Astro Bot-Review

If you haven’t played Astro Bot at this point, I have to wonder why. Astro Bot is one of the best platformers on the PS5…ever. As good as Sackboy’s Big Adventure was, I have to say, platforming on Playstation, or any console for that matter, hasn’t felt his good and been this fun in a loooong time. Astro Bot is the platformer we’ve been wanting to see on Playstation since it’s creation.

Platforming has always been one of those genre’s where it feels easy to hit the “Good” mark but hard to hit “Great.” Even “Very Good” is much more attainable than “Great” when we think about platformers. For example- Sackboy’s Big Adventure? Very good. New Super Mario Bros Wii? Very good. But they never quite hit the level of a great platformer. You know, I was seven once. And when I was seven, we had Super Mario Galaxy. I was also ten at one point and when I was ten, we had Super Mario Galaxy 2. Those were great platformers. Probably the last “GREAT” platformers (Little Big Planet 1-3 would be right there though). Until…Astro Bot.

Astro Bot gets everything about a platformer right. The level design is varied and interesting, the powerups are fun and meaningful, the combat elements don’t take themselves too seriously, but are robust and most importantly of all, the movement feels great. Jumping, hovering and punching all feel very natural and intuitive in this game. Sure, once in a blue moon there’s you may encounter a slightly annoying mechanic (controller tilt: cough cough) but for the most part, this game is an absolute joy to play.

So what is Astro Bot about? Who is Astro-Bot? What’s our goal? Well, Astro Bot is set in this sort of meta-Playstation universe, with anthromorphic Playstations and hardware that are all aligned and Astro-bot(s) are the largest demographic within that group of Playstation and Playstation associated products. It sounds weird- and it kind of is. But when you see it, it makes a lot more sense. It’s not really going for deep or complex. This is an advertisment, a tribute and a FLEX from Sony.

Who is Astro-Bot? Well, he’s THE Astro-Bot. The one you play is. It’s really that simple. But since he’s the main character, he has the most agency and so he’s THE Astro-Bot who has to save all the other Astro-bots.

What is going on? Basically, Astro (that’s you!), the captain of the Astro-bots and his crew (of Astro-bots) are exploring the galaxy when they are attacked by Space Bully Nebulax, an alien who looks like someone slapped green Jell-o on a UFO. Nebulax rips out a bunch of components of their ship (it’s a big PS5) and sends them careening towards a desert planet. In the process, Astro’s crew and the PS5 components are spread out across the galaxy. Astro wakes up, assesses the situation and gets exploring.

Your primary goal in Astro-Bot is to reclaim the things you’ve lost at the beginning. That means fixing your ship and finding your crew. Unfortunately, they’re spread out all over the universe. Luckily, they’re super fun to find. Astro-Bot has five galaxies, each with around 8-12 missions. In about six or seven of these missions, there will be seven bots you can find, as well as 3 puzzle pieces. You can also find secret exits from levels that will unlock a level in a secret galaxy, which is referred to as the Lost Galaxy.

These bots are spread out across the levels, some tucked away, some right in front of you, some right in front of you but also tucked away. It’s a refreshing change of pace from jumping and punching and it fits perfectly into the gameplay loop. Astro-Bot is full of puzzles but they never feel frustrating or tedious, nor are they too easy. They’re a great balance that lets you use your platforming skills, your powerups, your curiosity and at the end of it all you feel like you achieved something. And the best part is that when you get back to your home base, you know achieved something, because that bot will be there, at your command.

Yes. The desert planet functions as your hub-world/home base/lounge, whatever you call it. Officially, it’s called the Hub. It’s where all your bots will go, it’s where your ship is and all your collectibles are stored. It’s not a new concept, obviously, but it’s beautifully executed in this game. The hub-world feels vibrant and alive. There’s a sense of calm, with the desert animals hanging around and the warm sun, but there’s also a vibe of “work to be done.” Bots building ladders to start repairing the mothership, bots training for combat. It gives a sense of purpose and gently reminds you of your mission. You’ve got to fix your ship, you’ve got to rescue your crew, one bot at a time. And every bot you rescue helps your case.

There’s four small zones around the Hub that are accessible by collecting bots. Once you collect enough to access it, they’ll form a passage for you. I like this little touch as it gives a reason for needing that number of bots. It doesn’t feel arbitrary. You need, let’s say, 100 bots because you need a 3x33 configuration to reach the entrance of the zone. It’s smart and it gives your bots a purpose.

These zones contain additional bots and puzzle pieces, which also utilize your bots to access. It really makes you feel as if you are leading a team. The zones are generally all different environments as well. There’s a jungle zone, a icy winter zone, a desert zone and a desert temple zone (slightly redundant, but it plays.)

But the Hub is also a lot of fun in general. Throughout Astro-Bot, you collect plain jane normal Bots, but you also get themed Playstation IP bots. Such as Ratchet-Bot or a Lara Croft-Bot or a Nathan Drake-Bot. There’s a bunch of them and they each have themed items and interactions that can be unlocked by spending coins you collect throughout your travels at the Gatcha Lab. “What is the Gatcha Lab?” you ask. Well, it’s like a claw machine that has like 4/5 chance to give you an item that will appear in your hub with one of your characters.

For example, Nathan Drake has a video game console, Lara Croft has a dinosaur that chases her. The Chef-Bot gets his own cooking station. You get the idea. It’s fun little stuff like that. Not essential, but it’s what you use your coins for. You might think it’s frivolous and maybe it is. But it really does add a lot of life to the Hub.

The Gatcha Lab is one of the Hub rewards you get from collecting puzzle pieces. Other ones include the Changing Room, where you can change your outfit, the Dual Speeder Garage, where you can change your ship’s paintjob and my favorite, the Safari Park.

The Safari Park is basically an mini nature reserve where you can go play with all the cool (and cute) creatures you run into during your journey. There’s little slices of each biome and it’s a very peaceful and joyous place. It’s pictured up above if you want a look.

The Safari Park highlights one of the biggest strengths of Astro-Bot- it’s beautiful environments. The world design here is stunning. Lush and playful jungles, gorgeous, vibrant underwater locales, wind-blown deserts, spooky castles and rain-swept archipelagos- theses are just some of the amazing areas you’ll encounter in Astro-Bot. Astro-Bot is also as measured as it is extravagant, knowing which settings play well across multiple levels and which ones are best kept as one hit wonders. For example, the casino in “Slo-Mo Casino” or the pyramid from “Hiero-Glitch Pyramid” work best as single level settings. Their gimmick shouldn’t be drawn out or it would be too much. But other locations, such as the spooky castle, are used multiple times, with a lot of different powerups.

Just like Super Mario Galaxy and Little Big Planet, Astro Bot revels in creating locales that are quirky and playful. The level “Luna Sola”, takes place in this playhouse style castle that has “day” and “night” switches that flip the area. “Creamy Canyon” takes us to a desert themed snowy area (or is it frosting?” “Orbital Blitz” is thrilling space romp where you navigate asteroids and satelites in route to a boss battle with a UFO. “Trapped In Time” takes place in a massive sand timer-esque glass dome. “Cannon Brawl” is pirate-volcano area, a combo I’ve never seen and it’s actually a brilliant area, with ships wrecked in lava and peg-leg metal robot.

Boss battles are fun and while not very complex, they’re often challenging and unlike other parts of the game, offer you multiple lives, though as a tradeoff, there’s no checkpoints. The bosses function like most bosses in platformers like this, forcing you to use powerups, dodge carefully and often throwing additional enemies to complicate the whole process. Some of my favorites were Lady Venomara, a massive python type bot, Mecha-Leon, a giant lizard whose rapidfire attacks force you to slow down time and Captain Short-Fuse, a mecha-pirate who’s submerged in lava.

The boss sections don’t reinvent the wheel, but they are engaging and offer a fun changeup to the normal story missions. Though they definitely share DNA with bosses of platformers past, Astro-Bot’s robust roster of powerups ensure that these bosses each have some unique quirks which make them stand out from your usual run, jump and punch gameplay loop. For example, Mighty Chewy tries to sweep you off the building of the rood you fight him by sliding entire walls across it, forcing you to use the Bulldog Dash powerup to break through. Mecha-Leon makes you use the Slo-Mo Watch to dodge his attacks or you’ll be toast. Falcon McFly pecks at you with his enormous beak and forces you to use the Samurai Ball ability (a powerup that allows you to turn into a rolly polly style metal ball) to deflect his attacks.

In general, one of Astro Bot’s strengths is that there’s always something to do and that includes side levels, which exist in three forms. There are your traditional side levels, the Lost Galaxy leveles and then there are button themed challenge run missions. The traditional type side levels are really fun. They’re typically short and focus on some precise mechanic from a primary level. For example, you might might have a rematch against a boss you fought earlier or you might or you might have to deal with a challenging set of enemies or, my favorite, you might have to roll a ball across a spike laden, topsy turvy challenge course. These missions usually come with only one bot that you recieve at the end, but they are a great change of pace and let you have more fun with some of Astro Bot’s more niche mechanics and powerups.

The Lost Galaxy levels are also pretty cool. Splitting the difference between primary and secondary levels, these are usually shorter than primary levels, often only a couple of rooms, but they are chocked full of bots and puzzle pieces relative to their size. They also each have some sort of unique powerup and mechanic you will need to navigate the mission. For example, you might find yourself using the Illuminating Lightbulbs, which reveal hidden platforms, but instead of only using it for a short section, you will use it for almost every sequence. Whereas before you only encountered a few player triggered vents, here you might find a whole level built around them. Similar to the other secondary levels, these make for fun changeups and also expand the scope of Astro Bot’s simple but rich game loop.

The Button Themed side levels are a different vibe entirely. Though technically short, don’t expect to get through these too quickly. Some of them are really tough because you have to play in a way you normally don’t, prioritizing speed and precision over exploration.. There’s no checkpoints and this is high octane platforming that often requires speed, timing and touch. Unlike the other levels, you can’t be sloppy here with your jumps. Everything takes place in space, which means slip and you’re dead and the platforming sequences presented here are the hardest parts of the game.

And the nature of these levels means that you’ll likely be dying at least once whenever you encounter a new part of the sequence as you never can really predict what’s coming next and even if you could, you’d best be focusing on what’s happening right in front of you. The precise nature of these levels make one misstep punishing and forces you to perfect a routine or simply get lucky to get by. Still, they are a lot of fun once you understand what you signed up for and beating these provides the biggest rush in the game. The more challenging, perilous nature of these levels makes them rewarding in a different way than the happy go-lucky primary missions. It’s just one more example of the well rounded scope of Astro Bot. It may be a platformer at it’s core but it’s got plenty of variety to keep gamers engaged.

What really impressed me most about Astro Bot was how it recreated the magic of older classic platformers while also carving out it’s own unique identity. It may at times remind of you of Super Mario Galaxy or Little Big Planet, but at no point does it feel like an imitation. It simply had tapped into the joy and creativity that fuels those same platformers and it was clear from the first mission. Astro Bot isn’t just one of the best platformers of the year, it’s one of the best games of the year.

When I first booted up Astro’s Playroom so many years ago (realistically only like 4), I was skeptical of how a new PlayStation platforming IP might pan out if elevated and frankly, while I came away impressed with Astro’s Playroom, I wasn’t sure how it translate to a full length entry. Could that relatively small slice of platforming magic really be the foundation for something bigger? Something better? Well, we have our answer.

Astro Bot only only clears the bar, but it arguably sets a new one. Perhaps the best platformer of the last 10 years and it refines classic platforming elements while bringing it’s own creative ideas and unique charm. I used to question if I would ever see a game like this on Playstation. But now, it’s clear that Playstation has not only found the best new platforming IP of the next decade-it’s produced one of the greatest platforming games of all time. Astro Bot is one for the history books. It’s a game we will be talking about for decades.