I’m sure I’m not the only one who was sat twiddling their thumbs during PlayStation’s May 2024 State of Play, waiting for the already out-of-date hero shooters and mud-coloured soulslikes to give way for something refreshing. Our collective patience was rewarded, in the end, with an electrifying trailer revealing that PlayStation’s De Facto mascot, Astro Bot, is getting a standalone adventure game later this year.
Team Asobi’s Astro Bot trailer had everything. Enormous boss battles, eclectic PlayStation artefacts (shoutout to the Buzz! remote), and cameos from Y2K icons like Parappa the Rapper and Ico. As well as the obvious references, there are some subtle ones, too – maybe I’m projecting, but I feel like the bit where Astro gets all big and flat and destructive is a nod to Artdink’s No One Can Stop Mr Domino.
When it was over, I breathed a deep sigh of relief, knowing that there was at least one first-party PlayStation game to look forward to that wasn’t a cinematic open-world action-adventure game with hyperrealistic graphics.
I’ve been an Asobi evangelist for a while now, a crusade that began when I reviewed the deeply underrated Astro Bot: Rescue Mission many moons ago. I consider VR one of my main ‘beats’ as a writer, so I’ve played pretty much every top-flight game over the past several years. I still regard Rescue Mission as the most innovative and complete VR experience outside of Half-Life: Alyx. Asobi really went off with that one, even if barely anyone played it. This is why it’s such a crying shame that Rescue Mission hasn’t been ported to PS VR 2, a platform which desperately needs a system seller.
But if you’ve played Astro’s Playroom (even if it was just something to do while you were downloading other games on your PS5 come Christmas morning, that still counts), then I don’t have to go on any longer about how brilliant Team Asobi is. Despite the fact that it was built to be a tech demo, Astro’s Playroom comfortably transcended that moniker. I’m confident the new Astro Bot game will follow in its commanding footsteps, and I’m thrilled that Team Asobi is finally making something that doesn’t have to explain or introduce a new piece of hardware. What does it look like when they’re completely unleashed? I’m stoked to find out.
From my review of Astro’s Playroom, for NME:
“If your defence is that it’s just for kids, I feel deeply sorry for you. Even if that was the case, there’s enough attention and care here that even the most straight-faced of adults would fall for its charms. Every level has at least a dozen references to PlayStation games of the past, from obvious forerunners like Uncharted to obscure gems like Vib-Ribbon. Collectable artefacts like PlayStation 2 controllers and PSP peripherals wow with their material work and meticulous detail, from the glossy sheen of the old PS Button to the dogs-nose thumbsticks of yore.”
But as much as I’m excited about Astro Bot, I can’t shake the melancholy circumstances that surround it. Less than a year after Astro’s Playroom launched, Sony shut down its legendary Japan Studio – the crew responsible for nurturing groundbreaking games like Shadow of the Colossus, Gravity Rush, Bloodborne and Ape Escape. When Japan Studio was shuttered, some of its employees were folded into Team Asobi, which itself was a part of Japan Studio until its ultimate demise. In a sense, then, Team Asobi has become the steward of Japan Studio’s deeply-important legacy, one that can be seen emanating beautifully in this latest trailer.
As well as tugging rigorously on our nostalgic heartstrings, I think part of the reason we delight in Asobi’s thoughtful, often-profound references to Old PlayStation is that, ultimately, this is what we have left of that era. Yes, you can still play some of the games that Astro Bot is referencing – those that gave PlayStation an early reputation for playful creativity. A few have been remastered or remade in the years since. But most of them are inaccessible on modern platforms, for whatever reason, which hollows out part of the homage.
Outside of Astro Bot, and whatever Media Molecule may be working on, it feels like PlayStation is moving away from that anything-goes approach it nurtured in the late 90s and early 2000s. The company is now known for best-selling games like The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War and Spider-Man. It’s not to say these transmedia franchises aren’t astounding creative achievements in themselves – I thoroughly enjoy most of PlayStation’s prestige output. But I don’t think I’m the only one who yearns for more ingenuity – even if it isn’t a fascinating new IP, there’s plenty of revivals waiting in the wings. There hasn’t been a mainline Ape Escape game for nearly 20 years now, which feels like a criminal offence to culture.
It’s a sad reality of the modern games industry that studios like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Sucker Punch (all of whom cut their teeth on mascot platformers in the vein of Astro Bot) are now making exclusively hyperrealistic action-adventures for the foreseeable future. Will Asobi inevitably suffer the same fate? I sure hope not. Yet even with the success of Rift Apart, I’m sure that going back to an IP like Ratchet & Clank might feel like too much of a risky gamble for Insomniac when the prospect of another Marvel game is on the table.
Most recently, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s Siren’ and Fantavision’ shirts, and the ‘collectibles’ available through the PlayStation Stars Loyalty Program feel emblematic of this vaulted approach to nostalgia. It’s an appreciated reflection, but it feels like the bare minimum, a sign inside of a simulacrum that evokes a kind of artificial resurrection – a reanimation of an endearing pocket of haute culture that is barely accessible anymore. A memetic legacy that suits our haunted viral age.
But at least we still have Astro Bot, that plucky little rascal. When I boot it up later this year, and see a wonderfully-animated Boku No Natsuyasumi bot swinging a net around recklessly in a grassy plain, I doubt I’ll be thinking of the mausoleumic nostalgia of Y2K PlayStation. I’m sure it’ll kindle all of those familiar fuzzy feelings for as long as its runtime permits. With enough luck, the continued success of Astro Bot could pave the way for more indulgence and esoterica from PlayStation. Asobi is already successfully recreating the aesthetic hallmarks of these long-forgotten franchises… so why not let the studio have a crack at reviving them, too?
