Even better, Astro Bot’s soundtrack comes with many highlights. Its gimmick focuses on a day/night cycle, and the way Young composed it is genius. The day portion has music that’s a lot more jazzy, while the switch to nighttime sounds more like a lullaby. There are many touches like this throughout the game, but the best and most stellar music is reserved for the boss battles. For many players, part of the fun was discovering all of the cameo-inspired robots in Astro Bot. Thankfully, the DLC levels continue that element and Armored Hardcore is no exception.

Serpent Starway (42 Bots, 16 Puzzle Pieces & 2 Warps)

Another lets you transform into an ultra-heavy version of Samus Aran’s morph ball thingy, and has brilliant stuff for you to do once you have. These levels feel so Nintendo-like because they get everything out of their ideas. If you’re small but you can become big, can you blow stuff up from inside?

Astro Bot: All Special Bots

I was expecting an average of 8s, but almost all reviews I saw are 9 and above. Instead of taking the normal exit, look to your right and you’ll see a platform with jewels raining down on top of it. Past that platform, you’ll see another covered in the same jewels. Jump to the far platform and use your spin move to push some of the gems away. You’ll see a wooden floor underneath, so use your cannonball backpack to slam it, which will launch you into the sky and up to a rumble wall. Lure it to the pillar to your right or left, which you’ll notice is an unelectrified platform.

They can even jump on normal hazards to get where they need to go. Players only have a precious few seconds to make this power-up count, which can lead to some players getting creative with their puzzle solutions or the photos that they can take with the camera in Astro Bot. Stopping time in general is an ability that people would love to have in real life and no one would say otherwise. The Iron Suit is an impenetrable set of armor that will weigh players down with power. Its main functionality is to transform players into a tiny ball which is impervious to attacks be it rolling through spikes or getting pelted with lava.

A handful of excellent stages even go one step further by paying tribute to some key games themselves — expect gaming history nerds to go positively feral over them. Team Asobi further drills down on the toy-like charm of gaming by fully committing to the DualSense’s unique features. TG88 feel pronounced haptic feedback when I hop into a stormy level and feel each raindrop in my palms. When I turn into a metal ball to stop a ceiling from crushing me, I can feel the resistance of the adaptive triggers pushing back on me.

Try to press on and not stop, as you’ll become an easy target for projectile enemies or obstacles like fire or thin ice. Not every level does require you to be quick on your feet, but it’s a good reminder for when you’re tackling some of the harder levels. Team Asobi has teased that tools will eventually be added to Astro Bot that should appeal to speedrunners. With that tool and a bit of post-launch content updates, Astro Bot’s fun could last a lot longer than it does, and that would be a welcome inclusion for a game with a short run time. Still, any frustration with the game ultimately stems from wanting more of what Astro Bot provides, which at its core is a top-tier platformer with innovation, charm, and enjoyment to spare.

For those hoping to get as much playtime as possible out of the package, Astro Bot packs in plenty to do. There are secret levels to find, puzzle pieces in each level, a gacha machine filled with outfits, and a home base that evolves into a full-on playground over time. The most alluring feature, though, is its PlayStation-themed collectibles. Every level has a set of hidden bots that Astro needs to rescue.

We have added the first four to the bottom of this list and will continue adding them as the levels are released. A whirl of bots to rescue, of loving Playstation references, of deep cuts like Ape Escape and more recent stars, who get outings I don’t really want to ruin. It’s boss fights when you expected them and boss fights when you absolutely didn’t. An entire level set on a dream of 1930’s skyscraper construction sites!

Physical editions of Astro Bot come with a physical poster of the robots on their PS5 mothership, plus the preorder bonuses detailed below. The game has a total of 300 bots to collect and find throughout the game. Tell us in the comments section below, and check out our Astro Bot guide for lots more. We’ve also outlined which character each of them represents, what series they’re from, and where to find them in the game.