Aside from a lack of Final Fantasy representation, Astro Bot pays its respects to several generations of formative games. A handful of excellent stages even go one step further by paying tribute to some key games themselves — expect gaming history nerds to go positively feral over them. What elevates that beyond a bit of throwback nostalgia is that developer Team Asobi may be the most skilled studio working today when it comes down to game feel.

As this more mature stream of gaming culture evolved, cutesy mascot characters and the 3D platformers they called home became less and less common. When Microsoft entered the industry with the Xbox in 2001, Halo’s Master Chief instantly shaped the console’s image. Microsoft’s purchase of Rare, a studio that had created platformers with mascot-like characters for Nintendo, almost seemed like an afterthought. When the PS5 launched, it included a free game called Astro’s Playroom. g28 worked as an effective tech demo, starring Astro, for the PS5’s multifaceted (and heavily underutilized) DuelSense controller. It also provided a look back at previous PlayStation releases, including beloved characters and hardware of varying popularity.

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There is, for instance, a God of War stage – I don’t want to spoil the others, most of which I liked even more, but Kratos has appeared in marketing materials thus far so I felt like the best choice for showing an example. Really, the whole game feels as if it were created to push as much ‘stuff’ as possible. Objects break, give and collect in huge numbers lending the game world a tremendous amount of life. As you rescue bots, for instance, they gather on the game’s central planet and the engine has zero trouble displaying all of them at once. You can recruit them to help you out and it’s a joy watching them all gather in huge numbers.

All of this is to say that Astro Bot’s four Game Awards victories, including the coveted Game of the Year Award, are more than deserved. Team Asobi releases a new update for Astro Bot, adding the final level and cameo from the previously announced Vicious Void Galaxy DLC. The game’s popularity has continued well into this year, after becoming one of the surprise hits of 2024. Not only has Astro Bot claimed a bunch of industry awards and game of the year titles, but it continues to keep players coming back with new DLC levels as well.

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Yet they never fall into the trap so many platformers do of cranking the difficulty up way beyond reasonable levels and changing the game’s essence. Astro Bot can be punishingly difficult, especially the final gauntlet once you have every collectible in hand, but it never feels unfair. If you missed it when it first launched in September, Astro Bot is a charming adventure game that mixes beautifully designed levels with fun platforming gameplay. 3D action platformers have many ways to keep their players engaged long after defeating the final boss.

The contrast between Astro Bot and Concord this week alone is absolutely wild. A whirl of bots to rescue, of loving Playstation references, of deep cuts like Ape Escape and more recent stars, who get outings I don’t really want to ruin. It’s boss fights when you expected them and boss fights when you absolutely didn’t. There are jokes about tech demo ducks in here, then, but there’s also the sense the whole thing is, on some level, a huge tech demo. It’s a sustained tech demo, one that never runs out of new wonders to show you, new marvels to fling at you and swiftly discard. Previous Astro Bot games have been employed to showcase new bits of kit.

Because of that, Astro does not have anything new that he can try to repair across multiple galaxies. Additionally, the celebration of the PlayStation brand may get stale after two entries do the same exact thing. Team Asobi will need to come up with something different if it wants to capture audiences again, but if it is too different, then it may not excite the fanbase in the same way. Doucet made clear that, while Astro Bot may expand beyond PS5, it won’t return to the robot’s roots on PSVR.

There are optional challenge levels that open up later on, however, for anyone who might be craving that. The superb adventure builds off of the foundation of Astro’s Playroom, the free pack-in game that launched with the PS5 console to showcase the DualSense Controller’s unique features. Over the course of 90-plus levels, Astro Bot makes brilliant use of the DualSense’s adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, touch panel, gyro controls, and built-in speaker. From a mechanical perspective, Astro Bot is arguably the most inventive and playful 3D platformer ever made.

Astro Bot is a joyful platforming experience that soars thanks to inventive level design and countless loving nods to PlayStation’s rich history. It also takes full advantage of the PS5 and its use of the DualSense controller remains novel. If you’d like to take a peek at the secret character bots specifically, we’ve arranged a gallery of all the Astro Bot hidden cameo bots. For more on Astro Bot, don’t miss our guide on how to unlock the secret photo mode and read our review for this strong Game of the Year contender.

Astro’s adventure takes him to various galaxies full of planets to explore as he tracks down his scattered crew. This part of our Astro Bot guide goes over each and every level in the game, highlighting where to find all collectibles and more. Every level brings something new, and the controls feel perfect. The bright graphics and little PlayStation references make it even better.

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. You can see that most of those are indies with fewer reviews counted, and the scores I omitted are for “definitive collections” or remasters which I’m not going to count. And an expansion or two like Elden Ring’s or Destiny 2’s The Final Shape. But if we’re talking about full games, GOTY-potential games, Astro Bot is on top.

Filled with references to hardware throughout PlayStation’s history and boasting an abundance of cameo appearances from popular characters, Astro’s Playroom celebrated PlayStation’s history in a unique way. This made Astro not just the new kid on the block, but established the bot as a character integral to the PlayStation brand. This became The Playroom, Team Asobi’s first game.The Playroom came preloaded with the PS4 when it launched back in 2013 and functioned as a showcase of what the PlayStation Camera and DualShock 4 controller could do. One of the mini games featured was AR Bots, a tech demo-like experience that made it seem as if 40 little robots were inside the DualShock 4. By swiping the touchpad you could throw them into the room and interact with them through the PlayStation Camera in AR, before sucking them back into the controller.

@rjejr Don’t get me wrong, it makes full use of all DualSense’s features — you’ll be tilting the controller and blowing into the mic (and yes there is a little bit of that climbing mechanic from Playroom, but just the one level). Back to mid budget single player titles without all the heavy stakes attatched if it fails. Considering the industry is influx, it’s not farfetched this will be the go-to again. Based on what I had seen I knew this was going to be a banger but a 94 on metacritic sheesh. Won’t be surprised at all if AB wins though which is great for Sony! @UltimateOtaku91 Yeah I love Rebirth and Helldivers as well but I’ve never played Balatro.