THE KING OF 3D PLATFORMERS
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Recently, I've caught myself thinking about old times, comparing the games of
my youth to contemporary ones. And I always come to the same conclusion: In
2025, games are better than ever (at least if we look outside the AAA space)
and keep improving, but I had more fun playing them when I was a kid.
Astro Bot rekindles that flame. It's not about the antiquated genre
- growing up long before they were
invented, I'm not a huge fan of 3D platformers - but something more abstract.
It's more about the immediacy; picking up a controller and knowing
instinctively what buttons to press, with precise and immediate response. It's about looking at the screen and instantly knowing what to do. It's about the joy of simple gameplay, not knowing what to get, constantly
getting surprised by the twists and turns of every stage and every new inventive gimmick.
It's about the excitement of interacting with everything and laugh about the result.
It's also about being straightforward and respecting the player's time.
There's no need to grind for gear, currency and character levels. All your skills are unlocked from the get-go, and any collectible is possible to get the moment you see it. No
microtransactions. No DLC. And the nonsensical joy of it all; it's like the
level designers were given only a specific theme requirement - candy, jungle,
construction site, haunted castle, etc. - and free reins to mess around with
the level design, knowing skillful programmers will make every crazy idea
work. The joy is infectious.
The best way to experience it is to go in completely blind, so I'll try to
keep it as short as possible. The clear inspiration is the 3D Mario games,
particularly Super Mario Galaxy. Astro Bot starts off with a short
cinematic depicting Astro and his crew of fellow bots cruising the galaxy
onboard their PS5-spaceship. A huge, green alien appears in its flying saucer,
grabs the PS5, tears it apart and snags the CPU before leaving. The ship
crashes on a nearby desert planet with all its different parts and crew
scattered across the universe. Astro's mission is to go from planet to planet,
reassemble the components and rescue his lost friends.
Astro Bot could only exist on the PS5. Not only is the console and its
peripherals central parts of the story. It also utilizes the Dualsense's
unique features expertly, like the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, to simulate
the effects of trickling rainfall felt on your fingertips and the strain of
pulling a bowstring. Blowing (screaming also works) into the microphone will cause
certain fans to spin, unlocking some situational effect. The gyroscope is
utilized for steering the ship when you land on each planet, and more. It all makes the
player part of the action.
Another engaging feature is the inclusion of so many Playstation-specific
cameos; cute bot-versions of famous characters like Solid Snake, Ico, Dante and Parappa the Rapper. You need a certain amount of them to
unlock the boss at the end of each of the five worlds. And the more of them
you rescue, the more secrets and optional content you might unlock. They're
not explicitly named, and one of the sports of this game is to properly
identify them from the hints.
At the end of every world a character-specific level awaits, starring some of the
biggest names of the platform (I won't spoil which ones). Every single one
introduces a unique mechanic related to that character. If the game has a
weakness, it's a few of these. They feel a bit hamstrung by the original
character's more traditional gamplay mechanics, which brings Astro Bot down to the level of an "ordinary" game. One of them, however, is pretty great, since it's based on an unconventional game (which I won't spoil either).
Apart from that nitpick, Astro Bot might be the closest I've come to a perfect game. Every level is
balanced exactly right in scope and challenge, and the development they go through is nothing short of amazing. In most cases, you get some
level-specific ability right at the start - boxing gloves, a clock that slows
time, a shrinking device, etc - and the number of ways Team ASOBI invents
puzzles and platforming challenges around them is astonishing. It dethrones
Super Mario Galaxy in that regard.
In spite of the extensive amount of stages, it never feels repetitive. Each
level might evolve into something totally unexpected partway through. As I saw
the goalpost on the other side of a bridge, a huge fish jumped up from below
and swallowed me whole. I had to work my way from the belly back to the mouth
while escpaing raising levels of gastric acid, and then find a way to smash its teeth and escape. Some stages end with a
mini-bossfight, and of course each world ends with a big one.
The control scheme is frictionless and intuitively designed, hastening
reaction times by using as few buttons as possible. For the most part it's
just one for jumping, one for punching and one for the special ability. By
holding the punch for a couple seconds you can perform a devastating spinning
attack. Enemies appear in a manner of variations, all with simple, obvious
attack patterns. A punch will suffice for most, but a few require dodging
first to leave them in a vulnerable state, and yet others require that you
glide over them, soaking them with your Super Mario Sunshine-inspired jetstream. The camerawork is impeccable as well, by staying unnoticeable throughout, changing seamlessly between
free-roam and more fixed direction.
It feels almost wrong to spoil it, but Astro Bot rewards curiosity and
exploration extremely well. Certain levels contain hidden warp holes leading
to a secret galaxy of bonus levels, all about as detailed and unique as the
regular ones. All levels are so good that you feel at a loss for not finding
every single one. By cruising the galaxy map you might also stumble upon
rock-hard challenge courses. Some are retro-flavored 3D-pixel bouts. Others
drop you into a cityscape, where you must fight a deadly combination of
enemies on top of a brittle platform.
But the toughest ones are the Playstation face-button themed gauntlets.
They're long and extremely tough with no mid-stage checkpoints. These made my
blood boil, as I probably died close to a hundred times on a couple of the
hardest before finally beating them. You need a sharp memory, intense concentration and flawless
execution to do so. The menial reward of rescuing another bot was nothing
compared to the sense of accomplishment afterwards.
The surprises keep on coming, massaging every fiber of my well-being. I laugh
heartily at the comedic slapstick of trying to enlarge Astro in a tiny
space, watching him bump his head on the ceiling and turning small again. Every tune
reminds me of how it feels to be carefree, by constantly inviting me to hum along. Every 3D model begs to be
interacted with. No detail is too small, no object too big to be considered
mere decoration. No ledge is not worth exploring, because it might lead to
more game to play.
It's rare to find one of these experiences nowadays, where the novelty of
playing a game takes center stage. It hardly contains any distracting text to read, instead it
uses a universal visual language of gestures, iconography and simple facial
expressions from the bots' facial screens. Astro Bot is the gift that keeps on
giving, an almost wasteful feast for both your eyes and your
controller-wielding hands. It is undoubtly the best 3D platformer I've ever
played. My only complaint is a concerning question; will I ever enjoy another
one or has Astro Bot ruined the genre for me?
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