Hands-on: Astro Bot could be Sony’s sleeper GOTY Contender

Astro Bot isn’t the franchise I think about when it comes to PlayStation’s version of Mario, but after several hours of playing the demo—here we are.

The demo of Astro Bot I played at Evo 2024 was nothing short of a surprise. Astro Bot at an event like Evo, which usually only shows upcoming fighting games, was a treat, especially as Sony’s charming platformer had intrigued me since its initial reveal at the end of May. The Astro Bot series has always been a love letter to the PlayStation IP, celebrating the history of the consoles and games from the past two decades under the guise of a pretty fun platformer.

Going into the demo, I didn’t expect to come out of it thinking Astro Bot is game-of-the-year material.

A galactic adventure

The demo was a small sample of a giant game. We were given access to a sprawling galactic world map with many planets dotted throughout it (a bit like Super Mario Galaxy 2), but we could only access five. Each planet is a unique world, with its own themed level to complete and collectibles to find. Three of the worlds involved traversing a typical 3D platformer level until you reached a final boss at the end, while two were challenge maps, testing you to complete the entire course in one take with no respawn points.

The overall goal for each level is to find hidden Astro Bots costumed after various PlayStation franchises, like God of War‘s Kratos and Ratchet and Clank. There are 300 Bots to find across the universe, some hiding in boxes, while others require you to go off the beaten path to obtain them all. Some collectibles are hidden so cleverly that completionists will be scratching their head trying to find them all. Thankfully, each level tells you how many Bots are hiding, so you won’t need to search the entire galaxy once over to find that last pesky robot.

As you navigate levels hunting down these robots, you pick up a variety of power-ups to help you progress. Each power-up utilizes different aspects of the PS5 DualSense controller; for example, during an ocean level, a power-up gave me a pair of boxing gloves that let me strike enemies using the controller’s shoulder buttons. This same power-up let me grab and swing on beams to access new areas by holding down the same buttons. The levels do a great job of teaching you everything a power-up can do before throwing you into a boss fight to utilize everything you learned.

The power-ups available in the demo felt like only a slice of what is to come and were relatively simple to understand—so I can’t wait to see what others have in store.

A bot of fun

While Astro Bot may seem super simple, it’s equally challenging. You die from a single hit from any enemy, so taking your time to learn monster patterns is essential to winning. Equally, the challenge maps test your reflexes, and I found myself dying on them multiple times. Combining these levels with having to detour any spare collectibles during a single run presents a challenge for everyone to master.

When my time was up with Astro Bot, I wanted to play more. Between the huge variety of level designs, the abundance of secrets to find, and the charming aesthetic, I left itching to dive into the dozens of levels we weren’t given access to. It was fun and engaging, and I’m now more hyped for Astro Bot than any other game coming out this year.

If the content the demo was teasing is as big as it looks, and the gameplay overall is solid, we could be looking at a potential GOTY contender. I’m not kidding—it was that good.