The little robot will be back this summer in Astro Bot’s five new challenge levels that will raise the number of planets in the game to 90. While the protagonist may seem plain in design compared to a mustached plumber or chilidog eating hedgehog, Astro is memorable in his own rights. I have said a lot of words, but none truly capture the emotions of curiosity and bliss felt while playing.
I can’t wait to buy my own copy and work toward earning all the achievements in this charming game. Some games just can’t help but keep a smile on our faces, and Astro Bot, a 3D platformer developed by Team Asobi, is one of them. In 2020, to coincide with the launch of the PS5, every console came with Astro’s Playroom pre-installed, completely free of charge. This game allowed players to test the new capabilities of the SSD drive and controller.
Check out our Sky Garden walkthrough to learn where to find the three Puzzle Pieces hidden there. You will encounter your first Rescued Bot on Sky Garden, near the very start of the level. Luckily, none of the collectibles or Hidden Trophies in Astro Bot are missable, so even if you miss one of these things during your first playthrough, you can always go back to grab what you’re missing for that Platinum Trophy.
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. You tend to start writing lines in your head when compiling a review, and one that stuck with me early was to call Astro Bot ‘the best platformer since Super Mario Odyssey’. Then I played a little more and started to think ‘maybe it’s better’. All I know is Astro Bot is a contender for the all-time crown in a genre that has felt a little neglected (especially by Sony, who once nurtured it to greatness) in recent years.
Hardcore PlayStation fans will likely be both pleasantly surprised and disappointed to uncover what characters are included and how much love their franchises receive in Astro Bot. After rescuing Bot crewmembers, half of whom resemble beloved characters from PlayStation games, they return to the game’s hub world, and as more are uncovered, it grows into a playground for the rescued to occupy. As the player progresses, they’ll unlock new pathways and cosmetics not just for Astro but for the PS-themed Bots. Sony proves with Astro Bot that the company can still put out charming action platformers, but the love letter to PlayStation fans fails to include features that made previous games of the genre so fun to replay.
What Are All Special Bots In Astro Bot? The Hunter – Yharnam Tourist
There are only a handful of baddies to bash aside from the bosses, and while they get a little tougher with tweaks to their attacks, this is the one area where it risks growing stale. 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. 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. The controller features a white and blue trim that perfectly matches the Dual Speeder in-game, as well as a smiling set of eyes on the touchpad.
Regardless, Astro Bot has that Nintendo feel of Mario’s best, and a controller that has features that are additive and immersive toward the whole experience. When Astro Bot was first announced, no one could have anticipated just how big the platformer would be. Even though it was hardly the little robot’s first adventure, it was the first one that was more than a simple tech demo or VR experience.
I’d also recommend turning your controller speaker volume up if, like me, you have it muted by default – you’ll be missing out on some fantastic audio flourishes otherwise. And while there’s nothing to quite rival the GPU earworm of four years ago (despite the best efforts of a giant singing tree), the music is a consistent delight throughout. Here are the games released during 2025 that have won major industry awards or received nominations for those awards. We’ll update our awards tracker whenever new awards and nominations are announced. Dive back into supersized adventures with ASTRO and this limited-edition controller!
A few months ago, Sony issued a free DLC (downloadable content) for “Astro’s Playroom” that connects the previous game with the new one. Since all PS5 consoles come with “Astro’s Playroom” for free, it’s more than likely that “Astro Bot” will become a big hit for Sony. This is because every console owner has played the previous installment and are likely to want more from the character.
One ability that joins Sponge and Mouse in that it isn’t used much is the Teddy Cymbol, an ability that is really only injected into the game should you discover all the secret levels. While there are a few other abilities you’ll discover, they are used well enough in their respective levels but don’t really feature the same creativity as some of the ones I’ve just mentioned. Astro’s Playroom is just pure, unadulterated fun, and Astro Bot somehow manages to better it in just about every way. Playing as the titular Astro Bot, it’s a title that finds you encountering a rude alien as you fly through space in your PS5 console-shaped craft. Soon your slick method of transport has been robbed of its important innards, causing it to crash land on a desolate planet. Now you’ve got the arduous job of visiting the star systems nearby, rescuing your robotic friends that got flung far and wide in the whole affair, and ultimately rebuild your ship.
The game is a 9.7 for me personally and i’m very much looking forward to the next game Team Asobi does. Team Asobi could go back to the tech demo days of the franchise’s past and showcase some new hardware, like the PSVR 2. But now that players have been treated to a fully-fledged platformer, it could feel reductive to go back to those smaller adventures. And while there are many routes that platformers can take, the way Astro Bot celebrated the brand really helped prop it up as something special. At its core, Astro Bot is built on the technical foundation of Astro’s Playroom.
It comes with a plethora of powers, but they never feel overused. https://tr88z.com/ of them is a set of cymbals that moves the platforms of the world around that other, lesser games might build their whole universe around. Astro Bot puts it in the final treat that you only get to even play if you beat every other level, including all the secret ones (and boy, are there a lot of secret ones). If you haven’t played Astro Bot yet (and seriously, why not?), it’s currently on sale for $39 as part of the PlayStation Black Friday sale. After announcing the news back in February, the DLC levels for Vicious Void Galaxy are now all available.
Players
The bots turn around and shake their booties at Astro right before he punches them into the DualSense. On the pause screen, you can flick all of your collected bots out of the digital controller and they flail in mid-air before landing safely back inside the touchpad. Even before picking up any cool new toys, Astro has a laser-propelled hover ability that lets him destroy enemies while jumping over them, plus a standard punch and a chargeable spin move. These three abilities, plus whatever tool he picks up, are the entirety of Astro’s arsenal. This mechanical focus allowed Team Asobi to perfect each move and then apply them all in a thousand different ways, and the result is a rewarding and robust platformer.
Astro Bot packs a ton of variety into its level design, both visually and mechanically. Astro Bot’s various worlds have a lot of colorful characters you’ll meet along the way. Team Asobi cements itself as an essential PlayStation studio with an imaginative platformer for the ages.
After acquiring his DualSense controller ship, Astro has to travel to various galaxies and rescue the bots. Each galaxy you arrive in houses several secrets to uncover in the overworld, and even levels themselves have hidden bonus stages. This game’s secrets have secrets, with more hidden levels being revealed at a steady clip whenever you inch closer to polishing off each galaxy’s to-do list. There are 300 in total, though you only need 200 to face the final boss, and over half of them are dressed up as iconic characters from video game history.
