Key Takeaways
- Astro Bot’s gameplay is inspired by Super Mario and Sonic Adventure, with modern twists and interactive stages.
- The game features stunning visuals, unique abilities, and takes advantage of the DualSense’s features.
- Astro Bot’s replay value and variety in stages make it a promising platformer, set to release on September 6th, 2024 for PS5.
After watching Astro Bot’s reveal at Summer Game Fest a few weeks ago, I was very uninterested in the game. Like most people, I enjoyed Astro’s Playroom, but after I finished it back in 2020 when the PS5 was first released, I quickly forgot it existed. The experience just wasn’t that memorable. Sure, Astro Bot’s first full-fledged game looked bright and colorful in its reveal trailer, but at the outset, it just seemed like a generic Super Mario Bros. knock-off.
Now that I’ve briefly gone hands-on with the upcoming PlayStation 5 title, my opinion has drastically changed. Astro Bot is obviously inspired by Nintendo’s 3D Super Mario games, alongside 90s-to-early-2000s 3D platformers like Sonic Adventure, Crash Bandicoot and, of course, Mario 64, but it also takes the established genre in a modern direction while still being a love letter to all things PlayStation (it’s difficult not to chuckle the first time you see the PaRappa the Rapper or God of War Astro Bot).
The game is a delight to play, and I couldn’t stop smiling during my 60-minute demo that spanned several stages and bonus levels. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Astro Bot is now one of my most anticipated games of the year.
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Astro Bot features stunning visuals
Almost every object can be interacted with
PlayStation
From a visual perspective, Team Asobi’s Atro Bot is incredible looking thanks to its clean, yet detailed art direction, but beyond the impressive graphics, what caught my attention the most is how interactive its stages are. If you can see it, you can probably break it — and you should in case there’s a Bot hidden behind that intriguing stack of odd-looking boxes. I spent a few minutes knocking objects around because it’s fun to see how they interact with each other within the game’s surprisingly detailed physics system.
Your goal in Astro Bot is to collect several bots hidden throughout stages, similar to Super Mario 64’s stars. Some of these bots are in obvious positions, whereas others are far more difficult to uncover (many of them are wholly unique and feature costumes inspired by iconic PlayStation franchises). You can bound through stages quickly and grab whatever coins, bots and other items are immediately available, or if you’re a completionist, you can methodically plod through levels, checking every corner for secret items and areas. While I didn’t get the chance to play stages again during my time with the title, the abundant collectibles add a lot to Astro Bot’s replay value.
Every stage I played through, ranging from a futuristic city environment to the Super Mario Sunshine-like beach stage is vibrant and inviting and reminds me more of a Disney movie than a big-budget video game. Most importantly, the levels I played felt very different. I can’t speak for all 80 levels and 50 planets, but the three stages and two bonus levels I played through felt very distinct.
PlayStation
This is great because 3D platformers often become repetitive when every stage looks and plays the same. I also encountered a rather grueling boss fight against a giant octopus, which added even more variety to the mix.
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Gameplay is where Astro Bot truly shines
Unique abilities steal the show
PlayStation
One thing Astro Bot is great at is hinting at what you need to do next without explicitly telling you. This allowed me to still get the satisfaction that comes from solving a puzzle on my own and ensured I always felt like I was progressing. Of course, it helps that the stages I played were very linear and offered a core path to follow (though there were some offshoots), and that the game features a forgiving auto-save system that drops you right back into the action where you left off, which is great if you fall off the map as often as I did.
Astro Bot features several abilities that shake up its more traditional laser-hover and charged spin attack. These include turning the cutesy robot’s arms into boxing globes, gaining the ability to dash forward quickly and, at one point, I picked up a magnet to gather several metal bars. All of these sections were brief, but they kept me engaged and thinking about how I needed to use whatever ability I had equipped.
PlayStation
Astro Bot also relies heavily on the DualSense’s haptic feedback, Adaptive Triggers and takes advantage of the gamepad’s built-in gyroscope. If you walk across a hard surface, you’ll feel the controller rumble accordingly. If you need to launch Astro Bot through the air on a slingshot, you’ll feel realistic resistance in its triggers. Subtle touches like this go a long way towards making the overall experience more immersive, and generally, I’m a big fan when any game takes advantage of the DualSense’s unique features.
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Will Astro Bot still be entertaining in the long run?
We’ll need to wait until September to find out
PlayStation
At game preview events, I always remind myself that I’m playing a slice of an overall experience. I definitely had a great time with the few Astro Bot stages I played through, especially the ultra-difficult bonus levels, but the key question surrounding the game is if it will remain entertaining throughout the entire experience.
It’s difficult to know for sure, but if these few early levels are an accurate indication of the variety the platformer offers, Astro Bot will likely hold the attention of most gamers, including myself. With upcoming PS5-exclusive releases pretty sparse, Astro Bot is exactly what the console needs right now. The inventive, whimsy-filled platformer is a welcome breath of fresh air that’s full of entertaining moments.
Astro Bot releases on September 6th, 2024 for the PlayStation 5.
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