The Succinct Charm of Astro Bot

In recent years, I’ve grown more impatient with games. Part of this might be due to my ever-growing love of film as a medium, as film allows me to experience a whole piece of art in a single sitting. In comparison, I might spend multiple weeks, maybe even a month or two playing one game. For example, I spent 60 hours over the summer playing Persona 3 Reload and while I liked the game, the time investment does raise some questions. The gameplay can get quite repetitive and towards the latter half of the game I was playing the game mostly in spite of the gameplay in order to experience more of the characters and the narrative. This led to maybe even 10 hours or more of grinding away, fading astray. All of this made me thankful to get to experience the succinct and charming world of Astro Bot.

 

Astro Bot is Sony’s big exclusive platformer game for the PlayStation 5, following the success of the pre-installed tech demo PS5 game Astro’s Playroom. In Astro Bot you play as the robot Astro, going through different worlds and levels on different planets in search of parts of a PlayStation 5 spaceship, which was damaged by an evil alien. In these levels you’ll also save other bots, find collectables, defeat enemies and occasionally fight against bosses. There are almost a hundred levels and over three hundred bots to collect, which resulted in 14 hours full of charm, fun gameplay concepts and a boatload of references to celebrate the history of PlayStation.

 

The great thing about the game is how it spices up the normal platforming with all kinds of fun new tools and abilities. From being able to stop time, to shrinking yourself to the size of mouse or filling yourself with air to float to new heights, the game keeps surprising and delighting the player with new ways to play. And thankfully the game isn’t precious about these mechanics. Some mechanics are used only for a single level and none of the ones that are used multiple times have the time to get tiresome. Now there might be some features that I would have gladly spent more time with, but I’ll much rather be left hoping for a bit more than trudge through hours of monotonous content, which is a trap Astro Bot doesn’t fall into.

 

Beyond the fun mechanics and the tight platforming, Astro Bot gains much of its charm from its incredibly varied presentation. The game covers the basics of platformer levels with lava, desert and forest planets, but it also includes so much more. Pixel planets, a construction machine planet, a haunted house planet, a spaceship level and so many more with even ones that are difficult to summarize in only a couple of words. These different styles with their vibrant color palettes will keep your eyes busy and excited, maybe even slightly at the cost of visual consistency. Dues need to also be shown for Kenneth C. M. Young’s equally varied score, which is able to keep up with all the different settings and styles, while keeping the tone fittingly light and playful at all times.

 

Playfulness is also seen in the references that fill the experience. Most of the bots that you’ll rescue across the adventure are designed to look like characters from previous PlayStation titles. The bot designs range from taking from some of the most popular PlayStation games like Uncharted and The Last of Us to reaching for deep cuts such as Vib-Ribbon and Ore no Ryouri. These references might excite other players more than me, but what got my gears turning were the occasional levels based on specific games. These go beyond simple and quick visual references by including mechanics reminiscent of those specific games, such as the God of War level including a recallable axe and a Horizon: Zero Dawn level giving you bow to show off the adaptive triggers of the PlayStation controller.

 

The difficulty of the game is the one aspect that left me the most conflicted. Most of the game was a cakewalk for me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for an experience that can charm with mechanics and presentation but is slightly more disappointing in the context of platformers and the precise platforming one can come to expect from the genre. There are a couple of levels that tested me, but those were few and far between and there wasn’t a sense of a difficulty curve, just occasionally tougher levels. Fortunately, the game can coast along with the help of its other strengths, but my challenge junkie mindset was hoping for a bit more pushback from the game. Its sweet and welcoming sensibilities still were able to overall win me over.

 

Astro Bot isn’t a revolutionary game, but it gave me an experience I wish to see more of in the AAA-space. A charismatic ride full of fun ideas, but largely modest in its implementation of those ideas. The brief experience left me hoping to visit Astro once again in the future, which is a feeling I cherish over the exhaustion that many modern games muster up in me.

 

Basic Information

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Team Asobi

Platform: PlayStation 5

Release Date: September 6, 2024

Genres: Platformer, Action, Adventure

PEGI: 7

 

Photos: promo pictures from the game, https://www.playstation.com/fi-fi/games/astro-bot/

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