Sony's 2024 has been somewhat atypical in terms of releases. It’s going though a transition in which no major projects are coming out of the current-gen machine. With PS5 Pro about to hit the market, studios such as Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, and Insomniac Games continue to work on various video games that can extract the full potential, although for the moment, there’s no word on how they’re progressing or what they’re about. However, the final stretch of the year had a very pleasant surprise in store.

Team Asobi had already surprised us at the generation’s beginning with the arrival of Astro's Playroom, a sort of tech demo to show off the PS5's strengths: The speed of the SSD hard drive, the haptic feedback of the DualSense controller, and other kinds of features the console has to offer. Despite being a free game that came pre-installed on the system itself, its impact was magnificent, generating very positive feelings among gamers. A reception that has led to Astro Bot having its own videogame to become one of the best platformers of recent times.

A tribute to the history of PlayStation

Despite the good work Team Asobi did with Astro's Playroom, few expected Astro Bot to become a genre benchmark. However, the title is such a big deal that it even aims to have a significant presence at The Game Awards 2024, where the best games of the year are chosen. PS5's proposal bets on very different mechanics and, although it’s not a total revolution in the platform genre, it does manage to provide sensations that only the Mario series has achieved in the entire history of videogames.

Astro Bot's formula is simple and very effective. In fact, possibly its only criticisable aspect is the fact that its levels are very easy to pass, as it has a familiar format so that any player can enjoy it. Despite this, the construction of each level is superb, offering very different environments and different and varied mechanics, giving the feeling that at all times, you’re playing something new. It's a process very similar to that of Super Mario Odyssey, for example, a game to which it has been compared ad nauseam for its ambition and great universe building.

All this through a fantastic homage to the entire history of PlayStation. Team Asobi's ability to bring together dozens of illustrious franchises from the Japanese firm's history and adapt them to the robotic format so that they can fit into the videogame is one of the most titanic works seen in the industry in recent times. Astro Bot serves to pay tribute to PlayStation's 30 years of existence through the presence of iconic characters such as Lara Croft, Kratos from God of War, Nathan Drake from Uncharted, and even great classics such as Crash Bandicoot or Spyro, among many others.

Astro Bot will continue to explore PlayStation space

With its successful launch and the scores it has achieved, Astro Bot is in a privileged position among PlayStation franchises that deserve continued treatment. The little robot is set to be the brand's big mascot for years to come, and the company's boss, Hermen Hulst, has even stated that it’s "very, very important to the brand ’. So, after testing and demonstrating what Sony's virtual reality was capable of in the first place, and then hitting the table with the technical capabilities of PS5, it’s now capable of exploring its own space to reach the sky.

Astro Bot's work is proof that the platform genre, one of the great drivers of the interactive entertainment industry and the very beginnings of PlayStation, is still very much alive. It’s the perfect tool for Sony to compete with a giant like Nintendo, which has long-established and recognisable brands in the genre. It may seem overly ambitious to say that Mario has been given competition, but the result of the PS5 game has little or nothing to worry about regarding the latest 3D works that the successful plumber has starred in. What’s clear is that it looks set to have a very promising future over the next few years, as rumor has it that the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch with a new 3D Mario game, allowing for comparison to the work seen in Astro Bot.

Despite the PS5 generation being one of the most lacking in terms of exclusive games, jewels like Astro Bot prove that the creativity of the studios that make up the PlayStation Studios portfolio knows no bounds. Team Asobi has shown enormous potential with a video game that has been included among the big names of 2024, such as Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Dragon's Dogma II or Black Myth: Wukong, among many others. A further demonstration that sometimes the key to success can be hidden behind the simplest formulas that are capable of reaching deep into the heart of the players' hearts.