The door to the ruin will now open, and you’ll see the disco ball floating above. In Bathhouse Battle, you’ll find the secret exit about midway through the level. Approach the mechanical frog and blow in your controller’s microphone (or simply mute the mic and the game will do it for you). Shrink down and ride the bubbles up the tree (make sure to rescue the caged bot on the way). The secret exit in Go-Go Archipelago doesn’t appear until after you defeat the boss at the end of the level. Use the ladybug to reach where the seal used to be and use your charged melee to dig into the pillar.
Not only that, the game also has unique gimmicks in each level, which make them fresh and interesting to play. Team Asobi further drills down on the toy-like charm of gaming by fully committing to the DualSense’s unique features. I feel pronounced haptic feedback when I hop into a stormy level and feel each raindrop in my palms. When I turn into a metal ball to stop a ceiling from crushing me, I can feel the resistance of the adaptive triggers pushing back on me. I even use the microphone to blow into a giant horn, a kind of delightful gameplay interaction that even Nintendo has moved away from in recent years.
Explore Astro’s Earlier Adventures
The image quality is superb, showing off the vibrant and detailed worlds wonderfully. While it doesn’t have the graphical heft of other first-party titles, it’s incredibly visually pleasing thanks to clean, consistent art direction. On top of that is silky smooth 60 frames-per-second performance, with not one hitch spotted in all our time playing. Oh, and special mention must be made for the soundtrack, which is just excellent throughout.
After acquiring his DualSense controller ship, Astro has to travel to various galaxies and rescue the bots. This is a grand re-opening for Astro Bot, and it surely marks the start of what is destined to be a beloved series shooting for the moon. Team Asobi clearly designed it for players of all skill levels, and that includes children and newbies, but at its core Astro Bot feels purpose-built for video game fans. It’s a skill-driven celebration of everything that makes the format so memorable and joyful, and at the same time, it’s an excellent introduction to the language of games. With precise and responsive controls, adorable characters, and an exciting variety of mechanics and environments, Astro Bot is easily one of the best games that Sony has ever produced.
A few of them demanded a deft diving ability the backpack is meant to offer, but it doesn’t have the same accuracy of other abilities in the game, which led me to whiff on some sections in a way that was unique to this level. It was manageable, but if any secret levels–which tend to be some of the game’s hardest–also use this mechanic, I expect them to become some of the game’s few frustrations. 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. There are a lot of games nowadays that require you to be frugal with your purchases like Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
For example, the Monkey Climber is an evolution of Playroom’s climbing ability, but the assistance of a small robotic ape with huge hands this time means rocks can be hurled and ground pounded to great delight. Laurels are never rested on either, with new ideas and gadgets introduced right up to the final encore. Although some mechanics are reused a little more than I’d like, when such powers are recycled in later levels they’re thankfully recontextualised and given slightly new uses. Critics praised the gameplay, level design, and content, with some comparing the game to Nintendo franchises, particularly the Super Mario series.
Astro Bot Related Links
It’s the best 3D platformer since Super Mario Odyssey hit the scene in 2017 and will be remembered as an all-time classic of the genre. Everyone with a PS5 should get their hands on this game ASAP, and hopefully, Team Asobi gets to continue making masterpieces. 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. Stranded in space following an attack from a googly-eyed alien, Astro’s mission is to repair their ship and rescue all 300 pals scattered across five main clusters of planets, each composed of individual levels. Naturally, the story is not the focus here, and yet I was so immersed in the 15-hour game that I beat it in two long sittings.
Despite often radically altering your moveset, the game never resorts to tutorial text – just a small, animated pop-up indicating basic actions. Astro Bot is an explosion of colour and creativity that constantly flips your expectations on its head. When OK8386 hits, you’ll feel the urge to stand up and cheer in excitement – but let’s step back and break this down into chunks to better understand why it’s so impressive. The formula for creating great platform games always involves carefully aligning disparate pieces to create a cohesive and engaging whole – and Astro Bot is no exception. Just walking around generates a gentle rumble, which increases as you use your jet boots or attack enemies. Different surfaces rumble differently, with the excellent audio design matching them perfectly.
Astro’s Playroom, a game bundled in with every PS5 is approximately 3 hours long, and many spent double or triple in that world just exploring and attempting to beat other player’s times at each level. Given the robust nature of what Astro Bot offers here, I could see many spending dozens of hours once that time trial mode is released. Astro Bot’s not the largest game in the world — you’ll perhaps see the credits roll in hours or so. Those aiming to rescue every robot, complete every challenge, find every jigsaw piece and unlock every trophy, however, will probably end up playing for around 20 hours or more.
Most of the Astro Bot cameo characters are pretty easy to identify, but there are a few VIP Bots who are obscure and thus can be difficult to place. For more PS5 game deals, check out the list of PlayStation console exclusives that are still up for grabs for major discounts this holiday. Unfortunately, the future is a bit uncertain for Astro Bot, as Team Asobi hasn’t revealed what’s next after this DLC pack. Considering the popularity of the game, it’s easy to assume more DLC is on the way, though as of now, nothing is official. What fans do know is that Sony has been thrilled with Astro Bot’s reception and performance. In fact, Sony announced more games like Astro Bot are being planned, expanding its family-friendly offerings.
Each one comes with a brand-new Special Bot to rescue and, once that’s done, can be replayed in Time Attack mode with online rankings. To access these new levels, you will need to have completed the main game. As Astro, the player embarks on a quest to save lost robots, retrieve parts for the PlayStation 5 mothership, and defeat the alien Space Bully Nebulax. Much like the previous title Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot uses DualSense controller features including adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.
You tend to start writing lines in your head when compiling a review, and one that stuck with me early was to call Astro Bot ‘the best platformer since Super Mario Odyssey’. Then I played a little more and started to think ‘maybe it’s better’. All I know is Astro Bot is a contender for the all-time crown in a genre that has felt a little neglected (especially by Sony, who once nurtured it to greatness) in recent years. It’s so much more than a PlayStation history lesson, and in climbing above those expectations, becomes a piece of PlayStation history in its own right – with Astro Bot, the PS5 may finally have arrived. It’s not that the powers are cool, that it’s fun to blow into your controller, or that you get to meet Aloy. It’s that every inch of Astro Bot is designed to offer a fresh experience.
IGN, among other major gaming outlets, praised ASTRO BOT’s revolutionary approach to platforming. The game’s success at The Game Awards 2024 ceremony marks a new era for PlayStation Studios and Team ASOBI. You’ll need a PlayStation 5 console and sufficient storage space (approximately 50GB). The game is optimized for play on 4K displays but supports all PS5-compatible displays.
However, collecting all 300 bots, finding all secrets, and achieving 100% completion can extend playtime to 18+ hours. Unlike ASTRO’s Playroom, ASTRO BOT is a standalone, full-sized adventure that offers over four times more worlds, 300 bots to rescue and dozens of new powers and features to discover. And now, four years later, Sony released a full sequel simply titled “Astro Bot” — and it just won the Game Award for Game of the Year.
If you give Kratos Bot a friendly punch at your Crash Site, he’ll use his axe to freeze you into an ice cube. Well, to unlock the “Thaw, God of Thunder!” trophy in Astro Bot, you need to trick Kratos Bot into freezing Thor Bot instead. Trophy in Astro Bot in the Slo-Mo Casino world of Serpent Starway. Look for the four golden slot machines by the third checkpoint in Slo-Mo Casino (right after you enter the casino doors).