for some time now, and after Astro Bot’s director kind of hinted that they might still be added, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some Final Fantasy characters finally get in on the fun. Everything is beautifully designed and laid out so that players can have the best experience possible. That’s the magic of Astro Bot, because even though the levels are linear, gamers will want to explore every nook and cranny to see every detail possible.
And while it is fun to go around and interact with the bots here, there is a small chance that you will recognize every single one of them. If I have one complaint about the game it is that the record keeping system that keeps track of the bots collected, does not break down who the special bots are and the game(s) they are from. Team Asobi clearly designed it for players of all skill levels, and that includes children and newbies, but at its core Astro Bot feels purpose-built for video game fans. It’s a skill-driven celebration of everything that makes the format so memorable and joyful, and at the same time, it’s an excellent introduction to the language of games.
Members of Team ASOBI discuss what it takes to make a platformer feel good. Watch Episode 1, and continue the Astro journey with the 5-episode behind the scenes series. These powers give ASTRO weird and wonderful ways to explore planets and battle his enemies. With your new powers, battle out a whole new roster of quirky baddies and huge bosses.
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I grudged having to play through my most anticipated game of the year before getting to play more Astro Bot – that’s how good this game is. Like Stephen has mentioned, this is an endlessly inventive title that joyously plays around with the level design, the mechanics, and the themes of every level. There are enough ideas in Astro Bot to fill a dozen regular games. The power-ups flesh out Astro’s move set which, on its own, is fairly simplistic. However, while his range of moves isn’t particularly deep, they’re executed excellently.
It really shows what the DualSense can do like no other game before it. The image quality is superb, showing off the vibrant and detailed worlds wonderfully. While it doesn’t have the graphical heft of other first-party titles, it’s incredibly visually pleasing thanks to clean, consistent art direction. On top of that is silky smooth 60 frames-per-second performance, with not one hitch spotted in all our time playing. Oh, and special mention must be made for the soundtrack, which is just excellent throughout. Astro Bot also manages to find the right balance of difficulty.
Whatever you call them, they’re made much more reachable thanks to our Astro Bot collectibles guide, which reveals an in-game mechanic that allows you to track down hidden cameo bots with ease. It’s not the only hidden in-game mechanic either, as you can unlock a secret photo mode in Astro Bot, too. 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.
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It’s pretty worthwhile and honestly a lot of fun to reap sweet rewards from your treasure hunting. While it may seem simple enough, there are a lot of things to do in the over fifty levels Astro Bot has to offer. Check every corner, hit every object or look below every platform and you may find a secret cord or passageway to a Puzzle Piece, Bot or even a Vortex to a secret world! The biggest evolution of the cameo characters, however, is that four of them will actually lend you their weapons, which Astro needs to use in stages specifically designed for each one. When Astro boops his head on an impassable ceiling, he makes the sweetest little flinching motion.
Astro Bot is technically the fifth entry in the Astro universe, though it’s the series’ first fully fledged — and fully priced — installment. Astro Bot takes ideas from these earlier titles and compiles them into a focused 3D platformer with dozens of main worlds, a bevy of additional unlockable planets and a wide range of satisfying mechanics. On top of this, the robot protagonists are super cute in every situation. The fact that some of the characters and settings in Astro Bot are recognizable from popular video games only makes the whole thing sweeter. Astro Bot is rolling back the years, not only shining a light on 30 years of PlayStation history through a ton of cameos and level design tributes, but by putting platformers back at gaming’s pinnacle.
Bursting to the seams with charm, Astro Bot is an inventive, nostalgia-fuelled platformer of the highest order. ASTRO BOT is the award-winning, critically acclaimed platforming adventure, exclusive to PlayStation®5. Blast across more than 50 vibrant planets, discover new powers, and team up with iconic PlayStation heroes in a galaxy-spanning journey full of fun and surprises.
Subsequent stages — Thrust or Bust, Cock-A-Doodle-Doom, Hard to Bear, and Armored Hardcore — will be available each following Thursday at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK. AR Bots make their debut in The Playroom, where they appear in the activity AR Bots, which was named after them. When free, they waddle around the room aimlessly at various speeds. Pressing down on the touchpad activates a vacuum that can bring the AR Bots back inside. AR Bots also appear in the downloadable activity Ninja Bots, where one playable AR Bot appears. Astro Bot is the most recent entry in the Astro Bot series and was released in 2024 for the PlayStation 5 in celebration of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary.