Astro Bot is a love letter to video games, without an ounce of cynicism to be found. The love here is pure, which comes through in every moment of it. Combine that with an incredible amount of creativity and joy, along with platforming that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre. Every part of Astro Bot is incredible, coming together in an experience that is nothing short of magic.
Astro Bot
Developer: Team Asobi
Price: $60
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
A copy of the game was purchased for this review
In an age where Marvel and Star Wars are filled with meaningless cameos and nostalgia bait, it feels hard to not be cynical about Astro Bot‘s pitch. A 3D platformer all about the console you’re playing it on, with a smattering of cameos from characters across video games feels like the fantasy of corporate executives. But that’s not really what Astro Bot is. Astro Bot is a love letter to video games, filled with references because the people making the game have a love and reverence for video games, not because they think nostalgia sells. This love and care is found in every inch of Astro Bot, creating a joyous romp of color and creativity that will bring a smile to even the most cynical person’s face.
The premise is simple: an alien has stolen the CPU of the PS5 mothership, scattering the rest of the components, and the many bots aboard, across different galaxies. Your job is to go through different levels, collecting hidden bots and puzzle pieces, all to restore the PS5 and crew of bots so you can recover the CPU. What this looks like in practice is a series of levels, each uniquely different from the last, filled with collectibles to gather.
Each level is relatively short, offering somewhere between five to seven bots to collect. Many of them are generic bots, but each level also offers a few cameos, usually ones that make sense in context. For example, Lara Croft can be found on the Egyptian tomb-themed level. All of these cameos have cute names too, related to their games but nothing too on the nose. Most bots are hidden in some way, but nothing that’s going to make you sit there scratching your head. These hidden secrets are the lifeblood of Astro Bot. Not only is there joy in finding a new bot, but solving a small puzzle and getting rewarded keeps the momentum of each level moving forward, as there is usually something interesting to find up to the end of each level.
Sometimes you are given specific tools for a level, like long-range punching gloves or the ability to slow down time. These tools are used sparingly, with many levels not having one, and the ones that do are built with that tool in mind. Instead of building massive playgrounds to platform through, every level is incredibly tight, never giving you a moment to lose interest. The creativity of Astro Bot isn’t limited to just the game either; it breathes new life into the DualSense controller, making perfect use of part of it. The rumble always matches the terrain you are walking across, using the controller speaker to maximize the effect. You could identify the difference between metal, sand, and grass with your eyes closed, making the experience feel transcendence.
The adaptive triggers feel chunky, adding a strong mechanical feeling to every action using them. Something as simple as a gacha machine filled with new unlocks feels engaging because you can feel the strain of pulling the machine and cracking open your latest prize. This reverence for the PlayStation 5 hardware, along with smart details like feeling every bot you collect in a level in your controller, shockingly never feels like pandering. After completing a galaxy you recover part of the PS5, which you must clean up and reinstall. For someone whose PlayStation 5 only gets turned on for exclusives, this shouldn’t work, but the small details in the way the controller feels combined with the love and infectious care put into these moments all make this feel special and fun.
All of your collected bots are returned to the desert planet you crash on, where you can interact or dance with them. Every cameo, PlayStation owned or not, has a small unique animation you can see if you get their relevant item from the gacha machine. Every character is treated with equal love in the desert world, but certain properties get a little extra love in the form of a whole level.
After beating the boss in each galaxy, the character you save will take you to another level, themed entirely around their franchise. I won’t say which franchises get this treatment, but I will tell you that each features a unique gameplay mechanic that is a ton of fun, adding a unique dynamic to the game that the rest of the tools don’t. Even levels based on franchises I haven’t played, or I don’t even like, still feel incredibly special thanks to an intense focus on the details and making sure that every moment feels fun.
Moving through Astro Bot is what ties all of this love and creativity together. It isn’t a difficult platformer, even with a selection of smaller challenge levels, but it feels incredibly fluid. Running, jumping, hovering, and any other movement flows cleanly between them in a way that feels natural. At no point during my time with Astro Bot did I ever feel like Astro wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted for him to be doing. The enemies are all pretty easy to defeat, but each offers a unique attack to avoid, or a unique way to defeat them. While some people might bemoan the ease of taking out enemies, the ability to defeat most of them without ever slowing down lets the movement shine no matter what you’re doing.
While the narrative is light, the conclusion to the story is excellent. It’s a massive showstopper that is incredibly funny, a blast to play through, and uses all of the cameos and crossovers to its absolute advantage. While you don’t have to collect every single item to complete Astro Bot, it’s hard to imagine anyone who wants to beat the game not having the desire to gather every secret. It doesn’t take much additional time and the short levels ease any tedium that might come from trying to clean up missed secrets.
Astro Bot is nothing short of a masterpiece. Every aspect of it is thoughtfully crafted by people who love video games in an earnest and passionate way. Every level has unique items, with fun secrets to find, paired with platforming that feels spectacular. It’s fun from start to finish and even the most cynical gamers will have a smile on their face because the joy and reverence Astro Bot has is infectious.
The Final Word
Astro Bot is nothing short of magic, applying fun and fluid platforming to a creative love letter to video games. The quality of detail in Astro Bot is only rivaled by the passion its developers so clearly have for video games.
– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
