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[radiant_ch]

Not every game needs to be crazy difficult to be fun. Sure Astro Bot is not exactly challenging but still I had amazing time with it.

 

[Tg89]

And none of those moves are put to good use.

How are they not put to good use? I'm constantly long jumping, cap diving, triple jumping, pivot jumping, etc. when playing Odyssey. It makes getting around the world far more engaging and fun.

Can the game be beat without them? Yeah. But they're there for people that want to use them...there's plenty of content that can be tackled in different ways leveraging them.

 

[kevboard]

Not easy enough for David Jaffey who unironically demanded an extra easy mode. How did that dude create GoW?

you have to be joking right?

did he recently lose a significant amount of motor abilities due to some horrible accident?

 

[kevboard]

Astro's Playroom was 10x harder, especially the monkey swinging areas.

yeah but 10 x 0.1 is still just 1.

but yes, Playroom was a bit more challenging compared to the normal levels in Astro Bot... but, it had the issue that there was no real ramping in difficulty, as they had to account for the fact that you could play levels in different orders each time. so Playroom's difficulty was always an up and down. you start one of the worlds, and the difficulty goes slightly up within it... and then you start the next world and it basically resets.

Playroom had a huge novelty bonus however, as it was also a showcase for the controller.
meanwhile Astro Bot actually did less with the Dualsense features than Playroom did... which is weird.
the only real Dualsense feature it used was the rumble, when they copied the hidden pressure plates puzzles from Mario Odyssey

The checkpoints are too close together so there's no buildup to the challenging parts.

eh, that was a minor issue given that the rest was so easy it basically didn't come into play. so it's actually hard to judge.

Exceptions are in a few of the black hole stages which had extreme difficulty from the collision detection and camera not working great.

the camera was indeed very odd in some moments. the position often made it hard to judge distances. and the turn speed is so slow that quickly adjusting it while platforming was annoying.

but that issue also was hard to really point out because everything is so easy that it almost doesn't come into play.

I still liked the game, but it's pathetic compared to Mario 3D World for instance which I played right before hand.

pathetic is a strong word I feel... but it is not on the same level for sure.

 

[Randall365]

I would also like to add that I have platinumed Elden Ring and completed the DLC and aside from the last boss in the DLC, no boss took me longer than the Master Challenge in Astrobot to beat (about 2 to 3 hours).

 

[ZiggyPop1991]

the difference is that Mario 64 has satisfying controls and movement options.
Astro Bot has basically nothing except decent technical polish and fan service.
it's such an insanely shallow game.

Astro Bot movement: Run, Jump, Hover, Punch, Spinattack.
Mario 64 movement: Run, Jump, Double/Triple Jump, Crouch, Punch, Jump Kick, Slide Kick, Crouch Kick, Backflip, Sideflip, Dive Jump, Wall Kick... and that's just the basic options, you can use all of these in more advanced ways, like the Jump Kick can function as a double jump in some situations or as a way to keep your momentum out of a dive etc.
the only advanced tech in Astro Bot is that attacking mid air sliiiiiiighly extends your jump... basically a less effective version of New SMB's mid-air twirl

in short, you can get better at Mario 64 as you play it longer, but Astro Bot's skill ceiling is so low that by the end of the first 4 levels or so you already mastered nearly everything there is to master. and in combination with the the level design it doesn't really allow for player expression either.


finding the secrets is also not a challenge, because the levels are mostly linear with very little exploration outside of a handful of exceptions.
the biggest challenge when trying to find secrets is the unbelievably slow camera turn speed, which is so slow that you'd be excused to think your right stick is broken.
and no, a platformer doesn't necessarily need to be hard,
nor does it absolutely need to be mechanically deep or super innovative...
but it should be one of these at the very least, or else it has very little going for it other than "huh, that looks cute".

Super Meat Boy isn't innovative or mechanically deep, but it's challenging.

Super Mario Galaxy isn't that mechanically deep but somewhat challenging and innovative.

Super Mario Odyssey is mechanically deep and innovative, but has almost no challenge outside of the last bonus worlds.

Super Mario 64 is mechanically deep, was innovative at the time, but isn't that challenging.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is mechanically deep, somewhat innovative, and somewhat challenging.

Super Mario Bros. was innovative at the time, not really deep, but challenging.

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is mechanically not that deep but has some advanced tech to learn and master, it's innovative and somewhat challenging.

Donkey Kong Country is mechanically not that deep (some advanced tech but not much), not really innovative, but it's challenging.

Shovel Knight has some depth, isn't really innovative, but is somewhat challenging.

Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows has depth, is innovative and is somewhat challenging.

and then we have Astro Bot, which mechanically has no depth, which has zero innovation, and no challenge outside of 2 or 3 bonus levels.

it just stands out to anyone who dabbles in this genre imo. everything it does has been done before, after a few levels you basically mastered it completely already, and if you played maybe half of the games I listed above, you should at no point feel any challenge playing it.

That's great. Look at how many games you were able to list. I'm glad the genre is getting love. However, this obsession right here with everything needing to be a showcase, innovative, etc is one of the reasons why games dumped AA and keep trying to do to much. In no way os Astro revolutionary, but as an adult with a busy schedule. It was just the right amount of fun and charm. There is nothing wrong with that. Especially when someone who wants more depth can hop on steam and find many indies.

I'm not negating anything you said, this is a message board. But now it's starting to seem like people are trying to question why simply fun games was their GOTY. I have games from Dragon's Dogma 2 to Metaphor and after a long day kept going back to Astro. Sometimes that is enough. We also don't need to compare everything to Mario. It's ok to like a one off fun game in a genre.

 

[Sintoid]

After reading good words on Penny's Big Breakaway I can consider my contribution to this discussion useless