69) Astro Bot (2024)

Introduced in 2013's The Playroom, the general concept for the Astro Bot series has always been fairly straightforward, serving as essentially a tech demo and tutorial to the myriad of functions present in the PS4 and PS5. Generally consisting of minigames that take advantage of the unique features of the Sony consoles, the games serve as an introduction to the DualSense controller and Sony's VR headset, all in a cute, family friendly package. After finishing work on Astro's Playroom, Team Asobi began work on Astro Bot, which would serve as a soft reboot of the property into a proper series as opposed to just a glorified tech demo.

Our story begins with Astro and his robot friends flying through space on their PS5 shaped ship when, quite suddenly, a green alien known as Space Bully Nebulax attacks the ship, stealing its CPU and sending the ship crashing onto a desert planet. Astro awakes to find the ship in pieces and the crew scattered, and with the aid of his familiar Dual Speeder, sets off on an adventure to repair the ship and rescue the crew. The plot is paper thin, and the villain's motivations are never explored, but it's hard to complain when everything is told with such cute characters engaging in slapstick comedy.

Gameplay consists of deceptively simple platforming action as we explore bright, colorful worlds filled with plenty of secrets. There are no new abilities to attain as we go, instead focusing on the player mastering the options at their disposal while throwing in temporary power ups that change how we interact with the environment. The power ups are always fun to see and use, and once introduced become mandatory for progression in the level. Whether it be frog punching gloves that allow us to fight at a distance while swinging around, a shrinking power that allows exploration of otherwise inaccessible areas, or my personal favorite, an ability that turns us into a sponge, allowing us to become larger and disable enemies and puzzles with water, every power up feels like a natural extension of the core gameplay.

In true platformer fashion, each section of the game is divided into separate sections, in this case galaxies, that culminate in a fun, cinematic boss fight. After thwarting a boss, we rescue a special crew member that then allows us access to a special world tailored to them. You see, there are generally two types of crew members for us to find and rescue. There are your regular, generic robots, and then there are special VIP bots that dress and act like different video game characters. The vast majority of these are, as one would expect, from Sony's first party titles. There are, however, a great number of them from third parties as well. We can rescue Dante from Devil May Cry, Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, Joker from Persona 5, Solid Snake, Lara Croft, Raziel from Soul Reaver, and many more. It's actually incredibly impressive and made finding the various VIP bots a delight.

In this way, Astro Bot comes off as a charming love letter to Sony's gaming history and a celebration of 30 years of Playstation. While it would be easy to write off the VIP bots as marketing tools, they rarely feel that way. The majority of third party inclusions are from games that, while not necessarily Sony exclusive, absolutely became a part of Sony's image. They rarely amount to little more than a visual cameo, though a handful are available for us to dress up our little guy. The aforementioned VIP bots that we rescue from bosses are all first party, and the level they unlock afterwards allows us a chance to play as them in a level catered to the unique abilities they bestow. While Kratos and Nathan Drake are pretty obvious inclusions for this special treatment, Ape Escape and Loco Roco make for fun, odd inclusions that showcase just how much fun the development team had.

Overall, Astro Bot serves as an incredibly competent 3D platformer that serves as a fun celebration of Sony's history. While the plot is almost non-existent, it's easy to look past with how much charm and fun is on display. While the majority of the game can be pretty easy, there are plenty of optional levels that truly test your mastery of the game and systems at play. While the game rarely pushes any boundaries, it also rarely makes any missteps, with only one or two levels feeling frustrating. What it lacks in mechanical and narrative depth, it makes up for with a wit and charm that are hard to hate.