680: Astro Bot

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Astro Bot for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Megadirt]

Before starting Astro Bot I had been playing lots of old games from the podcast that I felt I “should” play. These games have been mostly games that I had overlooked, and more often than not, I was correct. On seeing Astro Bot, I had an epiphany. I decided to set aside Mass Effect 3, RAGE, and Halo 2 then dedicate my week to see what gaming would be like if I was having fun again.

Only Mario Galaxy and Windwaker have made me feel like this level of joy this side of the 90s, and on booting Astro Bot I could feel all cynicism melting away instantly. I willingly allowed my inner-child to believe that all the bots were in my controller, or desperately trying to fix my PS5, and jumped straight in.

There are so many levels, secrets, and Dualsense-heightened delights, that I find it hard to believe that anyone would come away from this feeling anything but joy. There are too many things to talk about, but one thing in particular that stands out to me about this game, is when visiting world’s based on a specific IP, eg.

Spoiler: show

God of War, Horizon, Ape Escape etc

The games' mechanics are changed and adapted to match those of the games being referenced, without removing anything that felt unique about Astro Bot itself.

It has clearly come from a place of passion and love for all video games this side of the 90s. I have heard complaints about Astro Bot being nothing more than a ‘massive advert you would have to pay for’. This seems so cynical to me, especially since most of the references in the game are to IPs that are in critical condition if not entirely dead. I don’t think Astro Bot was pitched to investors as a way to motivate people to rush out and buy up stray copies of Vib Ribbon or an unearthed box of Pocketstations. The game is so delightful that it would definitely have worked without the constant references to PS games over the years, but I simply felt rewarded for being a life long gamer. 10/10

[Nicktendo]

I pretty much bought a PS5 just to play Astro's Playroom and as expensive as it was, was totally worth it. So, you can imagine my excitement when Sony revealed a full-ledged Astro Bot game. Thankfully from announcement to release was a short duration. I bought it day one with the astro bot controller naturally. I had a smile from ear to ear while playing this game.
The platforming, unique mechanics, the joy - it was magical. I played this with my 4-year-old son next to me enjoying it just as much as I did. In fact, I passed him the controller each time I collected one of Astro Bot's pals and his laughter at flipping them out of the onscreen controller will be a favourite gaming memory of mine.

It's challenging to make 3d platforming games on par with Mario, but by god Team Asobi has gone and done it.

My only criticism isn’t for the game itself, but for Nintendo at taking so long to release a new 3D Mario game. All the fun, joy and wonder that my son had in watching me play this game I wanted for him to experience first with my favourite gaming mascot in Mario. Nevertheless, he has his own Astro Bot plush, we have the memories, and the franchise has two ultra fans on board.

TWR: Complete Utter Joy

[DaMonth]

This game makes me feel like those actors in movies that have to pretend like they're playing a video game in the best way possible. That's really all I have to say about it.

[seansthomas]

What a delightful game.

It just wants you to love it and to love you. Every level is gorgeous. Every level, texture or item forces your controller to feel and sound different. If there's any floating island in the game that looks like you can get there, you probably can. Whenever you have a run of similarly paced levels, a new challenge or themed world emerges.

A lot has been made of the nostalgic fan service of gamings past being the central conceit. And it is moreish, if sparingly a little odd when you are being asked to feel an emotional attachment to the sterile white hulk of a console under your TV. But every time you see a level has a bot with a little icon to it's top right, you start to wonder what game it's from. And in the same way that Smash Bros felt like witchcraft in how it negotiated all these licenses, the same goes here; sometimes beyond the superficial, and more for how they're treated tonally (the humour is wonderful, far funnier than say the tiring Lego series) or integrated via gameplay twists. Lastly, mopping up every gatcha reward, bot and puzzle piece is never a chore, more a necessity.

The Bosses also deserve a mention. I don't think I've seen them called out in many reviews, but they're a general delight. Maybe more so than some recent Mario titles. They're inventive, varied and hugely fun.

So it's perfect? Not quite.

The platforming itself is solid and gets a lot of mileage out of a limited move set, but I rarely felt like my movement was as thrilling or fun as in a Mario game. Which is perhaps an unwanted comparison, but somewhat inevitable if you're a cute glossy 3D platformer that was obviously a big fan of Mario Galaxy. If anything, I actually felt like the core gameplay platforming was more akin to a rhythm action game, with the harder levels in particular feeling like levels you had to learn. Hover, laser, punch, punch, jump, spin, spin, jump, hover...

And is it also a bit much? I never thought I'd have said that after how amazing those first 15 hours were, but by the end a few later levels started to feel like repeats. Or the challenge levels had stacked up and we're becoming a chore. And the power ups were being repeated. I also had an unfortunate last few levels to tidy up which all used the main Astrobot theme tune, which meant it was on loop for the last 3 hours I played it. Ultimately the sugary saccharine joy was maybe becoming a bit sickly, and I wonder if a few of the worlds would better have been kept back for a nice Christmas surprise drop.

But I am nit picking here. This is the best platforming mascot Sony has ever created and a joyous ode to gaming from the talented team at Asobi.

[TheEmailer]

I had a perfect time playing this with my 6 and 4 year old kids.
The game can be a bit tricky at times, but it mixed those parts in with easier actions, so a great mix.
The game is constantly fresh, new art di9rection and new gameplay ideas keep appearing and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

The sound of infectious cackling as they both tried the frog arms for the first time will stay with me a long time.

[AndrewElmore]

There appear to be exactly two conversations to be had about Astro Bot; one is an excited exchange about its stately reputation as a 3D platformer, and the other is an argument about its status as either a celebration of history or a graveyard of creativity.

In my meager estimations, Astro Bot is (quite arguably) some of the peak of the platforming form. It's an extraordinarily creative game that just sings in motion. It's a joy to control, and every inch of it feels as though it is aiming not to worship the player, but to surprise and delight them, and encourage them along the way. If you've been playing video games for your entire life, Astro Bot was made for you. It was handcrafted with you specifically in mind. If this is the first video game you've ever encountered, Astro Bot was made for you. It was handcrafted with you specifically in mind. Team Asobi really achieved something astounding here and they deserve all commendation. It's a finely honed game design masterwork, it's a technical showpiece of the highest caliber, and it has seemingly no end of exciting new ideas. Astro Bot has so many wonderful and inventive concepts that it wants to share with you--it's like someone finally said "what if we built the whole plane out of Sin & Punishment cartridges?". It's just exploding with joy around every corner. The added content post-release has been very welcome, and my kids absolutely love it.

On the other hand, well, "Hey look at all these cool and creative games with all their various scrimblos! Next to a veritable army of grey sad dads who have taken their place nearly entirely for roughly 20 years now!" is a deeply awkward thing to contend with. The long, slow shift in public opinion back against what are perceived as huge forever-games with bloated budgets has been accelerating since the industry's shift in business priorities following the wake of COVID-19. The Astro Bot game that shipped with the PS5 sparked many of these conversations, and by the time full retail Astro Bot game arrived, it was positioned to be a cultural catalyst whether it wanted to be or not. For a lot of folks, the game's thematic focuses on PlayStation's past proved to be a disheartening barrage of "they don't make 'em like they used to" feelings. Here was a celebration of a games company's history the likes of which we haven't seen since the original Namco Museum chronicle, but if you want to actually play any of those games, well, your mileage may vary. Good luck! It's a difficult position to be in, and I don't envy the pressure Team ASOBI must have endured. But I also find it difficult to imagine any way to have handled it much better. I really can't sing their praises enough. Speaking of which, as a brief technical aside, I know Friend Of The Show John Linneman has said this before as well but I concur, I also find it difficult to imagine this game looking much better than it does, if at all? It might actually be a perfect execution of tech art.

A subset of the celebration/graveyard conversation, is the inevitable aside about "What comes next?" and for whatever reason, I have heard a great deal of people claim that Astro Bot as a (shudders) "IP" should continue forward as a series of regularly-released 3D platformers freed of attachment to PlayStation as a brand, often insisting that Astro Bot has an identity that can stand on its own. I don't mean to be crass but I feel like that's something that sort of sounds vaguely smart to say as long as you don't think about it at all. I'm curious as to where this idea comes from, because in my eyes, Astro Bot is a gray blob, made of as few identifiable features as possible. If you showed me his silhouette and asked me "WHO'S THAT POKEMON" I would probably say "Oh that's Clank. He's Ratchet's backpack." The whole point of Astro Bot is that he's a vaguely cute and friend-shaped cipher for as many different aesthetics and characters and themes and environments as possible. I won't accuse him of being a Funko Pop, but he is an adorable little Decoy Octopus. In the end, I chose to judo throw the game's instances of "HEY LOOK, REMEMBER THIS? YOU LIKE THIS, RIGHT?" into an opportunity to use my otherwise-useless mental encyclopedia of weird old video games and answer my kids' various "who/what/why is that" questions. I realize that, as previously stated in prior correspondence, my kids are in a unique situation where they have ready and available access to these games because their father is a madman, but it really comes in handy when you're trying to figure out how to explain Devil Dice and Doko Demo Issyou to a five year old.

In summary, Astro Bot is a land of contrasts. I love the little doofus. He turned my kids into huge Parappa the Rapper fans. It's an incredible game. It makes me very, very sad at times. Not as much for the games and franchises lost to time and capitalism, but for the studios that have been closed and shuttered and the countless unnecessary layoffs. Astro Bot came out a little before the year anniversary of my having been laid off by a studio that had been recently acquired by PlayStation. Astro Bot is a marvelous game. It also made me grieve for the tidal waves of brilliant and talented people bled out of the industry for temporary stock bumps, never to return to game development, never to get a chance to make the next Astro Bot, the next Spyro, the next Vib-Ribbon, the next Um-Jammer Lammy, etc. It makes me grieve the lost livelihoods en masse and all the beautiful things they'll never get to make. Astro Bot is a monumental work from top to bottom and it earns so much of its own hyperbole--I didn't even talk about all the wonderfully crunchy challenge levels that I loved so much. But when I load that game up and walk my little bot around the giant game console in the little desert, he just keeps telling me the same thing: Unionize your workplace.