If you’re having trouble getting those new messages to pop up, you might try waiting until you’ve completed the relatively short game’s main campaign. We had trouble getting the message to appear on a new save file but saw it immediately upon entering a completed one. PlayStation and Team Asobi have dropped a surprise update for Astro’s Playroom in celebration of the reveal of its full-fledged Astro title, Astro Bot.
The game is about making assets and even entire games from scratch. Immediately to the left of the Wires that start this level is a water tank showing a Bot in a shark tank that’s circled by two dangerous Pirhanas. This references 2016’s PlayStation VR Worlds for PS4, developed by SIE London Studio as the launch game for the PS VR. The London Heist level would be expanded into a full game called Blood & Truth in 2019. After going through a small round room with Shock Orbs in it, you’ll go up a tall shaft with fans trying to push you into Shock Walls.
A number of special bots were added to Astro’s Playroom in the months leading up to the release of Astro Bot. Once collected, these artifacts are sent back to the main hub of Astro’s Playroom, where you can run and bounce on giant-sized (yet photorealistic) versions of them. Astro’s Playroom has a new tool in that regard, of course, with the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller and its haptic feedback.
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1994 Throwback’s primary reference is Demo 1, a pack-in demo disc packed in with the PlayStation that was updated over the course of the PlayStation’s life. It was first available in 1994 at trade shows and eventually packed in with the system itself. It would then be updated six times over the years with new games and revised menus; the logo is from the 1996 version. Yet another unlockable display for the Labo area is a Bot throwing a blue boomerang around. mb66 is a reference to the infamous “Boomerang” prototype controller, an unofficial name for the controller that was shown alongside the PlayStation 3 when it debuted. The controller would be dropped in favour of the more familiar DualShock design.
You don’t usually see this kind of charm and polish in the genre unless it has Mario’s name attached to it. Granted, Astro isn’t as acrobatic as our favorite Italian plumber. He has a simple move set consisting of a jump, a hover, and some punches. But Astro’s Playroom never feels dull for a second thanks to its unbounded creativity.
In every level of the game, a little piece of PlayStation’s history is hidden in many nooks and crannies. Whether it’s more recognizable products like the Memory Cards, or historic handheld devices like the PlayStation Portable, they all get stored in the Labo as a form of nostalgic lookback. What caught me off guard the most was the hub area, CPU Plaza, having surprise platforming sections along its walls that spring to life instantly. However, the gameplay highlights in Astro’s Playroom are the special suits of the four areas.
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Simply interact with each one, help the bots lift up the rock, and they will be added to your collection. If you get it wrong, then you’ll need to scale the hill again, grab another bunch of bananas, and retry the dance minigame. If you’re successful, you’ll unlock the bot and get the “No Escape! The gameplay features minimal cartoonish violence across each stage.
It’s a phenomenal thing, taken even further with adaptive triggers that provide meaningful, forceful feedback. Been with gamepressure.com since 2019, mostly writing game guides but you can also find me geeking out about LEGO (huge collection, btw). Even with a ton of games, sometimes I just gotta fire up Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, KOTOR, or Baldur’s Gate 2 (Shadows of Amn, the OG, not that Throne of Bhaal stuff). When I’m not gaming, I’m probably painting miniatures or admiring my collection of retro consoles.
It also uses the capabilities of the controller in creative ways that hopefully all games capture in the future for a better experience. Finally, the music in Astro’s Playroom is a joy to listen to. Whether it’s the main menu with its signature Astro theme to celebrate the character, or CPU Plaza’s grandiose techno track and even Cooling Springs having a nice and cozy tune in its ice level. My favorite track overall, however, was the SSD Speedway, featuring sounds that match the game’s presentation perfectly.
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One of the displays that you can unlock for the Labo area is a Bot with a mess of cards with various “PS” logos. These are actually all of Manabu Sakamoto’s designs for the PlayStation logo, before he landed on the one still in use today. Throughout Astro’s Playroom, notably the Labo area and SSD Speedway, you’ll find boxes of Data with 8MB printed on them. This references the PlayStation 2 Memory Card, which had a capacity of 8 Megabytes.
But, much like with the hardware artifacts, every era of PlayStation is represented in some truly hilarious ways. But once you do dive in, there’s no shortage of joy that comes from how Team Asobi has translated in-game surfaces, objects, and movement into different DualSense sensations. I went into this game expecting it to be nothing more than a quick tech demo, I was very wrong.
Suits like these are creative enough not to make the motion control feel like too much of a gimmick and eventually make you hate it. Having bows as weapons isn’t mind-blowing; it’s a staple in many games. When you pull back on the drawstring, the adaptive trigger gets tighter as it draws power. Then, when the arrow gets eased, all that tension melts away. You wish there were more targets and enemies to use the bow again.
This is specifically a reference to the first game thanks to the lush setting and the Bot’s crossed arms, just like the cover art for that game. At the very start of Raytrace Ruins, there are some Bots on the right playing Ninja Bots. This was a free add-on to 2013 PS4 pack-in title The Playroom by SCE Japan Studio, which is the originator of the Bots and actually precedes the creation of Astro. In the final shaded section of the level with the long wooden bridge, look down on the left-hand wall to see a Bot on a bike escaping a swarm of Bots.
If Astro Bot falls or gets defeated, the level will restart from the latest checkpoint cleared. We hope you are getting ready for a good summer and have enjoyed the last few weeks of gaming news. Many of the bots making up the crew are cameo characters that have marked the PlayStation history.
The two characters are Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, while the lab coat Bot is series villain Albert Wesker. The door is a reference to show the game hid loading times, by showing a shot of a door opening to disguise the load between rooms. When entering the first wide open area, jump to the island on the left with a circle of Bots on it, one of which is wearing a purple beanie.