It may be 2024’s most immersive game, and it achieves that without a line of dialogue. Instead, each level tells a story, clear as day, about where you ought to go next and what you should do there. Astro Bot is one of the year’s biggest and best titles and it’s easy to see why. There’s a lot to do, it’s visually stunning and it’s a welcoming platformer. You can jump onto the title even if you haven’t played Astro’s Playroom or a PlayStation game in general.

Astro Bot: Five New Vicious Void Galaxy Levels, Special Bots Launch This July

Astro Bot levels are beautiful, brought to life by genius art direction and some of the best graphics on the PS5. rr99 feels so alive thanks to how the DualSense controller reacts to what players see on the screen, with Astro Bot making great use of the DualSense’s haptic feedback and speaker. It’s a shame that most other PS5 games don’t even come close to utilizing these features to their full potential. For those hoping to get as much playtime as possible out of the package, Astro Bot packs in plenty to do. There are secret levels to find, puzzle pieces in each level, a gacha machine filled with outfits, and a home base that evolves into a full-on playground over time.

Not a lot of games to compete with in that field, but I’m sure it’s great. @MrMeeeseeeks Many of them are from the defunct Japan Studio that was shut down by Sony in 2021. Those devs are also real gamers with passion and vision who made tons of classic and unique games back then.

Puzzle pieces are used to create images of objects that then become additional buildings for players to interact with in the hub world. The first one players build is the gacha machine that they will remember from Astro’s Playroom, and that’s where the majority of one’s coins will be spent as well. Items from the gacha machine fill the hub world out further, and it soon becomes an interactive monument to PlayStation history. It seems odd to say I don’t want to spoil a game that effectively has no story, but some of the game’s best secrets really must be discovered with your own eyes.

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Normally, these levels are as brief as 30 seconds, but they require perfection and give the game a taste of trial-and-error it otherwise consciously rejects. Each bot you find returns to the (mostly) safe zone, the Crash Site, which acts like a hub world you can explore and decorate. Here, the game carries forward the same PlayStation Museum vibe seen in Astro’s Playroom, albeit to a lesser extent. You won’t explore past PlayStation consoles, but the mothership you’re trying to repair is just a giant PS5, and the spaceship you use to explore the overworld is a DualSense controller with wings. It feels a bit like that meme of Obama awarding Obama a medal, but it’s not distracting, so ultimately, it’s fine. I haven’t seen a platformer marathon through so many varied, whimsical, and blatantly cool ideas like this before.

Five new levels are already planned to be added to Astro But starting on July 10th, further expanding the number of courses and bots in the game. These include Twin-Frog Trouble, Suck It Up, Handhold Havoc, and high Inflation. The fifth level remains a mystery, but Team Asobi did tease a new bot for Ghost of Yotei. It even teased a new feature upon completing these new Vicious Void levels. One power-up — which I won’t describe beyond saying it’s really cute since figuring it out is a big part of the fun here — truly captures the essence of Astro Bot.

Microsoft’s purchase of Rare, a studio that had created platformers with mascot-like characters for Nintendo, almost seemed like an afterthought. While today PlayStation’s headquarters may be located in San Mateo, California, the history of Sony’s beloved video game console brand started in the early 1990s in Tokyo, Japan. Ken Kutaragi – who would later become known as the father of PlayStation – had been working together with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo. When this got canceled, Kutaragi went to Norio Ohga (Sony’s CEO at the time) with the proposal of making Sony’s own console.

However, I have to say that the delight, the sense of pure joy, and the wholesomeness I got out of playing Astro Bot was truly unmatched and unforgettable. The secret exit in Djinny of the Lamp is at the very end of the level, after you defeat the Djinny. Punch the ladybug trampoline so it’s as close to the pot as possible, then jump on it and activate your power-up mid-air.

When something that’s meant to united the industry happens, like the Game Awards, some people are so dedicated to the games they love, their immediate reaction to the wider world not sharing the same opinion is to lash out. Or, on the other side, celebrate wildly with validation when the game they like is recognized. So thoughtful and it pays such an awesome homage to PlayStation consoles and games over the years.

Even a project by Behaviour the Dead by Daylight devs (me I know fro Scaler/Wet) had a car in some sci-fi worlds. The fact things are so simple these days that that’s amazing because realism/simplicity of using things. As you collect Bots, you will return to your home base, a sand planet where your PS5 ship crashed, which is full of its own manner of secrets you can access as you get more and more Bots to help you. Out in space, you will run into hidden challenge levels like arena fights and pretty difficult death-defying one-life runs gauntlet that are the hardest content in an otherwise very chill game. I mean, it is meant to be for kids, as much as adults can enjoy it.

Every power is interesting, has a meaningful impact on the level it’s a part of, and feels like it unlocks a new way to play. While some return from previous Astro outings and others are quite standard, there is a unique flair to how they feed into the level design here. Sony proves with Astro Bot that the company can still put out charming action platformers, but the love letter to PlayStation fans fails to include features that made previous games of the genre so fun to replay. Even within a level, an ability is used in several different and creative ways, but always stemming from its singular mechanic featured in that level.

The most alluring feature, though, is its PlayStation-themed collectibles. Every level has a set of hidden bots that Astro needs to rescue. That would be a charming Easter egg hunt, but Team Asobi isn’t just investing in empty references.

One graphics mode only, at a super crisp resolution and unwavering 60fps. Astro Bot is a beautiful game featuring nicely crafted physically-based materials, especially metallic surfaces, and richly detailed levels. Environments stretch off into the distance and, by the time you reach the end of the stage, you can gaze back upon the path you just travelled. Bodies of water are another thing I absolutely love – the fake caustics and underwater atmospherics really lend it proper depth and the colours are just gorgeous. As far as the nuts and bolts of DF are concerned, the results are excellent.