Astro’s Playroom Review A Uniquely Tactile Platformer That’s The Beating Heart Of Ps5

A second reference to the game is the “Adequate, Boy…” Trophy, awarded for shooting all the rabbits at the end of Mt. Motherboard level in GPU Jungle. The name is a reference to Kratos always referring to his son as “boy”, as well as his habit of faint praise. After going down the long DualShock Cable, look right to spot a ship made out of blocks. This is the Ferox ship from Resogun, a 2013 launch title for the PS4 developed by Housemarque. It was one of the most well-received titles for the console, and a year later it would be ported to PS3 and PS Vita. Appropriately located in the rainy section that ends Gusty Gateway, next to a shelter you can find a Bot on the ground with an origami crane on him.

Demo 1 Dinosaur

As you get better at playing games, you’ll get better at being able to make things up as you go. Aside from being a technical showcase, Astro’s Playroom is also a game that was clearly made with a lot of care and passion. Each world is themed after a particular computer component, and one of the main goals is to collect secret items that are all pieces of classic PlayStation hardware. There’s even a trophy room where you can interact with them, using your little robot hands to turn on a gigantic PSP Go, or hop on the eject button of an original PlayStation to see the lid pop open. At its most basic, Astro’s Playroom is a fairly straightforward platforming game. You play as a cute little robot named Astro, exploring four different worlds set in a universe that appears to exist inside of a computer.

Gameplay Trailer

When this partnership fell through, Kutaragi persevered and developed it into a standalone console, resulting in the original PlayStation. Right next to the PS + easter egg are two Bots next to eight blue shopping bags. The shopping bag is the icon of the PlayStation Store that launched in 2006, allowing PlayStation Network members to buy digital goods such as games, add-on content, console themes and even game soundtracks.

This references Everybody’s Golf VR by Clap Hanz, released in 2019. Up until the 2017 game, Everybody’s Golf was called Hot Shots Golf in North America. Level Completion Trophies are awarded for finishing specific stages in Astro Playroom.

Simply interact with each one, help the bots lift up the rock, and they will be added to your collection. Around the edge of the main hub area is where you will find the bots from Astro’s Playroom. These will appear automatically once they have been unlocked them; there is no specific importing process or menu screen to go through first. Go back along to the front of the blue pipes and the sandstorm, and this time, go along the outside on the right.

So far the Super Slim is the final PlayStation system to use a top-loading disc drive, with the top sliding to the side so the user can insert the disc. Following on from the first PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 would use DVDs for its optical storage medium. This proved to be a huge boon for the system, as it allowed it to double as a DVD player right when that format began to take off. The DualShock was actually preceded by the Dual Analog Controller in April that same year.

There are 14 Silver Trophies‚ focusing on core story completion and collectible-based achievements. These trophies reward progression through levels and discovering hidden items. Each level of the game has at least a few checkpoints, so do not worry if Astro is accidentally killed. Especially if he’s grabbed a collector’s item while performing a difficult stunt. During the passage of the next levels of the game, you will come across a lot of bots. You can stop them in their tracks by attacking them with fists or lasers in your legs.

The mushroom Bot refers to a Clicker, a human taken over by parasitic fungi, while the two characters are Joel and Ellie. Joel is holding a brick, a common weapon and means of distraction in the game. When you get to the first silver Bounce Pillow, use it to get on top of the wall, then drop off the other side. This references 2008’s LittleBigPlanet on PS3, developed by Media Molecule.

Then throw the capsule at the blue cloud as shown in the second picture below. Astro’s Playroom is a free game, pre-installed to every PlayStation 5 console. Whilst initially awestruck by the game, it didn’t take very long to see why Sony’s catchy ‘For the Players’ tagline is an admirable slogan built on a history of gaming icons. This game is incredibly well-made; the care put into it is visible in every corner; but as it is it was not made for people like me. Finally, as much as I adore Astro’s cute nature and attention to detail with its celebration of PlayStation nostalgia, I would have loved a more considered narrative on top of all that. I mentioned this already in my Astro’s Playroom preview, but it really can’t be overstated how innovative the DualSense PS5 Controller is and just how effective Astro’s Playroom is at showing it off.

Should You Try Out Astro’s Playroom In 2025?

This PS5 pack-in most certainly hues closer to a technical showcase, essentially a loosely-structured sandbox to mess around in and discover what the PS5 has to offer. But it has enough collectibles, creative ideas, and genuinely exciting uses of the DualSense that PS5 owners shouldn’t brush this one aside in the launch lineup. After Casino win79 and months of hearing how the DualSense would immerse me like never before, Astro’s Playroom put promises into practice and impressively proved what’s possible with the PS5’s new controller. Whether it’s the main menu with its signature Astro theme to celebrate the character, or CPU Plaza’s grandiose techno track and even Cooling Springs having a nice and cozy tune in its ice level.

We’ll update our awards tracker whenever new awards and nominations are announced. Astro’s Playroom has this infectious charm, even down to its main character, who is so cute and loveable. Sony is losing money because it does not have a plushie of an Astro Bot.

A revised version of the Processor Unit allowed for HDR passthrough, which was a feature added to all PS4s via firmware. The DualShock 4 marked the first time the PlayStation controller was given a significant aesthetic redesign. The new Share Button, which let you take screenshots and record video, replaced the Select Button, Fortunately, almost all games moved the Select Button function to pressing down on the new touchpad. Vita Game Packs could also be used on the PlayStation TV, which meant it wasn’t a digital-only platform like the PSP Go was.

Alongside the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn, the PlayStation was one of the first video game consoles to specialize in 3D graphics. Early models featured RCA jacks for video and audio output and a Parallel I/O port, but these were all removed by the 1999 models. At the top, wait for the last block to slide left so you can stand on the left-hand side. Use a jump and Beam Glide to land on top of the block (just like you did before), then ride the block left through the Coins. From here you can jump left one last time to land on a button that reveals a Yellow Trampoline.