- Tested on a PS5 and then taken hostage in Bennj. It's beautiful friendship!
- Code transmitted by the publisher before the official release.
- Played 11 o'clock for 206 bots saved for test purposes.
- Captures editor and house in article.
More than six years already separate us from the first stepsAstro bot on PS4 where the small Kawai robot became the standard of the PSVR. After the critical success of the first opus of which the first buildings at Gamescom when virtual reality technology was still in its infancy, a suite was needed. Sony repeats today and plans to do wellAstro his new mascot for both young and old. Long remained Nintendo's guarded hunt and its dedicated games riddle, the platform is often considered Sony's poor parent, at least in comparison with the profusion of games offered by its historical rival. Has Team Asobi managed to propel Astro Among the big ones? Without the RV, Astro Does he still weigh the weight against the tenors of the genre?
Super Astro Galaxy
In the ruthless world of the platform, the players have such fancies that this small circle of fanatical faithful often cries to the revolution to each Mario and to the fiasco as soon as competitors seek to propose their variation of the undestructible amustachu plumber. We're not going to hide anything, Team Asobi has clearly borrowed a significant number of ideas from Big N licenses. We had to wait for it with a hero who, to one letter, already chews the name of the shōnen Astro Boy (read our folder), whose latest video breaks date back to the excellent shoot them up Omega Factor of (God) Treasure. In addition to this fun borrowing, the first inspiration of Team Asobi's game comes clearly from the saga Mario Galaxy. First of all because our little robot will have to reconstruct piece by piece the unfortunate PS5, its spaceship lustre and calibrated for space, as everyone knows but especially for these planets to explore.
Sony's machine's been scoured by a bad blood cell « Ghostbuster green » whose intentions remain secret because the game is completely silent. No lines of dialogue, nothing but some cute gargarisms and other gossip pushed by the 300 bots that will have to be saved throughout the game. Hidden in the middle of the decor, bots will have to be rescued to break the locks of the five worlds and reach the mid-stage boss. So far the game follows a very classic score; a roded format that has proven its worth since Mario Bros of the name and whose formula has long remained frozen until a certain Mario Odyssey, more open, wider and more able to restore interest in rediscovering levels.
If Mario Odyssey and its 836 moons to collect had somewhat debunked the collectors in the image of these cursed Kokoro of Zelda, Astro Bot is more modest with only 300 bots to find. However, in the same critical logic as the title of Nintendo, Astro Bot opts for school « 0 frustration » and goes much further than his counterpart Mario. If the plumber was accused of having stars or moons too often obvious to collect, Astro Bot He doesn't care. Closer to« Where's Charlie? » that a demanding platform game, Astro Bot does not require talent as such or in a very marginal way for its hidden levels. Even the pieces are useless if not to buy goodies and costumes. Cannot have a game over in Astro Bot Except to be quite bad at levels that defy understanding. Cherry on the cake but not unpleasant, a small bird serves as a radar to find the bots on request during the second run on the levels. It's not a stupid idea!
School 0 frustration
This sense of health walk is explained by crazy accessibility and legion checkpoints. If they promote risk-taking, the reward effect is somewhat altered by ease. On this point, moreover, Astro Bot is in its mechanics of movements similar to Mario Sunshine and its Jerrican Experimental Transformable (J.E.T.) which allowed it to hover in the air, propelled by two jets of water here transformed into lasers. This mechanism obviously facilitates progression and reduces the interest of jumping phases. If we ship the main adventure in about ten hours and 100% by adding five hours no more, Astro Bot Is he unpleasant?
Question of endorphins discharge, the little robot excels! Astro Bot is moving with disconcerting fluidity even though its range of movements remains thin compared to the exponential margin of manoeuvre left by a game like Odyssey, a title cut for the speedrun. Astro Bot stands out from Mario because he bounces and does not kill his enemies if he jumps on their heads. It is necessary to distribute mandals of a simple pressure often lethal or to charge a tourbillon, again borrowed from Mario, to do damage longer. The game is globally permissive on contacts that do not cause instant damage and enemies do not oppose any particular resistance. On the contrary, they are part of a general flow that is one of the undeniable successes ofAstro Bot. Of course the game is a path of health but what a feast and deluge of ideas of every moment.
Nintendo's bastard child?
Overall, the game demonstrates a crazy flexibility and manages to fly especially thanks to its inventiveness and intelligent use of the features of the PS5 pad which owes much to the Wii. We find ourselves a few times blowing in the lever and the trigger pressure offers a hyper appreciable resistance for the use of special powers. We find several unique bonuses that allow us to slow down time, to throw two mechanical arms way Arms or similar to Yoshi's language depending on the situations, a vertical jetpack, another horizontal and other surprises that come vary the pleasures. This welcome idea uses with intelligence the controller and its motion sensors, especially when entering the levels, cramped on the joystick of a fuseled DualSense.
Concerning Level Design as enemies, Astro Bot do not hide his kinship with the franchises of Nintendo without falling into the plagiarism as we could hear in an outrageous way on the networks. Conversely, we could read a little quickly here and there that the game did not recycle any idea, it is certainly exaggerated and the levels remain much less complex on the background as the shape than those of the plumber. However, Team Asobi probably manages to tutoyer, even surpass Nintendo for its always inspired bosses and their spectacular staging, guaranteed by a console that is more powerful than the Switch. On certain levels in space and similar construction to micro-planets Mario Galaxy, platforms appear in real time while the space station is being built before our eyes. Curiously even though the game is overall very beautiful and offers an appreciable distance of display, it does not dethrone however Odyssey and is even poor enough to represent the sea for example or some textures a little cut with the axe. Fortunately these defects remain very rare and do not ruin the gaming experience.
One for all and all for one
Playing the card assumed fan service as no one else had done it before him, Astro Bot is a full product placement. All Sony's old consoles appear in the game and the controllers are as much a mode of transport as elements of the decor. Of course, it's part of the very concept of the game and it's kind of funny, but isn't it a little exaggerated? It would not have missed much at the epilogue of the game for us to be announced the PS5 pro ingame Hey! So I see some people telling me that Nintendo has long used his licenses to feed his own ecosystem. We already saw old consoles in franchises like Paper Mario or Mario and Luigibut it remained marginal.
However, past the furious side of the remark, the fan service ends up doing his work. Frankly, it's funny to bring back his PS5 piece by piece as if we were setting up a PC, cable management less. Astroy Bot also Pikmins... unless it is Lemmings ? The more bots we have saved, the more we can mobilize them to access certain points of a special planet, all with cartoon animations in tune. Basic but devilishly effective.
In general, if Astro Bot is an undeniable success. Failing to be deep, he knows how to multiply ideas without ever bothering the player. Astro Bot, It's a bit of an amusement park or videoludic museum as much as a tribute to old consoles as to old and new Sony mascots. Each world ends with a special level dedicated to an emblematic character of the firm. If some are less inspired than others, it's a fun wink to fans as well as an umpteenth scholarly product placement that will soon end up in trade school textbooks. In addition to his inspirations in the universe of Nintendo, Captain Toad to Splatoon passing through Donkey Kong, Mario; Yoshi, Metroid – add all Nintendo licenses – Astro Bot widely understood the OST salt of the last Mario games by recycling Sony's repertoire. Some instrumental themes are not lacking in tops and it must be said that to hear the « Boy » Kratos' iconic song in the middle of a guillerette song always has its small effect.
Is Astro Bot original? As the saying goes, it is not to an old monkey that one learns to make the grimace and fans of the genre will sometimes recognize at the platform near the source of inspiration of the developers. Yes, Astro Bot eats from all the rakes starting with the canteen of Nintendo whose recipe he has reproduced with panache. But is it serious? After decades without rivals other than in the independent world, should we not consider that many ideas are in the public domain now? So who can distinguish between the master and the apprentice? The question is of little importance, since Astro Bot perfectly succeeds in fulfilling its mission: to make a fun game without taking the lead. Less complex and knowledgeable than a Mario, the game remains no less an example of (placement of) finished product, calibrated and controlled from A to Z, as accessible and playful as a Kirby. Mario fans, put your forks away for a moment, the plumber remains king in his domain! But take the time to enjoy this most successful aperitif. Astro bot could bring a little competition that would not be a refusal against a Nintendo, undisputed master in his kingdom. Team Asoby signs a casual game that might well fit into Sony's universe for a long time hoping for a happier destiny than Crash, Spyro, MediEvil and so many other licences that have been forgotten... This is all they want to feed a catalogue that is still poor despite being too easily won as a market leader. A popcorn game that only gets good for the rest!
For
- Is Astro Bot original? As the saying goes, it is not to an old monkey that one learns to make the grimace and fans of the genre will sometimes recognize at the platform near the source of inspiration of the developers. Yes, Astro Bot eats from all the rakes starting with the canteen of Nintendo whose recipe he has reproduced with panache. But is it serious? After decades without rivals other than in the independent world, should we not consider that many ideas are in the public domain now? So who can distinguish between the master and the apprentice? The question is of little importance, since Astro Bot perfectly succeeds in fulfilling its mission: to make a fun game without taking the lead. Less complex and knowledgeable than a Mario, the game remains no less an example of (placement of) finished product, calibrated and controlled from A to Z, as accessible and playful as a Kirby. Mario fans, put your forks away for a moment, the plumber remains king in his domain! But take the time to enjoy this most successful aperitif. Astro bot could bring a little competition that would not be a refusal against a Nintendo, undisputed master in his kingdom. Team Asoby signs a casual game that might well fit into Sony's universe for a long time hoping for a happier destiny than Crash, Spyro, MediEvil and so many other licences that have been forgotten... This is all they want to feed a catalogue that is still poor despite being too easily won as a market leader. A popcorn game that only gets good for the rest!
- Fan Service
- A fun game par excellence
- Example of finishing
- Choupi animations
- Simple and devilishly effective gameplay
- Variety of levels
- Original OST
- Transfos bringing peps
- The DualSense very well exploited
- The Pikmin side of the central planet
- Generic interactive greying
Against
- Is Astro Bot original? As the saying goes, it is not to an old monkey that one learns to make the grimace and fans of the genre will sometimes recognize at the platform near the source of inspiration of the developers. Yes, Astro Bot eats from all the rakes starting with the canteen of Nintendo whose recipe he has reproduced with panache. But is it serious? After decades without rivals other than in the independent world, should we not consider that many ideas are in the public domain now? So who can distinguish between the master and the apprentice? The question is of little importance, since Astro Bot perfectly succeeds in fulfilling its mission: to make a fun game without taking the lead. Less complex and knowledgeable than a Mario, the game remains no less an example of (placement of) finished product, calibrated and controlled from A to Z, as accessible and playful as a Kirby. Mario fans, put your forks away for a moment, the plumber remains king in his domain! But take the time to enjoy this most successful aperitif. Astro bot could bring a little competition that would not be a refusal against a Nintendo, undisputed master in his kingdom. Team Asoby signs a casual game that might well fit into Sony's universe for a long time hoping for a happier destiny than Crash, Spyro, MediEvil and so many other licences that have been forgotten... This is all they want to feed a catalogue that is still poor despite being too easily won as a market leader. A popcorn game that only gets good for the rest!
- Inspired Boss (and inspiring for Nintendo?)
- No RV
- Less complex and dense than a Mario
- Light redone to find bots
- Platform very (too?) casual
- Crossing into underexploited vessels
- Some rare textures and naughty effects
- Limited movement pallet despite transfos
Running would have given speedrun another dimension