It's 9pm and I just want to sleep. I barely have the energy to speak, let alone play a video game. But I have a job to do, and that is a review Astro Bot until the release date, so I make a deal with myself to only play two levels and then go to bed…
Five hours later, my face is burning from smiling. I am convinced that I could build a wall and then walk through it. So Astro Bot it will give you a feeling.
Astro Botnow available for PlayStation 5, is a collectible platform game. You play the robot Astro, who travels into space in his PS5-shaped mothership with 300 of his friends – some of them simple bots, others robot versions of famous video game characters. Suddenly he is attacked by an ill-tempered Xbox green alien monster that destroys his ship and scatters its parts and his 300 friends to the farthest corners of the universe.
Astro Bot is full of standard platform game cliches, but its presentation creates a sense of wonder. As you explore galaxies to find your robot companions and unlock new parts of the game, you'll find many familiar elements, but implemented in quirky and fun ways. Almost every platform game has an ability that lets you shoot at greater distances, but none let you do it by strapping a bulldog to your back.
The various levels that Astro explores have the themes you would expect. There's a jungle planet, a volcano planet, and worlds filled with pirates, ghosts, and gardeners. Some worlds require special powers to navigate, and even these are fairly standard in function if not form. The monkey power-up lets you climb walls, while the mouse lets you shrink to access tiny rooms. There's even a Super Mario Bros.-like FLUDD power that uses fluid to move Astro.
I am convinced that I could build a wall and then walk through it. That is the kind of path Astro Bot will make you feel
The developers at Team Asobi haven't reinvented the platforming wheel here, but like any good platform game, it's the unique ways to use the powers that make them special. Instead of water, this FLUDD power-up sucks up a green goo that it then spits out to create platforms made of grass. I giggled like a toddler using it to defeat a special enemy by literally sucking out its green gooey brain.
A power-up — which I will not describe in detail here, except that it really sweet because figuring it out is a big part of the fun here – really captures the essence of Astro Bot. When I first found it, I couldn't understand it at all. It seemed useless; I felt stupid for being so baffled by what had been an incredibly simple game until then. And unlike most of my purchases, the game didn't help me. Astro Bot Usually a small tutorial window pops up with instructions, but this time it intentionally left me in the dark. Playing a game is like having a conversation with the developers without being able to speak directly, and it felt like communication had broken down.
But then I remembered that communication between player and developer is not only what needs to be done, but also what feel. And suddenly it felt like they were hovering right over my shoulder, holding back their laughter like a good friend would while waiting for me to get a joke. They had intentionally held back an explanation because they wanted me to experience the feeling of figuring it out for myself. They wanted me to laugh, just like they probably wanted me to laugh when they were designing.
And when I finally got it, the shock of understanding was so damn strong that I laughed myself into spontaneous sobs and said out loud to no one: “AstroBot, I would die for you.”
There are so many moments that are just like that. I thought the bots you rescued were simply currency that you could use to level up, only to find that in the game's central world, they are your friends, risking their bodies to help you get even more collectibles. Some distinctive PlayStation bots – one with Aloy's red hair, for example, or Kratos' beard – serve a very special purpose. If you rescue them, they can grant you the power of that character and take you to a special level themed after a game like this. Horizon Zero Dawn or Unchartedso detailed that they even include side quests from the original. And I challenge you to feel anything other than heartfelt nostalgia during the final boss fight and end credits sequence – I didn't realize how many emotions a PlayStation Move controller could evoke in me.
From my two-hour demo at the Summer Game Fest earlier this year, I knew Astro Bot would be something special. It was a simple, happy little platformer designed as a tribute to PlayStation's past. And if that's all it is, it would be a great little pit stop in the 2024 gaming calendar as we move towards the bigger, more highly anticipated releases like Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Echoes of WisdomAnd Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
But Astro Bot is so much more than a mascot platformer from the late '90s revamped for modern audiences and hardware. It's the kind of game that reminds us why video games exist in the first place: for love. (Yes, I know that sounds cheesy – but I'm serious.) Astro Bot is an example of the great love that drives us to play, develop, write about, and share video games with our friends and family – even if it means staying up long past your bedtime.