An amazing celebration of video games and PlayStation history.
Although I’m not one of those fans of platformers who seek them outright, I have to admit that throughout gaming history it was this genre that defined video games as such and their generations. From Mario or Sonic, through Crash Bandicoot or Rayman to Ori or Hollow Knight. There’s something wildly appealing about every great platformer, easy to pick up, yet engrossing, hard to put down. All of these memories of gaming history and the core of what makes video games video games came flooding back to me in a disarming way while playing Astro Bot. In 2020, I wrote about Astro’s Playroom as “the best way to spend the first moments with PS5” and I criticized the game for one thing: its brevity. It was this problem that the new game corrected, and the work is thus practically brought to perfection.
- Platform: PS5
- Release date: 6. 9. 2024
- Manufacturer: Team Asobi (Japan)
- Genre: platform game
- Czech localization: yes (lyrics)
- Multiplayer: it is
- Data to download: 37 GB
- Game Time: 15+ hours
- Cena: 1,699 CZK (Alza)
A galaxy full of ideas
Astro Bot wastes no time and throws you into the vortex of gaming almost immediately. The plot of the game can hardly be called a story, it consists of short, wordless clips about how your spaceship in the form of an animated PlayStation 5 is attacked by an evil green alien (strikingly reminiscent of the Alza mascot) and steals key components from it. The crash then scatters hundreds of Astro Bots across the galaxy, and it’s up to you to make your way around more than 50 planets (levels) in an attempt to find and save all the Astro Bots. All kinds of enemy minions, from regular ones to massive bosses with majestic dynamic arenas, will prevent you from doing so.
More than 50 planets await you.
A trip to a single planet can take anywhere from five minutes to fifteen minutes, depending on whether you simply run forward or carefully explore every nook and cranny. You’ll need to find enough Astro Bots to unlock the more advanced parts of the game, so you have good reason to seek them all out. A cool (but optional) mechanic will give you a bird companion when you visit the same planet repeatedly to alert you and point you to things you’ve missed, so you can completely avoid getting lost, although you’ll need to use some ingenuity here and there to figure out how to get to a certain location .
astrobot006 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot001 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot003 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot007 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot005 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot004 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
astrobot002 | Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz
One of the game’s best features is its variety. Practically every planet has its own identity, alternating all sorts of biomes and genres, from desert to sea, from tropical vacation to haunted castle. In addition, some planets also have extra game mechanics where they equip you with unique accessories and abilities, from a rocket backpack to a magnet or light bulb that reveals invisible platforms. Variety and imagination are the game’s best features, ensuring you’ll have trouble putting it down: you’ll always want to see what’s on that next planet – and once you get there, you’ll have so much fun that you won’t be able to stop until you’re on it end And then you’ll want to see what’s on that next, next planet.
Perfect fusion
A big part of the game’s charm is how amazing it looks and sounds. Although everything is a simplified caricature in the form of animated toys, the material and surface of the individual objects and the environment appear palpably realistic, including all kinds of reflections, dynamic lighting or physical reactions of objects to each other. Very often, the game really indulges in the fact that it lets you traverse a certain area or unfold hundreds of small objects in your path, or dynamically changes the entire environment around you in real time. So far, I’ve only seen one video game that looks comparably “tangible” graphically, and that was Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. At the same time, everything loads absolutely lightning fast, so you usually don’t even notice the recording. The game runs in dynamic resolution (up to 4K) and 60fps.
A big part of the game’s charm is how amazing it looks and sounds.
When it comes to sound, the game worlds and their inhabitants come alive with irresistibly endearing hums of all kinds, accompanied by pleasant electronic melodies tailored to the location. Crucially, the sound flows from the TV and your DualSense controller at the same time, which, together with the very careful use of haptic feedback, serves to draw you into the game even better. The controls and the gameplay itself seem extremely polished, it is an absolute joy to move around this world and interact with it in all possible ways. I will not mention other specific cases on purpose, because many of them are great surprises. But few game worlds literally come to life with their mechanics and transformations like this one.
At the same time, fans of the PlayStation brand and history will get an extra boost of joy and motivation. More than half of the Astro Bots are characters from famous PlayStation video games, from the most prominent ones (Kratos, Nathan Drake) to some slightly obscure ones from the first generation of PlayStation games. Some characters have entire planets including central mechanics or accompanying music built according to their specific games. It’s a joy to collect these cute variations and memories, which is also what your “home planet” is for, where you return between individual expeditions and gradually repair your PS5 ship here, with more rescued helpers. Like everywhere else in the game, there are all kinds of surprises hidden here, including unlocking additional mechanics that enrich the game. Everything is so perfectly connected that it’s hard to walk away from playing without finding and fulfilling everything the game has to offer.
Verdict
The essence of video game fun, variety and ingenuity, distilled with such care and joy that it will completely disarm you, regardless of your age or genre preference. The beautiful audiovisual processing will enchant you, the quick change of environment and mechanics will prevent any boredom, and the DualSense controller will come to life in your hands like in few other games. In addition, fans of PlayStation history will meet all their favorites.
What do we like and dislike?
Variety and imagination at every step
Top audio-visual processing
Using the controller’s DualSense features
Imaginatively hidden surprises
Clear collectibles system
Nicely balanced difficulty
Ikony PlayStation historie
A story in its simplest form
Sometimes slow gatekeeping
