Thursday's PlayStation State of Play event was an otherwise disappointing one, but it did feature a sleek little robot platformer. Astro Bot It seems to have generated the most excitement: in many ways, Astro is everything PlayStation needs at the moment.
Astro Bot It is a sequel to Astro's Playrooma short and fascinating adventure It was included for free with the PlayStation 5 in November 2020. The original served as a tech demo for the then-latest PS5 graphics capabilities and a controller with haptic feedback, but surprisingly… A deep and compact experience It encourages players to improve their time to complete a level, making it one of the few games to properly take advantage of the PS5's competitive social features: friends can notify each other when they beat a record, New challenges await them.
In a year without the big first-party PlayStation experiences we were hoping for, revisiting the world of Astro is the perfect treat.
Astro is delaying a standalone release that isn't aimed at showing off Sony's latest hardware.
Team Asobi
The first Astro game on PS5 was very much worth expanding upon with a sequel. The platforming genre isn't exactly a hotbed of recent attention from major publishers, especially outside of Nintendo, and the wholesome, simple gameplay that harkens back to the golden PlayStation 2 era is a welcome departure from the high-profile AAA third-person action games Sony has released thus far. Something I've been obsessed with in the last 10 years.
Some of the more niche aspects of the first game, such as the time attack elements, are what make it so replayable. While there's been a wide range of great indie games released this year, I think there's plenty of room for a big-budget time attack game to sink its teeth into. Because it's not a packaged-in release that's widely seen as a showcase for new hardware competing with technically superior launch titles, these elements are able to truly shine as developer Team Asobi intended.
It's only natural that the new Astro game would make compelling use of the PS5's DualSense. It's been a while since we've seen this great controller used in a meaningful way that doesn't feel like an afterthought or repetitive in other games. What better way to remind players and developers alike that these features add value to the gaming experience, rather than being an afterthought in the vast majority of games?
Astro has shown players what the DualSense is capable of, and maybe it's time for him to remind us of it.
Team Asobi
Finally, this standalone Astro game marks the perfect time to bring this adorable little PlayStation mascot into something bigger. Unless Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter or Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper make regular appearances on PlayStation platforms, Team Asobi may take the throne until Insomniac cooks up another Ratchet and Clank. Who (or what) is Astro Bot? What is he looking for? What are his goals, and why should players care? Yes, this sounds silly, but it's interesting to see the little character take on the roles of Kratos, Ellie, and Uncharted Nathan Drake.
That's one issue developer Team Asobi should discuss. It's great to see a 2020 game that actually plays on PlayStation hardware history, but it would be nice to see this little robot become more than just a nostalgia trope or Easter egg. The trailer shows him sporting a costume that mimics PaRappa the Rapper, Shadow of the Colossus' I wander around and occasionally see some old PlayStation hardware pop up, but maybe I should limit myself to that.
That's not to say they couldn't do it again in the future, but relying on PlayStation nostalgia to buy players eight-plus hours of gameplay may be a stretch, especially the second time around. Instead, this release should be seen as an opportunity to give Astro some long-overdue time in the spotlight.
This year being Astro's big break wasn't on most gamers' bingo cards for 2024. But as the industry recalibrates after a busy 2023 and prepares for 2025, PlayStation's friendly little robot has the world in its hands.
