In the music industry, a band often uses a self-titled album years into their career to denote a reinvention. “This is who we are now’ is the intended and unspoken message. PlayStation’s Astro Bot uses the same naming convention to signal a similar fresh start. After a 2018 VR exclusive with an apparently limited scope and a 2020 game that deemed a “technology showcase” by Team Asobi studio head and creative director Nicolas Doucet, 2024’s simply titled Astro Bot looks poised to launch the cute robot to the top of the crowded PlayStation pantheon.
“Astro’s game is actually called [that] so it won’t be mistaken for a game the size of Astro Bot,” Doucet told me after a demo in which I beat several levels, rescued many PlayStation characters reimagined as robots, and defeated a boss in the form of a boxing cephalopod. “Many people actually don’t know the Astro universe outside of Astro’s Playroom, so here we go [here] with the name Astro Bot it 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 believe the wider audience is still falling in love with the mascot and their world at that moment, then they could become the greatest of all with something else. 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 through beaches like those in Astro’s Playroom and a construction yard hanging high above the clouds just like in Rescue Mission, but those familiar landscapes were also noticeably denser and the overworld felt more like something by LittleBigPlanet, in which I can pilot the jet-powered DualSense from planet to planet while unlocking 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 smashing certain parts of it, climbing high, or ducking into a corner expecting a secret, I found one. The levels have a masterful way of guiding me down their correct paths, but also signal where I can be rewarded for rushing down B or C or even D paths. I would find coins to spend or more bots dressed as Ratchet, Rivet, Kratos and more than 150+ cameos in the game, which is a number that Doucet revealed to me.
This constant cycle of exploration and rewards dovetails very well with the game’s mechanics, which remain as tight as ever and bring a few new DualSense toys with them. I don’t just want to turn over every stone for the secrets I might discover; I also just want to keep playing the game because it feelings it’s so nice to play.
“We’ve doubled the use of DualSense,” Doucet said, adding that the game adds about 15 new power-ups in total, with only “three or four” shown in the debut trailer. One of these is the Astro Bot’s ability to turn into a sponge, which uses adaptive triggers as you squeeze the robot dry to give you the feeling of getting lighter. In my demo, I also equipped a rocket-powered dog in a backpack, which launched me horizontally through some of the larger gaps or allowed me to smash through some obstacles. In my hands, the triggers pulled back hard to mimic the pushers.
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 door frame, controller feedback can reveal those secrets. For completers, I suspect they will prove to be the hardest, but perhaps most rewarding collectibles in the game. “We don’t use it, like tons and tons,” Doucette added. “We use this feature just a little, but enough to create this magical moment.”
After two games that were beloved but limited in different ways, Astro Bot 2024 seems destined to be full of magical moments. Launches on September 6, exclusively on PS5.
