I went into my Astro Bot hands-on hoping it would be absolutely delightful. To my complete lack of surprise, it was. Chances were always going to be high here; Astro's Playroom may have been a truncated pack-in, but it gacha-captured many a heart with its whimsical visuals, on-point cameos, and music that still lives rent-free in my melon. (All of that returns with a vengeance, by the way.)
What did catch me by surprise, multiple times and more often than I'd like to confess, was how delightfully devious this full-botied sequel is. If you crave something tougher than a walk in the (gorgeously rendered and reactive) park of pink PSPosies, Astro Bot has got you sorted. An impressive 3D platformer pantsing awaits you here, in the ominous outer-rims of these unlockable planetoid/level galaxies.
I'm going to talk a bit more about that in a sec, but for now, let's get the best prices out of the way. You can skip right past all the window shopping by clicking here.
Astro Bot Deals
PS5
- Preorder at Mighty Ape – $89
- Preorder at JB Hi-Fi – $89
- Get it digital on PS Store – $109.95
Astro Bot Hands-on
Before we talk more about the deep end of this sequel, let me first assure the novice paddlers among you: there's plenty of wading pool stuff to enjoy. Chill players and younger kids will totally have a blast with what is still, at its core, the same enemy punchin' and gap hoppin' collect-a-thon you're expecting.
And I say that with zero contempt, because I am not immune to the charms of the low-stress sections of this package. Even on a basic level, Astro Bot impresses with that endearing, playable-Pixar-picture aesthetic of its sumptuous and remarkably physics-filled levels. Exactly like I once did, way back on the 2020 launch day of PS5, I spent far too much time marvelling at Team Asobi's dedication to grass and mud tech minutiae.
That, and there was my insistence on haymaking every living (and non-living) thing in sight, to see if the dev has keyed a comical reaction animation to it. 95% of the time, it's a yes.
Speaking of simple pleasures and stupid compulsions, too many of my minutes were also spent re-walking across metal floors, just because their haptic texture and DualSense speaker 'tinking' tickled my hands and brain just so. Even after all of these years, I still maintain that Team Asobi has the best grasp on "DualSensations" of any first-party developer. Absolute artisans
And hey, all of this isn't to say that there aren't some deaths to be copped in the early-to-mid-game levels. Astro Bot still unleashes a horde of beasties who require specific tactics to dispatch. In minimum real estate areas, often within very tight proximities and over bottomless pits, you must quickly remember to punch /spin punch/ laser-boot foes correctly.
There are also a bunch of new hires who must be eliminated with swift combinations of the above tactics. Personally, my new favourite is a chonky sumo wrestler type who thwarts your double jumps and tries to E. Honda slap you with metal hands. If you try to "El Toro" past his charges and punch his aft section, your only reward will be some hilariously gelatinous wobble-physics applied to his g-stringed behind.
If I'm being completely honest, there are still a few deaths (and mercifully short checkpoint reloads) to be suffered in the Normal rated levels, typically whenever a new power-up arrives. I sampled a few of these palate cleansers in my 7 mission playthrough, and I'm happy to report that they filter in and out as you pass through short sections. At this stage in the game, I don't think they overstay their welcome.
These included basic jump enhancers, like holding R2 to balloon Astro out and then upward to effectively triple his typical vertical reach. From there, his floatiness will slowly decay, or you can manipulate his descent with strategic R2 taps that blurt air out.
I more enjoyed the lateral leap / charge attack enhancers. Astro can acquire a new backpack dog who, for some reason, has a jet turbine for a posterior. In stark contrast to the balloon power-up, there's no granular control to a trigger burst of this. Basically, you'll punch out like a robo-missile in whatever direction you've selected. On tighter scaffold affairs, and with little or no restraint, you can get out of pocket and down a pit in no time.
Interestingly, it seems that Astro-transforming power-ups largely take a back seat during the moments that I'm going to live for (read: die during) in this sequel—the Hard levels. The first thing you should know is that you can kiss mid-level checkpoints goodbye. Quick example: after five minutes of gruelling leap-frogging, I got to the last gap to my end goal, then my lizard brain suddenly forgot that two X button taps do not equal a double jump. It just halves your jump and sends you to hell.
Boom. Toast. Do it all again.
Though these challenges don't yet rise to the level of, say, Crash's 'Stormy Ascent' stage, even my veteran Bandicoot self was blindsided by their exacting nature. The first layer of complexity is pure platforming stuff—very little (or disappearing) terra firma to land upon, or do battle in, once you've barely made the hover-jump over. The second layer of pain comes in the form of limited access to "throwable time manipulation cans," a pretty nefarious double edged sword.
On the one hand, hoiking one of these to create a short window of molasses-slow time is a benefit. It can ease your passing around electrified conga lines of foes who would otherwise be impossible to leap. Better yet, you might still have enough juice left to put the brakes on those spinning PlayStation symbol platforms lying just beyond. More likely, all of this Zemeckis-ing with time has given you enough rope to hang yourself with.
The use-time of this mechanic is often *just* long enough to get you into the last few metres of the platforming section you wish to circumvent. As a result, you may have to make a clutch-kill or clutch-leap on an enemy group/spinning platform that's now rapidly accelerated back. Worse, the act of trying to use these cannisters at slightly different moments can wreak havoc on building a recognisable platforming "flow" for yourself, to better step-by-step your way through subsequent retries.
Admittedly, it's early hours yet, but I'm hoping Team Asobi continues to ante up higher with thumb-taxing concepts like these. And, hey, it sure seems we'll have a long time for that escalation to occur—Astro Bot has a whopping 80 levels across 6 galaxies. From the sample I saw, that's a very decent number of hours, even without taking into account the added time needed to sniff out every secret Bot and puzzle piece.
Bot-tom line: I was always going to make time to play the sequel to the positively lovely Astro's Playroom / Playroom VR. But now, after getting my Astro whipped, I'm carving out a much larger chunk of my calendar for a more serious assault on my thumbs than expected. Bring on September 6th.
Adam Mathew has clocked every 3D platformer that matters. He's stoked that the genre is getting another AAA entry that isn't made by the mastercrafters at Nintendo.
