Amid Concord’s demise and a somewhat divisive PS5 Pro announcement, Astro Bot brought us some joy during an otherwise super serious month for Sony. The adorable 3D platformer is filled to the brim with cameos from characters across PlayStation’s 30-year history, as well as secret levels and hidden little goodies that you’ll probably want to unearth if you have any fondness for the console and its various properties. There are challenges to be found and collectibles to be had, as is often the case with the very best 3D platformers.
As far as games go, Astro Bot is the perfect de-stresser, especially if you’ve had a September as up-and-down as Sony’s. So, as we head face-first into another work week, here’s everything we liked, loved, and adored about the most delightful game of the year.
I cried at the end of Astro Bot. I recognize this isn’t indicative of much beyond my sentimentality, but I thought it was a crucial tidbit to underscore something else, something important about PlayStation’s excellent new platformer. It really is, more than anything else, a celebration of the consoles and games that shaped me, and likely many of you, too. It is so completely possessed with joy and teeming with the life of everything that PlayStation has meant to people over the years. It is also a brilliant platformer in its own right, stuffed full of ideas that make it seem like Asobi Team is just getting started in this utterly endearing franchise. For all its charms and wonders, however, there’s also a slightly melancholy feeling that Astro Bot, which secondarily serves as a kind of museum of PlayStation’s history, is putting that legacy and the spirit of innovation that defined it under glass to be gazed upon and appreciated as a relic of yesterday, rather than to infuse and electrify the games of today and tomorrow. — Moises Taveras
Remember when we all played Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-installed on every PlayStation 5, and enjoyed a collective nostalgia trip through Sony’s video game history, coupled with a great deal of hope for the future of our shiny new consoles? The platformer pays tribute to PlayStation’s past with cute little robot cameos representing nearly every video game hero from every era remotely associated with the brand. It was more or less a guided tour through the legacy of one of the big three, and after the PS4 solidified Sony as top dog in the console landscape, I was certainly in the mood to look back at how we got here when the PS5 launched in 2020. Now we have Astro Bot, the excellent follow-up that builds upon all the tight platforming, adorable robo aesthetics, and PlayStation nostalgia of that pack-in game. But it’s been four years since the PS5 launched with Astro’s Playroom installed and the new game also inadvertently spotlights the fact that, despite four trips around the sun, the system has remarkably little to show for it. — Kenneth Shepard
One of the best things about the flagship Super Mario games—the likes of Galaxy, Galaxy 2, and Odyssey—is the incessant inventiveness. So often they’ll feature a level that makes you exclaim, “That could have been the basis for a whole game!” So it is with full understanding of the gravity of the claim I’m making when I say that Astro Bot, Sony’s wonderful new 3D platformer, has a level that could have been the basis for a whole Mario game. — John Walker
Though you’ll spend most of your time in Astro Bot clearing original levels set in the game’s own universe, each of its galaxies ends with a level based on a beloved PlayStation franchise. One of these is the splendidly sarcastically named Dude Raiding, which provides Astro with Uncharted protagonist Nathan Drake’s pistol for a thrilling adventure through a jungle. — Billy Givens
The utterly wonderful Sony platformer Astro Bot has two main collectables in each level: bots and puzzle pieces. However, some levels contain something else: secret exits that can only be found by completing very specific tasks, or snooping around in some extremely hidden locations that you may have otherwise overlooked. Yeah, there’s a whole load of more levels to find! — Billy Givens
Astro Bot is here and it is everything that many of us could’ve wanted. Not only is it an incredible 3D platformer, but it’s also stuffed with cameos from characters across PlayStation’s history. As you collect them over the course of the game, every character that you find is returned to Astro Bot’s central hub, a crash site, that gets slowly populated. Once they’re there, you can interact with them even more, but first you’ve got to give them a little smack. — Moises Taveras
Astro Bot is a really good video game and a great reason to own a PS5. Its colorful visuals, myriad gaming references, and excellent platforming have already made it one of 2024’s best games. But there’s something else I love about Astro Bot: It only has one release date. — Zack Zwiezen
Astro Bot is a very good video game. Sony’s new platformer is filled with amazing levels and loads of fun moments. And Astro Bot’s only going to get bigger thanks to a free DLC update that might add some characters only mentioned in the game’s credits, too. — Zack Zwiezen
If you’re looking to dive into the adorable platformer Astro Bot, and weighing up its price, you’ll likely be wondering how long it’ll last you, and what type of fun it offers. From vibrant colorful levels to hundreds of collectibles, there’s a ton of content in this charming little title. — Billy Givens
Have you been playing Astro Bot? Sony’s big PlayStation-celebrating platformer is out now on PlayStation 5 and despite some glaring omissions, it’s a delightful game worth playing. It’s especially rewarding if you’re a long-time PlayStation fan who has played a lot of the company’s games over the past 30 years. — Kenneth Shepard
