Like its predecessor, Astro Bot is a love letter to PlayStation–not just its current make-up, either, but its illustrious history. From first-party icons like Kratos and Ellie to third-party heroes tied to the hip with Sony’s gaming past, such as Lara Croft and Leon S. Kennedy. There are 195 hidden cameo characters in Astro Bot’s dozens of levels, and part of the fun is tracking them all down. Astro Bot is quite literally this year’s best game yet, and it being a single-player platformer makes it all the more special. It checks all the boxes of being a complete package with its visuals, story, value, audio design, and most importantly, gameplay.
Time trials and secret areas that unlock after collecting enough hidden materials can provide many more hours of entertainment, especially if time trial modes exist for friends to compete against one another. While there are hidden levels to discover in Astro Bot, after those are completed, there is little incentive to revisit previously conquered stages. This means that after the thrill of the game’s nostalgic moments wears off, there is not much reason to play after its 15 hours are up. In Astro Bot, there are 300 bots to find, including 169 cameo bots, as well as dozens of puzzle pieces and several secret Void levels hidden within the game.
Float over to the pot and use your spin move to clear the debris on top. The secret exit in Hieroglitch Pyramid is at the very end of the level, after you’ve slid down the spikey path and made it to the normal exit. The secret exit in Downsize Surprise is close to the end of the level.
Games Review
It’s not something we can often say about new games but in this case, the experience is so bulletproof and polished that it feels as if the team perfectly achieved what they set out to do. 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.
Go-go Archipelago Secret Exit
The stunning visuals, great sound design, interesting story, and amazing gameplay round out a near perfect release of a game. The story of the game isn’t all that compelling; however, the fact that it’s able to tell a story and make it understandable without a single line being spoken means something. The motivation of the game is to rescue the missing crew members of the now-broken PS5 mothership due to the damage caused by their nemesis. It’s nothing fancy, yet somehow it’s able to sneak in amazing interactions between the bots, and that just makes everything a lot better than I think it actually is. @Yousef- I never said it was for “helpless people who already can’t beat the game”.
Ingenious one-off mechanics like this feel like they could serve as the basis for an entire game; that’s how well-crafted they are. There are over 300 bots to collect with 173 advertised as special bots, all dressed as characters from the PlayStation family past and present. Finding these bots felt like collecting Waddle Dees in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but with nostalgic excitement every time a special bot is recognized. Every bot collected throughout the levels gets sent to a hub world called The Crash Site. And while it is fun to go around and interact with the bots here, there is a small chance that you will recognize every single one of them.
It’s a riot of collectibles and hub world distractions, and it’s thought about your time, too, and how to make the best of it. It’s unlikely that Astro Bot will save the world, let alone be successful enough to appease a company chasing endless growth, but it’s a game that we so desperately need. I don’t read the PlayStation history references as brand advertisements so much as Team Asobi trying to remind Sony of what it has lost in the PS5 era.
You’ll receive two PSN avatars–one of Astro in his normal outfit and another of him wearing the Parappa getup–and the Glorious Graffiti skin for Astro’s Dual Speeder vehicle. These items can be unlocked in the game without preordering, but buying one of the physical or digital editions early lets you access the outfits and avatars from the jump. Oddly, Astro can only ever survive one hit, which can be annoying as 90% of the time the only thing that ever kills you is enemies firing projectiles, but the game is so heavily checkpointed it’s never really a problem. Others are less straightforward, such as boxing gloves that concertina out but can also be used to attach to objects (that appear to be covered in jam) to pull them or use them to swing onto other platforms.
Where it shines is the game’s level designs, unique gimmicks, and usage of everything the PS5 has to offer. It’s been quite a rough few weeks for Sony and PlayStation fans out there, and it’s great to know that it’s not all doom and gloom as Astro Bot is here to save the day. As https://n188.uk.com/ of platformers, Astro Bot blew me away and reminded me of the nostalgia and fun that is to be had with the genre. The last time to do this was Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey, which is a very high standard to beat or match in recent years.
Sure, some are coated in different colours of paint or dressed to fit in with their surroundings, but they are all vanquished via the same few fundamental jump and hit combos. Later on, though, the design book opens up and introduces some of my favourite foes. These include an anthropomorphic playing card that flings a hand of clubs and spades your way, which you can then jump on to make your way towards the enemy to deal a killing blow of your own. That soundtrack scores levels that seem simple at first, but soon unfurl themselves to reveal tantalising depths and secrets. Most are fairly linear, but some go the extra mile and are enjoyably knotty, providing sandbox-like areas to hunt for collectibles in. There’s never the openness found in the large-by-comparison Mario Odyssey levels, but enough nooks and crannies to get stuck into nonetheless.
When it comes to the challenge levels, however, you may find yourself struggling. While there’s a plethora of things you could do, the number one tip is to keep moving. Try to press on and not stop, as you’ll become an easy target for projectile enemies or obstacles like fire or thin ice. Not every level does require you to be quick on your feet, but it’s a good reminder for when you’re tackling some of the harder levels. A new batch of five levels were added in July 2025, adding five new cameo bots including a couple of Final Fantasy characters. This is more of a nitpick, mainly because the game is actually catered to everyone.
Since its release, Astro Bot has received several free updates that greatly expand on its content. 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.
Many things in Astro Bot approach the quality and imagination of a Nintendo game but the use of force feedback surpasses anything on the Switch. Astro Bot has six worlds and dozens of levels to complete with Bots, Puzzle Pieces, and Costumes to collect, secret portals to find, and trophies to earn. IGN’s 100% Astro Bot walkthrough will guide you to every collectible and secret. Foamstars has 2 done to death modes yet I can think of a surfboard mode, a foam clean up mode, chemicals to mess with the foam, traps and more. They barely come up with anything that useful to use the foam for.
Players also face bosses at the end of each world, which require a certain number of rescued bots to challenge. It looks absolutely stunning and perfect for a family-friendly platformer. The whole aesthetic and atmosphere of the game are enhanced by its distinct and recognizable designs.