Phrasemaker

Prior to Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, Astro Bot appeared in The Playroom and The Playroom VR. Astro’s Playroom, which is the latest instalment in the Astro Bot franchise, is added to the recent crop of family-friendly 3D platformers. It serves as a tech demo to demonstrate the PlayStation 5’s prowess and capabilities. New PlayStation 5 owners are able to put them to the test.

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission isn’t my first foray into VR, seeing as I attended a few official PlayStation VR events in the past. I played a puzzle-platformer called Moss at an official PlayStation VR event in the Manchester Arndale Centre.

Just like all or most platformers, there is little in the way of story. A little twinkle sparkled in the cosmos before a large spaceship with a headset flew. Astro Bot and his friends suddenly emerged from the ship and had a ball on the roof. However, their fun unfortunately came to a halt when a menacing red star shined in the galaxy before a green-coloured alien riding in his gigantic UFO soared towards the little robots and stopped beside them. He approached the screen, thus breaking the fourth wall and noticed the player was wearing a headset. Apparently, the alien wants a headset of his own out of jealousy. He wasted no time to shake the spaceship violently with the intention of yanking the headset from the starship’s face. The instant he snatched the headset, it caused 212 members of the robotic crew and bits of the ship to fly everywhere, scattering them to different parts of a nearby planet obscured from view. The chaos also resulted in Astro Bot catapulting out of his spacecraft but luckily, the DualShock 4 controller materialised out of nowhere and caught him before he entered inside it. Once he is repaired, he pops out of it to witness he is already separated from his starship and his companions. All seems lost for Astro Bot, dismayed that he’s all alone. With new-found determination, Astro Bot sets out on a mission to find all of his allies and defeat the evil alien.

Despite a lack of a story, the game wastes no time to plop you into the first level of the first world. Given the circumstances in regards to said story, all the members of Astro’s crew are scattered across numerous planets and each planet has countless levels and bosses. Saving the small robots is similar to rescuing the Gobbos in Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and Croc 2. All you have to do is locate a robot and attack it in order to save it.

Due to how adorable Astro Bot is, he can give Clank from the ongoing Ratchet & Clank series a run for his bolts (the currency of the Ratchet & Clank franchise). The same can be said about Astro’s crew of endearing little robots.

Similar to his fellow platformer mascots, Astro Bot comes equipped with an arsenal of abilities and skills such as a punch, a kick (kicking a robot is mandatory to save it. Once it’s rescued, it pops back into the PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 controller), a jump, a hover (every time he hovers in the air, lasers are immediately released from the bottom of his feet. If you take advantage of the lasers, you can eliminate the enemies beneath you) etc. Besides his moveset, he is capable of picking up and throwing objects to attack his foes, destroy obstacles in his path or activate switches. Not only that, but he can wear an inflatable life ring to swim on the surface of the water with ease. Inflatable life rings can be located in some water or underwater levels.

While I’m still on the subject of the miniature robots, they are sometimes hidden in secret spots, not just space chameleons. Along the way, you’ll uncover equipment from treasure chests to help you on your quest to track down all of the robots and defeat the evil alien. For example, you acquire a grappling hook which allows you to create tightropes and to pull teeth out of the giant robotic gorilla’s mouth.

If you’ve played an immeasurable amount of platformers in the past, you’ll know what to expect from Astro Bot: Rescue Mission. You’ve played one platformer, you’ve played them all.

In each level, there are an abundance of coins to collect. They can be seen out in the open or contained in colourful boxes. Space chameleons can be uncovered when you search for them by moving the headset with your face. They can be out in the open camouflaging with the surface of a building or a structure or they are hidden from view. When you collect a space chameleon, you’ll unlock a challenge. Sometimes you come across a checkpoint in a level which saves your progress. So if you die, you respawn at the checkpoint.

Speaking of the levels, they are linear in terms of how they are laid out and the perspective of every level.

What sets this platformer apart from previous and recent platformers is you’re able to interact with the game using your PlayStation VR headset and your PlayStation 4 controller. For example, you take advantage of the headset to look around your surroundings to control the camera.

Due to the fact there are so many objects and non-playable characters to interact with, this game feels like a tech demo but I’m not saying this as a bad thing. Heck, there are times when you can jump on trampolines which can catapult you to new heights.

Since this game is very straightforward, it’s pretty clear it’s aimed at a younger audience.

Just like Moss, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission takes full advantage of the PlayStation VR headset and the motion controls provided by the PlayStation 4 controller. You’ll get to use them to their full potential when you confront a boss.

The bosses are most noticeably larger than life if you wear the PlayStation VR headset. But if you don’t don the headset, the bosses aren’t as big as they seem.

Each boss has their strengths and weaknesses. This allows players to experiment with Astro Bot’s moveset and his equipment and plan out strategies on how to deliver blows to every boss.

When you reach the end of a level, Astro celebrates with a dance. You can even attack your robotic allies (when they’re standing on the goal) if you want just for kicks. This is what I tend to like about platformers, attacking non-playable characters just for the heck of it and for laughs to get a reaction from them. It’s a shame that recent platformers don’t have that level of polish these days.

When it comes to 3D platformers, the camera is often the enemy. Throughout my gaming life, I wrestled with the camera since my youth and it tends to get stuck in places. Sadly, I can’t seem to control the camera freely since said camera is stuck in a fixed angle and it has trouble following behind Astro Bot. This causes Astro Bot to end up being far away from the player due to the view/perspective, depending on where you currently are in the level. This means this game may not be a 3D platformer, it’s actually a 2.5D platformer.

If you’re a long-time platformer fanatic, it’s a no brainer to pick this game up. However if you’re still not used to using the PlayStation VR, you can’t afford this game and the headset or the aforementioned game isn’t your cup of tea, you should give this game a miss but you don’t know what you’re missing.