Astro Bot review

Back in 2018 the world was introduced to Astro Bot, a little platforming robot who jumps around various worlds rescuing other bots in peril. This first entry in a future household name though was exclusively a PlayStation VR game, meaning those who weren’t diving into virtual worlds like myself missed out. Two years later another Astro game arrived, but this time it was infinitely more accessible. Every single lucky PS5 owner was greeted by Astro’s Playroom when they booted up their new console, and the short platforming experience was almost unanimously loved thanks to its use of the new DualSense controller and its delightful references to other important games throughout the history of the PlayStation. Now back for a third time, Astro Bot returns in Astro Bot – a new full sized 3D platformer that’s a joyous celebration of gaming as a whole.

Our hero Astro Bot begins their new adventure flying through space in a PS5 shaped spaceship, when all of a sudden an encounter with a nasty alien brings them crashing onto an unknown planet. With the ship now missing some key components, it’s up to our charming electronic hero to hop from planet to planet in search of parts and other robots who can help repair the console/intergalactic vehicle and put a stop to the alien menace. It’s a simple story that gets you straight into the action and onto a whole host of delightfully themed platforming worlds.

If you played Astro’s Playroom you’ll feel immediately at home controlling Astro on this new adventure. The abilities of Astro are almost identical to the last outing, which means you’ll be jumping, hovering and spinning your way across the galaxy. It’ll take you all of a minute to feel entirely at home moving our protagonist around the game’s astonishingly varied stages and looking for collectibles, and then the real fun begins.

Variety is absolutely the name of the game in Astro Bot, with each self contained and mostly linear world containing something new to experience. Whether you’re helping free a massive robot from its shackles or climbing up a singing tree it’s impossible not to have a smile plastered across your face, and thanks to a selection of creative powerups you have access to each new world you step on feels exciting.

Every time a new item was handed to me in Astro Bot, I found myself thinking that most games would have one idea this good that carried them to success. Boxing gloves are used with the left and right triggers, and can be used to swing off certain platforms and launch yourself off certain coloured blobs. There’s also a watch that allows you to pause time to hop across rapidly moving platforms, a dog jetpack that launches you forward at breakneck speed and can smash through glass, and monkey arms you can use to climb between banana shaped anchor points. Each of these pieces of gear (and many more) are only given to you in a couple of stages, but they’re all so perfectly implemented and fun to use that I’d find myself trying to activate them on the next stage as they just felt like part of my core moveset.

While making your way from the beginning of a level to the end is the main goal of Astro Bot, there are also all sorts of hidden collectibles to find on each world. As usual bots still need rescuing by Astro, many of which are dressed like popular video game characters through the ages. The absolute joy of finding a bot dressed up like a character you love is unparalleled if you have even a small amount of love for gaming’s rich history, and some of the deeper cuts made my heart so incredibly happy. I’d love to talk about each and every one of my favourites, but I’d be stealing your joy away.

Joy is the word more than any other I’d use to describe Astro Bot. Be it the joy of using your spin attack to spin around a nut shaped enemy in a delightful flourish, the joy of fighting an incredibly creative boss or the joy of successfully taking on a tricky platforming challenge level and being awarded an exciting new dressed up bot for doing so. Each of the game’s five worlds ends in a stage entirely modelled around a popular PlayStation game, and you’d better believe that every single one of these injected pure unfiltered joy right into my heart. I’m not sure a game has ever made me feel more like a giddy little kid than Astro Bot.

If there’s ever any time I’m feeling down in life, the one place I know I’ll be able to cheer myself up is the hub area of Astro Bot. The Crash Site is an area that initially is a barren wasteland with nothing worth exploring, but every bot you rescue will eventually come and live in this little desert haven. By spending coins in the gacha machine you’ll be given accessories for your dressed up bots based on the video games they’re from, and when you interact with them from then on they’ll react in a new special way. There are also extra secrets to uncover in this hub area, which you can access by commanding your bots to help you in an almost Pikmin-esque way once you’ve gathered enough of them. Swinging off a rope made up of popular gaming characters to reach a new area, or running up a wall made of stacked gaming heroes just never ceases to delight.

One of the most notable things about Astro’s Playroom when it was released as a pack in title was how well it used all the DualSense’s features, and Team Asobi have ensured that’s still the case this time around. Running across glass and feeling your sharp footsteps rumbling across the back of the controller, and hearing the tinkling noises through the speaker in your hands is still just pure magic. The adaptive triggers are assigned to the special items and are a delight to use too, and cement the game as a whole as the perfect demonstration of the tech.

No review of Astro Bot would be complete without mentioning the visuals and audio, which are simply exceptional. The colourful worlds are a delight to the eyes, with jaw dropping visual effects that ensure that some of the game’s more surprising set piece moments completely blow you away. Everything from tiny sound effects to the background music is implemented exquisitely too, with a few standout songs worthy of even the most carefully curated Spotify playlist.

It’s almost impossible to think of any negative aspects of Astro Bot, it’s just that wonderful a game. There are some motion control elements that won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but they can be turned off in the options menu if you really don’t enjoy them. I also would appreciate it if the game told you which games some of the more obscure dressed up bots come from, but to call that a complaint is a bit of a stretch.

Astro Bot is frankly one of the greatest platformers of all time, with a vast selection of creative stages, gorgeous visuals and a ridiculous amount of video game references that never cease to make me smile. The creativity and variety of the game is absolutely sensational, and exploring worlds for collectibles is a joy. Astro Bot is a game that sets a new standard in 3D platforming, and is now one of my all time favourites.