// Foreword
When you take a look at the video gaming industry in the year of our lord 2024, you’ll see many things. You’ll see games that are released and killed off two weeks later. You’ll see inflated budgets, and layoffs in turn to recoup the losses from those massive budgets.
You’ll see games – or what they want you to think are games – but upon peeling away the outer layers of splashy graphics and buzzwords are actually something else all together: products. Things made for the sake of being made. Made because they know that “Thing X+1” will make millions of dollars on name alone.
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. There’s a lot of heart and a lot of talent out there in the video game industry, and from these facets come some truly incredible experiences.
Want stunning, cinematic storytelling? Got that. Live service experiences that are actually good, and you can sink your teeth into for months, if not years? Check. Every possible twist on the soulslike formula imaginable? Oh yeah, we’ve got those. We have so many of those.
But Astro Bot delivers an experience I think is almost wholly missing from today’s gaming landscape: Pure, uncomplicated, fun.
// F is for Friends who do stuff together
“Fun” is the word that comes to mind when I think about my time with Astro.
“You can’t just say it’s fun,” I said to myself when thinking about this post. “You always have fun playing video games. That’s the point.” But upon closer contemplation, I had to ask myself: did I always have fun playing video games?
Sure, I like video games. I was magnetized to the story of Kratos in God of War: Ragnarok. I found watching the political tale of Final Fantasy XVI unfold to be thrilling. I love the satisfaction of a perfectly-timed block in Paper Mario or Sea of Stars.
But how often would I really describe these experiences as, “having fun.”
I’d be acting obtuse to say I never have fun playing video games. Obviously that is not the case. But upon finishing Astro Bot, I’ve come to realize that it’s an aspect very much lacking in my time with the hobby.
Every moment of Astro was pure fun. From the satisfying tapping of his feet on different surfaces, to bouncing from platform to platform, to finding a new bot from one of my favourite franchises.
I’m talking Christmas morning fun. Busting a gut laughing with your friends fun. Roadtrip with the perfect playlist on a summer afternoon fun.
There’s no tedium, there’s no frustration. Every single second of that game is pure joy.
// U is for You and Me
I won’t dive into the specific mechanics of the game because people have already gushed at length about that in “real” reviews. I also think that’s best discovered for yourself.
What I will say is how blown away I was by the imagination and creativity on display. Some of the mechanics Astro will pick up are enough to carry an entire platformer through. Here they’re used once or twice. That’s all the time they have, because they have so. many. ideas.
The level design is bursting with colour and flavour. Nothing ever feels unnecessary.
Just as in Astro’s Playroom, the Dualsense is on full display here. I’m not sure what kind of wizardry they have in that thing, but you have to feel it to believe it.
I was thrilled each time I found a part for my ship because I got to experience installing it. I can only describe installing a part as ASMR for your hands. Each click and twist reverberating through the controller as you clean and insert the component with a satisfying ka-chunk.
The game was made by a small studio of just 65 people in only three years. Part of that time included revamping their game engine.
The team is small enough that you can literally play through each person’s name in the credits. How they are presented, of course, I won’t give away.
Astro Bot is so important because it proves you don’t need 14 quadrillion dollars and 10 years to make a good video game.
// N is for Anytime, Anywhere at All
Astro Bot takes itself to the next level with its personification of the PlayStation Brand.
I know that statement immediately makes it sound like the game is a commercial for PlayStation. Trust me, it’s not.
It feels like a celebration of a legacy. It’s the antithesis of everything Sony is actually doing with the PlayStation brand and it’s rich collection of IP.
Astro releasing next to Concord and the statement from Sony saying they don’t have enough IP is an irony so fine you couldn’t make it up.
It didn’t feel like the new properties were given too much priority over the old ones. Of course your staples are all there like God of War, Uncharted, etc. But for every Kratos there is a Sir Daniel Fortesque (It gets much more obscure, but I won’t spoil all the bots).
As someone who longs for the days of the PS1 and PS2, seeing Team ASOBI’s love for that era makes me a very happy fella. It’s thrilling to play a game, “like the good old days.”
Astro Bot is a short game that’s near perfect the entire way through.
I cannot hope hard enough that this game is successful, because we need more like it.
// Afterthought
Thanks for reading this quick and dirty Astro post. I don’t have much new to add to the discussion so I kept it brief, but I wanted to add my voice to the buzz.
I could truly go on and on about this game, but I didn’t want to ramble. You owe it to yourself to play it. The comparisons with Mario have been flying around, and I think they are completely earned.
I hope that between the high praise for Astro and the failure of Concord, we may finally be at a turning point. I’ve been hearing that the new Space Marine game is straight out of the Xbox 360 catalogue in many ways.
I suppose only time will tell.
