As a matter of fact, I sold Elden Ring (which was a horrible experience for me – but I’m glad some people are enjoying it) to buy this little gem. Buying at Full Price for £55 to support more of these kind of games. The fact that it is rated so high for the limited type of game that it is, just tells me that the review scores are unreliable and steers me away from it because it is scored so high. For reference, Baldurs Gate 3 was also given a 10 by Push Square, and there is literally no way this game is of the same calibre of a game that is the best RPG in living memory. If you didn’t buy the game (which I’m guessing is the case) they don’t owe you anything.

As players take control of Astro, they’ll work to repair the ship and rescue their crewmates. Each galaxy you arrive in houses several secrets to uncover in the overworld, and even levels themselves have hidden bonus stages. This game’s secrets have secrets, with more hidden levels being revealed at a steady clip whenever you inch closer to polishing off each galaxy’s to-do list. There are 300 in total, though you only need 200 to face the final boss, and over half of them are dressed up as iconic characters from video game history. OK8386 , simply called Astro Bot and developed (like the others) by Team Asobi, kicks off when a group of robots’ PS5 mothership is attacked, scattering the robots throughout the galaxy.

As for the audiovisual aspect, this is where Team Asobi has truly outdone itself, delivering a somewhat candy-colored but beautiful graphic design, with each planet offering a unique visual style. Familiar pop culture motifs frequently appear in the game, but they never feel repetitive, always introducing something new and fresh. The music, while occasionally repetitive, can also pleasantly surprise at times. One level even features a singing tree, and its song is something I’ll be humming for a long time. That, in a nutshell, is what the first minutes of the game look like.

Astro Bot’s Hub World Will Make You Want To Collect Everything

I won’t spoil them, but they all achieve a surprisingly deep synthesis of their inspiration (often a more mature-styled game) with Astro Bot’s tactile world, adorable characters, and toothsome gameplay. It’s a mark of how confident the game is that its personality shines so clearly through the costumes it dons. This tribute is never more touching and joyful than in the case of Ape Escape. [newline]This Japan Studio series, about a boy who catches naughty monkeys in his net, is one of many faltering attempts by Sony to create a family game franchise to rival Nintendo’s, and like most of them, it didn’t really stick. Astro Bot is very much its inheritor, even down to the hardware connection — the first Ape Escape was intended as a showpiece for the original DualShock analog controller. After defeating the first galaxy’s end boss in Astro Bot, a level is unlocked that fully and faithfully recreates Ape Escape’s anarchic chase gameplay within Astro Bot’s world. It’s a wonderful touch; for one level, a near-forgotten series is brought back to glorious life in a modern context, and Team Asobi honors the memory of the ceaselessly inventive studio it used to call home.

That might be disappointing to some, but it’s an intentional design choice that works in the game’s favor, as Astro Bot is much more focused on the “experience” and wants players to have pure, unfiltered fun. There are optional challenge levels that open up later on, however, for anyone who might be craving that. Astro Bot just got a brand new update, adding five new challenge levels complete with their own new special bots to unlock.

This is about as perfectly executed as you can realistically expect these days and I urge you to play it. While there’s plenty to like about the hub, which we’ll get into later, the main attraction is the game’s range of levels, which are as varied, playful, and fun as you’d hope. Each galaxy contains four or five main stages, a boss, and a special last level themed around specific PlayStation franchises.

Astro Bot Review: Sony’s Still Got It

Not only this, but the game even makes use of the controller’s speakers to make the game even more immersive. The amount of collectibles and secrets there are to discover is also staggering; it’s enough to keep you playing for hours on end and keeps achievement hunters busy. Lastly, the game even has a ton of gameplay callbacks to their older IPs which pulls the nostalgia strings perfectly. What elevates that beyond a bit of throwback nostalgia is that developer Team Asobi may be the most skilled studio working today when it comes down to game feel. 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.

Customers enjoy the game’s challenge levels, with puzzles being a key feature, and one customer noting that they are just the right amount of difficulty. Preview some of the 50+ planets Astro will visit on his grand rescue mission. Astro recovers the CPU, but when he and his crew defeat Nebulax by blowing up the spaceship he is attached to, it creates a black hole that begins to suck Nebulax in. Nebulax grabs Astro to try to take him down with him, but the crew take hold of Astro to try to pull him back. Refusing to let the crew sacrifice themselves for him, Astro lets go of them and falls into the black hole, which explodes into a supernova. The two bots in question are Cloud and Sephiroth, both from Final Fantasy 7.

Originally introduced as a tech demo character, Astro Bot has grown into PlayStation’s definitive platforming hero. Astro is the main character of the Astro Bot series and serves as the captain of his ship’s bot crew. A brave and adventurous robot, Astro will stop at nothing to rescue his crew and bring them safely back. In this PS5 platformer, you need to explore every level in search of Astro’s crew mates. As part of our Astro Bot guide, we’re going to show you where to find every Bot in the game. That’s not to say that Astro Bot — a lavishly produced, classic platform game starring Asobi’s robot mascot — shirks its promotional duties, or cuts the ties between its irrepressible lead character and the hardware he lives on.

If you’re curious about some of the most obscure characters, we have a guide to 21 of the more tricky ones, with details on where you’ve seen them before. This year has been a very special journey for us at Team Asobi, and we thank you for joining us. Until next time, we wish you a very relaxing and restful end of the year, full of gaming of course, but above all, full of good health and happiness all around. The second puzzle piece can’t be reached until after you break the first blue hourglass, drain it of liquid, and then pop the cork. From that platform, turn left and kill the green blob sitting under the platform.

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Originally announced during Sony’s June 2025 State of Play, the update adds a new galaxy, the Vicious Void, for players to explore. Four of the levels are titled Twin-Frog Trouble, Suck It Up, Handhold Havoc, High Inflation, with Team Asobi keeping the name of the fifth as a surprise. The addition of the new levels brings Astro Bot’s total level count to over 90. “A must-play for anyone who loves creative platformers. The worlds are beautifully crafted.” Astro Bot[a] is a series[1] of augmented reality and platform games developed by Team Asobi, originally a group within Japan Studio, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

People can want presentation, charm, graphics, whatever level design/easy mechanics, no puzzles (unless platforming related I assume), etc. Dualsense use are be fine, level design/movesets look done before. @nicc83 I would say around the hour mark if you just do the main levels and that’s it, but if you want to see and do everything, likely 20 hours or more. Obviously it depends on how much exploring you do and how much you’re bothered about collecting everything — it’s a very meaty 3D platformer in my opinion and a really nice length. It’s a perfect recipe for a 3D platformer, encouraging you to explore every nook and cranny in search of those adorable little droids.

There’s nothing beyond familiar forms and frameworks, yet it still manages to bring a smile to our faces. There’s not much to say about Astro Bot’s plot; it serves as a simple introduction, giving the player a reason to rescue bots in need and search for console-ship components to continue the journey through the vast cosmos. What truly sets Astro Bot apart from the competition, however, is the gameplay. In 2024, Astro Bot not only comes to Sony’s rescue but also in a big way reminds us why we play video games at all. None of that affects Astro Bot’s quality as a game but it does limit its successfulness as a nostalgia piece.

The fun factor is unparalleled for a game of this genre, despite it’s obvious simplicity. The biggest thing to take away from the game is how well it uses the DualSense to its advantage. The usage of the controller’s haptic feedback, gyro controls, and adaptive triggers makes the game a way better experience.