Astro’s Playroom

Astro's Playroom may be the most underrated launch title of the next generation of consoles. We have been hearing for months about Miles Morales, Dark Souls, and whatever launch titles came out on the Xbox Series X. But where has the love been for Astro's Playroom? This lack of hype is in part due to most consumers simply seeing Astro's Playroom as a free pack-in tech demo. I am happy to report that it is far more than just a tech demo and it may signal that Sony is coming for Nintendo's beloved Mario. Astro's playroom shines due to its ability to expertly showcase the new DualSense controller through creatively crafted 3D platforming.

At first glance, Astro's Playroom appears to be a traditional 3D platformer, but due to the capabilities of the DualSense controller it is a unique and revolutionary experience. The DualSense controller offers features like haptic feedback and responsive triggers. These features are showcased through gameplay elements that are strikingly similar to Mario's power-up abilities. For example, Astro can wear various suits that turn him into different animals or objects. The four "power-ups" found in the game include a frog, monkey, ball, and rocket ship suit. These suits use different elements of the DualSense controller like the touchpad, adaptive triggers, motion control, and even the microphone for an annoying blowing challenge. Most of these features have been introduced on Nintendo platforms as gimmicks, but Sony was actually able to convince me that these features are the future of gaming.

Sony is now in its fifth iteration of home consoles and Astro's Playroom highlights the breadth of PlayStation nostalgia that gamers have acquired over the decades. Throughout the various worlds you explore in game, you are periodically unlocking "artifacts" which are either a previous PlayStation console or one of the many peripherals released over the years. These "artifacts" are then housed and organized in a single room that starts to resemble a museum dedicated to everything PlayStation. There are moments in this game that literally gave me the chills because it tugged on my PlayStation nostalgia strings so much. Astro's Playroom truly felt like a love letter to PlayStation fans.

Another aspect that exemplified how much love went into the creation of Astro's Playroom were the lovely cameos of iconic PlayStation characters throughout the worlds you explored. They were not literal appearances of characters from other franchises, but more akin to bots dressing up like those characters. For example, you can find two bots in a boat that look like Kratos and Atreus from the legendary God of War series. Throwing it back to the original PlayStation generation, you can find a bot dressed up like Crash Bandicoot alongside crates of wumpa fruit. These appearances aren't just cute little easter eggs, but they contribute to a larger sense of pride in the PlayStation ecosystem garnered throughout the game.

When I booted up my PlayStation 5 for the first time Astro's Playroom was there waiting for me, pre-installed on my console. Like many others, I booted up Astro's Playroom first by default while I waited for my critically acclaimed AAA games to download. In the matter of minutes I was hooked. 30 minutes later, God of War was done downloading but I didn't boot it up. Another 30 minutes after that, Spider-Man Remastered was done downloading but I continued playing Astro's Playroom. I was enjoying my time with Astro so much that I completely forgot about the games I bought the PlayStation 5 for. Astro's Playroom can hold its own amongst the best and it excels at showcasing the future of gaming through the DualSense controller. The only flaw is that it is far too short. Astro's Playroom can be beaten in approximately 3 hours and I was left desperately wanting more. This could be a truly legendary franchise if a full game at the same quality was developed. It is because of this one flaw that Astro's Playroom is receiving a BLG 8.5 out of 10.

Buy this game if you enjoy:

God Of War

Hades

Busch League Gaming