The fact that it’s a pack-in pre-installed on every PS5 and will most likely be the first thing everyone plays while they wait for their first games to download and install is a pretty amazing bonus. My favorite of them is GPU Jungle’s full robotic monkey suit, which leads to vertically-scrolling, 2D-view levels. Once you finish all the levels at least once you’ll unlock a series of “speed run” levels that are variants off of the game’s main levels. I appreciated these because they weren’t just the same exact levels with a timer added, but instead offered totally new paths and obstacles through a stage that was merely themed after the existing level. You’ll recognize backgrounds and a few elements, but they may as well be new levels. Each of them can be completed in around a minute or less and there’s a leaderboard to see how you stack up.
The main boss for this level is the Demo 1 Dinosaur, more commonly known as the Demo 1 T. This fellow was in the Dinosaur Tech demo to show the power of the PlayStation at rendering a single character. The T. Rex makes many other appearances in Astro’s Playroom, including the Dreams reference in Renderforest and some of the screens in the PlayStation Labo area. Yet another unlockable display for the Labo area is a Bot throwing a blue boomerang around. The shape is a reference to the infamous “Boomerang” prototype controller, an unofficial name for the controller that was shown alongside the PlayStation 3 when it debuted.
The illusion is incredible, making me feel way more connected to the events on screen than I would without this tension. Astro’s Playroom isn’t just a tech demo but a fun little platformer. It’s great that Sony is investing more in the Astro Bot franchise because this could be their answer to the Super Mario series. The level design is more like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World, and that’s a huge compliment. While linear, the space feels open enough to have a ton of details throughout. The basics are you’re traversing the area, trying to find items and coins as you reach the next level.
The first starfish is under the pier immediately to the right of when the player first lands in the water from the slide. It will make a small noise through your controller when it is stepped on. The second one is near a much wider pier on the left side, just past it and to the left. When you move past the enemy you leave alive, climb on top of the area on the white walls. Move along it until you reach the tiny astronaut on it, then purposefully die while standing on it to respawn back by the checkpoint and free the Special Bot. This Special Bot is on the third section of the stage, Deep Dataspace.
The level design is more clever than cloying, and the bots are all very cute and their happy vibes are surprisingly contagious. To unlock the ability to find and collect all the Special Bots in Astro’s Playroom, you must have reached and completed the 1994 Throwback stage. This is the final stage and section of the game, so you must complete the game’s main objective so that these special bots will be available to collect.
All Platforms
If you miss and trigger the checkpoint on the lower platform you’ll need to restart the level to try again, if you don’t trigger it you can just jump off the side. To fly as far as possible you should hold the controller tilted back the whole way, then jump when you want to drop. In case you’re having trouble unlocking the four special bots, make sure to check out Astro’s Playroom’s community on PSNProfiles, which has solutions to the most common issues players are facing.
Astro’s Playroom: Beginner’s Guide
However, I have been very disappointed in their increasingly silly take on PSSR. If you have only unlocked one or two in Astro’s Playroom, they will appear here individually, meaning you can return and get the rest when you are ready. Before you proceed, we recommend you play around with the D-Pad, which will cause Astro to perform four different dances through the four directions. Familiarize yourself with these, as you’ll need to remember them shortly. To find the special in Memory Meadow, head to the Gusty Gateway area. Basically, it means that the triggers can offer resistance if you’re trying to perform some task that requires a lot of effort.
Some, like the adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and built-in microphone, are new. But they all distinguish the DualSense from its Xbox- and Nintendo-based counterparts. Playroom is an incredibly charming jaunt through a PlayStation-inspired digital theme park, ensuring that your first hop, skip, and jump of the PS5 era is wholly, unequivocally joyful.
With an experience like this, it’s no wonder that Astro Bot has a devoted following so much that a full-length game is coming soon. If you haven’t played this gem, enjoy the pinnacle PS5 experience. As tr88 can tell, there’s not much of a story with this game, but you don’t need a fully fleshed-out plot for this demo. Astro’s Playroom has you controlling one of the Astro Bots as you explore different areas to find artifacts. These aren’t just any items but other accessories and items from PlayStation’s history.
Rescue Special Bot Trapped In Memory Meadow
DVDs meanwhile aided the PS2 because its DVD drive meant that it could play DVD movies, an incredibly popular format for watching films at the time. Speaking of which, on a table is a Bot observing a gold plus with the Sacred Symbols on it. This is in reference to PlayStation Plus, a premium service that launched in 2010 that offered features such as PlayStation Store discounts, automatic patch downloads and save backups. “The Last Guy” Trophy, awarded for getting 20 Bots to follow Astro in the CPU Plaza, is named after the 2008 PSN game The Last Guy, developed by SCE Japan Studios. The game is about playing as a survivor of a zombie infestation who must find and lead stranded civilians to safety. It’s notable for using satellite imagery from Google Earth to render its cities.