Astro’s Playroom (PS5)

While many new video game consoles have non-playable tech demos created to show off the graphical capabilities of the system and some even have an early game designed around the idea of best showing off some of the unique features of the new hardware, Astro’s Playroom is something special. Not only is it included with every PlayStation 5 system, but despite being structured around a showcase of the PS5 controller’s features, it is also a well structured 3D platform game that builds its adventure around exploring both the actual PlayStation 5 architecture and the entire history of the PlayStation brand itself.

The game kicks off with the PS5 controller actually containing the hero of this little game: Astro Bot. Popping out of the controller after a short demonstration of things like the controller’s ability to do nuanced rumble features similar to the Switch’s HD rumble, the little robot and a bunch of small ones just like him enter the PS5 itself, the console breaking open into the CPU Plaza hub where you can visit four different regions based on actual hardware components. Cooling Springs, SSD Speedway, Memory Meadow, and the GPU Jungle are all nominally taken from the appropriate parts of the console’s design, but the areas themselves don’t actually feel like you’re climbing into a piece of tech to explore its innards. Some like Cooling Springs actually feel like a reasonable extrapolation was made, the system’s cooling fan and other features manifesting both as an icy region and a watery beach that could maybe stand in for the heat the systems is combating. On the other hand, the GPU Jungle feels like it’s just a jungle level, but the game does make clever use of hardware design so that the ancient ruins are actually patterned motherboard pieces and plants can be constructed from objects like computer ribbon cables. Whether you’re in space or exploring a lush field, the game doesn’t forget to make things look somewhat artificial to sell the idea that this is a wonderland made of the PS5’s component parts, and while it breaks from that if it has fun ideas to explore, it still is a cute way of theming its four major platforming stages.

Astro’s abilities aren’t that unusual and mostly meant to help you get around areas that don’t challenge these basic controls very much. You have a jump and a jetpack hover and some basic punching options, but there aren’t very many enemies who will cause you trouble and the ones that do usually have some special weakness like baiting them into attacking so you can grab their wires and pull until they break. The basic controls help with exploring areas and interacting with simpler gimmicks, Astro sometimes given freedom to explore a small location like Cooling Springs’s open beach while an area like the thundercloud of Memory Meadows has you avoiding electric barriers and platforms as you progress through a linear level segment. There is enough to the little activities Astro can use his core abilities to engage with that poking around an area or doing a platforming challenge is varied and interesting, but the gameplay’s bigger focus is on the little gimmicks that are unique to the different levels.

For sections of the four main areas, Astro will hop into a suit that completely changes how he plays. He can find himself inside a big ball that you need to roll around or a spring-based robot that launches itself around a 2D challenge area, but the important detail about these suits is each one involves using the PS5’s special controller features in some way. The ball can only be rolled about if you run your finger across the controller’s large central touch pad, the spring robot engages with the R2 and L2 buttons’ new feature of being able to adjust how difficult they are to physically press based on in-game situations, the monkey climbing portion involves the player relying on the controller’s motion detection feature to raise and lower the appropriate arms to scale a wall, and the rocket flight involves a mix of managing the adaptive R2 and L2 triggers with the motion controls. The motion control sections are perhaps the ones that feel the least gimmicky because it’s not a new type of controller feature, but the varying tension in the trigger buttons feels like it’s asking for potential controller damage with the amount of force you might need to apply and the touch pad carries over the PS4’s issue where holding the controller to use it feels a little unusual. Mostly these features are put to inoffensive use here and the suit segments are nifty deviations from the regular play with their own challenges as you adjust to the new control styles, so while long term questions can be raised about the PS5 Dualsense controller, here they’re used for a short segment that tests you in a different way than other areas of the game.

Sometimes Astro won’t need to put on a suit to shift how he plays, the little robot getting things like a bow and arrow or a gun to allow him to activate triggers from afar, damage groups of enemies, or break otherwise sturdy objects. These don’t play as big a role as the suits since they just augment one of your abilities for a small segment, but the game does work in things like a miniboss to challenge your use of the bow and arrow. Most of the main adventure can be pretty easy and death isn’t punished with much more than being thrown back to a checkpoint, but there is another area in the game where you can test your skills against the world. Leaderboards exist for a section of the game known as the Network Speed Run, and these consist of unique levels made to be completed quickly. Some are based on the visual aesthetics and features in one of the four levels while others are themed around the suit powers, and since they’re meant to be a test of how quickly you can complete a level, they’re made to be breezy and focus on giving the player opportunities to take shortcuts or figure out the best way around a hazard or hurdle. These are mostly just there to see how you stack up against other players of Astro’s Playroom, but they’re a good little activity to dabble in after you’ve done everything else there is to do in the game.

However, I have been putting off discussing one of the most delightful aspects of Astro’s Playroom, and that is its unabashed reverence for the history of PlayStation. Not only are the four main levels based on hardware found in the PS5, but each one also has artefacts hidden in side areas or behind puzzles that are tied to different eras in Sony’s hardware history. The original PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 are all the major focus of Memory Meadow, SSD Speedway, Cooling Springs, and GPU Jungle respectively, with the PSP and PlayStation Vita also showing up as collectibles during their appropriate home console counterpart’s stage. Not only do these systems sometimes inform a little bit of level geometry, but these collectibles serve as a fascinating look back at all the different peripherals and accoutrements the systems had, going from memory cards to light guns to VR equipment to even some deep pulls like the PocketStation and PS One LCD Monitor. There’s a gacha machine with more artefacts to be found as well, the player collecting coins during stages to later buy a turn at the capsule machine with. The PlayStation Labo gets filled with huge reproductions of all the different hardware both well known and obscure, and puzzle pieces hidden in stages and the capsule machine will also make a wonderful mural that adorns the laboratory’s walls showing off the company’s console history.

While the artefacts, coins, and puzzle pieces serve as enjoyable optional objectives in the platforming stages that reward you with a slice of history, there’s still more reverence to be found in the activities other little robots are engaged with. The PS5’s internals are lousy with these little Astro lookalikes, and while many will be engaging with an area’s theme or playing around in the background, every now and then you’ll find a robot holding a camera and “filming” a video game. Other little robots are dressed to look like characters from recognizable video game franchises that are meaningful to the history of PlayStation’s success, usually acting out some looping scene when you come across them.

Some are instantly recognizable like the robot dressed as Crash Bandicoot, others like the Resident Evil robots have a cute touch like the memorable loading door between the heroes and the zombie robot, and others are surprisingly deep pulls into company history. The game Pain is referenced by Astro’s Playroom and that’s a game that, despite supposedly being a top downloaded for the PS3, I never really saw any attention for outside of my brother and I playing it. There are plenty of adorable allusions to classics like Ape Escape, modern releases like Death Stranding, and obscurities like Vib-Ribbon, the spread so wide that you’re both pretty much guaranteed to recognize something but also not going to get every reference made. The final area unlocked at the end of the game contains an especially esoteric reference for its final challenge, although the game does explain what it is referencing so that it’s not completely without its context. Part of the fun is just seeing what they might bring up next, but since it’s mostly there as a visual treat in a game that is otherwise built rather well, it can’t be accused of just being a procession of nostalgia bait. It’s the kind of background detail you’re delighted to find as it all pays homage to this game’ theme of reflecting on the past while moving forward, and Astro’s Playroom would certainly be a lesser game without these lovely touches scattered about for history nuts and PlayStation fans to uncover.

THE VERDICT: Simultaneously a love letter to the storied history of the PlayStation brand and a showcase of the PS5’s brand new features, Astro’s Playroom is an incredibly interesting tech demo despite its gameplay simplicity. Its suit sections are neat albeit deliberately gimmicky with how they use controller features, but coupled with the 3D platforming and its focus on exploration, small gameplay shifts, and abundance of interesting collectibles, it ensures Astro’s Playroom is fun to play on top of demonstrating the system’s features. The nostalgic video game references and reverence to the history of PlayStation hardware is definitely the highlight for those with a love for gaming history or this particular line of consoles, but even if the references aren’t landing for you, it’s still a well designed little way to kick off playing a newly bought PlayStation 5.

And so, I give Astro’s Playroom for PlayStation 5…

A GOOD rating. Personally I adore the plentiful allusions to PlayStation games and the use of old hardware as collectibles, but while this kind of game packed with references to a storied gaming history feels practically tailored for someone like me who aims to play every game ever released, I do recognize the need to stand back and accept that these elements won’t register with every player. They still have enough scope to them that most people will recognize something or at least be able to appreciate the history as if this was some sort of PlayStation museum, but when we pull ourselves back from the delightful attention paid to Sony’s past, we still see a pretty good game at the heart of this history tour. Astro’s Playroom touches on the PS5’s features with just about the right level of attention such things deserve, the game not lingering long on the touch pad play or adaptive triggers and thus giving you a good taste of them without miring you in the gimmickry. Astro’s Playroom shifts around how it plays both in level concept, brief alterations like the items you carry, and the suits so that you’re moving forward at a good pace and seeing new things consistently. It never dips more than its toes in any one idea though, and that’s likely due to its nature as a tech demo first and foremost, but it’s one built with a surprising amount of care and thought so that it still works as an enjoyable game rather than simply a way of flaunting the system’s advanced tech.

While reviewing a game that everyone will get with their PS5 might seem a little silly, The Game Hoard has never really been focused on informing purchases. It’s a site devoted to focusing on the creativity found throughout the gaming medium and recognizing how a particular title realized its ideas and relating how well it did so. Astro’s Playroom had so much attention put into paying its respects to what came before while showing off the future of PlayStation consoles, and dismissing it just because it’s a free game loaded onto every PS5 system does a disservice to the love the developers definitely put into its creation. This isn’t just Sony bragging about what its console can do, its an imaginative way to structure a tech demo, a tribute to the hardware and software creations that made PlayStation such a powerhouse, and an enjoyable game all at once. In fact, it’s nature as a pack-in alleviates some of my burden, as I don’t need to oversell it to help it find the audience it deserves. It’s a Good game because of its substance, but its appeal to someone like me is hard to understate and hopefully many others will find it entertaining for one of the many reasons this game gives.