Astro Bot (2024)

I think it’s a bad sign that I want to find every item the first time I run through a level because I desperately don’t want to have to return and replay each level.

It’s very clear that this game resonates with people the same way Super Mario Odyssey resonates with people. I bring that up because Odyssey is probably one of the Mario games I enjoyed least. Even though a lot of it is quite fun and inventive, it doesn’t click with me, not like Super Mario 3D World or Super Mario Galaxy does. And so I find that I can understand why people like this game, while not finding it quite as much fun personally. I think all the parts are quite neat and novel, but as a whole it feels a bit like labour. It’s not enaging me in a way that I think will make a lasting bond with the game. It’s a good game, buts that’s the extent of what I feel for it. I can see that it’s a well constructed media work, but I have no afectual relationship to it. It just is, it exists, and is well made. It reminds me of a lot of contemporary mainstream media: polished, understands and executes a formula expertly, and is enjoyable while engaged with, yet wont make a lasting impression on me. It feels like yet another media work that’s diverting while I interact with it, but that I’ll put behind me and never return to when I’m done. It’s so very polished, yet so very empty. It’s flashy and cute and clearly a work of love, but it says nothing to me, nor to my heart.

Very charming, polished and fun so far, but also lacks the oomf that a lot of my favourite games had this year. It’s a pleasant game. It’s super cute, and makes great use of the PS5 kit, but it doesn’t really engage me in ways I’d like it to, especially not ways in which my favourite performers do. It’s much more of a Super Mario Odyssey than it is a Super Mario 3D World. And that’s perfectly fine, it doesn’t need to be the best 3D platformer ever made in order to be a good time. But after the year I’ve had it’s hard to see this as more than just a very good game because it doesn’t speak to my heart and mind the same way some of the other games from 2024 did.

I do think the exceptional reception this game had speaks volumes about the drought of fun titles exclusive to the PS5, which will naturally amplify people’s feelings about what is already a really well made and enjoyable game. Is this really 2024’s best game, or is it just a really good game that stands in stark contrast to Sony’s exceptionally safe and increasingly formulaic and tired AAA fare? I suspect it’s the latter.

I look forward to finishing the game (I’m approaching the midway mark now, but have to put it aside for some non-gaming events this weekend) and I’m sure it will be one of the games from 2024 that I’ll retain fond feelings for, but I’ll be surprised if it knocks anything out of my top list of favourites at this juncture.

Got my PS5 Pro and so far I've played a few hours of Astro Bot. What a wild surprise. It's difficult for me to say this, or to admit, as someone who has been a Nintendo fan since the Gameboy and GameCube era. This might just be my favorite 3D platformer of all time and to me, it tops Super Mario 3D World and Mario Odyssey.

I have to see how wild and deep the creativity in the level design and abilities, Astro Bot goes. But for now, I'm blown away by how gorgeous and fun this game is.

Wow.

What a fantastic game.

The look and feel of these worlds and the bits are just so joyous.

The controller is used properly and is actually exciting to use which is extremely rare for me in gaming. The mic stuff on the controller is good too.

The worlds are creative and beautiful. I could see adding more to explore or more details in future games but it’s so damn good as is. Specially the 8bit levels.

The baddies are fun and gives me old school Mario vibes, I could see them getting wild with even more fun creatures in the next game.

I did everything and had a blast almost the whole time, that final bonus level was a bitch. Took me so many attempts to beat but I finally did.

The collecting of the bots and seeing who you got is my favorite part, I also love the hub world and being able to explore it some and add items to the bots you find.

I see ways to sell the next gam but even then this game is damn near perfect.

The thing about this game is that it doesn't really do anything that I haven't seen somewhere else before. And at its core, it's just a basic platformer.

But with that being said, it's easily a 10/10 in my book. I'm about 70% complete and I have 9 hours in the game, but I've been smiling from ear to ear throughout, giggling like a little kid. The same feelings I got while playing LittleBigPlanet as a 12 year old, I got here too. This game has more than exceeded my expectations.

Really hope they turn this into a full-fledged franchise. I would buy an Astro Bot 2 in a heartbeat.

I had a sneaking feeling this article would make it into this week's issue of Critical-Distance.

Astro Bot's Soulless Devotion To The Sony Brand Is A Real Problem

[I]t’s possible—and worryingly likely—that Astro Bot will be taken as another win for IP-first, art-by-committee video games, its critical and commercial success attributed not to its savviness nor its economical scope but its willingness to play to expectations. Risk-taking, in this era of protracted development cycles, inflated budgets, and constant mass layoffs, is not usually the operative mode of publishers like Sony. There are good games coming out of the first-party space, sure, but how many can really be called meaningfully subversive or formally audacious? When was the last time Sony put out something that actually looked and felt new?

Astro Bot, it pains me to say, does not qualify. For all its competence, for all its spirit, I’ve played it before. The game is largely a compilation of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy’s greatest hits, with a smattering of truly distinct ideas (the shrinking power-up, which only appears in one level, is good enough to carry a whole game; the stopwatch isn’t far behind). Novelty certainly isn’t a prerequisite for quality, far from it–it’s partially because of its established format that Astro Bot is able to hone in so acutely on the fundamental joys of 3D platforming design. But if we’re going to continue having conversations about what first-party publishers could be doing to nurture artistry in video games, we need to resist equating polish with innovation.

I don’t think Astro Bot is asking for anything quite as insidious as brand loyalty, but it’s somewhere in that ballpark. Brand appreciation? Brand wistfulness? A desire to see its old IPs resurrected, and its current ones sustained? I balk at that almost as much as I do at the fanservice itself. Yes, of course I’d buy a new Dark Cloud day 1–but we should demand more from this industry than familiarity. The next Masaya Matsuura is already out there. So is the next Kaz Ayabe, and the next Hideo Kojima, and the next Kazutoshi Iida, and the next Fumito Ueda. They won’t show up unless we let them work.

I've been having an absolute blast with this.

I'm pretty picky with platformers and tend to prefer the 3D ones like this over sidescrolling, but this might be the first that I ever actually finish.

It's just so charming and feels great to play. The controls are seamless and comfortable and the feedback/sounds from the controller are fantastic. I love feeling Astro's footsteps as he runs around; so cute.

The challenge levels are definitely just that. No checkpoints and unforgiving, fast-paced obstacles. I was getting really frustrated with one of them yesterday, but the designs are just so good that even I, one who doesn't seek out super challenging gameplay, found joy in struggling through it.