- Accidental Innuendo:
- Upon dealing the last hit to Lady Venomara in her boss battle, she shouts something that a few players have heard as a breathy and passionate "ohhhhh, yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!", leading to jokes that she was enjoying the fight, and particularly getting beat up by Astro, a little too much.
- The name of the second Vicious Void level has attracted a few jokes and laughs: "Thrust or Bust".
- Animation Age Ghetto: When the game ended up getting a surprise win for "Game of the Year" at the 2024 Game Awards, it received some backlash partly because people couldn't believe that a cutesy, family-friendly platformer managed to beat out more "serious" games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree — nevermind that Astro Bot had become one of the most praised games of the year by critics and players alike. Others voiced bemusement that it only took until Astro Bot for a mascot platformer to win, while the seminal Super Mario series (which directly inspired Astro Bot) hadn't won "Game of the Year" yet despite getting nominated three times in the pastnote .
- Best Level Ever:
- "Going Loco". From the sugar-sweet and squishy aesthetics of the world to the childlike babble of the background music (which is a remix of LocoRoco's theme song) to Astro himself being turned into a giant blue gumdrop with his robot "face" being enlarged to fit, the whole level oozes personality and fun. And it's not just the setting: many players have remarked that the gameplay of "Going Loco" demonstrates that Team Asobi (made up of former SIE Japan Studio staffers, the studio responsible for LocoRoco itself) could do great work if given free reign on a full-fledged modern LocoRoco. The gameplay stretches beyond the 2D plane of the source material and uses the DualSense's motion controls to tilt the world, luxuries unavailable to the original games that were on PSP.
- "Luna Sola", where you have to smack buttons that tilt the level allowing you to progress. Each time you alter the layout, it switches between day and night, and the music changes too. It's not the hardest level but it's innovative and just plain fun, and the catchy big band/jazz music only makes it more enjoyable.
- Catharsis Factor: Finally beating the Great Master Challenge and collecting the final VIP Bot is nothing short of gratifying, especially considering how painstakingly difficult the stage has proven to be for many people.
- Even Better Sequel: While the previous games were well-received in their own right, this is the most critically acclaimed one, to date.
- Fandom Rivalry: Developed a pretty bitter one with Black Myth: Wukong following Astro Bot taking home the coveted "Game of the Year" award at the 2024 Game Awards, beating out Wukong. Following the show, Wukong players angrily vented their frustrations over their game losing to a "simple kid's game," while Astro Bot players fired back by dismissing Wukong as a "mediocre copycat Soulslike" and an "overly linear Boss Rush''. This isn't helped by the Game Science CEO venting anger and frustration on Chinese social media site Weibo, while Team Asobi brought positive energy with their acceptance speech (see Friendly Fandoms below).
- Friendly Fandoms: Despite being a Sony-exclusive game celebrating the 30th anniversary of PlayStation and the many franchises they've played host to over the decades, Astro Bot has received lots of praise from Nintendo fans and has been positively compared to many of their franchises like Super Mario Bros., Kirby, Pikmin, and Splatoon due to having a lot of cuteness and charm on top of rock-solid level design and movement, unique settings, and diverse powerups. Put together, all of that has earned Astro Bot a reputation as one of the best non-Nintendo platformers to have ever been released. Even Masahiro Sakurai, who's been closely-aligned with Nintendo for his entire career, had glowing praise for the game on Twitter. It also helps that, during Team Asobi's acceptance speech at The Game Awards 2024 for winning Game of the Year, Super Mario Bros. 1 was name-dropped as a massive influence for the entire team, with Doucet also paying tribute to Nintendo as a whole.
- Good Bad Bugs:
- At the end of "Go-Go Archipelago!", you can clip through a wall into the room with the secret exit by leaping from the first swing bar, then grabbing onto the first banana ledge with precise positioning and timing, allowing you to skip the Captain Pincher miniboss.
- Normally, the purple quicksand in "Trapped in Time" sucks Astro down to his death instantly. However, if you're punching when you're on the sand, you won't get sucked in. Spamming punches will allow you to run up the quicksand with no issue as long as you don't stop.
- You can jump around the trigger that breaks the rope bridge at the beginning of "Hieroglitch Pyramid", letting you trigger the checkpoint before the ending slide sequence early. If you go back down to the rest of the level after hitting the checkpoint, the birds that allow you to return to the end quicker will already be in place, enabling you to quickly get around and grab the collectibles out of order.
- At the very end of "Machine Learning", it's possible to skip the trigger that causes Blunderjaw to reappear and attack you, letting you jump to the second island and snipe the exploding barrels that earn you the Mothership's covers and complete the level.
- Just Here for Godzilla:
- There are people who are interested in this game for how much of a Creator's Oddball it is among modern Sony Interactive Entertainment releases, being a bright, cartoony and colorful Collect-a-Thon Platformer developed by a Japanese studio from a company that's shifted more and more towards realistic-looking, Western-developed AAA games ever since the successes of Uncharted and The Last of Us.
- Shmup fans, especially Thunder Force fans, have taken notice of this game because a stage track from Thunder Force V is used for the shmup final level.
- Memetic Mutation:
- The PlayStation 5 finally has a game. Explanation
- "Sony doesn't have enough IPs." Explanation
- Astro Marine 2 Explanation
- Concord VIP Bot Explanation
- NebulaXbox Explanation
- "JOKER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Explanation
- Agent 47? Explanation
- WALL•E and EVE are the parents. Explanation
- Mis-blamed: Some people are placing the blame squarely on Sony for not having any Final Fantasy character bot cameos when several of Square Enix's games were the most iconic on various PlayStation consoles (or indeed any cameos from franchises tied to Square at all — so no 2B or Sora bot cameos either or even deep cuts closely tied to Sony and Square's history, such as Sion). But Final Fantasy is not a first-party series owned by Sony, rather instead being a third-party franchise that was initially exclusive to Nintendo platforms. While there was already limited representation for Final Fantasy VII in Astro's Playroom by way of a Buster Sword statue, actually licensing out the likenesses for various Final Fantasy characters would require going through a lot more legal work and red tape than just getting the Buster Sword. This is backed by Word of God, who implied
that Asobi did try to get permission to use the characters' likenesses, only for it to be shot down by Square Enix. A Square Enix-related bot, Gex, would eventually make its way into the game via the "Winter Wonder" DLC level, but its inclusion is more likely down to the role the series played in the early PlayStation years — when it was still a property of Crystal Dynamics — than any current connection it has to Square Enix (who are the current rights holders to the franchise, via their earlier acquisition of Eidos Interactive).- The injustice would finally be put to rest in the July 10th, 2025 update, where the new levels added the Vicious Void galaxy feature two bots representing the Final Fantasy franchise, Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, as well as NieR: Automata's 2B and Serge from Chrono Cross.
- Older Than They Think: Absolutely full of it, largely due to the fact that most players only became aware of Astro's existence through Astro's Playroom, which was pre-installed on every PS5 and gained a fair amount of attention for being a polished 3D platformer, and that all of his outings before that had not only been PlayStation exclusive, but had required additional peripherals to even play. Truth is that these cute little robots have been around in some form or another since 2013, and 2024's Astro Bot could be thought of as being anything from the second to the fifth game in the series depending on how you want to count it.
- The debut of the bot characters was in The Playroomnote , which was pre-installed on the PS4 and was essentially a mini-game compilation/activity pack focused on the PlayStation Camera, an optional PS4 peripheral that few players saw the need to acquire (at least until it was required to allow the PSVR to work and came bundled with an updated model). Its PS4 icon didn't help, as the design made many think it was some kind of system software and not a game.
- Astro himself emerged as a distinct character among the Bots in 2016's The Playroom VR, which was essentially a pack-in title for the original PlayStation VRnote . This was also where Astro started platforming in 3D for the first time in the Robots Rescue minigame (which was basically a single level of Astro Bot in VR), was the first time Astro was tasked with gathering stranded Bots as the main collectibles of the game, and had the first instance of a collectible sidequest achieved by pulling capsules from a machine (a crane game here instead of later games' purely random gacha machine).
- So very much of Astro Bot really had its origins in 2018's Astro Bot Rescue Mission, which was what happened when Japan Studio's Team Asobi expanded the Robots Rescue minigame into a full title by popular request. The overall premise (The Bully alien Nebulax steals a critical component from Astro's spaceship, breaking off several more pieces in the process and scattering the bot crew, prompting Astro to go on an adventure to rescue them and reclaim the ship parts), the design of enemies (the ones from Robots Rescue were much more blocky), the collection sidequest costing 100 coins per play (The Playroom VR would instead award tokens based on minigame performance and each would allow a single play on the crane)... the roadmap for a full-fledged game that Astro Bot would follow had been laid down in Rescue Mission six years prior. That also includes most of the characters: Nebulax, Mighty Chewy, Wako Tako, Falcon McFly and Big Brother made their debut here. Add to that most of the soundtrack, level biomes, enemies, and even specific gameplay gimmicks debuting here, and there's a fair argument that Astro Bot is more of a Mission-Pack Sequel to Rescue Mission than it is a proper follow-up.
- Even though Astro's Playroom got a fair amount of attention, some players are unaware that it exists and predates Astro Bot, acting as the first time that Astro's platforming was done outside of VR. It was also where the franchise's association with celebrating PlayStation history started, as the main collectible wasn't stranded Bots but rather "Artifacts", which were pieces of official PlayStation hardware released over the years, as well as featuring many Bots cosplaying as PlayStation characters, some of whom simply had their models and animations ported directly into Astro Bot. The game was effectively you exploring the PS5 ship that you are attempting to repair in Astro Bot, with the areas being based on the critical components of the Memory, SSD, GPU and Cooling Fan, as well as the CPU unit being the key central component. It also swapped out the crane game from earlier iterations for a simpler gacha machine and featured the Monkey Suit, which would be tweaked and recycled into Astro Bot.
- Pandering to the Base: The game is an absolute love letter to PlayStation fans and is filled with references and nods to PlayStation's history, including having levels centered around specific franchises and VIP bots themed around many of PlayStation's characters, some of whom are obscure deep cuts that only the most hardcore of fans will get. While this has been largely praised, especially since PlayStation rarely acknowledges their history, some critics feel this is to the game's detriment, arguing that the emphasis on PlayStation nostalgia gives the game little to make it truly stand out on its own. However, many argue the game has enough creative and original ideas to counteract this, especially considering Astro Bot Rescue Mission was doing everything this game did before the VIP Bots came about in Astro's Playroom, and most of the game's praise in online discussions comes from the level design and gameplay, which are still excellent even outside the themed levels at the end of every world.
- Spiritual Successor:
- While Astro's Playroom was one to Nintendo Land, Astro Bot serves as one to the Super Mario Galaxy duology, being a 3D Collect-a-Thon Platformer centered around traveling though space to dozens of themed locations, while the overall level design also resembles Super Mario 3D World.
- It may also bring to mind Wii Sports Resort as both it and Astro Bot are standalone sequels to their respective consoles's pack-in tech demos (Wii Sports for the Wii, Astro's Playroom for the PlayStation 5), made to further highlight the features of their controllers, while being of much bigger scope than their predecessors.
- Some have also remarked on its similarity to Ape Escape, as both games task you with scouring varied levels to find characters (Apes in Ape Escape, Bots in Astro Bot), some generic and some themed, that act as the main collectible, though with the intent to rescue them rather than capture them — fitting, as Team Asobi was part of SIE Japan Studio, a group which included the team that made the Ape Escape games. The comparison becomes even more fitting given that the final level in the first world is directly based on Ape Escape.
- Suspiciously Similar Song:
- The main melody of the Astro Bot theme, "I am Astro Bot", resembles "Starlight" by Muse.
- When recovering a satellite in the Crash Site, the beginning of the music that plays has a similar progression to the invincibility theme from Super Mario Bros..
- Sweet Dreams Fuel: It's a light-hearted platformer starring cute robots that lovingly celebrates the history of Sony Interactive Entertainment, and where the villain is a mere Dastardly Whiplash. Needless to say, it's a very accessible and pleasant experience that is bound to make any player feel good inside while playing it.
- That One Level:
- The Great Master Challenge combines many obstacles from previous challenge courses and levels in the game and places them in one long obstacle course that must be navigated with precise timing and little room for error. It's long, gruelling, and one mistake means you have to start over.
- While the Lost Void levels are meant to be somewhat more challenging than the standard levels, "Splashing Sprint" stands out as being significantly more cruel than the rest of them, with some believing that it's arguably harder than Great Master Challenge. The main culprit is that there is an uncharacteristically high number of things happening at once throughout the level; the main gimmick is the rubber duck, whose random spray pattern becomes a much bigger issue in this level, and you are bombarded with hazards that you have to navigate around using the duck, including flame bars, lava pits, goop, and homing projectiles, which are often paired together to make platforming even more difficult. It's made a bit easier after you figure out you can throw the duck early as a projectile, letting you take out two troublesome enemies... but the game never requires you to do this anywhere else.
- While not nearly as difficult as "Splashing Sprint", "To the Beat!" has been known to trip some players up. The gimmick of this stage is that most hazards are synced to quarter-beat cycles, which is a fair bit faster than most obstacles in the game. While this makes the obstacles predictable, it also means players have to reorient themselves to accommodate significantly faster paced movement. And while the stage's name may imply Musical Gameplay, the obstacles are not tied to the BGM, making for a somewhat awkward experience if you come in expecting it.
- Similar to the Lost Galaxy, completing every level around the ring that makes up the Vicious Void galaxy will cause a new level to appear in the middle — "Megamix Mastery". This level can be seen as a successor to the Great Master Challenge but now requires the player integrate three power ups (Dog, Bear, and Chicken) that have to be used to traverse the level in addition to the demanding platforming and enemy negotiation. And once again, the level is a long, unforgiving slog, and one mistake sends you back to the start.
- Underused Game Mechanic: The mouse powerup and its shrinking ability only appear in a single level, "Downsize Surprise", unlike the majority of the other powerups. Many players felt that being able to change size and how the level design works around it made for a very interesting stage, and think it was a criminally missed opportunity that it wasn't explored further with a second level. It does return in the "Winter Wonder" DLC level alongside every other powerup seen in the game, but its segment sadly lacks the ingenuity of its sole dedicated level.
- Unexpected Character:
- While the VIP bots mostly consist of well known PlayStation characters, there are quite a few unexpected and obscure deep cuts in the roster that took even hardcore fans by surprise, such as Robbit, Vibri, Captain Rock, Kutaro, Polygon Man, and Alundra, amongst others.
- Dart Feld was a big surprise to many, as while The Legend of Dragoon enjoys Cult Classic status, it hasn't been acknowledged by Sony in years apart from being rereleased on PSN and PS Plus.
- While Raziel returning from Astro's Playroom wasn't much of a surprise (if at all), few people expected that he'd be bringing Kain along with him - and not only that, but specifically the Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain version of him, as opposed to his portrayals in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain.
- Octodad isn't usually thought of as a character with heavy ties to Sony (outside of being a very early indie game on PS4 when the library was a lot thinner), so stumbling upon him in "Bubbling Under" tends to surprise players.
- Considering that they're characters who originated in comic books rather than video games, Peter Parker and Miles Morales being the final two bots of the holiday-themed Winter Wonder bonus level came as a huge surprise.
- The final levels in each galaxy are, in gameplay and aesthetic, based on major PlayStation titles like Uncharted and God of War Ragnarök. Few would have expected one of them to be LocoRoco, a quirky physics-based platformer for the PSP.
- The appearance of Sir Galahad from The Order: 1886 was a surprise, given the game's critical and commercial failure.
- Viewer Species Confusion: One of the powerups is frequently assumed to be a Cymbal-Banging Monkey. It's actually a Cymbal-Banging Bear, likely due to the monkey being used for another powerup that echoes the abilities of the monkey suit from Playroom. Multiple people were surprised to learn it was a bear several months after release, thanks to the Vicious Void level dedicated to it being titled "Hard to Bear".
- Visual Effects of Awesome: This game really loves showing off its ability to render hundreds of small objects with individually calculated physics all at once, with nearly every level having at least one location where you can do this. If you ever are somewhere that has a bunch of small objects you can interact with (such as the voxels in the Retraux levels, the apples
at the end of "Trunk of Funk", and the treasure caches in "Trapped in Time" and "Hieroglitch Pyramid"), run around and punch or otherwise move them to witness the dynamic physics of how they all react. The slow-motion powerup enhances this, letting you watch the items get launched in slow-mo before flying away at normal speed.
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