I saved a hidden bot after spotting a group of enemies off to the side, suspiciously gathered around a defenseless monkey. What could have been a 30-second moment turned into a 20-minute one as I gleefully interacted with every detail I could, just as a kid might. Even before picking up any cool new toys, Astro has a laser-propelled hover ability that lets him destroy enemies while jumping over them, plus a standard punch and a chargeable spin move. These three abilities, plus whatever tool he picks up, are the entirety of Astro’s arsenal.

It feels great to hop around each stage, and Astro is often augmented with new abilities, so we never felt like he needs more moves. Astro Bot is filled with standard platformer tropes, but it pulls off a sense of wonder in their presentation. As you explore galaxies to find your fellow robots and unlock new parts of the game, you’ll find a lot of familiar elements, only to see them executed in quirky and delightful ways. Just about every platformer has an ability that lets you shoot across longer distances, but none of them let you do it by strapping a bulldog to your back. Every Bot you find feels like a triumph, and the creativity in terms of where they’re hidden and how is excellent.

First, it release weekly speed-running levels to put your skills to the test, but now an entirely new world called Winter Wonder has dropped as a special holiday gift. This is a winter-themed paradise filled with presents, bells, and even more new bots to rescue. But not everyone can open this gift, so let’s talk about what you need to do before you can chill out in this new level.

In my 2024 of Elden Ring and Stellar Blade boss-slaughtering, and Destiny and First Descendant live service shooting, a family-friendly platformer like Astro Bot was not something I thought I’d be diving into. Then, it became the highest-reviewed full game of 2024 and rocketed to becoming a frontrunner for Game of the Year. Like its predecessor, Astro Bot is filled to the brim with PlayStation references and cameos. The most visible ones come in the form of the Special Bots — bots dressed up as famous and obscure PlayStation family characters. Out of the 300 bots you can collect in the game, 173 are such Special Bots. The final puzzle piece is just after you use the flower lever on the inside of the hourglass, which you reach after boosting up past the arrows stuck in the wall.

Platformers have so long followed in the footsteps of Mario, with so many titles trying to emulate what the mustachioed plumber has achieved. Astro Bot’s utterly overflowing creativity and ingenuity make it one of the first platformers that feels like it can stand outside the long shadow cast by Mario. It’s a grand celebration of PlayStation’s legacy and a sign of what its future can become. As you’d expect from a 3D platformer, Astro Bot contains hundreds of collectibles for you to find. In this part of our Astro Bot guide, we have checklists for where to find every collectible in the game, including all Bots, Puzzle Pieces, Lost Galaxy Warp Portals, and more in your quest for 100%. To put that in another way, for many people, video games become a community hub, a place of belonging and socializing that they may not have outside of their computer or console.

Sony’s Answer And Rival To Mario

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. https://n188.uk.com/ , in a nutshell, is what the first minutes of the game look like.

That nirvana is thrown into disarray when a dastardly alien interrupts the party, stealing the mothership’s parts and scattering hundreds of bots across the universe. Astro Bot’s various worlds have a lot of colorful characters you’ll meet along the way. Astro Bot is developed by Team Asobi, who also worked on previous titles where Astro appeared, including the PS5 console’s tech demo Astro’s Playroom. Astro Bot from Team Asobi is a brilliant 3D platformer, one of the best PS5 exclusives, and an absolute joy to play from start to finish. It’s not for “helpless people who already can’t beat the game”.

Serpent Starway Hidden Bot Locations

From Astro Bot Funko Pop figures to limited edition collectibles, show your support for Team Asobi’s masterpiece. Feel every moment through the DualSense controller with advanced haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and motion controls. You’ll dash, swing, and rocket-punch through diverse areas like volcanoes and jungles, unlocking 15 new abilities, including using Barkster, the Bulldog Booster, to air-dash and smash enemies. Across my 25 hours fully completing the game and earning the Platinum (it took 11 hours to reach the main ending), I could count on one hand the amount of times I died and felt it was the game’s fault, not mine.

I’ve only spent an hour with it, so far, but I can already say there’s a good chance this will be my GotY. I was smiling like an idiot the entire time and loving every second of it and its charm. The dev that was interviewed even said specifically “I only make kids games” which is confirmed by the age rating of 7. For £60 I want a game I can invest time in to enjoy for at least 2 weeks with a script and story that I will sit and ponder and go “wow” like the original horizon zero dawn or the last of us and remember for years. Astrobot does a great job but even if I am fine with the few that gave 10s then the 9s of those going oh it’s not game of the year material.

For example, the Monkey Climber is an evolution of Playroom’s climbing ability, but the assistance of a small robotic ape with huge hands this time means rocks can be hurled and ground pounded to great delight. Laurels are never rested on either, with new ideas and gadgets introduced right up to the final encore. Although some mechanics are reused a little more than I’d like, when such powers are recycled in later levels they’re thankfully recontextualised and given slightly new uses. Critics praised the gameplay, level design, and content, with some comparing the game to Nintendo franchises, particularly the Super Mario series.

I am very happy to see Astro Bot is such a polished 3D platformer. Back to mid budget single player titles without all the heavy stakes attatched if it fails. Considering the industry is influx, it’s not farfetched this will be the go-to again. Based on what I had seen I knew this was going to be a banger but a 94 on metacritic sheesh.

The fact that Team Asobi’s games have the potential to become someone’s first game is something that Doucet takes seriously. “Team Asobi’s studio is just across the street from our building, so they were always the first to prototype with our hardware,” says Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, product director for the DualSense controller. It could be said that the combination of futurism with cuteness perfectly embodies the identity of the Japanese roots of the PlayStation brand that Kutaragi started.

One ability that joins Sponge and Mouse in that it isn’t used much is the Teddy Cymbol, an ability that is really only injected into the game should you discover all the secret levels. While there are a few other abilities you’ll discover, they are used well enough in their respective levels but don’t really feature the same creativity as some of the ones I’ve just mentioned. Astro Bot is, at its core, a game built out of sheer creativity. Damn rights it does, but it puts them on display with a rare confidence few studios could pull off.