The Sublime Astro Bot Will Be You (And Your Child's) Next Favorite Video Game

With Astro Bot, Sony's proved it can make a game on par with Nintendo's best, including appealing to (and satisfying) kids and adults alike.

My oldest daughter did not learn how to jump in a video game the way I did, with a controller in my hand and Mario as my guide. Instead, it was while awkwardly moving her fingers around an iPad in Roblox, a game with clumsy and imprecise physics. She did not press buttons, she tapped on virtual buttons. It does not feel good to jump in Roblox, but it’s where she learned that the act of jumping in a game can produce joy.

Such is life!

Other parents make their children watch Star Wars in order of release. But for me, I have been patiently waiting for the right “gateway game” to help my children understand where my love of video games comes from: platformers. I am fortunate to have potentially found that game in the truly superb Astro Bot, a new 3D platformer from Sony and developer Team Asobi that releases tomorrow on PlayStation 5.

It’s rare for a game to have appeal across ages without feeling condescending, to feel fully engaging to anyone who plays without shoving them into, say, an “easy mode.” 

Astro Bot, though, is one of those games. 

“For some games, it works to have a drop down menu and have these difficulties," said Team Asobi studio head and creative director Nicolas Doucet when we spoke this earlier this summer. "But we don’t want to go down that route. Being a platformer, fundamentally, what are you going to do? A jump is a jump. You aren’t going to be making that distance longer or shorter because that would be a headache. [laughs] Imagine an easy mode where everything gets close together."

The main path in Astro Bot’s stages, at least in the few worlds I’ve played, are not hard. There are generous checkpoints, so dying rarely means replaying more than a small slice of a level. That might seem like an issue for an older and more experienced player, but early on, Astro Bot is largely not a game about shrewd platforming, it’s about fully and completely exploring a space. (But worry not, there are also very mean challenge stages to play!) A child is not likely to pick up on the subtle clues about where every collectible is hidden, which is where Astro Bot excels. It’s dense, rewarding the kind of careful exploration that a kid is likely to eschew in favor of beating a level.

But it creates delightful moments where a parent and child can play together, even if only one person is holding the controller. The other person can suggest ideas and places to explore. You never know what might be hiding behind that shaking bush!

When I wrote about Super Nintendo World and the challenges of scaling difficulty settings in theme park experiences, I linked to a great essay by Game Maker’s Toolkit, which breaks down how Nintendo’s Mario games have “invisible difficulty settings.”

Astro Bot, too, has invisible difficulty settings.

Here’s how Doucet explained the team’s thinking:

Across every Astro game, the team has a specific approach to level design: main path and side pockets. The main path is what's in front of the player, and should "give a sense of peril, but also a younger [player] can still get there." Side pockets are to the left and right, where challenge escalates and "you're going to have these tight jumps."

It works. 

Astro Bot’s main path means regular progress and less friction. “Side pockets” are daring the game to provide a challenge. It’s up for you to accept it. In that sense, the player is choosing when they want to play in an easier or harder setting. It might feel more visible to you, an accomplished game player, but it stays invisible to children.

You can play however you want, but Astro Bot does firmly communicate that it’s a slower paced game. There’s combat, but like Mario, it can often be avoided, with the focus staying on curiosity. I noticed this best playing side-by-side with my eight-year-old. She asked for the controller and played the beach-themed first level on her own. 

You can see the area in question here:

Any parent who’s played a co-op game with their kid has probably had a moment where they are quietly pulling their hair out over a collectible that’s just off to the side but their kid is determined to keep moving. Despite this, I watched with awe as my daughter took the game’s gentle hand and, on her own, tracked down every collectible—every robot, every puzzle piece. I was clapping like a seal when the level was over.

One Proud Papa moment in particular that stood out was when she was exploring an underwater section and accidentally pierced a bubble. You could watch the lightbulb go off in real-time, as it dawned upon her there was a bubble she’d passed over earlier. Without prompting, she headed back and picked up what she missed. That’s my girl!

Though Astro Bot might not have difficulty settings, it does have an option to increase the size of the tiny video tutorials that explain how mechanics work on the controller, and lets players tap the circle button to center the camera behind Astro Bot. My oldest is becoming more adept at manipulating the second analog stick, but circle is helpful!

Astro’s Playroom, which came packed in with every PS5, was a toy designed to be beaten by anyone who played it, regardless of age or skill. In the eyes of Team Asobi, Astro’s Playroom might’ve been someone’s first game. Astro Bot scales differently. A child who was able to finish Astro’s Playroom will, most likely, do fine in Astro Bot’s first world. 

Beyond that, though, the game feels comfortable leaving players of certain skill levels behind. The game demands more precise platforming, requires more creative thinking, and sequences will fall apart without chaining together several mechanics back-to-back-to-back. For my eight-year-old, I suspect we will treat beating the first world as “beating” Astro Bot. For you, maybe that’s world two? Three? Beyond? 

At some point, she’ll probably be content spending my in-game coins for the gacha machine. But for me—for us—that first world will be enough. I’ll take it from there.

And let me tell you, Dad is going to have an amazing time.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• The worst part about writing this is that I’m not playing Astro Bot. When I schedule this to be released, I will be playing a level from Astro Bot before bed.

• My oldest daughter has a stomach virus, and before I put her to bed, she asked “Can we play Astro Bot?” I turned her down, but promised to if she felt better.

• Astro Bot and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in the same month? I know the industry feels like it’s on fire sometimes, but those are some games.