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A few years ago, with Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there was a lot of talk about Sony PlayStation losing its main mascot, Crash. Although they are no longer as closely related as they once were, the marsupial is still remembered, especially by older fans of the time, as a very important character in the history of the brand.

Over the years, there have been several attempts to create a new mascot, not that this was the goal, after all, Sony took a different path from Nintendo, for example. We've had Sly Cooper, Jak and Dexter, Ratchet & Clank, Little Big Planet (Sackboy) and even Knack. But little by little, these games disappeared, until only Ratchet remained among us (the only one developed entirely by PlaySation to date).

However, at the beginning of the generation, we had a somewhat unexpected success story, which has been gaining ground mainly because of its consistency. We're talking about the star of this review, literally Astro. He first appeared in Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, exclusively for PSVR1, and more recently in Astro's Playroom, tech demo of the PS5 dualsense controller.

Astro Bot

2024 has been a weak year for PlayStation in terms of games produced under its own label, despite being a very good year for third-party games. Recently we had the almost certainly biggest flop in Sony's history, Concord, a GAAS (game as a service) hero shooter that had its servers shut down in less than two weeks due to lack of interest from the public.

And curiously, on the same day that its servers were shut down, Astro Bot arrived, which is currently the highest rated game of the year (excluding certain DLCs), and one of the highest rated in history, with a score equal to God of War Ragnarok and higher than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second highest score of the year.

And that fact alone is impressive enough, especially given that this game was produced by a team of just 60 employees over a period of three years (which, incredible as it may seem, today is a short time). I can already say that this is a successful game of absurd quality.

Some might even say that Nintendo has been doing this for years, and that it's nothing special. But for those who say that, I invite you to take a look at the number of people who worked on these games. I can tell you that they don't come close to being a small team like Team Asobi, so I don't think there's any point in trying to take credit away from the game and the team.

How does the game work?

Well, I ended up going on a bit longer than necessary in this introduction. Well, let's get down to business, which is the game itself. Astro Bot is a third-person adventure game in the platform genre, where you control who? Astro himself.

He's a small white and blue robot, the colors of the PlayStation, very charismatic, but for some he may not be enough in terms of character depth. If we're talking about depth, background or things like that, we have a very empty character, but one who, in my opinion, works very well. In fact, I don't think there's any need for depth in this case, I believe it was made with that in mind, but for a future game, I think a backstory would be good.

The game is in third person, and by default you can punch, do a spin move by pressing the punch button, jump, glide and grab objects. Very simple, but this game has some unique abilities in each stage that make all the difference.

For example, we have skills that allow us to dash forward, upwards, we have one that turns us into an iron ball, that allows us to hit from long distances, that makes us shrink in size, among others. These abilities make the gameplay very different, so you don't get tired of playing.

In the game, you have five galaxies to explore (and a secret one with more challenging stages), each with a few short but very fun stages. Each stage has a unique biome which, again, makes the experience effortless. Each of these universes has a boss and some mini-bosses, which are a lot of fun by the way.

Respectful Easter-eggs

One really cool thing that Astro's Playroom brought to the franchise was the presence of themed robots from various franchises that have been part of PlayStation history. In Astro Bot, these robots are back, much more detailed and with the presence of new franchises, both recent and old, which adds an extra charm to the game.

But they're not just aesthetic, they're part of the gameplay in a very profound way. First of all, the bosses can only be accessed if you have a certain number of rescued robots. Each stage usually has 7 of them hidden, and looking for them is a lot of fun.

Some of these robots have a certain prominence in the game, with themed stages that simulate the visuals and even the soundtrack, with the face of the game, of course. These stages are unique, with a totally different gameplay to the ordinary stages in the game, and can be defined simply as special. Truly, one of the game's highlights.

We can use the robots we rescue to help us carry out certain tasks in a sort of base or hub in the game. The way they interact when called is very cool and very cute. This game is a real treat for children, and for us adults too.

When you enter each stage, you have a short period in which you control the dualsense as a form of aircraft, in which you have the ability to move left and right using the controller's gyroscope, and you can also accelerate by pressing the two triggers.

In fact, just like Astro's Playroom, in Astro Bot we have the best use of the dualsense functions. The implementation of the adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, sound output, gyroscope, and even the microphone built into the controller is simply mind-blowing.

Do you have a story?

Well, as soon as you start the game, you realize that it's a direct sequel to the free tech demo that all PS5 buyers have. If you haven't played it, I highly recommend it, but if you want to go straight to Astro Bot, in Playroom we get to know every part of the PS5 while experimenting with the dualsense features.

In the Playroom, you collect every console and accessory in PlayStation history and at the end of the game, you get the PS5. That said, in Astro Bot, during a space voyage, you come across an alien who smashes the PS5 to pieces and scatters it across the game's five galaxies.

Just as the parts of the console have been scattered, so have the robots, so our mission in the game is to recover each of the parts of the PS5 and rescue the lost robots, who are kind of our crew. And basically, that's the story of the game itself. Pretty simple, but enough to make the game work.

Visuals and soundtrack

In terms of visuals, we don't have a game with realistic graphics like we see in many PlayStation games, we have a game with a very simple but extremely charismatic look. But this game can't even be described as ugly, on the contrary, it's one of the cutest games I've ever seen.

Astro's Playroom already had a very well-produced look at the time, and when you play Astro Bot, it appears to be the same graphics. However, if we compare one game to the other, it's more than noticeable how much this game has improved graphically speaking. And that's when the simple disappears and you realize that the game's visuals are really very good.

And if the game doesn't have very realistic graphics, the developers have chosen to put their efforts into making the game's physics as realistic as possible. And they've reached a very absurd level, because the physics in this game are impressive. And they react to our character and the scenery in a very realistic way, albeit with a very cartoony look.

And the really impressive part is the fact that the game runs in 4K dynamic fixed at 60 fps without crashes, according to Digital Foundry. The game has an absurd performance and came out without the need for a patch to fix problems, and that's a very rare thing these days, Team Asobi really deserves the credit.

Just as the game's visuals are amazing, its sound is second to none. The physics are very realistic and the sound that comes with it makes it even more impressive. And the sound coming from the controller makes us even more immersed in the game and everything we interact with.

In terms of music, the game does very well too, with compositions that are very characteristic of the franchise's soundtrack, but with good new features too. Remember I mentioned that we have themed levels from other games? In these stages, we have an equally thematic soundtrack, but with a special touch of the game's characteristic sounds, and the result was simply incredible.

Varedito

The experience of playing Astro Bot was simply incredible, and if there's one word that can define the game, it's fun. That's what this game is, fun from start to finish, and as well as being fun, it's very satisfying, and the physics are amazing... It's a short game, but I think it's long enough not to get tiresome.

Astro Bot isn't a difficult game, and that means that anyone can play it, regardless of age. Some may complain that the game doesn't offer any challenges, and I understand that, but in my opinion, the game as it stands is perfect. Of course, you can always find points for improvement, but the way the game came out, it's very good.

And free DLCs have already been confirmed that will add even more content to the game. My experience was totally positive, but you tell me! Have you tried the game? What did you think of it? Do you intend to play it? Let us know in the comments...

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