As the end of the year quickly approaches, The Game Awards 2020 nominees have been announced and early talks have already begun about who will be victorious in claiming the title of ‘Game of the Year’ from the show. From Animal Crossing: New Horizons to The Last Of Us Part II or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, the sheer quality of games this year has been astounding. And just like Among Us and Hades before it, there’s one particular game that has seemingly taken the industry completely by surprise and created a new icon for the PlayStation brand: Astro’s Playroom.
Astro’s Playroom is both a surprising and charming hit that compliments the PS5 in so many ways. It also went a long way toward setting up Astro Bot as a brand-recognizable mascot character that could stand up against the likes of Nathan Drake, Kratos, and Aloy, given Sony puts in the time and effort from here on out. The loveable Astro Bot isn’t a new character, having featured in The Playroom for PS4 and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for PSVR, but it wasn’t until Astro’s Playroom that Sony potentially created a new household name for PlayStation.
Like the PlayStation 5, when Sony released the PlayStation 4 back in 2013, it too came with its own built-in game: The Playroom. Unlike Astro’s Playroom, The Playroom was much more of a ‘demo’ than a game, created to showcase the DualShock 4 controller and PlayStation Eye Camera and requiring both accessories to play. Made up of a series of mini-games, The Playroom introduced the Astro Bot character for the first time. Fortunately, there was enough there for Sony to want to bring back the adorable robot a few years down the line, but overall, The Playroom did little for players.
It wasn’t until Astro Bot: Rescue Mission five years later that Astro made its next and first real appearance, this time on PlayStation VR. Developed by Japan Studio, Rescue Mission combines virtual reality with modern platforming gameplay and has the player team up with Captain Astro on a quest to save over 200 bots across 5 unique worlds and 20 levels. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission received widespread praise from critics and players for its loveable characters and excellent 3D platformer gameplay, currently sitting at a 90 on Metacritic. Rescue Mission was a huge step in the right direction to making Astro a more recognizable character with its only downfall preventing larger success being the platform it released on.
Rather than create small mini-games to showcase the new hardware like The Playroom, Sony looked at what worked with Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and created a fully-fledged 3-5 hour long 3D platformer built with the DualSense controller’s new features in mind. The new approach already set’s up Astro’s Playroom to be far more successful because regardless of the short length, it’s an actual game that players can enjoy rather than a glorified tech demo, something that justifies players investing their time.
Astro’s Playroom goes a long way to making the Astro character a great icon for PlayStation; it’s funny, charming, and quirky in the best kind of way, and the additional color accents added in Rescue Mission help add personality. It’s also incredibly fun to play with excellent gameplay, a variety of unique locals and gameplay mechanics, and a strong focus on the history and the legacy of the PlayStation brand, which is sure to be a huge nostalgia boost for long-term players. In our Astro’s Playroom review, we said: “Astro’s Playroom might be free with every PS5 console, but its ability to showcase the new DualSense controller should not be overlooked.”
While next to nothing is currently known about the future of Astro Bot, it seems that Sony does have larger plans for its latest icon on PlayStation and that’s great news for players. Last week, Team Asobi’s Studio Director and Creative Director Nicolas Doucet published an in-depth look at Astro’s Playroom, going over the game’s worlds, features, and more. At the end of the post, Doucet teased that more was to come from character, stating “Astro will be back with news soon.” Of course, it’s very little to go off but a clear indication that the character will be making a return in one way or another.
In the early days of PlayStation, the brand was defined by characters such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Lara Croft. By the end of PlayStation 4, those characters had managed to return, but it was Ellie, Kratos, and Aloy that defined the system. The launch of PlayStation 5 is being led by characters like Sackboy and Spider-Man, with Aloy and Ratchet & Clank on the horizon; a new more diverse range of iconic characters for the brand that would greatly benefit from the inclusion of Astro.
Astro’s Playroom is available as a free preinstalled game on every PlayStation 5.
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