Astro’s Playroom: An incredible first look.

With each new console generation, there comes some uncertainty about how the system itself runs. While there is a list of launch titles that help sell the system, there’s usually a tech demo that comes with the new system to showcase what to expect within the next 6-8 years. And PlayStation 5 has been blessed with its tech demo: Astro’s Playroom, by Sony’s own Japan Team (Later reformed as Team ASOBI), starring the studio’s adventurous robot Astro.

 

While there may not be much of a story to tell, Astro’s Playroom showcases its game by teaching you the incredible features of the PlayStation 5 by adventuring inside the new system itself, exploring its 4 major components as their own linear worlds: Memory Medows, SSD Speedway, Cooling Springs, and GPU Jungle. These levels showcase how your new system works, alongside the various new controls with the new controller, like haptic feedback, touchpad, microphone, and more. As a bonus, it even showcases PlayStation’s history while exploring these worlds through clever references and cameo costumes. For example, you could see a boat in Cooling Springs that has two bots on it, one with a red line through its face and the other with a bow in its hands, referencing the Norse era of God of War with Kratos and Atreus (or as the fans know him as Boy). And in Memory Medows, there’s a bot with a net in its hands and another bot hiding in the bushes, laughing at him, referencing Ape Escape’s Spike and a Pipo Monkey. Through these levels, you get to collect puzzle pieces that make up a giant mural in the home area, and you get to collect artifacts that are old systems and accessories of generations past, like a PS1 Controller, or a PS2 memory card.

 

The controls for Astro are as you would expect from a 3D collectathon. You jump and hover with rocket boots, you get to punch things and charge them as a spin attack, and you get to pull things out of the ground. These controls are incredibly smooth and takes no time at all to master them. Plus, with each of the 4 worlds, you get to have powerups that help traverse these new lands. You get to have a rocket ship, you get to be a hopping frog, or a climbing monkey, or even roll across the stage in a ball. Some of these powerups do have a bit of a learning curve, but they aren’t so bad once you experiment with them. 

 

After you go through all 4 of these levels, there's a surprise boss waiting below in the PS5, facing off against a deep-cut reference as a boss. While this may be in stages, it’s very well worth defeating to finish the main game. 

 

As a bonus, in June 2024, Astro’s Playtoom received an unexpected update that gave the players 4 hidden bots to rescue as a cross-promotion with their newest game Astro Bo,t and 10 more artifacts to collect overall, showcasing the post-launch PS5 accessories, like the PSVR2 and the new DualSense 5 controller. The 4 new bots, however, were really hard to find without some sort of walkthrough explaining how to get them, and they gave us 1 new bot a month up until the launch of Astro Bot in September 2024. 

 

Overall, Astro’s Playroom was a triumph in showcasing the next generation to come while respecting its past. It is both fun and creative while showcasing how your new system works and a gleaming light ahead, making it the best pack in tech demo since Wii Sports on the Wii back in 2006.

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10/10