It is colorful, funny, incredibly polished and constantly introducing some new idea. More importantly for our house, it's one of those rare games where my kids can genuinely play it themselves while there's still enough creativity and challenge that I actually want to play too. That's a difficult balance. Astro Bot absolutely nails it.
Astro Bot
You run. You jump. You punch enemies. You rescue little robots scattered throughout the levels.
Explain that to someone and it doesn't sound particularly revolutionary.
Then you actually play it.
Almost every level introduces something new.
One minute you're climbing.
The next you're swimming.
Then you're shrinking down to a tiny size.
Then you've got boxing gloves.
Then you're flying around with a jetpack.
Then my kids are yelling instructions at me because apparently I've walked directly past an extremely obvious secret that everyone in the room noticed except Dad.
Astro Bot isn't traditional multiplayer.
Initially I thought that might be a disadvantage for a family game.
It actually became one of my favorite things about it.
One kid takes a level.
Then the other wants a turn.
Someone finds a secret.
Someone gets stuck.
Dad gets handed the controller.
Dad clears the difficult section and feels pretty good about himself.
Dad then dies somewhere incredibly easy.
Kids laugh at Dad.
Controller gets taken away from Dad.
The cycle continues.
Because the levels aren't enormous, passing the controller around feels natural. And even when you're not playing, Astro Bot is genuinely entertaining to watch.
Best use of a PS5 Controller:
This might be the first PS5 game we've played where my kids really noticed the controller.
The DualSense isn't just vibrating occasionally.
You feel surfaces.
You feel movement.
Different actions produce different sensations through the triggers and controller.
And the speaker adds another layer to everything happening on screen.
There were several moments where my kids were looking at the controller instead of the television because they couldn't understand how it was doing what it was doing.
That's pretty cool.
We've reached a point where controller vibration usually doesn't impress anyone anymore.
Astro Bot somehow makes it fun again.
Critics noticed this too, with reviews repeatedly praising how well Team Asobi uses the PS5 hardware and DualSense rather than treating those features as gimmicks.
The boss fights deserve their own mention.
They're big.
They're colorful.
They're ridiculous.
And they're exactly the kind of thing that gets kids yelling at the television.
Most importantly, the bosses generally aren't just giant enemies with huge health bars.
You have to figure something out.
There's usually a mechanic you've learned earlier that comes back into play.
For kids, that makes beating one feel like an accomplishment rather than simply surviving long enough.
And when you're playing together as a family, these become the moments everybody remembers.
The Dad Test:
I've developed a very scientific rating system for family videogames.
There are three categories:
1. Games the kids like and Dad suffers through.
2. Games Dad likes and desperately tries to convince the kids are fun.
And then there's the rare third category:
3. Everyone gets annoyed when somebody else has the controller.
Astro Bot is Category 3.
That's about as good as it gets. 9.5/10
Reviewer Scores
- Gameplay: 10/10
- Immersion: 9/10
- Fun: 10/10
- Story: 8/10
- Graphics: 9/10
- Sound: 10/10
- Replay: 10/10