Many themes are unique to a single stage; Sky Garden’s flamingo paradise is never revisited, nor is Construction Derby’s building site. You’ll also explore a giant singing tree, a vibrant casino, and the inside of a giant hourglass — all one-and-done ideas. It isn’t just the level’s themes that are varied; many have their own gameplay ideas as well. One later stage involves swapping from day to night, changing the geometry of the level, while an underwater planet adopts a more open design — and equips Astro with a power-up unique to that stage. While there are some recurring themes and mechanics, the overall variety meant we were constantly excited to see what was coming next.

On the flip side, this leads to a nitpick regarding the enemies. Besides the bosses, none of the enemies have names or identities. This robs the enemies of the kind of simple but memorable personalities that even the most generic Bots have. Nebulas is the main antagonist of the series, a space bully who loves causing trouble for Astro and his friends. He’s a green-skinned alien with a massive mouth, always looking for ways to make life difficult for the crew. You’ll dash, swing, and rocket-punch through diverse areas like volcanoes and jungles, unlocking 15 new abilities, including using Barkster, the Bulldog Booster, to air-dash and smash enemies.

I arrived at the end credits after nine hours but had only collected 206 out of a possible 301 bots on my journey. There’s plenty to do after the main levels are done, including finding the remainder of the crew, building out the rest of the hub base, and unearthing new secrets among the stars. There’s so much, in fact, that it took me another nine hours (so, 18 in total) to 100% Astro Bot and acquire the platinum trophy that comes with it. While I’d never say any of its main worlds ever approach being truly “difficult” in the pursuit of that 100% completion goal, some enemies or obstacles did take a few tries. Thankfully, checkpoints are often generously and frequently located, meaning you’re only ever moments away from the spot of your previous demise. The Sponge appears in the Bathhouse Battle stage of Astro Bot and has similar powers to the Elephant.

Many Bots appear reenacting famous scenes and/or cosplaying characters from the many games throughout PlayStation history, and often appear near Bots that carry cameras and wear blue PlayStation hats. When the 1994 Throwback is unlocked in the CPU Plaza, Bots gather around the new portal in fear. While playing the levels, the player can find hidden chameleons, which unlock a further 26 challenge levels with two golden Bots to collect. Astro Bot is an action and platformer game for the PlayStation 5 which features Astro. Jump on your Dual Speeder and explore tons of planets, and meet up with iconic PlayStation characters across the game. 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.

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Astro Bot is very much its inheritor, even down to the hardware connection — the first Ape Escape was intended as a showpiece for the original DualShock analog controller. After defeating the first galaxy’s end boss in Astro Bot, a level is unlocked that fully and faithfully recreates Ape Escape’s anarchic chase gameplay within Astro Bot’s world. It’s a wonderful touch; for one level, a near-forgotten series is brought back to glorious life in a modern context, and Team Asobi honors the memory of the ceaselessly inventive studio it used to call home. These are far from the only references to other games you’ll see. Of the 300 bots you need to rescue, over half of them are dressed as characters from some of the most iconic games to grace PlayStation over the last 30 years. While a lot of them are based on first-party properties, like The Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, and Ape Escape, there are many more based on third-party titles — some of which are amazingly obscure.

Game Information

Lastly, the game even has a ton of gameplay callbacks to their older IPs which pulls the nostalgia strings perfectly. Astro Bot is, without a shadow of a doubt, this year’s best platforming game. Hell, it could even be a contender for Game of the Year (GOTY) because of how complete the game is as a whole package. The game is visually stunning, has great sound design, has simple yet fun gameplay, makes use of the exclusive PlayStation controls, and, most importantly, has a ton of content.

Entire levels are built around Astro Bot’s power-ups, but most aren’t just one-off gimmicks. Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks. It even feels like some popping candy has smuggled its way into your controller as it fizzes and pings away, sweetly reacting to whatever is happening on screen.

We have added the first four to the bottom of this list and will continue adding them as the levels are released. A whirl of bots to rescue, of loving Playstation references, of deep cuts like Ape Escape and more recent stars, who get outings I don’t really want to ruin. It’s boss fights when you expected them and boss fights when you absolutely didn’t. An entire level set on a dream of 1930’s skyscraper construction sites!

Physical editions of Astro Bot come with a physical poster of the robots on their PS5 mothership, plus the preorder bonuses detailed below. https://nk88.autos/ has a total of 300 bots to collect and find throughout the game. Tell us in the comments section below, and check out our Astro Bot guide for lots more. We’ve also outlined which character each of them represents, what series they’re from, and where to find them in the game.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Most of the Astro Bot cameo characters are pretty easy to identify, but there are a few VIP Bots who are obscure and thus can be difficult to place. The fact that Team Asobi’s games have the potential to become someone’s first game is something that Doucet takes seriously. “Team Asobi’s studio is just across the street from our building, so they were always the first to prototype with our hardware,” says Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, product director for the DualSense controller.