Astro’s Playroom is a small game that comes preinstalled with every PS5. It is more of a tech demo to show off the new DualSense controller and what it is capable of. Starring Astro and his fellow bots, this is a cutesy platformer styled game that’s bright and colorful, something that we rarely get these days. If you’ve played The Playroom or Astro Bot Rescue Mission, then you’ll feel right at home here.
Astro has basic abilities, being able to walk around, punch things, and hover, which gives him some extra height and distance whenever he jumps. That’s about it and it may feel a bit limited and boring at first, but the game does pretty inventive stuff to make sure of every single feature of the DualSense controller. Right off the bat, the game gives you a quick rundown of the features and perhaps the most interesting element would be the adaptive triggers. It might not sound like much, but changing the level of pressure required to press the triggers makes a huge difference and truly gives you a quiet sense of wonder.
The other features are stuff that we’ve seen before like better vibration (haptic feedback), microphone, lights, touchpad, and motion control. However, these are still used in fun ways, from how the vibration subtly changes to match the type of surface Astro is currently running on, to how you can feel the raindrops when it is raining. Or you might have to use the motion control to aim your character during certain parts of the level. Yes, it is gimmicky, but it is also fine for a small tech demo game such as this to get you used to your shiny new PS5.
Each of the core worlds of the game are based around the major PlayStation consoles. Each one has a major gimmicky section that would make use of the controller in what is supposedly a very innovative way. It mostly misses because no mater how great it is, it is still not a lot of fun to wrestle around with the motion control or the touchpad. These inputs are too inaccurate to control Astro onscreen. However, the way it used the adaptive triggers along with the motion control to control the climbing in the game was definitely the most innovative and best of the bunch.
The game has four worlds, and each world has four levels. It takes around two to three hours to run through all the levels at least once. Each level has coins to collect, puzzle pieces, and perhaps the best thing is the artefacts. These collectibles are things relating to the history of PlayStation, from all the consoles to its accessories, it is a blast of nostalgia. Collecting these artefacts will allow them to turn up in an in-game collection room and this is like a big celebration of PlayStation, which feels very fitting as a preinstalled game on the PS5. It has some obscure stuff as well, including the PlayStation Vita.
The game has some combat as there will be enemies that try to attack Astro. The enemies usually die in a hit, but the same goes for Astro. If Astro gets hit, whether that’s by an enemy, an obstacle, or falling down a hole, he respawns at the last checkpoint. These checkpoints are frequent enough but may mean you need to start an area from the beginning which can be a bit annoying as the coins and boxes you’ve opened will need to be done again.
There are a lot of neat little touches to the game that constantly reference PlayStation’s rich history. From the way that there are always other bots playing out some scenes from iconic PlayStation games to the four symbols of the face buttons showing up everywhere. It can be quite cheeky with its depictions, particularly with the descriptions of the various accessories and consoles.
Then there is the surprise at the end after completing all the worlds. It is a very nice touch, especially if you get the reference. There’s no denying that it is a short game, but you can spend a little bit longer by replaying the levels to find the rest of the collectibles that you may have missed. There is also a speed run section, which you might have just expected to be a timed version of the regular levels. That’s not the case, while the theme of each level is the same, these speedrun levels are new shorter levels which are fully designed for speedrunning. It’s a lot of fun when you manage to make it work.
Overall, Astro’s Playroom is a great game, especially for a free pack-in. It continues to give you hope that Sony may give Team Asobi the budget it requires for a proper fully fledged platformer that isn’t regulated to a free pack-in game or stuck on the PSVR. While it can be too gimmicky at times, it’s a bright colorful platformer that’s fun for all. If you had grown up with PlayStation, then this game is made for you as it is a celebration of all its history. There was clearly a lot of detail lovingly put into the game and that’s what makes this so impressive.