Our favourite moments of magic in Astro Bot

It’s fair to say Astro Bot, Sony’s latest PS5 exclusive, has captured the imagination of the Eurogamer team. It’s a wonderful platformer, full of creativity, fun game design, and plenty of nostalgic cameo bots, described by Christian Donlan as “a wildly generous delight” in our Eurogamer Astro Bot review.

As he put it, “fans of bits and pieces are going to absolutely love Astro Bot” – but which of those bits and pieces are our favourites? It’s not very often we feel this unanimously positive about something, so we thought we’d get together to pick out some of our favourite moments of design magic, be it intriguing concepts or specific levels.

Be aware there are a few small spoilers for Astro Bot below – and half the fun is discovering these moments for yourself – so read on once you’ve finished the adventure and let us know your own favourites in the comments!

The DualSense controller’s clinking trotters

One of the most magnificent things about Astro Bot, in my opinion at least, is the use of the DualSense Controller’s built-in speaker. There’s so much adorable audio being pumped through that little speaker that your ears would still have a lovely time even if you were playing the game with the TV on mute! From the roar of the Dual Speeder’s boosters as you pull on the Sense’s triggers, or the cartoon-esque, magical jingling noise as you fly through clusters of colourful stars, down to the way that different surfaces create different noises as Astro runs across them, the attention to aural detail here is just incredible. Grassy surfaces produce a shuffly rustling noise which gives way to little clanky tippy taps as Astro trots along from lawn to pavement, whilst diving into water rewards you with a nice splashing noise on entry before the sound of bubbles bursts from between your fingers with each underwater breaststroke.

My favourite sounds though, can be found on the Gorilla Nebula’s third level, Construction Derby. The little metallic clinking noise as Astro’s, umm…trotters (?) hit a nice metallic surface is extra satisfying to me in some kind of ASMRish way, but the best part of all has to be the section where you can make Astro wade through a huge pile of metal bolts. I didn’t know sound effects could be moreish until the moment that I heard this incredible clatter, so hats off to whoever was in charge of the controller audio here. It’s amazing.

– Ian

Trunk of Funk

I never thought I would be left grinning from ear to ear by an invitation as brazen as “jump up into my mouth”, but here we are.

The second I heard these words being sung by a whopping great big tree in Astro Bot, I felt like an excitable child at Christmas. The joy was utterly infectious. Why yes, it would be my honour to jump up into your mouth, giant tree. Thank you so much for asking!

This song is from one of the earlier planets in Astro Bot known as Trunk of Funk, and boy does it live up to its name. The upbeat energy continues throughout this entire level, which has an almost carnival-like feel to it. Colourful plants all bop along with you as you make your way up the tree’s many branches and floating platforms, and if you leave Astro standing when you make your way inside, he himself will do a giddy little dance. And was I also doing a giddy little dance from my sofa as I ascended? You bet your bottom dollar I was! And, was I still singing the song when I finally made my way to bed? Yep! Guilty as charged.

Astro Bot is pure joy and a celebration of gaming with – as Trunk of Funk proves – a backing track that absolutely slaps. Now, please excuse me, I am off to groove my way through another level. Ciao!

– Victoria

The Crash Site level

There’s a symbiotic relationship between Astro Bot and PlayStation 5. The console needs Astro Bot as a showcase of its abilities, with the game being one of the very few to utilise all its technological capabilities. And Astro Bot needs PlayStation, being so dependent on VIP cameos and nostalgia to provide personality. The cynic in me believes Team Asobi leans a little too far into making Astro Bot a very literal PlayStation mascot.

But then there’s the Crash Site. This is where all the little bots live, the area slowly filling up with colourful, costumed heroes in various guises. With the gacha machine you unlock accessories to kit them out further and then, with a quick smack, they perform for you in adorable, reference-filled animations. In fact, I think smacking bots is my favourite thing in this game. This, I think, is the real magic of Astro Bot’s cameos: it feels like collecting a box of figurines to play with, each a new, exciting toy, as a natural extension of Astro’s previous Playroom. There’s discovery in rescuing each bot, there’s the thrill of themed levels, and then there’s the wonder of how Astro Bot will interpret your favourites. Being able to explore the Crash Site further using the bots like Pikmin is a fun extra, too. Cynic be damned, all this nostalgia had me giggling with glee!

– Ed

Mighty Chewy and Astro’s boss fights

A lot of the time, boss fights feel like an obligatory thing slapped on to action games as almost an afterthought. A bullet sponge chucked in at the end of a level to round things off. But in Astro Bot, the bosses are part of the level itself.

Take the very first end of world boss, Mighty Chewy, an oversized gorilla with issues to rival King Kong. Little Astro follows Chewy throughout the level as the gorilla rampages their way through the night skies of Gorillalalaland, until it all comes to a head across four rooftops. You have to avoid Chewy’s gargantuan fists as they try to squash poor Astro, and if you’re successful in dodging the blows, a walkway is formed from the debris, all the way to the final rooftop boss arena. Here, Chewy unleashes attacks that you already know how to counter, thanks to the previous platforming sections where you had to use your robo-dog pal to propel Astro forward.

Boss fights in Astro aren’t hard, but they’re always fun. A celebration of what you’ve learned to do with your cute, and often dangerous, new friend hitching a ride on Astro’s back. It’s one of many features that proves Astro Bot is more than just a series of nostalgic PlayStation references.

– Jessica

The playfulness of Go Go Archipelago

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of games out there that let you be playful and encourage you to veer off the guided path to use your imagination – but I’ve not experienced anything that does it quite like Astro Bot. It allows you to be as playful as you want to be at that moment.

One firm example that’s stuck in my mind is from an early level in the Tentacle System – Go Go Archipelago. Right at the beginning of this level you find yourself on a sandy beach and my first stop was saying hello to the family of Turtles swimming around. After making Astro Bot follow the trail like he was an adopted Turtle a thought occurred to me – and as there’s little punishment for trying things out, I went for it. Yes, dear reader, I can confirm – you can Turtle Surf! Now don’t worry, the Turtle looked like they were enjoying it as much as Astro was. That then got me thinking ‘what else can I do here? How else can I play around in this environment?’ and, helpfully, that’s when I found the diving board. I launched Astro Bot off it several times to get all the coins and I’d like to think the Turtle spectators were holding up little scoring boards to judge my efforts as I crashed into the water.

Once I emerged from the depths, one more piece of potential fun caught my attention – Dolphins. One Dolphin very elegantly held a hoop while the other gracefully leapt through it – so naturally I wanted to see if Astro could also do that and, while it wasn’t particularly graceful nor well-executed, I can confirm they can. Being able to stop and play around to find small interactive moments like that creates a sense of utter joy in each level you visit.

– Marie