Support NeoGAF

[John Marston]

I'm playing in short bits to make it last.
Mostly before going to bed.
This game was made with a lot of love and care.

I find myself smiling a lot and feeling like a kid again
You're also always stimulated, the game keeps throwing stuff at you without being overwhelming.

And whoever said this is too hard obviously needs a social worker to get them dressed in the morning.

 

[bender]

I'm still really early on and was a little bummed out that most of my favorite special Astrobot characters have already been rescued but then they surprised me with The Prince. The developers of this pure joy in video game form are definitely going to be the last on my kill all humans list.

 

[Danjin44]

Man just finishing the X challenges, they were kidding around but damn they are super fun.

 

[OverHeat]

My game of the year so far

 

[Nydius]

Got a late start since my order was delayed by a day. Just wrapped it up, everything complete. PSN App on my phone says 25 hours total, PS5 dashboard says 24. I feel like it was the perfect length. Had it been any longer it would have begun to overstay its welcome, IMO. This was probably my favorite 3D platformer since Super Mario Sunshine, the last 3D Mario (or full-length platformer, for that matter) that I bothered completing to 100%.

If I had a GOTY vote, I'd probably give it to this. 95% of the time I was playing, I had a smile on my face.
The other 5%, well, those were the symbol challenges.

I'm pretty sure an hour of my playtime was spent running around Crash Site hitting bots to see how they'd interact after they got their gatcha items.

Spoiler tagging the rest just to be safe.

Spoiler

Seriously, the symbol challenges and the Great Master challenge were ludicrous. Mistime a jump by a millisecond and back to the beginning with you. Although I managed to suffer through them, they were the one place in the game where I legitimately didn't have fun. Especially the lava dash one with the rubber duck in square, and the on the beat one in X.

As much as I like the Horizon games, I felt like the Horizon themed level was probably the weakest designed themed level. The God of War and Uncharted levels were leaps and bounds better and the Loco Roco level was fun and unique. The Lost Galaxy levels reminded me of Super Mario World's Star Road so much.

I know the Days Gone dev had his little fit, but seeing some of these characters made me feel a bit sad that we'll never see their games again. Kat and Raven from Gravity Rush, all of the InFamous characters, and these five champs:

 

[Ogbert]

Just got the platinum. My first in years, testament to how much fun the game is.

Easy GoTY. Most importantly, we now have a genuine 3d platformer IP that can compete with Nintendo and try and push the medium forward. There are certainly going to be those that prefer the style of Astrobot. At present, I don’t think it’s in the same ballpark as Mario, simply because the movement isn’t there. Astrobot is more polished, the set pieces are grander, but the movement is very basic. So both Galaxies and 3d world are a league apart. I also prefer Odyssey, but appreciate the game has a lot of bloat and understand the criticisms.

For the next instalment, I’d love to see the game no longer celebrating Sony IPs. Frankly, it’s the best one in their stable. Let it stand alone and let Team Asobi create *anything* they want. At the same time, hugely iterate on Astrobot’s movement. Jump, double jump, triple jump, stomp, lunge, backwards jump, wall jump. Once you add that vocabulary to the gameplay, the levels can become even more imaginative. It also allows you to up the difficulty.

Great game.

Buy it.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Astrobot music reminds so much of Superman III and They won't get me

 

[Magic Carpet]

This last Galaxy levels are all over the place in difficulty, After I tripped my way through the Genie level, I breezed through the Day/Night level. That was fun flipping the world over from day to night.
I managed to finish one of the Square challenge levels,. I was in 'the zone'.

 

[iorek21]

This is what Crash 4 should've been: sometimes challenging, but easy enough for you to appreciate the music, gameplay, level and art design; collectibles are well hidden, but not unfairly so.


Amazing game, will probably win the GOTY if Metaphor doesn't live to the expectations.

 

[R6Rider]

My game of the year so far

 

[Shin-Ra]

I platinumed the game in about 22 hours, completing 2 or 3 levels then returning to the Crash Site. Wish the difficulty ramped up more outside of the PlayStation-shape levels but it was still a joy to finish.

I didn’t need the 200-coin radar to find anything except the jigsaw piece hidden in a wire-pull under a vertical log you split. I split the log first time through but missed the wire revealed underneath. I think I was distracted by the Metal Gear Rising-esque fine slice-ability of the logs! Later the Tripcaster wires can similarly be cut into tinier and tinier pieces.

 

[Balducci30]

I’m not a huge platformer guy so my opinion on this is likely not typical. It’s a great game, I personally felt it kinda peaked early though? Idk if anyone feels the same way - I also was bummed powerups that made you into a sponge that grows huge and the one that makes you as small as a mouse were one offs. Those were probably my favorite levels

 

[[Sigma]]

Ok, the Uncharted level is even better than the God of War one. All the exclusive level animations. Team Asobi really went out of their way.

 

[Danjin44]

And done….

Spoiler

I finished everything including the great master challenge….I still have few trophies to unlock but I will get to them later.

Fantastic game, this type of game I need see more from Sony.

 

[bender]

Finally unlocked the Changing Room which probably should have been the second station to unlock rather than Dual Speeder Garage as I've 100%'ed Gorilla Nebula and Tentacle System, and I'm over halfway through Serpent Starway with 128 Bots rescued. That's a long way of saying I wanted to change outfits a long time ago. A few random thoughts:

-The cameo's continue to delight.
-Is this as close as we'll come to Everybody's Golf on PS5?
-I wish I could un-rescue Days Gone bot.

 

[Topher]

Just spent a couple of hours in the game and completely blown away. The GOTY talk is certainly warranted. Not a game I've played this year comes close, imo.

Fantastic game, this type of game I need see more from Sony.

Amen to that

 

[bender]

Amen to that

Some of the cameos are bittersweet. I rescued MGS Rising Raiden, Puppeteer and Journey today and hit a hole in one on a level.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Just got the game today after fucking Target used the slowest shipping method possible on Earth

Fuck this game is so good right out of the gate. Found the first Lost Galaxy level and it's a reference to the Coming Springs in Playroom

HDR black level is raised just as videos have shown. Hopefully they patch the game to fix the black level, otherwise the graphics are fantastic

 

[Topher]

The music in this game is incredible

 

[Magic Carpet]

Astrobot got an update today, along with console update, dont know what it did.
Ive got enough bots to unlock the final boss. Still missing alot.

 

[ap_puff]

Just finished the platinum... ngl the credits got me a little emotional. I haven't had this much fun in a game in a while.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Taking my time with this. I’ve just finished the first world (?) and got the first part of the ship.

 

[nowhat]

I've got all the puzzle pieces, but still missing 11 bots. Will probably take my time with those. So in the meantime, I decided to replay Astro's Playroom. I played through it back when I first got a PS5, but didn't try to 100% it or anything. So I deleted my save and started fresh. Some observations between the two games:

• This should be obvious, but the physics engine is on a completely different level. Yes, the graphics are nicer on Astro Bot as well, but it's the physics where the difference is really evident.
• The haptics in Astro Bot are much more nuanced and pleasant. I get it, Playroom was to demonstrate DualSense features, but perhaps Team Asobi went a bit overboard with it in Playroom.
• The wind-up time for the spin attack seems much longer. I haven't timed it or anything, just going by feel. I guess it's due to it being a more fundamental gameplay mechanic (some enemies requiring it) than in Playroom.
• If Team Asobi was going to ape (hah) a gameplay mechanic from Playroom, why did they go with the monkey arms instead of the flying saucer? I much prefer the latter. Not a big fan of the monkey arms (thankfully not many levels in Astro Bot feature those).
• I know some themes, both figurative and musical, would feel out of place in Astro Bot. But man, that GPU song in Playroom absolutely slaps. I had forgot how good it is.

 

[DragoonKain]

I'm going world by world making sure I get all the bots before I move on to the next region. Finding the portals is really fun. I love the game themed worlds. The Uncharted and God of War ones were so cool. Love the game.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Dude those first few triangle levels in world 2 were kind of a pain in the ass

If it gets seriously progressively harder from that chances are I might not plat. Either that or I really need to bone the fuck up on my 3D platformer skills.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Dude those first few triangle levels in world 2 were kind of a pain in the ass

If it gets seriously progressively harder from that chances are I might not plat. Either that or I really need to bone the fuck up on my 3D platformer skills.

Yep, I'm in the same boat. The advice I got was to breath, don't panic, and try changing the camera angle.

 

[nowhat]

Dude those first few triangle levels in world 2 were kind of a pain in the ass

If it gets seriously progressively harder from that chances are I might not plat. Either that or I really need to bone the fuck up on my 3D platformer skills.

Oh sweet summer child... it's going to get worse. But OTOH. Each results in a special bot. And you would not want to miss on getting that/the gacha for it? I know you don't.

 

[ap_puff]

Dude those first few triangle levels in world 2 were kind of a pain in the ass

If it gets seriously progressively harder from that chances are I might not plat. Either that or I really need to bone the fuck up on my 3D platformer skills.

Get good, the golden statue challenge might break you

 

[Cyborg]

Man the levels/stages are awsome. My two absolute favorite till now are
1.

Spoiler

Downsize Surprise

2.

Spoiler

Ghouls and Bots

Also the music......wow.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Get good, the golden statue challenge might break you

 

[skit_data]

Get good, the golden statue challenge might break you

That's the only one I have left for Platinum, had to take a break last weekend because it started to wear down my love for the game.

I'll give it another run this weekend (I bet I'll nail that shit on 2nd try now or something)

 

[Nydius]

Get good, the golden statue challenge might break you

Shiiit, if the triangle ones were causing him grief, some of the later square ones and almost all of the cross ones might break him!

 

[ap_puff]

Shiiit, if the triangle ones were causing him grief, some of the later square ones and almost all of the cross ones might break him!

I didn't find any of those significantly harder than the triangle one, once you understood the gimmick its all about execution. The thing with the golden statue level is it demands execution of several different kinds and you can't mess up for a pretty long level.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Shiiit, if the triangle ones were causing him grief, some of the later square ones and almost all of the cross ones might break him!

It wasnt grief and I wasnt raging out or anything but a couple of them took me a surprising amount of attempts. That one with the armadillo ball with the spikey platforms for example can eat a dick.

But I did it and got my special bot nowhat

 

[Nydius]

That one with the armadillo ball with the spikey platforms for example can eat a dick.

Heh, I personally found that to be one of the easier ones. Compared to the lava one on square, I’d gladly do the armadillo roll again.

 

[Sethbacca]

Ok, the Uncharted level is even better than the God of War one. All the exclusive level animations. Team Asobi really went out of their way.

That one WAS my favorite until I got to the LocoRoco level today. Sooooooooooo good!

 

[Danjin44]

 

[Big Baller]

Only 13 pages for the GOTY

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Dude those first few triangle levels in world 2 were kind of a pain in the ass

If it gets seriously progressively harder from that chances are I might not plat. Either that or I really need to bone the fuck up on my 3D platformer skills.

I kind of felt this way too, but I honestly didn't feel like the symbol levels got tougher as it went on. The difficulty level remain pretty much the same between worlds for me.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Only 13 pages for the GOTY

Yea, where the heck is everybody?
Games been out for an entire week, less than 2 pages per day.

 

[[Sigma]]

Up the feather cluster. Game has managed to introduce and keep things fresh throughout in a number of ways despite being this far into it. That's quite something. I've gotten so many of my trophies by accident out of pure curiosity lol. Like the crash site ones, the papa tree, uncharted eggs etc etc. I like those kinds of trophies.

Because of that, i'll probably only have a couple of trophies left to get at the end of the game. I got like 255 bots so far. I'm 100%ing every level as I go and only may miss a couple of the specific interaction trophies in the levels because im not really looking at the trophy list as I go focusing just on the fun.

 

[DeVeAn]

What an awesome treat this game is. One of the segments at the end oh man, the music choice and the Cameos!!

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Only 13 pages for the GOTY

From tiny acorns grow mighty oak trees.

 

[Sethbacca]

Yea, where the heck is everybody?
Games been out for an entire week, less than 2 pages per day.

Too busy playing.

 

[dotnotbot]

Finally got my copy

 

[Shin-Ra]

Rescue Mission OG.

 

[The artful mincer]

Only 13 pages for the GOTY

To be fair it's got alot of traffic in other threads.

 

[R6Rider]

Just finished the game!! Got all bots and Puzzles before doing the final section.

That credits section is awesome.

My GotY solidified and I don't think anything will top it.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Man fuck that bullshit level Splashing Sprint. That is all.

 

[balls of snow]

Yo this game is pure joy.