Astro Bot review: This is the droid you’re looking for
Amy Flower
STACK Senior Editor
If you have a PS5, then you also have your own little slice of Astro goodness in the included game, ‘Astro’s Playroom’. If you liked that, then you’re going to LOVE ‘Astro Bot’, a joyous big new slice of the robot buddy’s adventures.
Astro’s Playroom served as both a PlayStation celebration and a super-fun 3D platform game. Astro Bot takes the latter formula and adds plenty, simply bursting at the seams with content that just oozes invention, charm, and challenge.
The love for PlayStation’s rich history hasn’t gone anywhere, either. Throughout this captivating adventure we encounter whole worlds based on PlayStation properties both well-known and more obscure. Yes, you have your God of War, the Horizon games, The Last of Us, and such. But you’ll also encounter nods – often sizeable – to bangers like Wipeout, Resogun, Ape Escape, LocoRoco, and Parappa the Rapper (plus oodles more). Even some third-party classics from PlayStations past pop up, including the likes of the Tomb Raider and Katamari series. It’s a game spotter’s dream!
As for the story, nasty space bully Nebulax has sent several key components of Astro's space cruising PS5 - and its bot inhabitants - hurtling all over space, with the remaining framework crash-landing on a desolate planet. For reasons purely of exciting gameplay, they're scattered across five nebulae, each of which is made up of several planets based on various PlayStation games both of classic and more cultish natures.
Astro’s job is to take on this meanie and recover the PS5 parts by hitting each of these planets, rescuing his bot buddies – some of which bear uncanny robotlike resemblance to characters from PlayStation games past – unearthing hidden jigsaw pieces, and, at times, discovering hidden warps that add even more levels to proceedings. Plus, each nebula has a big bad to take down.
Every piece that requires collecting – and some of these are incredibly, often almost nefariously well hidden, requiring a good workout of that puzzle-solving part of the player’s brain – serves an in-game function, all coming together at the Crash Site. Rescued bots are required to unlock various bonuses and sections of this Crash Site, locked away behind numbered gates – a ‘20’ for example, needs you to have rescued 20 bots - in a whistle-and-they’ll-come style that will be very familiar to fans of the adorable Pikmin series of games.
Those puzzle pieces, meanwhile, are used to construct bonus niceties, from a fun Gatcha ball machine full of PlayStation goodies that, once unlocked, populate your Crash Site, to a custom paint shop for your DualSense transportation, to the obligatory house of fashion for Astro. Plus, there are a couple more that we won’t spoil – one of which requires some super-serious puzzle piece sleuthing.
Getting from A to B involves a space map, where all that you gradually unlock is easily accessible via a small representation of your DualSense ship. We’ll give you one hot tip here: As you complete more levels in each nebula, explore the space map and you may find curious things that are very much worth investigating…
In each of the main levels, which range from linear, to open world, above ground, underwater, and more, Astro will usually unlock an extra ability early on, specifically to cater with challenges that he’ll face within that level. It may be a bulldog with super punch, a monkey with robot arms for super climbing ability, a chicken that fires upwards on a rocket-like trajectory, or one of many more – we’ll let you discover their joys. They all come with handy onscreen instructions, mostly utilising trigger buttons, but sometimes also DualSense motion controls.
It will come as no surprise to those who worshipped at the Astro’s Playroom altar that motion controls figure heavily, with Team ASOBI being leaders in harnessing the many nuances of the DualSense. It isn’t just the waggle-it-about controls, either, with the haptic feedback, inbuilt speaker, and trigger force also being liberally used to superb effect. For those who don’t gel with the motion stuff, it can be turned off, just one of several thoughtful accessibility options.
While Astro’s Playroom was a taste of things to come, and many of the gameplay systems from that will be familiar to those who pick up Astro Bot, that was very much a first-generation PS5 game compared to this super-polished model. Beyond niceties such as vastly improved graphics, the gameplay is much tighter, while the presentation is absolutely top notch. There’s a lot of content that’s both out in the open and hidden way in Astro Bot, and it all – well, mostly - unfolds naturally and logically. It's also an endlessly charming experience - and often genuinely LOL funny.
As for difficulty, the game kind of runs on two levels. Younger players will be able to romp through most levels having fun, but not necessarily uncovering all of their secrets. Other than in boss fights - and their magnitude is truly something to behold - there are no limits on lives in main gameplay, and with only a handful of exceptions, respawn points are usually well placed so as to avoid frustration.
Some of the hidden levels can be super-challenging/frustrating, but the game can be taken to the end credits without defeating them. Completists may end up tearing some follicles from the old bonce though trying to get every single bot and puzzle piece.
Speaking of the end credits, they are a sheer delight. There’s some final engaging play – and please don’t skip any of them, trust us, as you’ll be missing out. Once they’ve rolled, you can continue on completing any levels that you haven’t quite found all the treasures in, too.
When we think classic platform games, most times our thoughts turn directly towards a certain plumber who’s a rather dab hand at a run and a jump and a “Wahoo!”. In Astro Bot, the PS5 now has a game that’s as good as anything that's ever involved that moustachioed, red-capped tradie. Yes, Astro Bot really is that good.
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