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[nial]

First full-fledged Astro Bot game blasts into the PlayStation multiverse (exclusive)​

Team Asobi head Nicolas Doucet tells EW what players can expect come fall: "It's the biggest game we've ever made."

By Nick Romano

Astro Bot has come a long way. Created by the Tokyo-based developers at Team Asobi, the character first arrived in 2013's The Playroom, a collection of augmented-reality games that featured this adorably pint-sized bot living inside the DualShock 4 game controller. From there, Astro Bot became the star of 2020's Astro's Playroom, a free demo that came with every PS5 console to help get players acquainted with the new tech in a fun, interactive way.

Now the lil' mechanical tyke is getting their first full-fledged platform game. Team Asobi announced the new title during Thursday's PlayStation "State of Play" presentation, and studio head Nicolas Doucet gives Entertainment Weekly exclusive intel on what we can expect when the game launches this Sep. 6 on the PS5.

"We wanted to make a big game," Doucet tells EW of the platformer with more than 80 different levels. "This is really about going up one notch — really several notches — and having Astro's big story. We call it Astro Bot because we treat this as a new beginning. That's a really, really big game. I think for us, that's the biggest game we've ever made."

The premise centers around an incident that breaks apart Astro's DualSense Spaceship (in the form of PlayStation gaming equipment) and scattering its bits across the universe. The bot now has to embark on a mission to find all the pieces.

According to Doucet, there are 80 planets spread out across six galaxies. One world, he explains, features an island in the form of a giant crab. Others, as seen in the announcement trailer released on Thursday, feature other environments like jungle, volcanic, and desert. "We really wanted to make sure that the player had a renewed experience every 10 minutes or so," he says.

And similar to Astro's Playroom, there will be various bot versions of classic PlayStation characters encountered along the way, including Kratos from God of War, Nathan Drake from Uncharted, Aloy from the Horizon games, and the titular duo from Ratchet and Clank.

Behind the scenes, Doucet calls the game a "PlayStation fiesta," given that it's stacked with so many callouts to the entire history of PlayStation. There's even a bot version of PaRappa the Rapper, the hip-hop canine star first introduced back in the 1990s. It's not a coincidence, either, that Astro Bot is arriving during the yearlong 30th anniversary of PlayStation celebration.

"It's a kind of eye candy," Doucet says of all the cameos. "There's going to be more. We're going to be talking over time about what they mean to the game, but, yes, there's going to be a big reunion. There's a lot of characters from the PlayStation universe crossing over with Astro's path. It's an Astro Bot story, of course, with Astro being the main character, but there's a lot of PlayStation characters that play a part."

It's more than just characters from PlayStation's vast lexicon, though. Scenes from the trailer feature the Whispy Woods tree from the world of Kirby, as well as an Aladdin-style dark genie that serves as a boss.

"I would say it's pop culture in general in a very broad sense," Doucet remarks of those reveals. "That's something we've always done as part of our games — look at iconic real-world inspirations, a lot of them from Hollywood movies or famous animation — and looking at themes that really cross generations."

It's surreal that Team Asobi can now count Astro Bot as a character on par with the likes of Kratos and all of PlayStation's other first-party heavy hitters that the new game features in some way. Doucet recalls how Astro's Playroom "was really about focusing on the PS5 and sharing what we could do with the controller." He notes, "The charm of Astro and how he resonated with people went beyond what we expected. At that point, we decided to make a big game."

Don't let the Easter eggs and Kratos cameo fool you. "The core effort has gone into making Astro's own game so that he can stand on his own feet as a new PlayStation character with a good reputation and confidence," Doucet adds. "But also on top of that, there is this whole coating of nostalgia."

How 'Astro Bot' game taps into PlayStation multiverse (exclusive)

'Astro Bot' is getting its first full-fledged platform game for the PS5. Team Asobi exclusively tells EW how it's packed full of PlayStation universe Easter eggs.

ew.com

 

[NeverYouMind]

It has unlockable skins and set pieces referencing Sony IPs. Saved you ten minutes.

 

[nial]

It has unlockable skins and set pieces referencing Sony IPs. Saved you ten minutes.

It took me three to read all of it.

 

[tmlDan]

It has unlockable skins and set pieces referencing Sony IPs. Saved you ten minutes.

im concerned if it took you 10 minutes to read that lol

 

[GymWolf]

Is this a pure platform or more like a linear cartoony brawler like knack?

I could be interested if combat is the focus.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Not a very well researched intro.

THE PLAYROOM (PS4) had a bunch of bot characters, AR (augmented reality) bots that Astro’s a super-intelligent version of, the flying bot with danglies, DLC added the Ninja bots (with long capes) and whatever the other DLC was, can’t remember except Double Fine worked on it.

Astro Bot, the single, blue/white caped starring character debuted in Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for PS4-PSVR which isn’t mentioned at all!

 

[midnightAI]

It has unlockable skins and set pieces referencing Sony IPs. Saved you ten minutes.

There's what now?

 

[nial]

Not a very well researched intro.

THE PLAYROOM (PS4) had a bunch of bot characters, AR (augmented reality) bots that Astro’s a super-intelligent version of, the flying bot with danglies, DLC added the Ninja bots (with long capes) and whatever the other DLC was, can’t remember except Double Fine worked on it.

Astro Bot, the single, blue/white caped starring character debuted in Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for PS4-PSVR which isn’t mentioned at all!

I noticed that too, but I think people just focus on the bots in general.

 

[midnightAI]

Is this a pure platform or more like a linear cartoony brawler like knack?

I could be interested if combat is the focus.

Do you not have a PS5? It's Playroom, but much bigger

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

No. Stop. Don't use the word 'multiverse" anymore. If you're going to do that, please just fuck off. It's some skins from some boring 1P franchises.

 

[nial]

There's what now?

He's wrong, from what we know, the game is about rescuing those Sony-themed bots, not playing with them (except for some parts, maybe?).

 

[FoxMcChief]

I touched on this type of idea when I pitched a story idea and think Astro Bot must be tied to the PlayStation, both its history and catalog. It just makes perfect sense. And then collaborate with third parties to get old school IP’s involved as well.

 

[midnightAI]

None of what he said, from what we know, the game is about rescuing those Sony-themed bots, not playing with them.

Yes, exactly, like Playroom, they'll serve as Easter eggs but also maybe part of whatever story there is

(Who knows though maybe there will be unlockable skins, but it hasn't been announced yet)

 

[Topher]

One of things I love about Astro Playhouse was the way it celebrated PlayStation. Celebrating Sony's awesome first party franchises?

 

[nial]

nvm I'm getting confused with this mess

 

[GymWolf]

Do you not have a PS5? It's Playroom, but much bigger

I played that demo for like 5 min because i didn't cared about the ds5 gimmicks and i thought it was just a tech demo for them.

 

[midnightAI]

I played that demo for like 5 min because i didn't cared about the ds5 gimmicks and i thought it was just a tech demo for them.

It's a full game (short but fun), it's more Mario than Knack

 

[nial]

Is this a pure platform or more like a linear cartoony brawler like knack?

I could be interested if combat is the focus.

Not at all; it's a linear, pure 3D platformer in the same vein of Super Mario 3D World.

 

[GymWolf]

It's a full game (short but fun), it's more Mario than Knack

Not at all; it's a linear, pure 3D platformer in the same vein of Super Mario 3D World.

Then i'm not interested, thanks anyway for the info guys.

 

[March Climber]

No. Stop. Don't use the word 'multiverse" anymore. If you're going to do that, please just fuck off.

What word would you use to describe when Astro Bot exists in a place where he can physically interact with a PS5 and he enters the universe of another Sony character to interact with them?

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

What word would you use to describe when Astro Bot exists in a place where he can physically interact with a PS5 and he enters the universe of another Sony character to interact with them?

"Game"

You can have cameos and references to other IP, but multiverse is such an overblown, bullshit term at this point.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Looks like wholesome pure joy, just like the short PS5 demo game was

 

[nial]

No. Stop. Don't use the word 'multiverse" anymore. If you're going to do that, please just fuck off. It's some skins from some boring 1P franchises.

"Game"

You can have cameos and references to other IP, but multiverse is such an overblown, bullshit term at this point.

Team Asobi never used the term 'multiverse', btw. That was on Entertainment Weekly.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Team Asobi never used the term 'multiverse', btw. That was on Entertainment Weekly.

I know.

 

[Shin-Ra]

Got to admit I forgot about this. A proto-Astro first appears in 2016’s THE PLAYROOM VR • Robot Rescue but I’m not sure he’s ever named Astro. He’s got the same metallic blue body segments, laser-jump and similar small cape.

 

[nial]

Got to admit I forgot about this. A proto-Astro first appears in 2016’s THE PLAYROOM VR • Robot Rescue but I’m not sure he’s ever named Astro. He’s got the same metallic blue body segments, laser-jump and similar small cape.

He's called Captain Astro in that game, IIRC.
The Playroom VR was honestly better than the other two free games.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I'm gonna make an exception for this game one tinge



And will preodor

 

[krumble]

Not a very well researched intro.

THE PLAYROOM (PS4) had a bunch of bot characters, AR (augmented reality) bots that Astro’s a super-intelligent version of, the flying bot with danglies, DLC added the Ninja bots (with long capes) and whatever the other DLC was, can’t remember except Double Fine worked on it.

Astro Bot, the single, blue/white caped starring character debuted in Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for PS4-PSVR which isn’t mentioned at all!

They don't want to mention the original Astro bot vr because then people will notice that list of the clips in the trailer look mighty familiar....

 

[bitbydeath]

I want to know why the Ape Escape monkey is the only character not in robot form on the intro.

 

[Skifi28]

I want to know why the Ape Escape monkey is the only character not in robot form on the intro.

Because it escaped from a different game.

 

[Jesb]

So what is Astrobot, a mascot for Sony now? I don’t recall other games including references to other Sony franchises. And they even have what looks like a ps5 in the trailer.

 

[nial]

So what is Astrobot, a mascot for Sony now?

For us westerners, yes. It has been one in Japan for almost 6 years already.

 

[yurinka]

Is this a pure platform or more like a linear cartoony brawler like knack?

I could be interested if combat is the focus.

It's Devil May Knack: Snooker Blade - FIFA Edition

 

[yurinka]

So what is Astrobot, a mascot for Sony now? I don’t recall other games including references to other Sony franchises. And they even have what looks like a ps5 in the trailer.

I touched on this type of idea when I pitched a story idea and think Astro Bot must be tied to the PlayStation, both its history and catalog. It just makes perfect sense. And then collaborate with third parties to get old school IP’s involved as well.

Astro Bot had a game for PSVR1, and PS5 includes preinstalled a small Astro game/tech demo that includes references to many PS games from all generations -including 3rd party, but mostly 1st party-, plus also includes every single PS related device and accesory in Sony's history.

Before that he appeared for the first game in one of the minigames (this oine wasn't a game like the other ones) of the Playroom PS4 tech demo.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Astro Bot 2 a PS6 launch game. It only makes sense (2028-2029)

 

[Bridges]

Reminds me a lot of LittleBigPlanet having all the different IP represented as cute costumes. In another timeline LBP could've still been relevant doing stuff like this.

I still don't have a PS5 but I smiled when I saw the PaRappa bot in the trailer, I definitely want to play this at some point

 

[DeepEnigma]

Because it escaped from a different game.

 

[Boss Mog]

I played that demo for like 5 min because i didn't cared about the ds5 gimmicks and i thought it was just a tech demo for them.

So what you're saying is that you have one of the best PS5 games but you decided not to play it.