Astro Bot Review: A Thrilling Journey to the Moon

Team Asobi establishes itself as a key player in the PlayStation realm with a groundbreaking platformer that’s set to be remembered for years to come.

By Mark Delaney on September 5, 2024 at 5:18AM PDT

Historically, PlayStation has nurtured a reputation centered on dark anti-heroes, immense conflicts in fantastical settings, and the familiar trope of melancholic father figures. Despite my appreciation for these well-applauded games, Astro Bot introduces us to a different facet of PlayStation’s identity. This game not only rejuvenates a vital aspect of the brand but also places this character, previously overshadowed by giants like Kratos and Joel, into the limelight. Developed by Team Asobi, Astro Bot swiftly and impressively propels its lead character into a legendary status within its genre and its developer’s roster, delivering a platformer where its grand aspirations are flawlessly realized.

Marooned in the cosmos after an alien assault, Astro is tasked with fixing their spacecraft and saving 300 friends across five main planetary clusters, each with distinct levels. Though the storyline takes a backseat, the gameplay’s sheer engagement had me completing the 15-hour journey in just a couple of extended sessions. It might be the most captivating game of 2024, delivering an engrossing experience with virtually no dialogue. Each stage effectively narrates its own part of the tale, guiding players seamlessly through successive objectives.

Levels in the game are impressively designed with both depth and breadth, and frequent checkpoints ensure that both exploration and gameplay mistakes are minimally punishing. Typically, levels last between five to ten minutes, yet they are packed with unique characteristics. The animated backdrop features robotic animals that either climb trees or leap from the ocean below, adding dynamic life to the floating worlds being navigated. The detailed thematics of each level are enhanced by creative aesthetics and designs that highlight their individual stories. For example, in a level inspired by Japan, Astro transforms into a water-absorbent, kaiju-like figure, crushing enemies easily, breaking through barriers, and relaxing in hot springs while traditional string music plays in the background.

In another imaginative twist, Astro shrinks to the size of a mouse, uncovering a new miniaturized environment of woodsy and backyard settings unreachable in its usual form. The game cleverly integrates elements from multiple familiar franchises. One level starts as a nod to Prince of Persia, set in a desert, and concludes with a majestic climb to a mountaintop reminiscent of the game Journey. Some levels uniquely shift their visual presentation, like those crafted in voxel-art that are delightfully surprising with each discovery, alongside others that maintain an element of secrecy.

The game’s visual design showcases numerous stunning and infrequently reused themes, such as a vividly colored casino scene or a child-friendly haunted graveyard set by a castle—personal favorites for their uniqueness. These creative assets, involving significant effort and creativity, exemplify the game’s ability to present fantastic visuals and then move on to introduce more inventive and previously unseen designs. The diversity and imagination in the aesthetics of Astro Bot are unmatched in most platformers.

A particularly beloved feature of the game is its intuitive design that aligns closely with player instincts. Venturing off the main path often leads to discovering secrets and rewards, reflecting Team Asobi’s deep understanding of player behavior and design anticipation. Curiosities like climbing a crane or investigating a ledge invariably result in rewarding discoveries, such as coins for cosmetics or puzzle pieces for unlocking new areas in the game’s hub. This consistent validation of a player’s exploratory instincts enhances the engagement and satisfaction derived from the gameplay.

In tandem with expert level design are the game’s diverse and exciting mechanics. At the start of nearly every level, Astro jumps into a suit or straps on a backpack of some kind that gives them a new ability. In one level, it’s spring-powered boxing gloves resembling cartoon frogs. In another, it’s a robo-dog that gives the bipedal bot a wall-smashing rocket boost, or in another, a time-freezing tool that allows Astro to scale otherwise impossibly fast-moving sections. Across the game’s dozens of levels, you’ll see many abilities like these, and in nearly every case, they are a resounding success.

While some abilities are more fun than others, they nearly all work seamlessly. As Astro, you’ll strap on the ability and intuitively understand it. You sense its limitations and use cases immediately, and though the game disposes of abilities at an uncommon pace, many will resurface later in a new setting or be used to defeat the game’s fun bosses–including a final boss and credits sequence that will surely go down as one of 2024’s best video game moments.

Even within a level, an ability is used in several different and creative ways, but always stemming from its singular mechanic featured in that level. It ramps up the platforming and combat sequences via an approachable but challenging incline and chains these little moments together in such a way that there’s never a lull in any level. Whereas many platformers may drill down on a key feature or small set of features, Astro Bot displays confidence by often disposing of exciting new tools shortly after introducing them. It expresses iteration in cycles of five minutes each, rather than iterating on one idea for five or more hours, which I find both refreshing and bold. The only other game I’ve seen that’s similarly willing to dispose of cool ideas like this is It Takes Two, and Astro Bot does it more often and with more enjoyable mechanics.

Like any excellent platformer, Astro Bot’s movement feels responsive and trustworthy. Despite the game consistently giving you new ways to traverse its puzzling pathways, you’ll almost always feel like you have a good grip on clearing gaps, timing attacks on enemies, and dodging bosses with expertise. The camera caused a few rare instances of what felt like selling me out, but the game’s checkpoints are so numerous and the load times are virtually non-existent, such that this never became a pain point for me.

The underwater stage’s dolphin-esq dive ability stands out as less intuitive compared to the other capabilities in the game. While navigating this level, gathering all the secrets proved somewhat challenging mainly due to the imprecise nature of the dive function, making some elusive secrets harder to secure. Although manageable, the unique difficulty this mechanic presents could pose more significant challenges should it be incorporated in the notoriously difficult secret levels in the future.

Even when our protagonist isn’t equipped with special abilities, the game continues to innovate. A particularly memorable mid-game level inspired by preschool antics introduces a day-and-night switch mechanic, which flips the world upside down at the push of a button, allowing Astro to solve puzzles adeptly until its end. Unfortunately, this inventive mechanic wasn’t revisited after that stage. Astro Bot thrives on innovation without coming off as self-congratulatory, maintaining a delightful charm akin to a child excitedly displaying their toys rather than boastfully showcasing trophies.

Each new galaxy is filled with secrets, including hidden bonus stages within the levels themselves. The game layers mystery, steadily unveiling additional levels as you complete tasks throughout each galaxy. Among the secrets are 300 hidden bots, with only 200 needed to challenge the final boss. Over half are adorned as iconic characters from various video games, including Ellie, a Gran Turismo racer, and cameos from significant series like Tomb Raider and Persona, along with nods to both classic and modern indies such as Journey, Stray, and Humanity.

Each discovered bot returns to a safe area known as the Crash Site, essentially serving as a hub world for exploration and customization. This hub continues the PlayStation Museum theme featured in Astro’s Playroom, though not to the same extent. The mothership being repaired resembles a gigantic PS5, while the exploratory spaceship is akin to a DualSense controller with wings, reminiscent of the humorous meme portrayed by Obama awarding himself a medal, yet it remains a non-disturbing element of the game.

Spending in-game currency at the shop provides access to dioramas, ship aesthetics, and various outfits for Astro, including some inspired by unique titles such as Bloodborne and Gravity Rush. The dioramas are particularly delightful, transforming your collected bots into playful statues, for instance, one depicting Nathan Drake lounging on a sofa engaged in a game named Dude Raider. Even the gravest characters are whimsically portrayed, like the scene where The Last of Us’ Joel attempts to throw a brick only to have it comically strike him instead. The 169 cameo bots bring life to the otherwise sparse desert landscape, resembling an animated collection of Funko Pops.

Finding each character in Astro Bot is consistently thrilling. While some are easily noticeable, many are hidden, encouraging exploration away from the main route to uncover the plethora of in-game secrets. A noteworthy feature, which hopefully will become a norm in future games, is a robotic bird that assists in any level replay by highlighting collectibles and guiding you to undiscovered bots, secret Void levels, and puzzles. This feature makes achieving 100% completion enjoyable rather than tedious. I’ve never been keen on achieving PlayStation Trophies before, but in Astro Bot, I find myself eager to collect them all, driven by my desire to fully experience everything the game has to offer.

It might seem unusual to avoid spoilers for a game that doesn’t hinge on its narrative, but Astro Bot’s most captivating secrets are best experienced firsthand. Without giving too much away, the game occasionally revolutionizes its own mechanics, nearly changing genres, as a nod to PlayStation’s rich history. These special levels appear towards the end of each galaxy and not only introduce a horde of themed bots but also unveil a unique game mechanic that appears exclusively in that level. The soundtrack, already teeming with catchy tunes, cleverly reinterprets well-known melodies from other games, all contributing to the game’s imaginative allure. Astro Bot continuously engages with fresh, fun ideas that spark unending delight.

Astro Bot is also designed to highlight the capabilities of the DualSense controller, effectively showcasing its features although the enthusiasm for the controller might seem more pronounced within the company than among general users. Personally, the DualSense features like emitting sounds from the controller, interacting through breath, or using motion controls to fix the ship add to the game’s charm, but playing without these features wouldn’t significantly diminish the experience.

Its standout feature, a subtle rumble capability that surpasses other controllers, provides a simplicity that contrasts with the DualSense’s more complex features, which can feel overdone. Astro Bot has removed certain features from Astro’s Playroom, like the use of the center touchpad for certain actions, now replaced with joystick control. This suggests a shift by Team Asobi towards avoiding the cumbersome touchpad.

Apart from an underwater level that lacks the luster of other stages, my main gripes with Astro Bot are related to its most challenging levels. These levels, sometimes as short as 30 seconds, demand perfection and introduce an element of trial and error that the game otherwise avoids.

The game is structured in tiers, so beginners can complete the basic game, while enthusiasts can tackle more challenging levels. Unfortunately, access to several key characters is restricted to these difficult mini-levels, possibly preventing some younger fans from collecting all essential bots for their hub world. This design choice effectively locks a portion of the game’s prime content behind a skill barrier that may exclude parts of its audience.

The game crashed twice during my play, unexpectedly losing more progress than anticipated, which contradicts what one might expect from auto-saving features. Both times, I lost three or four levels’ worth of progress. These issues occurred at the end of a lengthy 11-hour playthrough, which might be addressed by Team Asobi in the future. Nevertheless, these unexpected crashes marred an otherwise enjoyable day-long gaming session.

The game Astro Bot is introduced as the charming robot’s initial significant venture into the video gaming world. This follows its initial recognition in a 2018 VR exclusive release that, despite receiving accolades, remained confined within the sphere of VR headsets, and a 2020 tech demo that served as a sneak peek into potential future developments. The essence of this game, hinted by its straightforward title, lies in the delight that awaits even those returning for their third journey with Astro. They will discover countless hours filled with new and thrilling experiences, all showcased through a spectacular array of delightful visuals, captivating sounds, and enticing adventures. This launch signifies a splendid re-introduction of Astro Bot, marking the commencement of what promises to be a cherished series with ambitions reaching for the moon.

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