Astro Bot review (PS5) – Make it longer, you cowards

Tomorrow is the big day. Astro Bot, PlayStation’s way-too-late reply to Super Mario Odyssey (and arguably Super Mario 64), will finally hit the PS5. Believe us when we say we weren’t all that excited about the prospect of digging into a PlayStation-led 3D platformer. That’s a job for Nintendo, we thought. Then we got our hands on the PS5 exclusive that is Astro Bot and had our minds changed… the easy way.

Astro Bot is a stroke of genius, born from the minds of the folks over at Team Asobi. You’ll know them for their work on Astro’s Playroom – that game preloaded on the PS5 – essentially serving as an excuse to display the DualSense’s prowess for all to see. Four years later, Astro has wormed his way into a full-fledged sequel that promises to invigorate the platformer space for years to come, all hitches aside.

Taking platformers seriously again

Like it or not, Astro is the definition of a ‘poster boy’ and, having played through all of Astro Bot’s unfortunately-too-short runtime (and made excellent headway through the game’s million-or-so secretive levels), we reckon it’s going to stay that way for a long time. If we don’t start seeing titles like Astro Kart or Astro vs… someone at the Olympic Games crop up within the next three years, it’ll classify as a Sony fumble.

Like any decent platformer, there’s a distinct lack of any “real” story aside from the basics necessary to get you invested and onto the action. In other words, you won’t have to worry about dealing with an existential crisis by the time the credits roll (lookin’ at you, TLoU2). Astro Bot takes the whimsically meta route by having Astro crash land his PS5 spacecraft (yes, really), scattering his bot crew around the galaxy.

As you’ve likely surmised if you’ve seen anything about Astro Bot, your primary objective is to round up the some 300 ‘bots’ spread throughout the galaxy, each squirreled away in the various levels you’ll tackle throughout the nine-or-so hours it took us to conquer most of Astro Bot. The grander scheme involves finding all the missing bits that make your PS5 spaceship go ‘brrrr’, of which you’ll need to collect five to beat the main “story”.

But the bots are the heart and soul of Astro Bot. Around half of those are cosplaying some of the most iconic (and some inglorious) PlayStation properties out there. Out of fear of spoiling any of the cameos that weren’t in the trailers, we’ll leave it at that. You’ll occasionally return to the crash site – acting as the main hub for costume changes and whatnot – to visit your emancipated bots and discover ever more secrets.

Bursting at the seams

The bit you’ve all been waiting for – controls and mechanics. Let’s get this out of the way. Astro Bot’s controls are great. We’d even go as far as to call them excellent. Sure, it’s kept movement simple, but that’s part of the appeal. The many worlds of Astro Bot are designed to give you as much freedom as possible, with only a jump, punch, and extended double jump being more than enough to allow players to shoulder the burden of creativity.

Armed with the extremely tight, tight (tight) controls, you’ll enter levels astride your handy DualSense ship ready to take on the world. You’ll need to don whatever gimmick the game has lined up for you necessary to beat its inner demons. These range from the simple, extendable boxing arms for instance, to rocket-powered dog backpacks and literal time-altering powers (these are easily the most enjoyable) and many more we’d rather not reveal here. These are the keys to propelling Astro Bot to greater heights.

While most levels will exercise your ability to tame these newfound powers, Astro Bot introduces another genre staple – boss fights – and executes them… somewhat poorly. There’s at least one major boss in every “galaxy”, first requiring passing the traditional platforming levels (and collecting enough bots) before you can get in the ring with lantern-wielding genies and mechanical chameleons.

It’s here Asobi first stumbles, introducing wishy-washy bosses that felt far too easy to overcome, foregoing platforming theatrics and regularly devolving into a punch-fest. That isn’t the case throughout. Some bosses, mostly in the game’s back end, up the difficulty factor and incorporate the more technical side we loved, allowing Astro Bot to blossom into the game it has the potential to be.

Unfortunately, it’s not an issue only plaguing boss levels. It’s a feeling we could never quite shake through our time handling Astro Bot’s core gameplay. But more on that later. We’d like to sing Team Asobi’s praises just a bit longer.

You’re in for a world of

Fun mechanics and stellar controls are nothing, nothing, without a world worth exploring and we can confidently say that Astro Bot knocks that aspect out of the park. Every single level, taking on the form of planets in larger galaxies, feels like Asobi’s way of flexing their creative muscles to vie for some girl’s attention on the other side of the gym, culminating in a universe teeming with well-kept secrets, wonderful enemies and an epic score.

In a world so densely packed with things to do, there was never a moment we tired of scouring every nook and cranny that Astro Bot throughout the game’s 80-or-so levels. Those range from hidden rooms protecting an out-of-sight bot, or the best-kept secret: the “Lost Galaxy” levels, whose doors are planted firmly in levels and may require a certain amount of ‘cheating’ to uncover them all.

There’s hardly ever a sense that Asobi dipped back into ideas already expressed, with each new level bringing entirely fresh ideas. Most of the platformer regulars turn up here, but the developers never shy away from injecting their ideas into the behemoth that is the genre. In some stages, you are the level. In others, you’re let loose into a water kingdom, taking on a Mario-like level of exploration we’d love to see more of.

Our only issue? We want… more. A lot more. Sure, there are 80 levels packed in, but we’d gladly halve that number in favour of exploring longer levels that implement more serious platforming. Astro Bot, thankfully, isn’t devoid real challenge, thanks to a small handful of side levels that kick things into gear by putting your control of Astro’s basic mechanics to the test. More of that, please.

Potentially, wasted

Astro Bot never escapes the feeling that Team Asobi, and by extension, PlayStation, were just a smidgen too hesitant to dip their toes into the genre. That might be at odds with everything we’ve said thus far, but we can’t help but feel there’s wasted potential beneath the surface. You can almost taste the burgeoning creativity bursting out of each level before you’re thrust onto the next thing.

We mean that almost literally. One of Astro Bot’s biggest faults is that it isn’t nearly long enough, in terms of level design and actual gameplay. We squeezed out nine hours of playtime with the little guy, though we admit a couple of bots are still awaiting their bot in shining armour to rescue them, which should tack on another two or three hours.

The thing is, we felt no urge to dive back in, at least not right away. As creative and gorgeous as Astro Bot’s levels are, their compact stature enabled us to get the most out of them during our first run-through, barring a few secrets we’ve yet to uncover.

Astro Bot feels like a bubble of pure creativity just longing to burst. And that’s almost a good thing. There’s a level of hype swirling around Astro’s first proper outing that makes us sure the game can reach those highs we know it’s capable of and give Nintendo a run for its money. We’d be amazed (and horrified) if a sequel wasn’t already in the works.

Astro Bot verdict

We couldn’t think of a game more deserving of all the love heading Astro Bot’s way. It’s a beautiful piece of work that will doubtless breathe new life into the platformer genre and we couldn’t be more thankful. Sony will never give up on its bread and butter, but there’s a place on the shelf for Astro Bot we couldn’t envision when this game was first announced.

Just… don’t pick up the R1,500 Digital Deluxe Edition. It’s not worth the dough, no matter how cool our ‘early unlock’ Yharnam outfit was.