I am someone who grew up with Nintendo consoles in the early 2000s, so I was there during the early 3D platformer boom of the era. Of course, the one game that dominated this sub-genre was Mario, with the likes of Mario 64 & Mario Sunshine. I didn’t fully understand the gameplay elements on display when I first played them; I just enjoyed the way they moved, and I could interact with the environment. I didn’t know what I was going to get into next. Then, in 2007, I played Super Mario Galaxy for the first time, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite games because I grew up with Star Wars, so the space theme felt at home, and messing around with the level design made my 9-year-old mind explode at thinking how did they come up with this. I say all of this pre-text so I can tell you with a straight face that Astro Bot for the PlayStation 5 is the first time since Mario Galaxy I have had that feeling with any game, and it might be one of, if not, the greatest 3D platformer game of all time.
Astro Bot, for those unaware, has slowly become Sony’s hardware mascot since the early days of the PS4, coming with the game Playroom bundled with the PlayStation Camera. He then got his own game on the first gen of PlayStation VR in Astro Bot Rescue Mission and then jumped into the mainstream with his free pre-installed platformer for the PS5, Astro’s Playroom. The game was a short collect-a-thon platform meant to be a tech demo for the console itself and the new DualSense controller, and many people loved it and asked why this isn’t a full-length game, and now we are here. The game picks up with Astro and his crew of PlayStation characters running into an evil Alien who attacks their ship and stills the CPU of the PS5 and sends the ship and its parts across space, and it’s up to you to help Astro collect the missing parts and find his friends.
Right from the start, the game will smack you in the face with its charm. From its high-quality character animations to the toe-tapping soundtrack to the numerous cameos from characters that are tied to PlayStation’s legacy, I’m someone who didn’t grow up with a PlayStation, but I still got excited to see which characters would pop up next. The gameplay is the standard platform flair; you start at the level start and make your way to the end, trying to get collectibles along the way. But what sets Astro Bot apart from the rest is that nearly every level has a different style or mechanic based on the level design. On one level, you could have a bash-bulldog, and the level is designed around crossing long distances or bringing tough walls down; on another, you could be a mouse trying to navigate a normal-sized home from a small perspective. The movement here is fantastic as well; I haven’t felt this in control of a character like this since Super Mario Odyssey. It even has great hard levels that aren’t hard because of cheap tricks but a cleaver platform that makes you quickly plan out your next move seconds before it happens, and I love it for that.
But the big one here is how the developers, basically with this one game, showed up every single developer for the PS5 that they aren’t using the controller to its full potential. The way the game immerses you into its world through the controller tech, is something I haven’t experienced since the early days of VR. It uses the haptic feedback motors in the controller to perfection, replicating footsteps on either grassy fields or a metallic shelf, along with making it feel like the droplets are hitting your hands when it rains. Along with the abilities you will get over the course of the game, some examples include the bulldog, as mentioned before, and a pair of punching-extending gloves. All these abilities use the triggers in a unique way that very few PS5 games have been able to replicate.
In the end, I haven’t had a joyous experience with a game in a long time, and this had a giant dumb smile on my face throughout the 15 hours it took me to 100%. The game is a technical showcase for what can be done in the 3D platformer genre, and I hope it makes Nintendo shift a little in their seat. Because the next Mario game, whatever it ends up being, will be compared to this in nearly every aspect. If you have a PS5, as soon as you can go out and buy and support this game, prove to people that there is an audience for these types of games still out there. As for me, if nothing else surprising comes out for the remainder of the year, then I am confident that this is my favorite game of the year so far and easily the best.
Score: 10 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5