Astro Bot Preview - Team Asobi seems to have built 2024's top platformer

It took only a few minutes of gameplay for Astro Bot at the recent PlayStation State of Play for the next Team Asobi title to become perhaps the most anticipated PlayStation title - and even platformer in general - of 2024 for many. I'm part of that group, which is why I was chomping at the bit to go hands-on with Astro Bot at this year's Summer Game Fest to get a taste of how it is upping and improving the platforming formula that over 55 million gamers have had access to since Astro's Playroom debuted as a PS5 launch companion.

You probably don't need me to tell you this, but Astro Bot is exactly what anyone could have wanted. It's colourful, lively, crammed with charm and truly pushes the boundaries and limits of how the PS5 and the DualSense controller is used in a mechanical sense. While I only got to play 45 minutes of the game, this was more than enough time to run through a few main levels, battle a boss, meet several famous PlayStation characters, and even have a crack at a few challenge levels, and judging by what Team Asobi were telling me along the way, this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

For this preview session, I was thrown head-first into the first galaxy. Alike Astro's Playroom, this meant initially visiting a tropical, sunny, and sandy world filled with water and robots resting on lounge chairs and basking in the heat. Also similar to its predecessor, Astro Bot has such an intuitive and simple set of controls that the game wastes no time with a tutorial and instead just lets you figure things out on your own, be that punching enemies or smashing crates to find some coins, jumping and gliding using Astro's leg boosters, pulling and grabbing wires to unearth secrets and solve puzzles, and even generally figuring out what to do in the level and how to go about it.

Essentially, the main aim of each level of Astro Bot is to reach the end flag, but like any respectable platformer, you are also expected to find lots of bots around the level who are often stuck in comical and bizarre situations. This could be a Ratchet bot strapped to a tree or another nameless, less PS-specific bot hanging onto a ledge for dear life. To save the bots, all you have to do is smack or kick them and they'll catapult into Astro's Dual Speeder ready to be carried back into orbit to safety.

Before moving on, it's worth mentioning that the cameos and PlayStation crossovers in Astro Bot seem to be tapping every possible avenue available. I saw the more expected lot of Ratchet and Rivet and Jak, but also characters like PaRappa Rappa too. So, expect some crazy characters to make their appearance this time around.

If you had any doubt about the design philosophy for levels in Astro Bot, worry not, Team Asobi has once again nailed it. From minute one until the end of every level I had the luxury to test, I was overwhelmed with charming and lovely encounters, characters and gameplay mechanics that stand out and leave a grin plastered over your face, and all while stunning and colourful visuals and a great upbeat electronic soundtrack plays in the background. If you had a vision of what more of Astro would look like, this game is precisely it.

But anyway back to the newer features. I got to test three main levels, each of which were unique but mostly fit the beach aesthetic that seemed to coin this first galaxy. It was only the second level that looked to change things up, as instead this took me into the clouds to leap between skyscrapers in construction while a giant ape went on a rampage destroying everything in its path. Regardless of the actual theme of each level, these first three also served as ways to introduce me to the new abilities. The first was a way for Astro to suck up air and then be able to boost into the sky to reach new heights. This was ideal for reaching areas originally assumed to be out of boundaries while also being brilliant for quickly getting to the surface of any water body you may have dived deep into. The second was the Bulldog Booster, a jetpack powered by the robodog Barkster that allowed Astro to dash over gaps and through breakable walls and crates. The last was the Twin-Frog Gloves, which used the Adaptive Triggers as a way to throw melee attacks from a distance and also to swing over gaps and catapult Astro across massive distances by grabbing, pulling and stretching them to their limits.

The Twin-Frog Gloves seemed to have the deepest mechanical depth from what I got to test, but this is likely because they served as the basis for overcoming and dealing with the first major boss, a robotic, boxing glove-wearing, scuba diving-octopus called Mako Gato. The aim here was to use the gloves to smash Mako Gato's gloves and to then fling Astro at its head using the catapult mechanic. It was a great show of gameplay and also seemed to have the perfect balance between having a little bit of challenge without losing any of the Astro charm and fun. Oh and speaking about fun, after defeating Mako Gato a certain Ghost of Sparta and a Boy made their appearance, with the pair acting exactly as you would expect them to despite now being adorable robots.

With there being around 80 levels to complete across six main galaxies, accounting for around 300 Bots to save and various additional jigsaw collectibles and so forth to find too, Team Asobi clearly has a lot more in store to show and present to players in this lovely platformer. I know for a fact this includes smaller but much more demanding challenge levels that will put your Astro skills to the test, but as for what else is being prepared for release we'll just have to find out come September 6. Either way, I couldn't be more excited for more of Astro Bot, and quite frankly I'm still ashamed of PlayStation for telling us that 2024 wouldn't have any major new first-party launches because if my hands-on session was anything to go by, Astro Bot is looking to sit among PlayStation's best.