Playable good mood exclusively on PlayStation 5

During the recent State of Play event, the charming platform game “AstroBot” conquer many hearts by storm. The cute protagonist throws himself into a new adventure that is supposed to be much bigger than its predecessor “Astro's Playroom”, which for many PS5 fans is one of the best games on the current Sony console. We were recently able to play a demo of the upcoming PS5 exclusive from Team Asobi ourselves and experienced quite a bit.

More specifically, we were able to hop through three large levels and two smaller challenges with Astro. Below we'll tell you how we liked the demo version and how the small Japanese development studio wants to build on the strengths of the previous part.

New worlds with a few familiar faces

Astro flew with us on his DualSense plane towards the first level, a lush green world in which we immediately felt comfortable and at home. This is not only because “Astro Bot” immediately exudes its disarming charm, but also because the controls worked wonderfully. As in the previous game, our likeable character can jump around, knock enemies away and spin like a top.

We used these skills to quickly collect some coins and use a rope to swing from one platform to the next. It's the first small innovation we saw in the demo and should provide a bit of variety. But of course the makers have also come up with a few larger, fresh game elements. A little later we stumbled upon a power-up that Astro could use to inflate himself.

Like a balloon, we floated high into the air to reach previously unreachable collectibles. However, no relaxing stroll through the park awaits us, because Astro is on a rescue mission! Bots are hidden in every world, attracting attention with a bright safety vest. Of course, there are a few familiar faces among them. In the demo, we stumbled across Ratchet, PaRappa and Kratos bots.

With the dog boost through the wall

With the help of our levitation power, we made our way through the excellently designed level, which worked well as a nice way to re-enter Astro's world. In the second large level, however, the beautiful meadows and trees had to give way to cold steel. Just a few seconds after our somewhat rough landing with our DualSense jet, a huge gorilla appeared, which would cause us problems later.

Although we had just written “cold steel”, this “Astro Bot” level also had a certain warmth to it, thanks to the many small, playful details that brought the world around us to life. When we unlocked a passage, cute little robots applauded us, and even the enemies were sometimes so cute that we almost felt guilty about killing them.

In this level we also received another new power-up: a dog backpack! With this we could activate a boost at the push of a button, which not only made it possible to push enemies off platforms, but also to break through certain obstacles. This new toy was also extremely useful for reaching normally hard-to-reach places to collect bots, coins or puzzle pieces. Some collectibles were even so well hidden that we almost missed them in the well-designed levels. Hopefully this level can be maintained.

Unleash the Octopus Octopus!

After we had collected all the puzzle pieces and missing bots, we moved on to the third level, which immediately exuded a holiday atmosphere. We began our next journey on a white sandy beach surrounded by crystal clear water. This time we were given two new toys: two frog gripping arms, which we could use to hold on to rollers and swing onto platforms behind them. So you can see: Team Asobi has come up with a lot of ideas to add some new ideas to the well-known and proven gameplay in “Astro Bot” and keep it fresh.

After a few swinging and jumping sections and one or two guest appearances – this time we met Lammy from “Um Jammer Lammy” among others – we continued with a boss fight. On a small island we had to have a cracking boxing match with a giant octopus. Our eight-armed opponent, however, played one or two dirty tricks, such as ink stains in the arena that slowed Astro down.

Not only did we have to dodge the fists and other nasty things that rained down on us, but we also had to throw a few punches ourselves. After a tough three-round fight, we were finally able to bring our opponent to his knees and send him flying with a powerful right hook, including a small flash in the sky – Team Rocket couldn't have flown away any better.

A game for the whole family

After the boss fight, our little “Astro Bot” adventure wasn't over yet, because we were allowed to let off steam in two more challenge levels. At the beginning, a bot was kidnapped and we had to rescue it. To do this, we had to overcome some pretty nasty obstacle courses and play without making any mistakes, otherwise we would go straight back to the beginning. One or two places were even more difficult than we had expected.

In the hour-long demo, the makers have already presented us with a fairly broad range, both visually and in terms of gameplay. We have only described a part of what we experienced. But we don't want to spoil one or two surprises for you at this point. What we can tell you is that the integration of the DualSense controller has once again been excellent.

The subtle vibrations on the different surfaces allow us to really immerse ourselves in the charming world of “Astro Bot” and literally experience it up close. It's been a long time since a PS5 game felt this good! In addition, the platform game is also visually impressive. Crisp textures, pretty reflections and the cute animations are adorable to look at.

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