Astro Bot: PS5 Review

Developed by Team Asobi
Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PS5

Team Asobi has no compunction in wanting to make the cutest game possible.

Its latest outing for Astro Bot, the undeniably adorable unofficial mascot of the PlayStation 5, sees the little white robot forced to recover some 300 missing chums that have been scattered around five galaxies by a big bad blob of green goo in a spaceship.

(Honestly, it's less about the plot and more about the platforming in this.)

Hidden across 90 levels in 50 planets, there are a variety of tricky traversals for Astro to make - but while the core game mechanics haven't changed from previous outings for Astro, the addition of some helpers and some new abilities keep things fresh.

From a bulldog booster who helps you hurtle through breakable walls and through enemies to gloves that help pummel the opposition into submission, Astro has more than enough at his disposal to save the day.

What's clear about Astro Bot is how in many ways, it feels like a nostalgic title that would have been put out on the PlayStation 1 - and that's not to dismiss it all.

Core gameplay involves platforming precision basics as well as paying homage to some of the more frustrating levels whose difficulty is belied by their seeming ease.

It's here that Astro Bot comes into its own.

From having certain bots that are ripped from PlayStation's most iconic IPs to levels that see you playing as that character bot (something that caused great unexpected delight when it was revealed), Team Asobi's done much to respect the console's past and its characters.

But it's also addictively playable too.

Whether it's due to the fact its levels can be relatively brief but punishingly hard in their execution, or the fact that many levels are just so colourfully cute, there's much in Astro Bot that demands you to play through more than once.

Possibly this is due to needing certain numbers of Bots to be rescued before you can progress, but nothing ever really feels like a barrier to progression.

As with previous Astro outings, there's plenty of use of the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. From feeling every ripple of the tension of a flexing glove before you pummel an opponent to the use of the in-controller speaker, the developers have done much to ensure the game feels more than immersive.

Perhaps you could argue that Astro Bot doesn't quite bring any ground-shattering mechanics along with it. But as a celebration of what PlayStation's done over the decades and an extension of one of their newest icons, Astro Bot is a game that more than earns its place in the PlayStation pantheon. You'd have to be an absolute curmudgeon to hate it, and a complete fool to resist its many charms.