N.B. Spoiler free (bar minimal examples of controller use)
Astro’s DualSense PlayStation tour
What if I told you that there was a game that essentially was one giant PlayStation easter egg full of easter eggs? What if I told you that that game simultaneously toured through the history of PlayStation? What if I told you that that game also was a tech demo for the PS5 DualSense controller? And what if I told you that despite all this fan service, excellent gameplay reminiscent of Mario was created?
That game is Astro’s playroom! A wonderful, joyful platformer to usher in the PS5 era, Astro’s Playroom is both an excellent game and a brilliant way to show the player what the DualSense controller can do. This game is free and pre-installed on new PS5s, but yet I have heard of many skipping over it – don’t!
Astro’s playroom – The tech demo
I truly think that the joy of this new console, the PlayStation 5, is its controller, the DualSense – in fact, this alone for many has led them to think the PS5 is more ‘next gen’ than the Xbox series; I think that in many ways they are right – where Xbox has essentially released a more powerful console (‘the world’s most powerful’) than ever before, PlayStation has tried to innovate and drive the experience of gaming forwards by taking it further than sound, sight and ‘rumble. I feel that they have done so excellently, and nothing displays this more (at the moment!) than Astro’s Playroom.
From the very opening of the game, on the title screen, you can feel the world of the Playroom through the DualSense. Movement on the screen is reflected through the controller brilliantly, and somehow Asobi Team at Japan Studio created the feeling through the controller of pressing ‘any button to continue’ – and man it feels great!
A literal walkthrough of the controller’s functions follows, which has all the excitement of a theme park entrance – adaptive triggers, haptic feedback and more are shown off. Then comes the game, which builds on the use of the controller whilst simultaneously holding its own as an outstanding platformer with remarkable positivity.
It is both extremely difficult and shockingly easy to spoil the experience of Astro’s Playroom, so I will just give a couple of examples to show the range of imagination and the intense care that must have gone into this game – there are a few instances of touchpad use to do up a zip, and you can feel each kink of the zip as you swipe up to do it up through the haptic feedback! A use of the adaptive triggers (my favourite!) was in a spaceship, similar to the adaptive trigger show during walkthrough of features at the beginning – you can really feel the power of the thrusters through the adaptive triggers and the haptic feedback! Moving around in Astro’s Playroom is always a joy, as you can feel every surface you walk on through the controller, whether it be discs, glass, grass or clouds, but I have to commend in particular the use of the haptic feedback and controller speakers for an ice segment, as this was absolutely outstanding and had me skating in circles just to feel it more!
Astro’s playroom – the platformer
But not only is this experience an excellent tech demo, but it would be remarkable even without these features. Playing through the game, you can tell that each little bit of each world is crafted lovingly, and every corner is chock full of call-backs and references to PlayStation games and console through the ages. On top of this, the gameplay is excellent and tight, and although short, has more variation than most platformers!
The 3D world of Astro’s Playroom is made up of a variety of biomes, from jungles to clouds, and from mountains to space. Each setting is wonderful, with unique, magical soundtracks (although the GPU song very nearly got old…) and sound effects (in particular listen out in the areas at the end of each world if you’re an old timer with PlayStation!), and unique backdrops and environments to interact with. There are a good variety of enemy types, ranging from ‘goomba’-like enemies to slimes with range attacks, to flying crushers and electrical enemies with AOE attacks. Taking these down is relatively simple, with punch, spin attack, jump and laser making up your move set (and an ability to pull wires occasionally), but a variety of situations and the length of the game ensures these encounters always feel fresh. Additionally, there are a number of powerups throughout the game which bring nice variety.
Friendly NPCs also populate the world, mostly dressed up bots similar to Astro but with a very cute type of friendly robot in Cooling Springs in particular! These NPCs are the main vehicle for Easter eggs in the Playroom, and they are used excellently. You’ll see signature costume parts and weapons wielded by these bots, including a certain fungus, a striking father and son pair on a rowing boat, and many bots holding onto signature yellow handholds! Recognising (and indeed spotting!) all of these is lots of fun, and really makes you appreciate how much ‘PlayStation’ there truly is!
On top of everything on foot, there are also a variety of vehicles, which are excellently handled and feel incredibly unique to play using. I shan’t dwell any more on these as discovering them and learning to use them is a treat!
Throughout the game you collect coins (satisfying sound included!), and these can be spent on an arcade machine, which although not very deep is still very fun to use, the experience amplified by the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.
This machine is one way of getting collectibles, but these artifacts are also a joy to discover out in the levels. I feel that the number of collectibles in relation to the size of the game and its levels is excellent, and these items all collect into a diorama-like scene in what is essentially a ‘collectible world’. Seeing this fill up really gives some motivation to explore each world’s levels fully and, especially when complete, this world is amazing to mess around in and see what happens when you interact with the artifacts (which I recommend you spend some time doing!).
There is also a ‘network speed run’ section, available fully when you have finished the game, which is great fun and very short, so I’d very much recommend you jump into that too, to finish off the experience.
Happy Summary
Overall, Astro’s playroom is an absolute blast. What would be on its own an excellent 3D platformer is launched to the next level with the PS5 DualSense integration. This is an absolutely excellent way to bring in the next generation of gaming of PlayStation, but equally it is a nostalgia trip and a lovingly made reflection on how far PlayStation has come over the years. This coming pre-installed for free on the PlayStation 5 is an absolute treat, and I recommend this experience to anyone with a PS5. In fact, I think that the real value of next gen may even be lost a little if you do decide to skip over it, so get Astro botting!