Read in full Astro Bot review
Astro Bot is a gorgeous 3D platformer with a charming protagonist, dozens of planets to explore, and a wide range of ultra-satisfying mechanics to perfect. It requires patience, awareness and a high level of platforming skills, although resets are generous and failure costs nothing but your time. Protagonist Astro is endlessly charming as he flies across the galaxies on a mission to rescue his 300 friends, many of whom embody characters from the Sony library and the wider gaming world – bots from Capcom, Konami and Sega franchises galore.
Many of the planets Astro lands on introduce new mechanics, such as springy boxing gloves that look like frog faces, an octopus that inflates Astro like a balloon, a mouse backpack that shrinks him at will, a penguin-powered swim booster, and a stopwatch that temporarily freezes time. . The stages are designed around this unique mechanic and the variety on display is impressive.
Apart from pure sweetness, Astro Bot it’s beautiful. Its visuals are sharp and vivid with interactive detail, and every pixel seems to have been polished to perfection. But it’s the game’s physics that give it all its energy – when Astro lands on a giant inflatable daisy, the material twists under his tiny feet, buckling in with every step and swing, making the whole scene look completely squished. When the rain hits the Astro’s umbrella hat, the sound is perfectly reflected in the DualSense and the grips feel like raindrops. Astro Bot‘s sound effects, haptics, graphics and physics are seamlessly aligned, turning every surface into a playground. It’s magical.
Astro Bot designed for video game lovers. It’s a skill-based celebration of everything that makes the format so memorable and fun, and it’s also a great introduction to the language of games. With precise and responsive controls, lovable characters and an interesting variety of mechanics and environments, Astro Bot easily one of the best games Sony has ever produced. – Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter
