Astro Bot Review: PS5 Impressions, Videos, and Key Features | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Astro Bot from Sony and developer Team Asobi has had one of the most interesting paths to a highly anticipated release in a long time.

Technically, Astro Bot is a sequel to 2020’s Astro’s Playroom, which was a small-scale release for the PlayStation 5’s launch intended to showcase the DualSense controller’s force-feedback features.

These innovative features ultimately feel like the one, must-have feature of next-gen consoles, at least now that visuals have apparently reached a point where improvements are minimal. Yes.

But it was Astro Bot’s character, his galaxy, and the sheer fun of it that left players wanting more.

Hence the emergence of one of PlayStation’s flagship platform games, and a potential Game of the Year contender with a sequel that significantly expands on the beloved short intro.

The playroom was… short, with about five levels and a boss fight.

This is Astro Bot, boasting 80 levels across 50 planets in six galaxies.

This little taste of the Playroom universe is expanded upon, as fans of the intro might have expected. There’s a dizzying array of different themed worlds, from an ice cream place where players can dig up sprinkles, to trees made from ice cream cones, to spooky mansion-like areas, and more.

Astro Bot is colorful and incredibly expressive in his character emotes, sure. Players can even just let go of the controller and see some of the different, fun things Astro Bot does. But the real treat of immersion is the pure creativity poured into every little piece of the environment and characters on so many different levels.

While the series started out as a kind of tech demo for controller technology, it’s also a case study in the graphical power the console can produce. There’s a staggering level of detail and fidelity, and even things like the underwater segments are impressive.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to mention that the sound design is also on point. The soundtrack fits the themes of the worlds and is immersive in the best possible way, while the sound effects related to the actual gameplay are strong and clear.

Even moving between worlds and characters has been creatively solved – Astro Bot travels in a controller-shaped ship, while players navigate using the analog sticks and the DualSense controller itself.

As Playroom veterans might have predicted, there’s a “just one more try” mentality that games like Mario and others have managed to instill here. The levels are fast-paced and dynamic enough that failure isn’t the end of the world. And beyond 100% completion, there’s always something interesting or another player-bot they haven’t discovered yet, which adds a lot of replay value to most places.

Astro Bot features the same basic moveset as before, including jumping, hovering, punching, and spinning attacks. Unless Astro Bot finds himself in a world inspired by other Sony heroes, players are given abilities similar to those characters as they traverse specially themed levels.

On top of that, there’s now a double-digit list of new abilities that Astro Bot can use, with one of the most basic being the ability to climb walls. The game goes out of its way to make these new additions to Astro Bot the foundation of challenging or even boss fights.

The game feels dynamic in the way that platformers need to be done well, sure. Input is responsive, and the overall platforming experience is as good as a player could hope for.

But that haptic feedback is just mind-blowing. Even feeling a tiny difference in feedback depending on what surface the player is walking on is one of the most impressive things happening in gaming right now.

The game has difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard, with the latter often being optional challenge areas. As you might expect, this gives Astro Bot the ability to appeal to the widest possible audience.

Astro Bot keeps it simple – there are literally hundreds of Bots to rescue across the galaxies. Many of them fall into the “normal” column, while the most notable ones are the VIP Bots, which are nods to other Sony series.

Given the game’s appeal to all ages, the plot doesn’t need to be much more complicated. There’s plenty of background storytelling, and the character emotes do a great job, anyway.

Otherwise, this approach places the primary emphasis on gameplay, which is a necessity for a game this precise and technically impressive, both in the player’s hands and on the screen itself.

There’s also a museum-like area where players can view all the bots they’ve saved along the way. This seems like an obvious choice and one that players will definitely enjoy.

It’s commendable that the game allows other Sony franchises to stand out in this way. It may sound silly, but the game could just as easily have said no, thank you to include characters that overshadow Astro Bot’s character. Instead, this decision could make players appreciate Astro Bot as a protagonist even more, while also really leaning into that “Playroom” namesake from the previous game.

Progression includes coins that players scan and collect to then spend on random rewards, and even some extra help getting through levels. The latter isn’t necessary, but it seems like it could point to some tricky stuff that players might have missed.

Like most modern games, Astro Bot promises an infusion of future levels as post-launch support. Assuming the base game has the same high-quality, fast-paced play areas, these additions, regardless of how long the game is supported, could give it incredibly long legs.

Astro Bot also stands out for its huge list of accessibility and general options in the menu. The game even lets you disable features like gyroscope controls and adaptive triggers.

Astro Bot, thankfully, doesn’t get sucked into chasing Mario’s path and instead carves out its own path. Playing in this space still can’t overcome accusations of taking things away from the genre’s top dog.

Simply fun, dynamic, and full of emotion, Astro Bot is a worthwhile extension of the beloved, more modest debut.

But just as impressive as the technical achievements and creativity is the careful focus on accessibility and open arms for all ages. As are the foundations laid here, which are ideal for high-quality additions over time.

While a platform game may not be a clear-cut Game of the Year title these days, Astro Bot certainly deserves a place in the discussion.