The fact that Team Asobi’s games have the potential to become someone’s first game is something that Doucet takes seriously. “Team Asobi’s studio is just across the street from our building, so they were always the first to prototype with our hardware,” says Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, product director for the DualSense controller. It could be said that the combination of futurism with cuteness perfectly embodies the identity of the Japanese roots of the PlayStation brand that Kutaragi started.
Astro Bot is a platformer adventure game released on September 6, 2024, for the PS5, serving as a sequel to Team Asobi’s Astro’s Playroom from 2020 and the third game in the series. Players take on the role of the lovable Astro Bot, embarking on a space-faring adventure through diverse environments, including waves of sandy beaches, lush jungles, and fiery volcanoes. Along the way, Astro gains new powers and transformations to aid in the journey. Released in celebration of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, the game pays homage to the brand’s legacy by allowing players to find and reunite with over 150 iconic PlayStation characters.
Some are on the linear side, testing your platforming skills, but others are more open, giving you some freedom as to how to achieve your goal. You might find yourself equipped with gloves that allow you to pummel enemies at range, for example, or a bulldog strapped to your back with which you can charge into heavy items and send them flying. As previously mentioned, anyone that has played Astro’s Playroom will have a good idea of what to expect here.
My wife and I enjoyed It Takes Two but some of the one off I was glad to get rid of. My kid on the other hand hated how you kept learning new stuff only for it to be dropped and never return again, just like this review, and I was getting this for them for their birthday. I just watched the ACG review on YT and this game looks phenomenal, lots of things that remind me of the Mario games and lets be honest, there is not a better platformer out there to take notes from. Also the advantages or lets say unique features this game has over the Mario series are way better graphics and for Playstation gamers all the Bots that remind you of well known games. The game on ps5 i’ve been waiting for since i got one basically… The switch has remained my most played platform after all these years because of the lack of games like this, for me the essense of gaming…
The developers at Team Asobi didn’t reinvent the platforming wheel here, but like any good platformer, it’s the unique ways the powers are used that make them special. Instead of water, that F.L.U.D.D. power-up sucks up a green goo it then spits out to create platforms of grass. I giggled like a toddler using it to defeat a special enemy by literally sucking its green, goopy brains out.
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Astro Bot has proved incredibly popular for PlayStation, having sold 1.5 million units in its first two months on sale and earned a 9/10 in IGN’s review. “A fantastically inventive platformer in its own right, Astro Bot is particularly special for anyone with a place in their heart for PlayStation,” we said. “Unlike our last update Winter Wonder, which was a walk through the Xmas park, this new update features harder levels to test your jumping skills,” said director of developer Team Asobi, Nicolas Doucet. While it may seem simple enough, there are a lot of things to do in the over fifty levels Astro Bot has to offer. Check every corner, hit every object or look below every platform and you may find a secret cord or passageway to a Puzzle Piece, Bot or even a Vortex to a secret world! Master Onion is the secret 301st bot, the last one you’ll unlock in the game.
Press, Nudge, Hit, And Jump On Everything
Needless to say, Astro Bot exceeded my expectations by being nearly perfect in almost every aspect of the game. To start the year on a good note, we are delighted to announce new Astro Bot content is coming starting today. You might have noticed that a, yet unreleased, level of Astro Bot was featured at the PlayStation XP Tournament Final in London, England on January 18. That very level, along with 4 additional ones will be coming your way inside the brand-new Vicious Void Galaxy, starting today. Last year saw the release of Astro Bot, our biggest game to date. As well as picking several game awards, we have been blessed with countless comments and lovely words from you, the players.
Feather Cluster (48 Bots, 19 Puzzle Pieces & 2 Warps)
Since releasing Astro Bot earlier this year on PlayStation 5, we have been submerged by lovely comments from you and the PlayStation community, and we are delighted with the critical response to the game all over the world. From n188com of our hearts, thank you so much for showing your appreciation. We hope you are getting ready for a nice festive season with your loved ones. This piece can be pretty annoying to get, but thankfully you can restart the mission very quickly if you miss it. If you’re really struggling, consider turning the motion controls off to make precision flying easier. From bot #4, once you cross the big stone bridge, destroy both purple snakes.
I never lose my momentum because of a mistimed jump and can usually recover if I misjudge a spinning platform’s trajectory. In addition to a punch and spin attack, the jets from my boosters can fry enemies below me. That means that I rarely need to stop moving to take care of a few pesky bots.
It’s great to see ASOBI showing this level of appreciation of what has come before, but it also shows Sony’s very apparent inability to leverage what built them up in the first place. Pre-installed on every PlayStation 5, Astro’s Playroom is a 3D platformer that perfectly demonstrates the power of the PS5 and the unique features of the DualSense controller. If you’ve played it you’ve got an idea of what to expect from Astro Bot; think of it as a precursor, if you will. And if you’ve not played it, go and do it right now; it’s only short, and it should you hate it for any reason, there’s not really any point in considering picking Astro Bot up because you have no soul. Team Asobi has announced that five new levels are coming to Astro Bot as weekly drops, starting on Feb. 13. (That’s today!) As with previous additions to the Game of the Year winner, the new levels are free to download — and, of course, each comes with a new Special Bot to rescue.
With Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Team Asobi proved that it was more than capable of creating a remarkable full-length game. Asobi’s winning streak continued with Astro’s Playroom, a pack-in PS5 launch title that did a great job of showing off the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Simply put, Astro Bot is the studio’s magnum opus and, quite frankly, one of the best 3D platformers ever made. In tandem with expert level design are the game’s diverse and exciting mechanics. At the start of nearly every level, Astro jumps into a suit or straps on a backpack of some kind that gives them a new ability.
In my 2024 of Elden Ring and Stellar Blade boss-slaughtering, and Destiny and First Descendant live service shooting, a family-friendly platformer like Astro Bot was not something I thought I’d be diving into. Then, it became the highest-reviewed full game of 2024 and rocketed to becoming a frontrunner for Game of the Year. Like its predecessor, Astro Bot is filled to the brim with PlayStation references and cameos. The most visible ones come in the form of the Special Bots — bots dressed up as famous and obscure PlayStation family characters. Out of the 300 bots you can collect in the game, 173 are such Special Bots. The final puzzle piece is just after you use the flower lever on the inside of the hourglass, which you reach after boosting up past the arrows stuck in the wall.