Astro Bot, launched final week, is likely one of the greatest PlayStation video games in years, like concentrated pleasure getting back from a less complicated time in gaming’s previous. It is a whimsical tour de power of unfettered creativity, primarily Sony’s equal of iconic Nintendo 3D platformers like Tremendous Mario 64 or Galaxy. Astro Bot is a love letter to each Sony sport, with references and cameos to PlayStation video games and {hardware} stretching again to earlier than some avid gamers (together with this author) had been born.
However Astro Bot is not only a nostalgic money seize dropping dozens of ‘member berries and phoning it in. It is a sport the place each degree is a mechanical and visible triumph, with energy ups that enable gamers to drift like a balloon, bullet sprint, spring punch, climb like a monkey, blast like a rocket, cease time and shrink all the way down to the dimensions of a mouse, each altering the way you interact with the collectable bots and puzzle items.
This sport additionally makes full use of the DualSense controllers — totally different ranges reap the benefits of the gyro capabilities and even have you ever blowing into the controller to spin pinwheels to create gusts of wind. And once you reach your job and make it to the top of the extent? You greatest consider you are going to be serenaded with a whole lot of acorns, gold cash, snowballs or no matter bauble suits the extent’s theme, simply because the sport desires to remind you that it will probably deal with dropping all these lovely physics objects in entrance of you directly.
Astro Bot is a singular and laudable PlayStation expertise, made potential solely by way of a mixture of Sony’s cultural forex and the PlayStation 5’s {hardware}. It is a must-have sport for the console.
Launch date: Sept. 6, 2024
Style: 3D platformer
Developer: Group Asobi
– Tyler Graham, affiliate author
