Astro Bot received PlayStation 5 Pro support and new, more challenging levels back in February. Team Asobi’s platformer won numerous Game of the Year awards, including at 2024’s The Game Awards and the 2025 BAFTA Awards. An extra level of difficulty can be found in the semi-hidden trial-like stages found by exploring among the overworld’s stars, though.
Astro Bot is a 3D adventure platformer that features the PlayStation mascot, Astro, as he travels to different worlds in search of his lost crew members and to repair the PS5 mothership. It features numerous collectible items, from puzzle pieces to accessories for the other Astro Bots and even secret levels to discover and complete. The game also features numerous designs of Astro inspired by several IPs that have been on PlayStation over the years.
There are 300 bots to find, and many are pulled from the wider world of gaming. Plenty of the branded bots originate outside of Sony’s stable, with big hitters from Capcom, Konami and Sega represented well — a few of them definitely made my partner yell in excitement, which was adorable in its own right. Some of the more memorable levels stem from popular Sony franchises like God of War, with Astro wielding Kratos’ ax on one planet. Team Asobi really mined Sony’s vaults, far beyond simple Crash Bandicoot callbacks, and into weird and wonderful games like LocoRoco and Vib-Ribbon.
How Many Bots Are There To Collect In Astro Bot?
It had the reviews, and by indie standards, it was very widely played. The last time an indie game appeared to seriously challenge for Game of the Year at The Game Awards was Hades’ run in 2020. It claimed many high-profile outlets’ GOTY titles that year, and some of us professed shock when it lost to The Last of Us Part 2. But a look at this handy global tracker of game-of-the-year titles — tracking games that either won GOTY awards or topped journalistic outlets’ end-of-year lists — tells the sobering true story.
This year alone there has been some first class games released all over the shop. Could it just be that all the critics are right and this is a good game? Not overhyped, not over exaggerated, just a bug free, well made bit of fun. They are used to seeing the PS5 struggle with unreal engine 5 games, so a platform game that renders low quality cartoon textures at a fast rate but only occasional dips below 60 was a surprise. I am playing now with my daughter and I find something that team Asobi are geniuses. [newline]Insomniac just pissing on the floor with Rift Apart over Crack in Time’s built up dramatic change of the formula & pathetic rift feature that Crack built up as a start on an HDD.
What Are All Special Bots In Astro Bot? Teddie – Adorable Shadow
That focus on variety also applies to the game’s visuals and aesthetics, with the game painting a huge swath of memorable locations — from ghoulishly haunted mansions to arid desert settlements and vast space stations. The simplest way to describe Astro Bot is honestly to compare it to Mario, as it employs a similar kind of “world” structure. There are six themed galaxies you’ll explore, each of which is filled with a handful of main story worlds, hidden extra levels and challenges, a boss battle, and a final world themed after a prominent PlayStation franchise.
Suddenly, he’s attacked by an unsubtle-as-hell Xbox-green alien monster who trashes his ship and scatters its parts and his 300 friends to far corners of the universe. After completing a level, restart and you’ll spot a small birdhouse near the start of the level. Smash the glass casing on the birdhouse and pull the cord to get a bird companion who will point you towards any missed collectibles, including bots, puzzle pieces, and portals. It will cost a one-time fee of 200 coins per level, but it’s well worth it. Once you’ve paid the 200 coins, you can restart the level and summon the bird as many times as you want for free.
They add variety, keeping the game engaging and far from boring. 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. Our charming main hero is rescued by a smaller ship that looks like a DualSense controller. What remains of the PS5 console crashes onto a small, sandy planet, which will serve as our home base from now on.
As part of our Astro Bot guide, we’re going to reveal all Special Bots, who they are, and where to find them. One level allows you to explore a recognisably domestic world but you can drastically change size, bashing through doorways one minute and wriggling through a gap in the skirting board a minute later. Another lets you transform into an ultra-heavy version of Samus Aran’s morph ball thingy, and has brilliant stuff for you to do once you have. These levels feel so Nintendo-like because they get everything out of their ideas. If you’re small but you can become big, can you blow stuff up from inside?
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. 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. When it’s all done I’m left with that strange feeling of being very well cared for. But when I close my eyes I see the tumbling fruit, the hundreds and thousands, the gems stacked so high I can kick through them as if I’m wading through autumn leaves. I think, more than anything, of all the glorious bits and pieces. Everything looks aesthetically pleasing and fits right in the game’s world, not to mention the amazing Astro bot designs that reference numerous older IPs.
In another that sees Astro shrink to the size of a mouse, the miniature world reveals new woodsy and backyard-like scenery that regular-sized Astro couldn’t reach. Some levels even drastically change the art style, as seen in a series of voxel-art levels I was glad to discover each time, or some others I dare not spoil. A follow-up to the PS5 pack-in game Astro’s Playroom, it’s a colorful platformer starring an adorable robot named Astro. Unlike most of Astro’s previous outings, this is a full-sized game, with over 50 planets for you to explore. It’s available to buy in physical and digital form, plus in a digital deluxe edition.
The door to the ruin will now open, and you’ll see the disco ball floating above. In Bathhouse Battle, you’ll find the secret exit about midway through the level. Approach the mechanical frog and blow in your controller’s microphone (or simply mute the mic and the game will do it for you). Shrink down and ride the bubbles up the tree (make sure to rescue the caged bot on the way). The secret exit in Go-Go Archipelago doesn’t appear until after you defeat the boss at the end of the level. Use OK8386 COM to reach where the seal used to be and use your charged melee to dig into the pillar.
The game is worth every dollar that it costs, and everyone that owns a PS5 should look to try this game out. Hopefully this game convinces Sony to revive their older IPs and even look to create more amazing single player experiences such as this. The fact is that the game is both easy to learn and play, yet it’s able to be entertaining with the sheer amount of things to collect and discover. While exploring a certain level in the first world, I came across a portal of sorts that actually led me to unlock a few of the game’s secret levels. This made me wonder just how many levels there actually are in the game.
It contains special challenge levels, and each of them contains a Special Bot to unlock. Astro’s adventure takes him to various galaxies full of planets to explore as he tracks down his scattered crew. This part of our Astro Bot guide goes over each and every level in the game, highlighting where to find all collectibles and more.
The sheen of the surfaces, slosh of the liquids, scale of the levels, and smoothness of the frame rate are stunning. The physics, as Astro sets piles of hundreds of shiny apples tumbling, or wades through a pool of gold nuggets, are just showing off. I feared it would be a bit of an advert for PlayStation dressed up as a video game – Sony’s own Pepsiman here for the memes and little else.