A Love Letter to PlayStation, Wrapped in a Platformer
Every so often a game arrives that reminds you exactly why you fell in love with this hobby in the first place. Astro Bot is that game. Team Asobi’s follow-up to the pack-in tech demo Astro’s Playroom takes everything that made that little showcase so charming and builds a full, sprawling, endlessly inventive 3D platformer around it. The result isn’t just one of the best exclusives PS5 owners have received this generation, it’s a genuine contender for platformer of the decade.
The premise is simple on paper: Astro’s mothership has been shattered across the galaxy by a giant space octopus, scattering hundreds of lost PlayStation-themed bots across dozens of planets. It’s a flimsy excuse for a plot, and the game knows it, using the setup purely as a vehicle to string together one inventive level after another. But what elevates Astro Bot above the countless mascot platformers that came before it is the sheer density of ideas packed into every single stage.
Gameplay That Never Stops Reinventing Itself
Where most platformers introduce a gimmick and milk it for an entire world, Astro Bot introduces a new mechanic almost every single level and then discards it before it overstays its welcome. One stage has you stretching Astro’s arms like rubber bands to swing and punch through obstacles. The next turns him into a frog capable of enormous leaps. Later you’ll pilot a mech with a satisfying dash-punch, ride a fish that can shoot water jets to solve environmental puzzles, or transform into a tiny ball that rolls at breakneck speed through narrow tubes.
None of these ideas feel recycled from the studio’s own back catalog, and remarkably few of them feel borrowed from other platformers either. The team seems to have an almost bottomless well of creativity, and the pacing benefits enormously from it. You are rarely doing the same thing for more than five minutes before the game hands you something new to play with, yet nothing ever feels undercooked. Every mechanic is fully realized, with its own dedicated obstacle course, its own boss encounter, and its own moment of platforming brilliance before the credits roll on that idea for good.
The core movement, meanwhile, is simply exceptional. Astro controls with a weight and precision reminiscent of the best Mario titles, capable of double jumps, glide dashes, and a satisfying ground pound, all of which chain together fluidly. Precision platforming sections that would feel punishing in a lesser game instead feel fair and rewarding here, because the controls are so responsive that any failure genuinely feels like your own.
A Showcase for the DualSense Like No Other
It would be easy to overlook just how cleverly Astro Bot uses the DualSense controller, but doing so would be a disservice to one of the game’s biggest strengths. Adaptive triggers simulate the specific resistance of stretching elastic arms or charging a jump. Haptic feedback distinguishes between walking on grass, metal, sand, or water with startling clarity. The built-in speaker chimes in with contextual sound effects, from the patter of rain to Astro’s own footsteps, in a way that feels genuinely immersive rather than gimmicky.
This isn’t surface-level controller flavor either. Several puzzles are built entirely around the gyroscope and touchpad, asking you to tilt the controller to balance Astro on a tightrope or swipe to flick away obstacles. It’s the most complete argument yet for why the DualSense matters, and it makes a compelling case that Sony’s hardware innovations were worth the investment all along.
A Nostalgia Trip That Never Feels Cynical
Scattered throughout the 80-plus levels are hundreds of collectible bots dressed as characters from PlayStation’s history, everything from Kratos and Aloy to deep-cut references pulled from PS1 and PS2 obscurities. It would have been easy for this concept to feel like shallow fan service, a checklist of cameos designed purely to generate social media screenshots. Instead, Team Asobi treats each cameo with genuine affection, often building entire mini biomes or boss fights themed specifically around the franchise being referenced.
A level themed around Ape Escape has you literally hunting down mischievous monkeys with a net. A God of War-inspired boss fight has you battling a towering stone golem while Kratos-bots cheer you on from the sidelines. These aren’t just palette swaps, they’re loving, playable tributes that reward longtime PlayStation fans while remaining entirely accessible to newcomers who have never touched a PS1 pad in their life.
Boss Fights Worth Writing Home About
Platformers have historically struggled with boss design, often falling back on simple pattern recognition or repetitive damage sponges. Astro Bot bucks that trend entirely. Each of its main world bosses is a multi-phase spectacle that repurposes the mechanics you just learned in inventive new ways, forcing you to think on your feet rather than simply memorize a rotation. One encounter has you dodging attacks while riding a jetpack through a crumbling arena, another turns into a rhythm-based dance-off against a mirrorball-headed villain that is as delightful as it sounds.
These fights are consistently the highlights of each world, blending spectacle, humor, and genuine mechanical challenge in a way that few other platformers, first party or otherwise, manage to pull off.
Visuals and Sound Design
Visually, Astro Bot is a masterclass in art direction over raw horsepower. While it isn’t chasing photorealism, its chunky, toy-like aesthetic is rendered with an incredible level of polish, from the way light bounces off Astro’s glossy plastic shell to the particle effects that erupt whenever you smash through a crate. Load times are essentially nonexistent thanks to the PS5’s SSD, and the game maintains a rock-solid frame rate throughout, which matters enormously in a genre where precision is everything.
The soundtrack, meanwhile, is bursting with personality, swinging from breezy tropical steel drums to bombastic boss battle orchestration without ever feeling disjointed. Combined with a charming absence of dialogue, relying instead on expressive animation and adorable robot chirps, the whole package radiates warmth from start to finish.
Who Is This Game For?
Astro Bot’s appeal is refreshingly broad. Its lower difficulty curve and forgiving checkpoint system make it a fantastic introduction to 3D platforming for younger or less experienced players, while its wealth of optional challenge levels, hidden puzzle pieces, and speedrun-friendly time trials give veteran platforming fans plenty to sink their teeth into. It’s rare to find a game this generous to newcomers without feeling shallow to genre veterans, but Team Asobi has managed exactly that balancing act.
Replay Value and Post-Game Content
Once the credits roll, Astro Bot is far from finished with you. Six galaxy hubs house a staggering number of optional challenge levels, each built around a single mechanical idea pushed to its absolute limit, whether that’s a precision speed-run through a gauntlet of spinning blades or a puzzle box level demanding pixel-perfect platforming under a strict time limit. These bite-sized challenges are consistently some of the toughest content in the entire package, and completing them all is a genuine badge of honor among the game’s dedicated community.
Layered on top of that is a comprehensive bot-collecting completionist loop. With well over 300 hidden robots scattered across the galaxy, many tucked behind secret walls, hidden underwater passages, or triggered by specific mid-air maneuvers, thorough players will find dozens of additional hours of content long after the main campaign concludes. A built-in tracker helps narrow down which planets still have bots waiting to be found, striking a nice balance between guided completionism and the joy of stumbling onto a secret by accident.
Comparing It to Astro’s Playroom
For players who spent time with the pack-in Astro’s Playroom, the leap in scope here cannot be overstated. Where the original was essentially a tightly designed tech demo lasting a few hours, Astro Bot is a full-fledged, standalone retail release with dozens of hours of dense, varied content. The DNA is unmistakably the same, but everything has been scaled up dramatically, from the number of unique mechanics to the sheer ambition of its boss encounters, transforming what was once a clever showcase into one of the platform’s flagship franchises.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- An astonishing variety of mechanics that never overstay their welcome
- Best-in-class use of the DualSense controller
- Charming, loving tributes to PlayStation history
- Genuinely inventive, memorable boss fights
- Tight, responsive platforming that rewards skill
Cons:
- Story is intentionally minimal and may leave some wanting more narrative substance
- Some longtime fans may wish for a harder difficulty option from the outset
The Verdict
Astro Bot isn’t just a great platformer, it’s a joyful reminder of what makes gaming special in the first place. Team Asobi has crafted a game overflowing with heart, creativity, and technical polish, one that respects both newcomers and veterans while never running out of fresh ideas across its lengthy campaign. If you own a PS5 and have any love for platformers, or for PlayStation itself, this is as close to essential as it gets.
Topody Score: 9.5/10 — A near-perfect platformer and one of the best exclusives PlayStation has ever produced.
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