A brave and adventurous robot, Astro will stop at nothing to rescue his crew and bring them safely back. In this PS5 platformer, you need to explore every level in search of Astro’s crew mates. As part of our Astro Bot guide, we’re going to show you where to find every Bot in the game. Team Asobi is the last remaining bastion of Japan Studio, the historically creative Sony studio responsible for the likes of Ico, LocoRoco, Gravity Rush, PaRappa the Rapper, and many, many more offbeat classics.

While the game has many exhilarating moments, Astro Bot’s desire to showcase PlayStation gear and characters can feel like it’s holding the game back from being something unique. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a platformer before where I enjoyed literally every single boss fight and level, but I can confidently say that about Astro Bot. The stages constantly surprise and delight as they take full advantage of the PS5’s hardware. Astro Bot levels are beautiful, brought to life by genius art direction and some of the best graphics on the PS5. It all feels so alive thanks to how the DualSense controller reacts to what players see on the screen, with Astro Bot making great use of the DualSense’s haptic feedback and speaker. It’s a shame that most other PS5 games don’t even come close to utilizing these features to their full potential.

As you explore galaxies to find your fellow robots and unlock new parts of the game, you’ll find a lot of familiar elements, only to see them executed in quirky and delightful ways. Just about every platformer has an ability that lets you shoot across longer distances, but none of them let you do it by strapping a bulldog to your back. Many of the bots — 173 of them, to be precise — are dressed as characters from PlayStation games past and present. They’re digital collectible figures, Funko Pop alternatives for 30 years of PlayStation gaming, celebrating almost every Sony property you can think of. Naturally, you’ll find Ratchet and Clank, Kratos, and Nathan Drake here; third-party heroes with a PlayStation connection, like Metal Gear Solid’s Snake and Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, are also represented.

Astro Bot Is Born

There’s not much else to say about it except that it’s pretty much perfect for the game’s vibe and presentation. As well as picking 88vv , we have been blessed with countless comments and lovely words from you, the players. Gaming Copilot is now live in the Xbox mobile app (beta), offering real-time AI help for gameplay, achievements, tips, and more. As I collected them, I found myself getting surprisingly emotional as deep-cut games I grew up with got their lovingly crafted due. Every time I found an old friend, I was transported back to that kid in the backroom of my parent’s house playing PS1.

While it may seem simple enough, there are a lot of things to do in the over fifty levels Astro Bot has to offer. Check every corner, hit every object or look below every platform and you may find a secret cord or passageway to a Puzzle Piece, Bot or even a Vortex to a secret world! 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.

It’s a grand celebration of PlayStation’s legacy and a sign of what its future can become. What’s amazing is despite how wide-reaching the references are in Astro Bot, this isn’t just a celebration of PlayStation’s first-party stuff but so much of what’s defined gaming for decades. Monster Hunter, Space Channel 5, Wipeout, Legend of Dragoon, Tony Hawk, the list goes on and on.

That’s why Astro Bot feels as consequential as it does even if it just looks like your average 3D platformer full of collectibles and clever power-ups at a glance. The expertly designed PS5 exclusive plays like an intervention with its own publisher. It brings the PlayStation platform on an intergalactic journey through its history to rediscover its long lost sense of wonder. It’s not just a very effective ad for Sony; it’s an exuberant adventure that remembers that there’s power in play. At one time, this was a fundamental video game experience; a 3D platformer was just about the coolest game you could have. These were tightly designed adventures that understood the ways that digital play could activate creativity, even through a silly little cartoon with nothing to say.

Playstation Legacy

Armored Hardcore is the last Astro Bot DLC stage in the Vicious Void galaxy and rewards players with an Assassin’s Creed Cameo Bot. “Unlike our last update Winter Wonder, which was a walk through the Xmas park, this new update features harder levels to test your jumping skills,” said director of developer Team Asobi, Nicolas Doucet. While Kutaragi is no longer involved with the PlayStation brand today, his legacy has not been forgotten.

Game Awards 2024 Announcements & Reveals

In that spirit, we’ve pulled together 7 tips and tricks we think will prove helpful for those diving into Astro’s irresistibly charming universe for the first time. When you’re ready to move on, check out our guide to all the collectibles in the starting two levels, Sky Garden and Creamy Canyon. Team ASOBI has crafted a next-gen platforming experience that showcases everything the PlayStation 5 has to offer, from stunning visuals to innovative DualSense features. And now, four years later, Sony released a full sequel simply titled “Astro Bot” — and it just won the Game Award for Game of the Year. Astro is the main character of the Astro Bot series and serves as the captain of his ship’s bot crew.

The studio’s roster of delightful robots and the inventive gameplay with which they and players interact have been compared with the Nintendo way. When the PS5 launched, it included a free game called Astro’s Playroom. The short adventure worked as an effective tech demo, starring Astro, for the PS5’s multifaceted (and heavily underutilized) DuelSense controller.

The unbridled joy I felt when firing up a game I’d never seen before came flooding back to me. I remembered why games were so important to me growing up and how they shaped my creativity. Naysayers will say that no childhood memory comes from sitting in front of a TV, but that was never true for me. Platformers have so long followed in the footsteps of Mario, with so many titles trying to emulate what the mustachioed plumber has achieved. Astro Bot’s utterly overflowing creativity and ingenuity make it one of the first platformers that feels like it can stand outside the long shadow cast by Mario.