A sequel, Astro’s Playroom, was released for the PlayStation 5 as a launch title that is pre-installed on every console and serves as a tech demo for the new DualSense controller. Because the in-game gallery of characters uses pseudonyms for each of them, we’ve labeled them with their proper names and mentioned which series they belong to. Whether you’re still tracking down all of the secret characters in Astro Bot or you just want to see if your favorite character made it into the game, here’s a roundup of all the secret bots we’ve found so far.

Critic Reviews For Astro Bot

The game begins with a scene of traveling through space in a huge spaceship that resembles a PS5 console. Suddenly, we are attacked by a green alien, who destroys the spaceship and scatters its parts across various galaxies. Of course, we weren’t traveling alone on the mothership; other bots were with us, and as a result of the wicked attack, they now find themselves in danger.

To open the Gatcha Lab on your Crash Site, you will need to collect your first 16 Puzzle Pieces to unlock it. Once you have a total of 16 Puzzle Pieces, they will automatically fill in the Gatcha Lab puzzle and the Gatcha Lab will appear at your Crash Site. Find your first Puzzle Piece to unlock the A Puzzling Start trophy. You will come across your first Puzzle Pieces in the Sky Garden. Check out our Sky Garden walkthrough to learn where to find the three Puzzle Pieces hidden there. You will encounter your first Rescued Bot on Sky Garden, near the very start of the level.

These are just three examples, but quite literally every level in the game has some kind of unique idea or design. There are some repeats in terms of power-ups that Astro Bot is given, little devices or creatures that give them new moves. For example, the dog power-up lets you charge straight ahead and smash through walls, the clock lets you slow down time, a penguin gives you a quick dash through water, and a monkey holds cymbals that let out a massive shockwave. Even though G28 -ups appear across multiple levels, they’re always used in tandem with that level’s unique design, making them feel fresh.

Even blowing into the controller to create bubbles or sound a horn, though obviously a bit of a gimmick, fits perfectly into the level each time Astro Bot uses them. You’ll pick up an awful lot of coins exploring all the planets in Astro Bot. At first, that huge trove of gold may seem useless, but once you’ve beaten the first boss in the Gorilla Nebula, you’ll unlock the Gacha Lab at the Crash Site. Here, you can spend coins to win up to 169 PlayStation-themed collectibles, including skins for the Dual Speeder. Later on, you’ll also unlock the Dual Speeder Garage, where you can personnalise Astro’s controller plane, and the Changing Room to switch up Astro’s look to outfits collected in the Gacha Lab.

They even announced that the game will be receiving free DLC in the near future. If there’s one thing to criticize, it’s the exclusivity and the need to buy a PS5 to experience this masterpiece. Everyone should be able to experience this kind of fun, as with the amount of games there are, it’s only a few games that really go the distance. As a platformer, Astro Bot is definitely the best to come this year. The fun factor is unparalleled for a game of this genre, despite it’s obvious simplicity. The biggest thing to take away from the game is how well it uses the DualSense to its advantage.

Ghouls & Bots Bot Locations

Astro Bot is developed by Team Asobi, who also worked on previous titles where Astro appeared, including the PS5 console’s tech demo Astro’s Playroom. Entire levels are built around Astro Bot’s power-ups, but most aren’t just one-off gimmicks. The story kicks off as Astro is sailing across the cosmos with hundreds of his buddies on their PS5 mothership, just enjoying their quant robot lives. That nirvana is thrown into disarray when a dastardly alien interrupts the party, stealing the mothership’s parts and scattering hundreds of bots across the universe. It is merely a resource, and it absolutely makes all the sense in the world to have it ready as soon as possible and there’s nothing wrong with that approach at all. If they make Rescue Mission compatible with psvr2 I’ll play through that again as well.

These are structured in a certain order, so you’ll need to beat each level to unlock the boss battle, something that requires a set number of bots to have been unlocked. Thankfully, should you return to a previously completed level, you can pay a small amount of PlayStation coin currency to have an assist bot show you where the remaining bots and puzzle pieces are. Each star system also has a level that’s specially themed around a popular PlayStation franchise, allowing Astro to make use of unique skills for a short while. Needless to say, Astro Bot keeps you on your toes, and sometimes challenges you to think outside the box in order to solve a problem or find a well-hidden secret.

On your journey, make the most of ASTRO’s new powers and reunite with many iconic heroes from the PlayStation universe! Charge into a brand-new, supersized adventure with ASTRO across more than 50 exciting and diverse worlds. Each world also has a series of bonus levels, challenges, and more, filling out a fairly brief adventure that can easily be pushed through over the course of a weekend.

There have been some to come close to creating similar and memorable experiences, but few have stood the test of time or really felt like genuine competitors. When it comes to some of Nintendo’s best, both Super Mario Odyssey and the Mario Galaxy series are two that are considered the best the genre has ever seen. Not bad for a company whose CFO just publicly stated that the platform holder doesn’t have enough original IP.