Astro Bot - Review

When I took home my PlayStation 5, like many I booted up Astro’s Playroom, the free ‘game’ that was designed as showcase of what the PlayStation 5 and its controller could do. However like many gamers, I found true delight with what was on offer, from the catchy music and bright visuals, to the wonderful gameplay, that all combined was more charming than most games ever get. But now here we are some 4 years later and instead of a tech demo, we have a full game. Did the adorable little bot demo all his powers before, or does Astro Bot deliver a high-tech upgrade?

There is a story here, but it is quite thin, Astro Bot and his friends are cruising across the galaxy in a PlayStation 5 themed ship, when suddenly they are attacked. Their ship is broken into by an alien being, who makes off the CPU and knocks the ship of course, which leads to it crashing onto a desert planet. While Astro Bot lands near the ship, hundreds of his bot friends are spread across nearby galaxies and it is up to you to find them, reclaim the stolen pieces of your ship and recover your CPU. The story is pretty basic, it’s a reason to play through all of the levels and that is it, it feels very Mario in a way, there is a set up and a few little story beats during boss fights, but it won’t win any story awards. Even though there are no spoken words or even on screen gibberish here, each time there is a story beat you are going to enjoy something wonderful, thanks to the charming character design and use of animation. It isn’t the first game to do something like this, but it is one of the best.

So if there isn’t much of a story, then the game must shine with its gameplay and you would be right, the gameplay is just perfect. Ok, perfect might not be the right word as I do have a few niggles, but they are more just things that annoyed me, rather than anything that was broken. If you have not played Astro’s Playroom, then you need to the know the basics, Astro Bot can jump, punch and spin attack enemies. When you jump if you hit jump again, little booster lasers appear to give you a little extra height, but also let you float through the air a little more. Occasionally, some levels will provide Astro with extra abilities, like donning a pair of boxing gloves to hit far away enemies or strap a chicken to your back in order to blast upwards. As the stages mix between those that have the powers up and those that don’t, each time you enter a new stage, there is always a little anticipation about what type it might be. Thankfully the stage icons on the map screen do present a nice idea of the theme, like seeing a giant monkey head in ruins, will tell you that stage is more jungle.

Each stage also has a number of bots to locate, some of them are quite easy to spot, some of them are hidden very well and there are even some that are in hidden puzzle rooms. In addition to that, most of the stages have a number of puzzle pieces to locate, with the same location inspiration as the bots, so finding all can be a nice challenge, in addition to finishing the stage. Completing a stage, without collecting everything will get you a blue flag, getting everything nets you a gold one, it is a simple way to know which stages need to be revisited and which are done. Some stages also have hidden exits that take you to a secret world, with even more challenging levels to enjoy, but I will leave that for you to discover. Each world is capped off by a boss fight and then a special world that is themed to an existing PlayStation series. The boss fights are not hard to work out, but will take some skill to conquer, thankfully unlike every other stage, you can take a few hits before you restart here, which should help younger players. The PlayStation special stages are just insanely fun, think of them as mini versions of worlds you might know, just with an Astro Bot overlay. As for what they are, I will not say, so as to avoid spoiling anything for players.

When you are not in a stage, you can head back to the crash site to return the found bots to the pack and spend your coins on some things. As you collect puzzle pieces you will fill in slots on boards, which will unlock things for your little space, like a gacha machine or some retheming booths. While the latter two are more cosmetic, the gacha is more around getting little accessories for your found bots, at least the ones that are themed to a character. There are a host of characters included here, if Astro’s Playroom was a love letter to the PlayStation hardware, then Astro Bot is the love letter to the games. Most of the bots are easy to spot like Spike from Ape Escape or Nathan Drake from Uncharted, but some are going to be harder to guess for some folks. The gacha machine will reward you will new outfits for you to wear, paint jobs for your personal ship and the previously mentioned items. Once you have unlocked them you can visit the bot in the crash site to see them take advantage of their new accessory, like seeing the Nathan Drake bot playing a PlayStation whilst on a couch.

For all that the game does that is charming, they do have some issues, one of which is motion controls. Now they don’t appear in the game all the time, but when they do, it can feel out of place, especially if you are not expecting it. There was one fight where I had to use motion controls and it did not line up just right, which made for an awkward encounter, which is a shame. The other issues I had were mostly just down to the cheap one hit kill that Astro Bot has, this is not new, but it is still annoying and really becomes noticeable in the shaped challenge levels, looking at you X stages.

While the gameplay is incredibly good most of the time, the games presentation is just top notch across the board. I mentioned earlier how the animation is just superb and it is not just in cutscenes, the levels are loaded with touches like that as well. There was one stage where I discovered two enemy bots just relaxing by the beach, they didn’t chase after me, just them enjoying each other’s company. Almost all the stages had something like that going on, where the bots were just doing their own thing, usually stopping when I got within range. The enemy bot design carries over from the past games, including the VR one, so a lot of what you are going to see might feel familiar. However the familiarity is not an issue as there are some new designs here and they fit very well, with what has come before. The good bots are generally either the plain white look or a themed character bot and all are delightful to interact with. There are a few special bots like a Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon that look a little out of place, but they are still charming enough.

The stages of course are full of style and while some are just connected islands, sometimes floating in the sky, most are cohesive landscapes filled with secrets to find. Something I did appreciate was that none of them take place in a void, you might be on a building site themed stage in the clouds, but there are also buildings around you that make it look like just one of many. The boss fight stages are much shorter, often designed to feed you into the fight and for that purpose they work, but they are not the shortest ones around. That honour goes to the challenge stages that you can unlock that are built out of cubes, akin to 3D Dot Game Heroes, they are very short but full of colour, so no real complaints.

The games sound is just as wonderful as the rest of it, save for a few songs that have lyrics that are almost impossible to understand. For the music without words they fit the world they are in perfectly and those PlayStation special stages, the music is sublime. The reason why I don’t like the songs with words is that they are just too mumbled to be understood, it isn’t the electronic speech that is the problem, it is just impossible to understand what is being said. Honestly though, the music is great and when paired with the vibrant visuals, it makes for an enjoyable experience.

Astro Bot is a game I knew I would enjoy going into it, but I didn’t realise how much. I can honestly say it is the most Nintendo game ever made by someone not Nintendo, that is just how much fun I had with it. With plenty of secrets to find, special levels to unlock and an insane final stage, there is fun to be had no matter your age and that is what makes this one incredible game.

The Score

9.5

Review code provided by PlayStation

The Pros

There is such love to many PlayStation games, it feels like the ultimate love letter, wrapped inside of a fantastic platformer

The game looks and sounds great, from the opening moments to the final credits

The Cons

Sometimes the motion control segments don’t work as flawlessly as they should

Some of the songs with words are very hard to understand