An absolute charmer

Look, I can admit it: at this point, when it comes to reviewing video games, I’m a bit of a cynical old coot.

I’ve seen genres rise and fall and print die and YouTubers screech their way to millionaire status and wearily watched marketing ploys (and budgets) go from "we’ll fly you all expenses paid to Poland for the weekend" to "act now to reserve a limited Zoom call spot for the virtual launch online at 4am New Zealand time". In addition, my own taste in gaming tends to take me away from your cute plumbers and hedgehogs and more into grim-dark realms where everything is Very Serious Indeed and, you confront big, mean aliens and introduce them to the spinny end of your chainsaw bayonet.

So, I would not have considered myself an easy mark for Astro Bot, a colourful platformer in which a very cute little robot bounces happily around rescuing his buddies so he can reassemble his spaceship, which is literally a PS5.

But darned if the charming little blighter didn’t win me over.

Astro Bot starts with the simplest of platformer premises: the titular bot and his many buddies are cruising through space in their PS5, having a fun time, when they are rudely interrupted by — well, a big, mean alien actually, though much more of the Looney Tunes than Alien variety — who knocks them around and pinches the key components of the console that is their ship/home/friend. This sends them all crashing down on to a desert planet, scattering the host of bots across space and leaving only our hero Astro Bot himself to rescue all his mates, get all the key bits of the console back, fix ’em up and get back to the endless dance party life that seems to be their raison d’etre.

To do this he’ll be flying around the galaxy visiting different star systems to find and rescue bots, beat bosses and work his way up to a confrontation with the nasty green instigator of hostilities.

Astro’s base moves are pretty simple — he’s got a jump that can be held for a bit of a float/boost, a simple bash and a charge-up spin — but the game finds a way to put these to different uses. The rocket trail from your boost, for example, can be used to fry attackers or destroy floors, while spinning can turn a flower into an elevator. But the game’s real genius comes through temporary abilities that Astro finds on most levels. For these he’s joined on his mission by an animal robot that offers him one or more abilities. If he teams up with a bulldog, he can now shoot forward with a rocket boost; if it’s a monkey with big sproingy arms, he can now climb up walls, hurl boulders and ground-pound.

Each level is designed around these abilities in inventive and delightful ways. In order to progress, Astro will have to shrink down tiny, soak up water like a big sponge, spontaneously generate platforms out of thin air and much more besides. It’s intuitive and fun. As a bonus, a number of his powers also require use of the motion-detection capabilities of the PS5 controller — remember those? — that no other games seem to bother with, as if Astro really is keen to show off the PS5.

As he goes he’ll find his robot friends in trouble around the levels — some easy to find, some less so. Some of these are generic robots, but many are robot cosplayers of classic Playstation game characters. You’ll be rescuing the rosters of the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Uncharted, Crash Bandicoot and many, many more — some very well known indeed, others more of a deep cut. This throughline of the game also occasionally comes to the fore in levels that are direct tributes to other titles, such as one in which Astro Bot becomes a gruff little Kratos from God of War and gets to run around hurling his frost axe. More bots rescued and hidden puzzle pieces found in turn means unlocks back at the crash site, which offer things like paint jobs for Astro’s ship (which, naturally, is a PlayStation controller) or the chance to buy accessories for all your little characters, many of which are fun Easter eggs in their own right.

As it all hums along there are tons of secrets (including trickier, challenge-style levels) to discover and whimsy packed into every stage, plus creative fights against giant bosses that never become too frustrating. Every animal and bird and bug and fish and flower and fungus that isn’t trying to kill you is a happy little Astro Bot version of itself, scampering around or doing a little dance. Apples or jewels or basketballs flood into levels in vast numbers for the sheer pleasure of smacking them around. Magic trees sing you a funky little song about how they’ll help you out if you just climb them to the top and get rid of the bad guys. It is charming (and needless to say, kids will love it). The only thing that breaks the spell sometimes is the sheer PlayStationness of it all (did I just rescue a happy little, uh, solid state drive?), but if all branding exercises were this delightful, they’d be a lot more welcome.

Consider this grizzled old gamer’s heart melted — Astro Bot has joined the same PlayStation pantheon he so reveres. A surprise game of the year contender.

By Ben Allan