In the music industry, a group often uses a self-titled album years into its career to indicate reinvention. “This it’s who we are now’ is the intended and unspoken message. PlayStation’s Astro Bot uses the same naming convention to signal a similarly fresh start. After a 2018 VR exclusive with an apparently limited reach and a 2020 game that Team Asobi studio head and creative director Nicolas Doucet considers a “tech demo,” the simply titled Astro Bot of 2024 feels like it’s ready to launch the cute robot to the top of the crowded of the PlayStation pantheon.
“It’s actually called Astro’s Playroom [that] so it wouldn’t be mistaken for an Astro Bot-sized game,” Doucet told me after a demo in which I beat several levels, rescued many PlayStation characters remade into robots, and defeated a boxing cephalopod boss. Many people don’t really know the Astro universe outside of Astro’s Playroom, so here we go [here] with the name Astro Bot made a lot of sense as a fresh start.”
Doucet said the success of the VR game convinced the team to revisit the world of Astro Bot with the PS5 bundle that followed, and they thought a wider audience still if at that moment they fall in love with the mascot and their world, then they might go to something else most of all. Astro Bot is something else.
From what I’ve played, the differences between Astro Bot and its predecessors are obvious in some ways and subtle in others. The varied levels I experienced took me across beaches like those in Astro’s Playroom and a construction yard hanging high above the clouds just like in Rescue Mission, but these familiar landscapes were also noticeably denser and the overworld felt more like something out of LittleBigPlanet. in which I could pilot the DualSense jet from planet to planet as I unlocked levels, bonus challenges and more.
My favorite part of the game is its ability to feel almost clairvoyant. Every time I experimented with the environment by breaking certain parts of it, climbing high, or hiding in a corner expecting a secret, I found some. The levels have a masterful way of guiding me on their proper paths but also signaling where I can be rewarded for rushing down paths B or C or even D. I would find coins to spend or more bots dressed as Ratchet, Rivet, Kratos and more of over 150 in-game cameos, a number Doucet revealed to me.
This perpetual cycle of exploration and reward lends itself very well to the game mechanics, which remain as tight as before and bring along a few new DualSense toys. I don’t just want to turn over every stone for the secrets I can find; I also want to continue playing because it is feels so good to play
“We’ve doubled down on the use of DualSense,” Doucet said, adding that the game adds about 15 new enhancements in total, with only “three or four” mentioned in the debut trailer. One of them is the Astro Bot’s ability to turn into a sponge, which uses adaptive triggers when you squeeze the bot to make it feel like you’re getting lighter. In my demo, I also equipped a rocket-powered dog in a backpack, which shot me horizontally across some larger gaps or allowed me to smash through some obstacles. In my hands, the triggers bounced violently to mimic the jets.
But the cleverest use case I learned about – although I didn’t experience it in my demo – is a trick with the texture of some objects. Walls can hide hollow points with secrets on the other side, and as Astro grazes those boundaries, reaching out and touching them like Nathan Drake walking through a doorframe, controller feedback can hint at those secrets. In terms of completion, I suspect it will prove to be the most complicated, but possibly the most fulfilling collectibles in the game. “We don’t use tons and tons of it,” Doucet added. “We only use this feature a little, but enough to create that magical moment.”
After two games that were popular but otherwise limited, Astro Bot 2024 looks set to be full of magical moments. Releases September 6 exclusively on PS5.