Astro Bot is just simply out of this world. It's no wonder a lot of critics and gamers often compare it to Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 or dub Astro Bot as “Super Mario Galaxy 3”. What is there to say about Astro Bot which hasn't been said already by nearly everyone? I will not lie; Astro Bot is a breath of fresh air from poorly-made, tone deaf games such as Dustborn and Concord. Critically panned games such as Dustborn and Concord just make players feel disillusioned, cynical, bitter, miserable, depressed, angry, frustrated etc. Apparently, these days it seems every time a new game is released, it comes with controversy. Case in point: Dustborn: the wokest videogame is government funded propaganda AND unwittingly reveals the evil of wokeism by Leo Kearse.
I can't remember the last time a game made me smile from ear to ear, most likely Iconoclasts or A Hat In Time. If a game is addictive, then it's doing its job. What Astro Bot managed to achieve where the recent games that came before it didn't is it evokes the kind of magical, whimsical, fun-filled 90's or early/mid-2000's feeling that is missing from the games and the games industry nowadays. I'm going to have to be honest, Sony and other game developing companies just don't make games like they used to. Us gamers in the 90's and the early/mid-2000's had it good. There is just something about Astro Bot that I can't put in many words to describe, maybe it's the dopamine. There is a saying: nostalgia is one hell of a drug, especially due to all of the PlayStation legacy cameo characters you have to rescue. I don't mean to sound like an old woman but I miss the days when Sony and PlayStation used to experiment and take a lot of risks. Nowadays, the games just look generic, samey, drab and dreary. I still don't understand the unnecessary trend of making female characters look ugly. Fortunately, you don't see any of this in Astro Bot, considering the Bots are just as irresistibly adorable as Astro Bot himself. It's like as if Team Asobi has thought of everything. For example, you can smack the PlayStation cameo characters around just to see their reactions and animations.
While I'm on the subject of animations, if you leave Astro Bot alone in certain areas, he will do animations such as drawing PlayStation shapes in the sand or shivering in a cold level. Some of the animations from the previous Astro Bot games also returns.
No wonder I'm having the time of my life due to the game harkens back to a bygone era when games used to be simple and not infected with politics, political correctness and wokeness on the daily. I'm already sick and tired of politics, political correctness and wokeness being shoved down my throat on a daily basis enough as it is.
In fact, I can go so far as to say Astro Bot is so much more fun than Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and that's just saying something, despite I'm a long-time Ratchet & Clank fanatic. Although, Ratchet, Clank and Rivet are in Astro Bot. It's a shame Kit is shafted by Team Asobi and Sony, not just when it comes to merchandise. In other words, she is notably missing from the game. The other noticeable omissions are the Final Fantasy characters, despite I'm not a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise.
There isn't much to the story other than Astro Bot and his crew are seen flying through outer space in their mothership resembling the PlayStation 5. Space Bully Nebulax returns with a vengeance before he proceeds to chase after the mothership, attacks the crew and steals the CPU child. The assault resulted in an explosion which caused the parts to be scattered, the Bots stranded on other planets and in other galaxies and Astro Bot crash land on the sandy wasteland of the Crash Site.
Despite the PlayStation shape challenge levels vary in difficulty and annoyance, “Perseverance” is one of my favourite music tracks. Just be careful not to throw your new DualSense wireless controller – Astro Bot Limited Edition across the room in frustration as you plummet to your doom for the umpteenth time. Speaking of some of these asinine levels, they make full use of the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. For example, I can feel the surface of the spikes as I roll across them on an armadillo in the Dashing Dillo level which I felt through the controller.
Aside from the challenge levels, if you revisit a level, you have the option to pay 200 coins to release a robotic bird from its prison at the start of the game which will then follow you around as its antenna beeps. The more you're getting closer to a secret area, the more the antenna beeps and flashes. Once you uncovered the secret location, you'll soon be warped to the Lost Galaxy which contains a lot of secret levels and well-hidden PlayStation cameo characters.
Fighting the larger-than-life bosses is one of the many highlights of the game. Just like the powerups, you need to use them and your abilities to your fullest extent. As he explores through space to search for his crew, he comes across Mighty Chewy in the Gorilla Nebula, Wako Tako in the Tentacle System, Lady Venomara in the Serpent Starway, Mecha Leon in the Camo Cosmos and Falcon McFly in the Feather Cluster. When using the Barkster, the bulldog Jetpack, I felt the thruster rattling against my finger in synch with the animation, giving a very dynamic and immersive feeling. This power-up came in a pinch against Mighty Chewy.
The Dual Speeder which resembles a DualSense controller allows intergalactic traversal. It takes full advantage of the motion control, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. As you progress through the game, you can customise it in any way you like.
I seriously can't stress this enough that we desperately need more games like Astro Bot in our lives.
