One of the only PS5 games that really feels like it was built around the DualSense. To proceed, all I have to do is run forward and rub a magic lamp by moving left and right. When I slowed down, though, I began to appreciate just how much I could play with in the little town before moving on. I could knock over a stack of buckets, sending hundreds of bolts into the sand. I jumped on a clothesline and watched as I skidded over towels, which fell from their wooden pins with a satisfying cartoonish twang.

Astro Bot Rescue Mission is a 2018 virtual reality platform game developed and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4’s PlayStation VR headset. It stars a cast of robot characters first introduced in The Playroom and The Playroom VR. In the game, the player plays as Captain Astro, who aims to rescue his lost crew scattered across different worlds. For $59.99, this is quite literally the best platformer out in the current year. There’s so much to collect, levels to conquer, and secrets to discover that it actually feels weird that it’s not charged at the normal AAA premium.

All Astro Bot Cameos (full Vip Bot List)

While some of these are repeated, these same gimmicks are mixed with more interesting overall level designs to keep things fresh. Everything looks aesthetically pleasing and fits right in the game’s world, not to mention the amazing Astro bot designs that reference numerous older IPs. Each of these designs is distinct and instantly recognizable from the characters they represent, which is amazing knowing that they’re only limited to a robotic mascot. In addition to this, the animations of the game are also works of art.

What Are All Special Bots In Astro Bot? Mono – Slumbering Girl

Although half of the bots you’re rescuing look identical to Astro, just without the cape, the other 150 are all based on characters from other games. Or rather they’re normal bots cosplaying as characters from other games. These cameos are far more extensive than we expected and include not just deep cuts from Sony’s back catalogue but references to games from Activision, Konami, Embracer Group, Atlus, Bandai Namco, Capcom, and others. Essentially, here, key mechanics from the most recent God of War are put to use – specifically the axe where you can throw, freeze and retrieve the axe.

Bursting to the seams with charm, Astro Bot is an inventive, nostalgia-fuelled platformer of the highest order. Customers appreciate the game’s creative levels, with one mentioning that the world is filled with secrets and another noting how it encourages players to think creatively. Customers find the game suitable for all ages, with kids particularly enjoying it, and one customer noting that the main levels are great for young players. Astro, the robot captain of a mothership resembling the PlayStation 5 console, and his crew of Bots are exploring space when a green alien named Space Bully Nebulax attacks them and rips out the mothership’s CPU.

Since its release, Astro Bot has received several free updates that greatly expand on its content. First, there was a series of five speedrunning levels between October and November, challenging players to complete their trials as quickly and efficiently as possible. More recently, this was followed by Astro Bot’s Winter Wonder update, a free, Christmas-themed level with plenty of fun holiday surprises for players to discover. It’s not that the powers are cool, that it’s fun to blow into your controller, or that you get to meet Aloy.

There are 91 stages in Astro Bot, making this one of Team Asobi’s biggest and most ambitious games to date. Between them, they boast well over 460 collectibles, including 120 Puzzle Pieces, 10 Lost Galaxy Warps, and 332 stranded Bots that are just waiting to be rescued. I feared it would be a bit of an advert for PlayStation dressed up as a video game – Sony’s own Pepsiman here for the memes and little else.

Each level across five main galaxies and one unlockable one features a swarm of bots (many based on beloved PS characters) to rescue, as well as jigsaw pieces and some secret black holes too. Here, you’ll find your one-stop shop for every single collectible in the game, and the Trophies too, arranged into each zone Astro blasts off into. Astro Bot is technically the fifth entry in the Astro universe, though it’s the series’ first fully fledged — and fully priced — installment. Astro Bot takes ideas from these earlier titles and compiles them into a focused 3D platformer with dozens of main worlds, a bevy of additional unlockable planets and a wide range of satisfying mechanics. On top of this, the robot protagonists are super cute in every situation.

These are structured in a certain order, so you’ll need to beat each level to unlock the boss battle, something that requires a set number of bots to have been unlocked. Thankfully, should you return to a previously completed level, you can pay a small amount of PlayStation coin currency to have an assist bot show you where the remaining bots and puzzle pieces are. Each star system also has a level that’s specially themed around a popular PlayStation franchise, allowing Astro to make use of unique skills for a short while. Needless to say, Astro Bot keeps you on your toes, and sometimes challenges you to think outside the box in order to solve a problem or find a well-hidden secret.

Astro Bot’s not the largest game in the world — you’ll perhaps see the credits roll in hours or so. Those aiming to rescue every robot, complete every challenge, find every jigsaw piece and unlock every trophy, however, will probably end up playing for around 20 hours or more. It’s the type of game that you’re likely to return to as well, simply because of its feel-good nature. It’s a heartwarming and flawless experience, and a 3D platforming masterpiece. While there’s plenty to like about the hub, which we’ll get into later, the main attraction is the game’s range of levels, which are as varied, playful, and fun as you’d hope.

Vibrant colors make me feel like I’m in a cartoon, but Team Asobi doesn’t flatten its environments or skimp on detail. In https://luck8app.net/ , I start by walking across swaths of bright green foliage. I feel the crunch of the grass between my metal feet and hear the sound from my DualSense’s speakers. Then I move on to a metallic checkerboard floor, where I hear my legs lightly click-clacking on the tiles.

With the basics on lock, Team Asobi lets players focus on Astro Bot’s wildly inventive level design. In one level, I get a power-up that lets me shrink Astro down to the size of an ant on command. That leads me through a fantastic puzzle-platformer gauntlet where I need to shrink down to climb into a lock or hop up a tree’s leaves. Another level drops me in a casino and puts a time-slowing PSVR on Astro’s head. I use that ability to freeze a giant slot machine as it rains down chips, turning them into platforms. Ingenious one-off mechanics like this feel like they could serve as the basis for an entire game; that’s how well-crafted they are.

Still, Team Asobi may argue its smaller complement of baddies that grow in complexity are what keep it consistent. It’s a play straight out of Mario’s book, and in the platforming world, the plumber is still the king even as a new pretender climbs higher to the summit. Aside from elevating Astro Bot with strikingly tactile feedback to what is happening on screen, the DualSense is also the source of clues. In particular, the rumbling, or specifically the type and intensity of the rumble. For certain puzzles, including the Az-Tech Trail doors, the DualSense is crucial to figuring out how to proceed, so pay close attention on what your controller is telling you at all times. Like many of PlayStation’s limited edition DualSense controllers, the Astro Bot DualSense is based on one of its many franchises, specifically 2024’s Game of the Year, Astro Bot.