If 2020’s Astro’s Playroom was rr9988 like a museum – albeit one with fun playable exhibits – Astro Bot is like a theme park, throwing a new thrill at you around every corner and after every double-jumped gap. It doesn’t always deliver the bonkers creativity that drives the likes of Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey, but that’s hardly damning criticism when swings of that size are rarely taken outside of Nintendo’s walls. What developer Team Asobi has designed here, though, does successfully evoke the spirit of those great platformers by birthing novel stages full of visual flourish that never cross the line into becoming mere novelties. Customers appreciate the game’s creative levels, with one mentioning that the world is filled with secrets and another noting how it encourages players to think creatively. Customers find the game suitable for all ages, with kids particularly enjoying it, and one customer noting that the main levels are great for young players.

Ratings And Reviews

To do so, players will need to find and crash into the floating planet with the Christmas hat. “Team Asobi cements itself as an essential PlayStation studio with an imaginative platformer for the ages,” Mark Delaney wrote in GameSpot’s Astro Bot review. Armored Hardcore is the last Astro Bot DLC stage in the Vicious Void galaxy and rewards players with an Assassin’s Creed Cameo Bot. Astro Bot contains 430 Collectible Locations (300 Bots, 120 Puzzle Pieces, 10 Lost Galaxy Secret Levels). This walkthrough shows all collectibles in each level for 100% game completion and all trophies.

One ability that joins Sponge and Mouse in that it isn’t used much is the Teddy Cymbol, an ability that is really only injected into the game should you discover all the secret levels. While there are a few other abilities you’ll discover, they are used well enough in their respective levels but don’t really feature the same creativity as some of the ones I’ve just mentioned. Astro Bot is, at its core, a game built out of sheer creativity. Damn rights it does, but it puts them on display with a rare confidence few studios could pull off.

Given how many mascots Sony has lost over the years (this game’s constant cameos certainly reminded me of that!), I’m completely on board with them adopting the little bot as their new face. So does Astro Bot’s TGA win herald a processional sweep for Team Asobi through the rest of the big awards in the coming months? It’s a technically dazzling console game with high production values. It got great reviews and built up a formidable level of critical consensus.

Do You Want Astro Bot On Other Platforms?

We need to give a shout-out to the DualSense support here, because as you might expect, it’s best in class. Team Asobi asserted dominance in this area with Playroom, but the range of effects delivered here through haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers outshines it. These conditions do drain the battery, but the implementation is too good to really worry about that. There are even gameplay mechanics that utilise the haptics in ways we haven’t seen before, like feeling particular walls for a rough texture to reveal a secret. It really shows what the DualSense can do like no other game before it. Many themes are unique to a single stage; Sky Garden’s flamingo paradise is never revisited, nor is Construction Derby’s building site.

Where it gets more interesting is when you start looking at the way in which technology is leveraged throughout the game to create something even more playful and fun. On top of the rendering, the team has instead prioritised interactivity such as physics and fluid simulation, even finding ways to directly implement them into the gameplay loop. Jump into the first pools of water and marvel as the leaves realistically move across the surface of the water which, in turn, ripples with every movement. Things like leaves are a minor detail but as you play, you’ll find them sprinkled across the game world, heightening that sense of interactivity as individually shadowed leaves gently tumble through the air.

In my 2024 of Elden Ring and Stellar Blade boss-slaughtering, and Destiny and First Descendant live service shooting, a family-friendly platformer like Astro Bot was not something I thought I’d be diving into. Then, it became the highest-reviewed full game of 2024 and rocketed to becoming a frontrunner for Game of the Year. Like its predecessor, Astro Bot is filled to the brim with PlayStation references and cameos. The most visible ones come in the form of the Special Bots — bots dressed up as famous and obscure PlayStation family characters. Out of the 300 bots you can collect in the game, 173 are such Special Bots. The final puzzle piece is just after you use the flower lever on the inside of the hourglass, which you reach after boosting up past the arrows stuck in the wall.

It’s the type of game that you’re likely to return to as well, simply because of its feel-good nature. To play Astro Bot is to love Astro Bot, it’s as simple as that. It’s a heartwarming and flawless experience, and a 3D platforming masterpiece. Players guide Astro Bot through dynamic environments filled with moving platforms, enemies, and interactive objects. The game encourages exploration, rewarding players for finding hidden collectibles and secret areas.

It became one of the highest-rated VR games, so naturally, the franchise did not stop there. Astro’s Playroom would launch in 2020 pre-installed on every PS5, and once again served as a tech demo for the studio’s latest controller. Then, in 2024, players were treated to the full-length critically acclaimed platformer Astro Bot. Some platformers are really safe in their level design/movesets so you bet I’m critical. Besides many of Astro Bot’s creative and exciting boss battles, nostalgia fuels much of Astro Bot’s most thrilling moments, especially with the few stages specifically themed after PlayStation’s most beloved properties. However, those experiences risk feeling hollow for those who haven’t played the games that Astro Bot seems desperate to reference.

Not to mention the challenges and speed runs they will be adding in the next few months. I have bought £70 games which have bored me within 3 hours and £15 games that I play for years. Price point is fine and if not it will be on sale within 6 months…no one is forcing you to buy it day one or at all for that matter.

Cloud is the reward from High Inflation, and Sephiroth shows up if you beat all five new challenge levels. If I asked what the best first party Playstation game is, what would you answer? Many folks would turn towards Sony Santa Monica’s, God of War (2018) or Naughty Dog’s, The Last of Us Part 2. If you answer anything other than Astro Bot, on paper, you would be wrong. At the time of writing this, Astro Bot is sitting at a score of 94 on review cite Metacritic and a 95 on Opencritic. Not only is this the highest scoring Playstation game across both sites ever, but it also statistically catapults its way onto the podium for best platformer.

Jump across the platforms until you reach a checkpoint and a glass floor covered in gold. Defeat the enemies and then break through the glass on the right side. The puzzle piece is in a nook nearby, before you boost back up. Once you’re back outside in the hour glass, boost through the bottom of the spike platform until you reach the next checkpoint. Defeat the enemies and some “gophers” will start popping out of holes near the checkpoint.