Astro Bot has done a lot to prop up Sony’s recent hardware efforts. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission successfully demonstrated PlayStation’s creative potential in virtual reality in 2018. Astro’s Playroom launched as a pack-in with the PlayStation 5 in 2020, offering entertaining examples of the console’s haptic feedback features. Now, instead of only serving the hardware, Astro Bot gets to go into business for himself by fully showcasing his platforming prowess. This third act is a monumental success, rivaling and, in some aspects, even exceeding Mario’s finest platforming outings.
If you played Astro’s Playroom, consider it a proof-of-concept for Astro Bot. You travel to dozens of immaculately designed and beautifully rendered platforming levels collecting coins and hundreds of hidden bots. Exploring every stage is a joy due to entertaining platforming challenges and playful tactile interactions that make every world feel like a big toy box. Completing special tasks can transform stages in cool ways, such as watering a massive seed to sprout a giant singing tree serving as a new platforming section.
While the standard stages are generally great and creatively distinct from one another, several specialized zones further mix up the action. Speedrun gauntlets veer from the otherwise approachable difficulty to offer more blistering trials of your dexterity and reflexes. Construction-themed zones challenge players to survive waves of foes atop ever-crumbling arenas. Voxel-based worlds seem like excuses to revel in the primal satisfaction of smashing everything to blocky bits. The most ambitious destinations are entire worlds themed after PlayStation franchises. I won’t spoil them, but they essentially serve as the platforming equivalent of a good cover band of your favorite game, incorporating imagery and mechanics from those titles in neat and effective ways. I didn’t walk away from a single stage thinking “I could’ve done without that one.” I was always pumped to see what was next.
Platforming is tuned to the highest degree. I execute every action, whether crossing large gaps using Astro’s rocket feet or pummeling foes with a charged spin fist, with complete confidence because the controls have my back. Fun power-ups, such as wielding spring-loaded punching gloves or transforming into an expanding liquid-absorbing sponge, are creatively utilized and a blast to use. This imaginative design extends to the boss battles that, while centered on familiar baddies, offer entertaining and bombastic exclamation points to a completed world. These bouts culminate in an incredible and surprisingly emotional final confrontation, concluding the adventure on a high note.
Playing feels great in a literal sense since Astro Bot utilizes the DualSense’s haptic and motion features better than any PS5 game. From feeling the subtle pitter-patter of Astro’s feet as he scuttles along a fragile glass surface to swatting away piles of small physics objects like giant acorns or sprinkles, I can’t remember a game where simply touching things makes me so happy. Puzzle-solving takes fun advantage of these sensations, such as walking over visually identical tiles to determine which one is a button purely from sensory feedback. Every interaction, no matter how trivial, has more personality and garners more smiles than many full games.
Astro Bot remains an endearing celebration of PlayStation’s history. This time it spotlights the characters who built the brand more than the hardware itself. Dozens of charming, often surprising cameo bots representing current and former first-party Sony franchises, plus an impressive roster of third-party IP, offer a well-rounded snapshot of PlayStation’s software history. Several familiar faces from long-dormant, seemingly forgotten franchises garnered an audible gasp or cheer from me; I couldn’t wait to conquer another platforming gauntlet to see who would pop up next. What could have easily amounted to a cynical nostalgia play works primarily because the bots are gleefully cosplaying as these icons without overtly stating who they are, winking to the players in an “if you know, you know” manner. It feels less like a commercial and more like Team Asobi playfully expressing, “We love these franchises as much as you do and wish some of them would come back.”
Astro Bot is such a wonderful experience, it makes me question if I’ve ever felt this much pure joy playing other games I’m fond of. From its tight design to its incredible visuals to mechanics that feel carefully tested to generate as much pleasure as possible, Sony has its new standard bearer for platformers. Astro Bot has always been good at propping up its contemporaries, but the adorable little robot can now proudly stand beside the PlayStation icons it so fondly celebrates.
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.
