Kratos Bot will hit Thor with his axe, freezing him into a cube! Repeat this at all four slot machines in this area (including the one to the far right where you can find a Rescued Bot!) to unlock the Time to Cash In! Unlock a total of 150 prizes from the Gatcha Lab in your Crash Site to unlock the Money Well Spent trophy.
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One of the biggest announcements during last week’s PlayStation State of Play livestream was Astro Bot, the full-fledged sequel to the excellent Astro’s Playroom that comes preinstalled on PS5. Just like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot is a 3D puzzle-platformer that pays homage to PlayStation history and makes heavy use of the PS5 DualSense controller’s many unique features like haptic feedback and dynamic triggers. However, this time, we’re getting a full-length game (with no microtransactions) that’s much bigger than Astro’s previous adventures. Astro Bot will, without a shadow of a doubt, become the Holy Grail for Sony game fans.
There are a few different reasons for this, the first of which is that Astro Bot’s core gameplay is as solid as titanium. If you’ve played any other Mario-esque platformer, you know what to expect here, but Team Asobo has really created a game that feels astoundingly satisfying to play, even in the most minute ways. You have absolute control of Astro’s jumps and punches, with smart features like lasers that come out of his feet opening up even more options for gameplay. Astro Bot received universal acclaim from both critics and players.
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Even blowing into the controller to create bubbles or sound a horn, though obviously a bit of a gimmick, fits perfectly into the level each time Astro Bot uses them. You’ll pick up an awful lot of coins exploring all the planets in Astro Bot. At first, that huge trove of gold may seem useless, but once you’ve beaten the first boss in the Gorilla Nebula, you’ll unlock the Gacha Lab at the Crash Site. Here, you can spend coins to win up to 169 PlayStation-themed collectibles, including skins for the Dual Speeder. Later on, you’ll also unlock the Dual Speeder Garage, where you can personnalise Astro’s controller plane, and the Changing Room to switch up Astro’s look to outfits collected in the Gacha Lab.
In every level, there are a number of bots to rescue and puzzle pieces to find. https://g28e.com/ help reveal new features in your base at the crash site, like costumes. Saving bots brings them to your base, but having more bots also lets you solve puzzles around the crash site. But what’s really interesting is that roughly 160 of the game’s 300 bots are themed on past PlayStation games, wearing adorable little costumes. At your base, you can also use coins in a vending machine to unlock items for these themed bots, giving them little motifs that you can interact with. In Astro Bot, there are 300 bots to find, including 169 cameo bots, as well as dozens of puzzle pieces and several secret Void levels hidden within the game.
As for the audiovisual aspect, this is where Team Asobi has truly outdone itself, delivering a somewhat candy-colored but beautiful graphic design, with each planet offering a unique visual style. Familiar pop culture motifs frequently appear in the game, but they never feel repetitive, always introducing something new and fresh. The music, while occasionally repetitive, can also pleasantly surprise at times. One level even features a singing tree, and its song is something I’ll be humming for a long time.
One power-up — which I won’t describe beyond saying it’s really cute since figuring it out is a big part of the fun here — truly captures the essence of Astro Bot. It seemed useless; I felt silly for getting stumped by what had been, up until that point, an incredibly simple game. Astro Bot typically displays a little tutorial box for how to use it, but this time, it deliberately left me hanging. Playing a game is like being in a conversation with its developers without the ability to speak directly, and it felt like communication had broken down. The developers at Team Asobi didn’t reinvent the platforming wheel here, but like any good platformer, it’s the unique ways the powers are used that make them special. Instead of water, that F.L.U.D.D. power-up sucks up a green goo it then spits out to create platforms of grass.
In Spring-LoadedRun, you will strap on your twin frog boxing gloves and traverse a sunken city ruins. Punch rolling barrels, swing over daring gaps, and pummel your way to the top of the tower to rescue the special bots. Team Asobi has created a game that not only celebrates the history of PlayStation, but also the very existence of the fans. Astro Bot is a platformer that, despite always following the same thread, manages to constantly surprise the player and awaken a multitude of different emotions. Astro Bot is frankly superb in its execution, offering delightful worlds, abilities, and charm.
Oh, and special mention must be made for the soundtrack, which is just excellent throughout. Going back to the hub, where all your collected bots congregate, it slowly opens up to reveal new areas to explore and more features to enjoy. Puzzle Pieces are another collectible to gather, and they unlock new rooms, with one of them being the returning Gatcha Lab.
These are structured in a certain order, so you’ll need to beat each level to unlock the boss battle, something that requires a set number of bots to have been unlocked. Thankfully, should you return to a previously completed level, you can pay a small amount of PlayStation coin currency to have an assist bot show you where the remaining bots and puzzle pieces are. Each star system also has a level that’s specially themed around a popular PlayStation franchise, allowing Astro to make use of unique skills for a short while. Needless to say, Astro Bot keeps you on your toes, and sometimes challenges you to think outside the box in order to solve a problem or find a well-hidden secret.