Nintendo has Mario. Microsoft has the Master Chief. However, Sony has long struggled to have consistent branding for its mascots. Over nearly 30 years of PlayStation exclusives, including Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, and God of War, none of them stuck out as the main face of the console. Sackboy was supposed to take that title, but he’s been supplanted by a little robot called Astro.
He is now getting his own game this year, made more significant by a lack of big Sony exclusives in 2024. I’ve finally had the chance to play it, and I think this may be the end of Sony’s mascot woes. It doesn’t have just one mascot; it now has dozens.
Astro Bot is an expanded version of the demo game that comes pre-installed on all PlayStation 5 consoles. I wasn’t alone in feeling surprised that Astro’s Playroom was as good as it was after I first unboxed my PS5. It had tight controls that took advantage of the DualSense’s haptic triggers far better than any game has since. It was a cute diversion with the added benefit that it was honestly creative and fun to play. It was stuffed full of enough collectible Sony memorabilia to soften the eyes of longtime PlayStation fans.
I was curious to see how Sony and developers Team Asobi would transform our wide-eyed Astro into the hero of his own game, one that wasn’t necessarily beholden to PlayStation’s past. Except it’s not. All the coins are emblazoned with PlayStation logos. Your rocketship is literally a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller you can command with motion controls.
At first, I balked at the idea of playing a game that, at a glance, feels like promotional material for PlayStation. My demo didn’t include much story at all, but what was there made Super Mario Galaxy 2 seem like a novel in comparison. All you need to know is that your PS5 “mothership” is wrecked, and now all the various Astro bots are stranded across the galaxy, and you need to get those bots back.
I played through three levels of Astro Bot, plus two challenge stages. The controls involve jumping, hovering, attacking, and holding the attack button to do a spin move. The novelty comes from the various power-ups you get from each level. In my demo, one of them blew up Astro like a blimp for simple platforming puzzles. Another, shaped like a dog, makes Astro rocket forward in a straight line. For a boss fight against a giant squid—one that immediately reminded me of the Glooper Blooper fight in Super Mario Sunshine—Astro’s granted a pair of spring-powered boxing gloves.
The more I played, the more I stopped worrying and learned to love the PlayStation-themed set-dressing. The expressive animations are some of the best since playing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Each enemy and cute, bot-faced character you meet grins or leers at you with cartoonish charm. I’ll admit, the nostalgia center of my brain lit up when I encountered PaRappa the Rapper and old Kratos in bot-form.
It’s not the most inventive 3D platformer I’ve ever played, but what’s there is full of simple but interesting interactions. The rocket pack, for instance, can throw certain enemies off the stage or bounce them off specific pads. Those main levels were perhaps too easy for anybody experienced in these types of games. The challenge levels offered a bit more spice, necessitating a bit more precision from your jumps, but it was nothing an experienced gamer couldn’t knock out in 10 minutes and a few retries.
I’m curious if Astro Bot can keep up that level of inventiveness and charm across all 50 stages, but what’s there seems like it’s on the right track, especially for those not too experienced with platformers. Astro Bot comes out Sept. 6 only on PS5 for $60.
