Astro’s Playroom, a free pack in title for the PlayStation 5, is admittedly short but regardless has managed to be one of my favourite exclusive experiences on the console in the four years since it originally released.
A charmingly tactile 3D platformer that made use of controller rumble, speaker audio, and adaptive trigger functionality to great effect, the game was a charming love letter to PlayStation’s first party software and hardware history, all wrapped up in a colourful collectathon platformer. Players could feel Astro’s footsteps change in sensation as the little robot ran across different types of flooring, feel rain falling gently on the top of the controller as rain started to fall in game, and feel the recoil of a toy gun click under their trigger finger as it fired, all while exploring charmingly detailed worlds.
As much as I love Astro’s Playroom, the title’s short length isn’t its only issue. Astro’s Playroom is also one of the few first party PlayStation 5 titles that isn’t playable using a pair of PlayStation Access Controllers, minus a DualSense controller as part of the setup. The game features unskippable segments during its short runtime requiring mandatory touchpad swipes and motion controls, both of which cannot be emulated using PlayStation’s official accessibility controller.
Releasing on September 6th 2024, Astro Bot is a considerably expanded take on the Astro’s Playroom concept featuring a mix of large and small planets to visit, each with unique aesthetics, gameplay gimmicks, and collectables to hunt down. All the things that made Astro’s Playroom so memorable are intact, it still makes heavy use of controller features to enhance immersion, it still features large numbers of collectables to discover hidden in levels, and it’s still a love letter to PlayStation’s past, albeit expanded to celebrate characters who aren’t technically PlayStation owned but who may still feel like an integral part of PlayStation history to those who owned their consoles over the years.
Given that Astro Bot is releasing in a post PlayStation Access Controller world, upon receiving review code for the game last week, one of my biggest questions was whether this new entry would be completely playable by Access Controller users without needing access to a DualSense Controller during play for critical inputs. The answer to that question is ultimately no, but not for the reasons that I expected. Many of the accessibility barriers that were present in Astro’s Playroom have now been addressed, but one new infrequent and unexpected barrier has been introduced that’s worth being aware of.
Upon first boot of Astro Bot, players are shown a file select screen, then thrown straight into the game’s opening cutscene. There is no ability to access the game’s options menu before the game starts, which has become a PlayStation standard as of late, but players are able to pause during the opening cutscene to access the options menu if they wish. This could definitely be better advertised, but it does mean that settings are accessible before the opening cutscene plays out.
The settings menu in Astro Bot is, admittedly, pretty limited. There’s basic settings available like camera inversion and HDR brightness, as well as an accessibility settings menu with three on/off toggles available.
Controller Tilt Assist, when switched on, allows players to replace motion tilt functions with left analogue stick movements instead. While not described in the Accessibility Settings menu description, some more waggle based motions will instead be replaced with X button press prompts, such as freeing your crashed controller ship at the game’s oppening. This setting is great, and is honestly something I’ve been asking PlayStation and Nintendo to consider offering in their games for years as a way to make mandatory motion in their games more accessible.
This setting works pretty well in practice, even in rare puzzles where you’re expected as a player to use motion and analogue stick movements in conjunction, such as a puzzle where the player tilts platforms to control water flow while also moving Astro to navigate those platforms. In this example, the left analogue controls both Astro and motion tilt at the same time, tilting the platforms in the same direction that Astro is walking, with the puzzle designed in such a way as to ensure that tilt direction and character movement direction never need to contradict each other.
This solves one of the issues present when playing Astro’s Playroom using an Access Controller, as it avoids mandatory motion otherwise requiring use of a DualSense Controller.
The Visual Aid allows players to add on screen visual cues to important vibration functions, such as making a square flash with light to match controller rumble to confirm the correct square has been found. This setting also slightly increases the size of certain important UI elements on screen.
I generally found this setting useful, but my main query is why these are bundled together as a single setting rather than being able to be independently toggled.
This also helps make playing using an Access Controller more viable. Previously, players would have needed to keep a DualSense in contact with their body to feel vibration. Now, players can use the Access Controller by itself, and avoid vibration if it causes them issues.
Lastly, Camera Assist allows players to recentre the camera with the otherwise unused O button, or hold the O button to control the camera with the left analogue stick. This is again really beneficial for Access Controller users, particularly those using a single Access Controller and single analogue stick to play. This basically allows players to use a single stick to control movement and camera control without needing to use profile switching tricks on the Access Controller to try and achieve the same effect.
Some things of note not covered in the settings menu, at the time of writing this review I have 100% completed Astro Bot, and have not found a single example of the game requiring touchpad inputs. Again, this definitely helps make the game more accessible for Access Controller users.
Additionally not covered by the settings menus, Astro Bot doesn’t support software side button remapping or tweaks for vibration or adaptive trigger strength. If you need to tweak controller speaker volume, button mapping, or vibration and trigger intensity, these will all need to be system level changes rather than game setting changes.
I said up front that Astro Bot might not be fully playable using an Access Controller without also using a DualSense Controller, despite no longer making motion or touch pad inputs mandatory. That’s because there are a few instances in this game where the player is expected to blow into their DualSense Controller’s microphone to do actions such as blowing a horn or making wind blow in the world to put out a candle. These moments come up during some mandatory to complete levels, but are typically not themselves mandatory for level completion. In my experience not being able to engage with this mechanic might lock the player out of a couple of optional collectables, but will generally not prevent working through the core progression path.
Where motion and touchpad swipes in Astro’s Playroom were potential progression blockers for Access Controller users, here controller mic activation is an optional collectable progression blocker rather than a core progression blocker. It’s still not ideal that someone not using a DualSense and not able to blow an extended length breath may need assistance to 100% the game, this is a big improvement over the previous title in terms of minimising hard progression barriers.
Also of note, Astro Bot doesn’t feature support for high contrast mode visuals, which is surprising given how much of a PlayStation first party studios standard this has become over the past few years.
Beyond that, the main progression barrier unique to Astro Bot compared to Astro’s Playroom is that there is at least one level where a mandatory part of progression requires light analogue stick movement to slowly tiptoe through an area, which may cause some difficulty for players who find consistent fine motor control challenging. It’s not a common progression barrier, but it may come up at times during play. Additionally, one boss fight and the preceding level requires repeated pressing of trigger buttons in rapid succession for gun fire, without an option to hold the button down for continuous fire, which may cause issues for some players. This is all the more odd given that a later level does allow held inputs for multiple shots.
The plot in Astro Bot is told largely wordlessly. While there is some in-game text for things like planet names and explanatory text that might appear, most plot, character interactions, and tutorials are handled with exaggerated facial expressions and little videos that play in the upper left corner of the screen to demonstrate concepts. While this generally works pretty well to make the game accessible without major language barriers, there are a couple of instances where the lack of text causes issues rather than fixing them. One example of this is that, if you revisit a level you’ve previously played but not found all collectables in, you’ll see near the start of a level a smashable glass jar around a birdhouse. It advertises that it’ll cost 200 coins to use, but it doesn’t explain unless you pay that the bird is there to help you locate missed collectable bots and puzzle pieces. It’s not a huge issue, but not clarifying what you’re getting for your coin spend is an example of where the minimal text usage does have drawbacks.
To clarify a little bit more of the general gameplay flow, each world visited in Astro Bot is a self contained environment in which the overall goal is to reach a flag at the end of the level, but in order to tackle the final planets of a given galaxy and progress the game players will need to find a certain number of bots hidden within levels. While some of these bots are generic in design, others are dressed up like classic PlayStation adjacent characters. The pause screen will always show you how many characters there are total to find in a level, and which characters have so far been found. If you collect a bot and see it fill in a space while leaving an empty gap, that tells you that you’ve missed a bot somewhere else earlier in the level, helping you to identify roughly when in the level that bot might have appeared.
Each level also contains coins which can be used in a Gatcha machine to unlock cosmetics, puzzle pieces which help unlock new buildings in your central hub area (such as the Gatcha machine building), and occasionally secret alternate level exits which unlock new optional worlds to explore.
During gameplay, there are a few nice design choices that help with overall accessibility. Astro as a character has some built in ledge guard, meaning that if you walk up to a ledge he’ll generally stop and tiptoe at the edge rather than run off accidentally. The game also features very frequent checkpointing in all standard levels, with the only exception being some optional hard challenge levels which deliberately remove checkpointing and require completing in one attempt. Very little is lost upon character death, with discovered Bots and Puzzle Pieces not needing to be regained, and the only lost progression being your coin total being reset to what it was when you activated the checkpoint initially.
If you struggle to find the collectables strewn throughout a given level, while it does cost 200 coins to activate the hint bird to help locate things on a repeat level play, generally it’s not too hard to regain that 200 coins in the course of replaying a stage. Additionally, if you purchase the hint bird for a level, then need to leave the level and come back to it later, the hint bird will be free on all future visits to that level.
Speaking more generally about my time playing Astro Bot this past week, the game really does feel like a true love letter to the things that people think of as PlayStation memories, beyond simply things that are strictly PlayStation exclusive first party franchises. The core reward loop of the game is collecting recognisable characters, bringing them back to your home base, unlocking little props for them, and getting to interact with them and see them play out little cartoonish scenes from their respective games, slowly filling an initially empty and barren environment with reminders of everything that PlayStation gaming has historically been associated with.
Mechanically, I want to compare Astro Bot to being PlayStation’s Mario Galaxy, and no it’s not just because of the space setting. It’s a game about exploring unique and varied worlds that last just as long as their unique gimmicks remain fresh, and no longer than they have to. It’s an incredibly polished experience that feels constantly novel, and isn’t afraid to pepper in levels that last only a few minutes, if that’s how long the idea is going to be interesting for. It’s visually diverse, mechanically adventurous, and truly does feel like it deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the kinds of truly exceptional 3D platformers we usually associate with Nintendo. This is PlayStation’s premiere platformer franchise, and they’ve found a truly wonderful formula here that I hope they get to iterate on.
In terms of leaning into the DualSense controller’s unique gimmicks, I can’t overstate how much work must have gone into emulating really specific niche sensations into vibrations. There’s an early level where the player is running around on top of giant ice cream sprinkles, and there’s no words that can really do justice to quite how much like sharp sugar pellets slightly crunching underfoot they managed to make things feel through the controller. These moments are completely unnecessary, but they do so much to elevate the overall feel of the experience as something unique. Four years into the PS5’s life, there’s still nobody quite like the Astro Bot development team in terms of making use of that fancy rumble tech in the controller.
Astro Bot’s levels are generally easy to complete, with the difficulty available generally found in 100%-ing a level, or taking on knowingly hard optional challenges. The game’s balanced pretty well so that finding maybe 60% of the collectables along your way will be enough to make good progress, and tools are in place to help if hitting that bar is proving troublesome.
Each of the game’s five main galaxies also features a level centred around a boss fight, and without spoiling too much, these boss fights truly impress in terms of scope, scale, and execution. It’s a shame there’s not more of them as the animation, mechanics, and audio visual presentation make these encounters truly feel like a reward to reach in and of themselves.
And then there’s the final world in each Galaxy, a themed world where players get to dress up as a classic PlayStation character, gain some of their gameplay abilities, and play a level that blends Astro’s platforming with another series’ mechanics and characters briefly. The first example of this is a world centred around Ape Escape, where you get to wield a handheld net and try and capture runaway robotic apes. These levels create a really nice sendoff to a galaxy, and really get to the core of what makes this game special. These levels are crafted with such love, and manage to make a 3D platformer feel so close in flow to another game series that it’s sometimes almost uncanny.
Then there’s the level specific gimmicks, often involving unique pieces of equipment ranging from a puffer fish inflatable jetpack, to an armadillo able to be balanced on like a circus ball, to frog fist extendable arm punching gloves and more. Each of these are used sparingly, but really add unique flavour to levels the same way that a new Powerup mushroom in a Mario title might.
Astro Bot really does deliver on the promising concept established in Astro’s Playroom, and dials everything that that game was doing up to 11. My biggest complaint about Astro’s PlayRoom back in the day was wishing that it was longer, and Astro Bot certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard.
I’d really like to see the game’s developers commit to an update making controller blowing interaction prompts optional, but I’m glad to see that Astro Bot can now be played without motion, without touch inputs, and using a single analogue stick, by comparison to the game that came before it.
Also, and this is just a personal request, but given so much of this game is about flying around on a DualSense controller spaceship, it would have been really lovely if Access Controller players could fly around on an Access Controller turned into some kind of UFO disc as an option, to tie their experience to Astro’s the way that DualSense players also got to experience. If nothing else, it would have been really nice to see the Access Controller featured in a later game sequence highlighting controllers that PlayStation has released, as its lack of presence during that sequence does feel like a major missed opportunity.
Astro Bot is an accessibility step forward for the Astro series, even if there is still room for improvement on some of the basics.
20 hours to 100% collection, and 81% trophy list.