With the help of your simian backpack buddy, you will climb, swing and fling yourself up to the summit. So stop monkeying around and beat those birds to the top to rescue your special bot friends. Test your skills in five additional speedrun levels available now, and collect new Special Bots. Feel the might of power-ups and the tension of tools as you repair the PS5 mothership. Following its release, Astro Bot received multiple updates which included new levels and V.I.P. Bots, among a number of other minor additions. Just like Astro’s Playroom before it, Astro Bot uses every ounce of the PlayStation 5 and its Dualsense controller. [newline]Team Asobi continues to show they have a grasp on the PS5 hardware more than just about anyone working on the console.

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. Here are Metacritic’s 10 lowest-scoring video games released in 2025. As I collected them, I found myself getting surprisingly emotional as deep-cut games I grew up with got their lovingly crafted due.

Many of the bots — 173 of them, to be precise — are dressed as characters from PlayStation games past and present. They’re digital collectible figures, Funko Pop alternatives for 30 years of PlayStation gaming, celebrating almost every Sony property you can think of. Naturally, you’ll find Ratchet and Clank, Kratos, and Nathan Drake here; third-party heroes with a PlayStation connection, like Metal Gear Solid’s Snake and Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, are also represented. Whether for licensing reasons or just to make a fun guessing game, the bots are given coy names like Dad of Boy (Kratos), Spinning Marsupial (Crash Bandicoot), and Immune Survivor (The Last of Us’ Ellie). There are some deep cuts that will have all but the most encyclopedic of PlayStation fans scratching their heads.

Try to press on and not stop, as you’ll become an easy target for projectile enemies or obstacles like fire or thin ice. Not every level does require you to be quick on your feet, but it’s a good reminder for when you’re tackling some of the harder levels. Team Asobi has teased that tools will eventually be added to Astro Bot that should appeal to speedrunners. With that tool and a bit of post-launch content updates, Astro Bot’s fun could last a lot longer than it does, and that would be a welcome inclusion for a game with a short run time. Still, any frustration with the game ultimately stems from wanting more of what Astro Bot provides, which at its core is a top-tier platformer with innovation, charm, and enjoyment to spare.

Would not be surprised of this gets the highest overall rating for a game this year. Five challenge levels presumably means at least five new VIP bots, potentially even more as the last set of DLC levels includes two new Bots per level. With only one of the new Bot’s identities confirmed so far, that leaves the door open for more cameos fans have been waiting for. During today’s State of Play, Team Asobi’s lead announced that Astro Bot is getting five more challenge levels later this month as part of another free update. That update isn’t far off either, as it was confirmed that the new levels will start dropping before the end of June. Climb up the snowball, pull the wire, and activate the vacuum device.

They even announced that the game will be receiving free DLC in the near future. If there’s one thing to criticize, it’s the exclusivity and the need to buy a PS5 to experience this masterpiece. Everyone should be able to experience this kind of fun, as with the amount of games there are, it’s only a few games that really go the distance. As a platformer, Astro Bot is definitely the best to come this year. The fun factor is unparalleled for a game of this genre, despite it’s obvious simplicity.

What Are All Special Bots In Astro Bot? Maximilian – Reliable Narrator

They fit in perfectly with the game’s vibe and atmosphere, which is really hard to find a fault as it even uses the DualSense speakers impeccably. gg88.com ’s been quite a rough few weeks for Sony and PlayStation fans out there, and it’s great to know that it’s not all doom and gloom as Astro Bot is here to save the day. As a casual fan of platformers, Astro Bot blew me away and reminded me of the nostalgia and fun that is to be had with the genre. The last time to do this was Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey, which is a very high standard to beat or match in recent years.

Rising Heat Cameo Bots

Press down on the D-Pad to emote while standing in front of Crash Bandicoot. Give Astro Bot a chance to complete a full dance with Crash Bandicoot to collect the Let’s Twist Again trophy. If you give Kratos Bot a friendly punch at your Crash Site, he’ll use his axe to freeze you into an ice cube. Well, to unlock the “Thaw, God of Thunder!” trophy in Astro Bot, you need to trick Kratos Bot into freezing Thor Bot instead. Did you know you can catch the bugs in Apes On The Loose with your net?

This is what Shawn Layden called for all those years ago, but he seems to have been ignored. I’ve grown out of platformers as I’ve aged, but this looks to bring me back! I think I’ll actually buy the game now because it seems absolutely wonderful. Instead of leaping to the boss fight, approach the large snowball that’s being nurtured by two penguins — after you defeat all the enemies.

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.

Across the game’s dozens of levels, you’ll see many abilities like these, and in nearly every case, they are a resounding success. There is both depth and breadth to most levels, and frequent checkpoints mean you’ll rarely be punished for exploration or missing a jump. Levels take only five to 10 minutes in most cases, but are overflowing with personality. Robot animals climb trees along the periphery or jump out of the ocean far beneath the levitating worlds you explore. Everything constantly moves around you, imbuing every level with life beyond the scraps you’ll engage in with the game’s enemies. Each level’s theme is brought to life with aesthetic assets and design ideas that strengthen their themes.

They compared it to Super Mario Odyssey but noted it still feels unique. IGN gave it a 9/10, calling it a fantastically inventive platformer filled with PlayStation memories. While most levels are linear, they highlighted some as exceptionally enjoyable and creative. The game currently holds a 4.89 out of 5 stars with over 31,000 ratings on the PSN Store. 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.

In Astro’s Playroom, the Puzzle Pieces found throughout will piece together murals in the PlayStation Labo. In Astro Bot, however, they’ll still put together a picture, but once it’s complete, it’ll spawn a new place to explore and others to customize both yourself, your Dual Speeder and the saved Bots around you. For example, you can get a Changing Room that keeps all the Outfits you get from the Gacha Machine for you to choose from. It’s pretty worthwhile and honestly a lot of fun to reap sweet rewards from your treasure hunting. While it may seem simple enough, there are a lot of things to do in the over fifty levels Astro Bot has to offer. Check every corner, hit every object or look below every platform and you may find a secret cord or passageway to a Puzzle Piece, Bot or even a Vortex to a secret world!

But it’s the temporary abilities that come with each level that make things truly exciting. The Twin Frog gloves are a particular favourite, with their sticky tongues flinging out to provide a grapple swing option. They’re also spring-loaded, meaning any incoming projectiles can be sent back from whence they came, exploding in an enemy’s face. I also very much enjoyed the mouse mechanic, which reduces you down to a super small size, effectively turning on a “Toy Story” mode that lets you clamber up oversized shelves and leaves in search of secrets. The Time Stopper combines a pair of VR goggles players can strap onto their hero and a literal watch on the back. When players stop time, they can halt attacks like buzz saws hurtling toward them.