2024 | Team Asobi | Playstation 5
When the Playstation 5 released, it came pre-installed with Astro’s Playroom. A showcase of the consoles features wrapped in an adorable new mascot. It was like finding Alex Kidd already inside the Sega Master System. A rare treat! Astro’s Playroom was a sales pitch for the system, but it was also the sound of the horn that signaled the march of one of the most delightful modern 3D platformers I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. This was my second time going for a full completion on Astro Bot. My mission; Find all the Bots, complete all the challenges. Now, no longer just a demo for the console, but a celebration of 30 years of Playstation.
Team Asobi has been around the block as an internal team at Japan Studio since 2012, formed by Nicolas Doucet. Their first release was the pre-downloaded game Playroom in 2013. This title was made to demonstrate the Playstation 4’s camera and the —then— new DualShock 4 controller. A follow-up to this was made to demonstrate the Playstation VR when it released in 2016. Both these titles featured mini-games featuring the little robot for which the studio would later become known. 2018’s Astro Bot: Rescue Mission was developed as a fully fleshed out game, based on one of Playroom’s mini-games. Rescue Mission combines platforming with some excellent VR implementation to create a phenomenal experience. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission released to critical acclaim and was the start of a brand-new series, and a brand-new mascot for both Team Asobi and Playstation.
Astro’s Playroom was, much like Playroom before it, a technical —yet playful — showcase of the Playstation 5’s capabilities. It not only showed that Team Asobi was here to stay, but also the incredibly tactile demonstration of the new DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. The game itself is designed around the various components of the new console, and each of the four worlds is themed after the GPU, SSD storage, the cooling, and the memory, with the CPU serving as a HUB. Astro’s Playroom was one of the last games to release under Japan Studios before their dissolution in 2021. Team Asobi continued as a first party developer under Playstation Studios, with the addition of a lot of developers that worked under Japan Studio.
Astro Bot would be the third game to release in the Astro Bot series, and would be the second game developed by Team Asobi that wasn’t a technical showcase. The game was also the first one releasing after the disbanding of Japan Studio. Upon its release in 2024, Astro Bot became the highest rated game of the year, as well as sweeping nearly every award under the sun. Astro Bot showed that the team could put playful in “Asobi” with an incredible showcase of 3D platforming, as well as a brilliant extension of all the features from Astro’s Playroom.
To explore new galaxies, strange new worlds, to boldly collect bots where no bot has gone before. When Astro and his crew are exploring space, they find themselves bullied by the aptly named Space Bully Nebulax, who tears the ship apart. Our brave captain finds himself crash landed on a desert planet with one goal; Find the pieces of the ship (all resembling parts of the Playstation 5). Alongside his trusty DualSense shaped Dual Speeder, Astro sets out on a journey through 6 galaxies to find the missing bots and ship parts. So, the game throws a whopping 90 levels at you to explore. As well as a neat selection of free post-launch DLC stages for your enjoyment and challenge.
Each planet that you find in the galaxies is a stage waiting for you to tackle. Much like the previous games in the series, each stage has a number of Bots that you have to rescue as well as a few puzzle pieces. The stages required to finish the game aren’t the most challenging, but that doesn’t make it less fun. Each new level gives you a new playground to discover. This is where Astro Bot shines like a bright star in a black sky. The game then cordially invites you to jump, spin and run around the playground with reckless abandon.
Astro Bot has a rather simplistic control scheme, with some of the buttons offering some contextual tools for you to use. You can jump and hover with the X button, but also attack with a spin that you can charge up for a longer spin when pressing square. Some stages offer power-ups in the form of backpacks, that give Astro different moves to utilize with R2. These range from a bulldog that propels Astro forward, a monkey that allows you to climb stuff using the controller’s gyroscope, a sponge that makes you kaiju sized when absorbing water, and quite a few others. Alongside these power-ups you’ll also stumble across stages based on classic Playstation franchises. The Ape Escape stage being a particular favorite. You get to dress up as Spike as you run around the stage to chase down the escaped apes.
The rather simple approach to controlling Astro also gives the game a tremendous amount of room to play around with its design. With the right mindset every platform can become a new shortcut to shave off a few seconds. Astro Bot very naturally steers you into a mindset of wanting to complete stages as fast and smooth as possible, and that’s one of its biggest strengths. It’s downright addicting to slide across the ice, hopping and sliding with, what feels like, perfect precision. The main game doesn’t really come across as meant to be challenging, but the actual challenge stages can pose a significant mountain to climb. These stages unlock when you explore the galaxy overworld at specific parts of the game. These are generally shorter, but much more difficult to complete. Luckily, these are optional and not required to complete the game, but not completing them does make you miss out on some extra special appearances.
At the end of each of the galaxies waits a boss stage, where you get to face off against giant enemies for you to brutalize. After beating one of these bosses you unlock a stage specifically designed around one of Playstation’s franchises. There’s a level that allows you to cosplay as Nathan Drake from Uncharted, complete with a 3rd person shooter mechanic specifically designed for that stage. On top of that it also plays an upbeat version of Nathan’s theme. One of the other galaxies throws you in the shoes of Kratos. In this stage you get to toy around with the axe from God of War: Ragnarök. Each one of these stages reads as a love letter to one of Sony’s modern classics, with a dash of Loco Roco and Ape Escape at the cherry on top.
The stages aren’t the only cameo appearances, with the collectible bots also showing up in all flavors of retro. Outside of the regular bots that are hidden throughout the stages, you’ll also find cameo bots based on Playstation IP’s throughout history. While the first impression of this makes it seem like they’re mostly focusing on newer titles to reference, a sudden appearance from Legend of Dragoon’s Dart kicks in the door for the more obscure references from Playstation’s history. It felt like I was going down Nostalgia Road at slightly above the speed limit speeds. Which reminds me that I have an Arc the Lad boxset waiting to be played.
Astro Bot is a lovingly designed game that celebrates the history of one of the longest running console platforms. While it obviously has Playstation written all over it, it doesn’t come across as a superfluous form of advertising. Sure, it’s as much of a sales-pitch for the Playstation 5, as it is a loving celebration of what made a lot of the journey to the Playstation 5 so memorable. Astro Bot celebrates 30 years of history with fireworks and fanfare. I absolutely loved playing through this game the first time, and did so the second time as well.
The game controls really smoothly, and zipping across a stage can be a mesmerizing experience. It does help that most of the basics in controlling Astro are delegated to 2 buttons. Playing Astro Bot can be summed up with two words; unparalleled joy. It’s a satisfaction that I can only equate to playing the likes of Super Mario 64. It sparks a joy that is almost childlike. The Master Challenge that unlocks after collecting all the bots is up there with some of my favorite platforming stages along the likes of Dire Dire Docks, Tick Tock Clock, Ninja Gaiden’s 4-2, and pretty much the entirety of Billy Hatcher. It’s rare for me to approach a small segment of a game with unbreakable determination and tenacious focus, but Astro Bot got me good. Not once, but twice! Since I first completed the game at launch, Team Asobi had been hard at work to create new stages that they released for free, which culminates in one Final Encore. A stage of absolute platforming brilliance that took me a good 3 hours to beat.
My biggest critique towards the game is that the difficulty of the bulk of the game can best be described as a leisurely stroll. I would love to see Team Asobi expand upon the more challenging aspects of the game as a full experience. While the platforming isn’t really pushing the player, it does allow for a lot of exploration. Fun is central to the game. With that in mind it does have a little bit for everyone. It is a deeply satisfying game that rollercoasters you through memory lane. It’s a great excuse to revisit some of the franchises of the bots that you can collect!
Now where is that Arc the Lad box?
Rising Blue Lightning/10
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