It’s a lovely idea, and we hope it finds its way into other games that could use it similarly in years to come. Other abilities, like the Monkey Climb has you scaling walls with long extended arms. The Frog punch is similar in appearance, but has you punching like the cast of Nintendo’s ARMS.

While the former may be alleviated with its already announced free DLC challenge levels and speedrun mode, the latter may be something that might not be addressed. Everyone should be able to play this masterpiece, but maybe the PS5 should actually get more games to play. Speaking of the use of DualSense, the game uses all of the controller’s features to the max. It adds so much to the in-game experience that this game might actually be the perfect demo to showcase what a PS5 and DualSense can do.

Some of the levels are even themed around different franchises and implement mechanics from those games. An extra level of difficulty can be found in the semi-hidden trial-like stages found by exploring among the overworld’s stars, though. These short sprints are littered with fast-moving objects, numerous enemies, and precise gaps to hop across that are designed to trip you up.

It’s easily better than any of the Ratchet & Clank games and, apart from Nintendo, its only real rival is PlayStation VR predecessor Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Although this game could be construed as a sequel to that and certainly shares many similar sequences and characters. It also features dozens of characters from first and third party PlayStation games from throughout the decades – although the way they’re handled is one of the game’s few failings. After the disaster of Concord comes the triumph of Sony’s Astro Bot, with a new single-player classic that is one of the best 3D platformers ever made. Let’s get the traditional Digital Foundry bullet point specs out of the way.

The use of adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and gyro controls makes the game perfect for the console. They look smooth and flow well, and it’s worthy to note that the bots’ special animations representing their respective characters also add so much to the character representation in the game. Moving on to the audio design of the game, everything from its music, sound effects, and what not is superb. They fit in perfectly with the game’s vibe and atmosphere, which is really hard to find a fault as it even uses the DualSense speakers impeccably. Astro Bot is PlayStation’s exclusive 3D adventure platformer that features Astro’s journey to rescue his fellow crewmates and fix up the mothership. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth buying.

One level allows you to explore a recognisably domestic world but you can drastically change size, bashing through doorways one minute and wriggling through a gap in the skirting board a minute later. Another lets you transform into an ultra-heavy version of Samus Aran’s morph ball thingy, and has brilliant stuff for you to do once you have. These levels feel so Nintendo-like because they get everything out of their ideas. If you’re small but you can become big, can you blow stuff up from inside?

Each galaxy contains four or five main stages, a boss, and a special last level themed around specific PlayStation franchises. On top of that are numerous shorter challenges — tougher platforming or combat trials to test your skills — and a selection of secret stages to discover. It’s a generous package, and what’s most impressive is the sheer variety it offers. luck8 com is a grand re-opening for Astro Bot, and it surely marks the start of what is destined to be a beloved series shooting for the moon.

Players seemed to love it so much that it warranted a fully-fledged game, so Team Asobi did just that in 2018. We’ve discussed that in a separate boxout, because none of that affects the game, but it is all very odd – and gives the distinct impression it was shoehorned in halfway through development. There are much more difficult optional levels – a set based around the face button symbols being the hardest – but these are all quite short and completely linear, with no checkpoints. They’re reminiscent of Super Mario Sunshine void levels but it’s a shame none of the normal levels also offer an increased challenge. The most interesting though is probably the one that shrinks you down to the size of a mouse, allowing you to explore levels at two different sizes. It’s just a shame there’s not more of those levels, as that’s when the game is at its peak in terms of game design – along with one-off themes like a day/night world that you can switch between with the press of a button.

You May Not Agree, But Astro Bot Deserves To Be The Goty

Astro Bot plays like a dream thanks to its ultra precise movement. Part of its secret weapon is Astro’s hover jump, which lets him float in the air a bit longer before landing. I never lose my momentum because of a mistimed jump and can usually recover if I misjudge a spinning platform’s trajectory. In addition to a punch and spin attack, the jets from my boosters can fry enemies below me. That means that I rarely need to stop moving to take care of a few pesky bots. It’s Super Mario Bros. for a new generation of video game fanatics, at once an introduction to common mechanics and also a significant challenge for seasoned players.

Playstation Holiday 2025 Game Deals

One is the protagonist of Sucker Punch’s upcoming Ghost of Yotei (which is receiving a special State of Play). The developer teased in a blog post that completing the new galaxy “might lead to something really cool,” so players will have to dive in and see what surprises are in store. Astro Bot just received its latest free update, adding five more levels and new bot cameos to Team Asobi’s Game of the Year-winning platformer.

Cooperative Board Games That Only Feel Balanced When You’re Losing

There is, for instance, a God of War stage – I don’t want to spoil the others, most of which I liked even more, but Kratos has appeared in marketing materials thus far so I felt like the best choice for showing an example. Really, the whole game feels as if it were created to push as much ‘stuff’ as possible. Objects break, give and collect in huge numbers lending the game world a tremendous amount of life. As you rescue bots, for instance, they gather on the game’s central planet and the engine has zero trouble displaying all of them at once. You can recruit them to help you out and it’s a joy watching them all gather in huge numbers.

Pressing down on the touchpad activates a vacuum that can bring the AR Bots back inside. AR Bots also appear in the downloadable activity Ninja Bots, where one playable AR Bot appears. You can see that most of those are indies with fewer reviews counted, and the scores I omitted are for “definitive collections” or remasters which I’m not going to count. And an expansion or two like Elden Ring’s or Destiny 2’s The Final Shape. But if we’re talking about full games, GOTY-potential games, Astro Bot is on top.

We won’t spoil the others, but PlayStation fans will be delighted with these Astro Bot renditions of some favourite franchises. Astro Bot, out now on PlayStation 5, is a collect-a-thon platformer. You play as the robot Astro adventuring in space in his PS5-shaped mothership with 300 of his friends — some of them simple bots, others robot-ified versions of famous video game characters.

Other than say Ride 4 having a Forza Motorsport 1&2 region mechanic expanded upon I can’t say I’ve come across similar in the racing genre or many others as many devs just copy and paste to compete…. Now the racing genre is just race, time trial, drift/elimination if your lucky. Forget unique modes, slight changes to be like 3 different drift modes or last man standing. Even Wreckfest we can’t even have Flatout style (predecessor) flinging the driver target practice. I can go to TOCA 3/V8 SUpercars 3 or DTM 3 or whatever for PS2 and DS/PSP/PS2-Xbox-PC are all different.