FNGC Reviews: Astro Bot (ft. Jacob McCourt)

[00:00:16] What's up everybody and welcome to the Friday Night Gamecast. You're joining us for another FNGC Review where we look at one game and take a deep dive into all its moving parts.

[00:00:24] This week I'm incredibly excited to introduce a brand new cast member to our show. You might know him as the facilitator of your favorite video game trivia panels at PAX.

[00:00:34] He's a writer for The Gaming Brief and a regular co-host for Crossplay Conversations and Left Behind Game Club podcasts.

[00:00:41] I'd like to extend a warm welcome. Thank you, Jacob McCourt, for joining us. How are you?

[00:00:45] Woo! I'm really good. I've got my coffee and I'm ready to talk about a Goatee candidate here with y'all.

[00:00:50] That's fantastic. You know, we're so happy to have you. It was fantastic being able to meet you at PAX East earlier this year.

[00:00:56] So it was so much fun. That was an incredible panel show that you put on there. And so I'm so happy to do this with you today.

[00:01:01] Yeah, I can't believe they keep letting me do it. It's really wild. I could just keep talking about old Wii Shovelware and showing cosplay for Etsy.

[00:01:08] And they're like, okay, this guy can keep coming around. So I'm really thankful. Someday they'll clue into the fact that my show was very weird. But for the time being, we're really thankful for that.

[00:01:18] No, it's fine. And then you've got people, you've got miscreants like Dave Jackson coming on to talk about, you know, a 3D pixel cross or whatever the hell that shit's called.

[00:01:25] Dave Jackson, gross.

[00:01:26] You know what? Who is that?

[00:01:28] Anyway, if listeners haven't heard already on the show, also a returning cast member, actually a regular co-host of the show.

[00:01:36] He's made his triumphant return after his Final Fantasy VII rebirth hiatus.

[00:01:40] Will, how you doing? Welcome back, bud.

[00:01:42] What? What? I missed Final Fantasy. Oh, no.

[00:01:44] We got to go back and re-record it.

[00:01:48] But no, it's always good to be here. Thank you very much for joining us, Jacob. Really excited to have you on.

[00:01:53] Just like Nick said, it was a pleasure meeting you back at PAX East earlier this year, which is crazy to say that.

[00:01:57] You know, it's already, well, October or just about as the time we record this. So yeah, March to October.

[00:02:03] Yeah, I mean, just got back from West and there's not going to be a PAX for...

[00:02:06] I bet West was a blast.

[00:02:07] East isn't for another eight or nine months. So what am I going to do until then?

[00:02:10] Yeah, what am I going to do?

[00:02:11] Screaming into a microphone, I guess.

[00:02:12] Yeah.

[00:02:12] There you go. That's exactly what we got you.

[00:02:14] Exactly. We just got to get you on. You're locked down for recordings.

[00:02:17] I did want to just give you a quick opportunity. I know that you have your fingers in a lot of pies right now.

[00:02:23] Gross.

[00:02:24] Gross. A little gross, right?

[00:02:26] Not a fan of pie.

[00:02:27] Yeah. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about what you got going on. Is there anything interesting that you have in the pipeline for your listeners or any of our listeners to maybe jump in and check you out?

[00:02:36] Yeah. So I think the best place to follow all of my malarkey and the only reason I said gross to pies is I thought of American pie and what they do to a pie there. And I went, ooh, no, we're not doing that.

[00:02:45] Hell no.

[00:02:45] Not those kind of fingers.

[00:02:46] Oh, and so you can follow me on Twitter. I will not call it the other thing. At Jacob McCord, J-A-C-O-B-M-C-C-O-U-R-T. That's where you can find sort of all of the projects I'm working on. And I guess I would promote the PAX West panel. We just dropped the VOD for that on Twitter. So you can watch it directly on that hellscape. But that's what I would, I would check out my pin post because that is the VOD for that panel. So please check that out on twitter.com.

[00:03:12] Okay. Fantastic. Well, thank you for that, Jacob. Let's go ahead and jump full blown into Astro Bot. Astro Bot, it was, came out this year, 2024. It's, I forgot to put a date on the time that it was coming out, but it came out. Go out and buy it right now. It's available in all, you know, markets, all shops, everywhere you can find it.

[00:03:31] September 6th of 2024.

[00:03:32] September 6th. There you go. You know, he's a professional, ladies and gentlemen. That's why we got him on the show today. September 6th. Astro Bot developed by Asobi Interactive and published by

[00:03:41] SIE was led by Nicholas Doucet as the lead director for their team over there. Just another quick billing note, because he did an incredible job. Kenneth C.M. Young was the lead composer and sound designer for Astro Bot as well. This incredible game is sitting currently at a 94 on Metacritic and a 95 average for Open Critic. It is incredibly well received across the board. Everybody, if you've been paying attention to Twitter, YouTube, whatever the case may be, nobody really has anything bad to say about this game.

[00:04:10] So this is a seriously off the top, I must recommend. But before we get into the show proper and we start talking about the components of Astro Bot, I wanted to start quickly with our history with Astro Bot and what we have been exposed to in the past. And Jacob, as our esteemed guest, I'd like to start with you first.

[00:04:27] Just esteemed you guys. So I've only played Astro's Playroom and I think it was honestly one of the, it's still probably one of my favorite games for the PlayStation 5. You know, it's packed in with every system. And so love that thing. I've not played Astro Bot Rescue Mission, despite having a PSVR.

[00:04:46] I keep telling myself, I gotta go back because I just finished the Platinum on this one two days ago. And so Astro Bot's still in the brain. So I need to go back and play Rescue Mission, but I have not done that yet.

[00:04:57] Nice. Will, how about yourself? What's your history with Astro?

[00:05:00] So very similar. I really was introduced to Astro in the Playroom, just like Jacob said, packed into every PS5. So realistically, unless you were playing, what is that game? Godfall or some other schlop that came out with a PS5 dropped, you were probably playing Astro and it was incredible. Like just jumping in. Not only is it obviously cute, which is, you know, the big draw for I'd say most people, whether you're young or old, but super well put together.

[00:05:25] We're going to talk about it during this because it translates very well from Playroom to Astro Bot. If not, you know, with some good improvements as well.

[00:05:32] But the platforming is top notch right up there with any of your favorite platformers. If you got a friend who's a mustachioed plumber or, you know, someone that happens to go into a ball and shoot things out of her hand, some bounty hunter that you may be familiar with.

[00:05:44] If it's a platformer like that, look, Astro's right up there with him. So I was super impressed. Another thing that, as we already mentioned before with Mr. CM Young, and I know we're going to get into more in depth,

[00:05:54] but I just want to put up the forefront because probably my favorite part of the game, the music.

[00:05:59] If you played Astro Bot's Playroom, you know, you step into that first, the GPU jungle.

[00:06:05] And I'm like, oh, this is going to be a different kind of like, you know, automatic game that comes with a console.

[00:06:12] I'm pretty sure I hummed, I'm your GPU for like a week or so after buying the PS5 and playing through it.

[00:06:19] And so I don't know, like I put in the notes, I immediately fell in love during Playroom.

[00:06:24] I do not have any intention, so I probably won't be able to go back and play the Rescue Mission games, even though it's sad because it sounds really good.

[00:06:33] However, anything Astro in the future, I'm going to be there for day one. Easy.

[00:06:38] Absolutely. And I mean, kind of just you both hit it in the nail on the head.

[00:06:42] There's not really much more.

[00:06:42] I have heard about Astro Bot Rescue Mission on the PSVR for quite some time.

[00:06:47] Just listening to industry folks talk about, you know, action platformers and the fact that Astro Bot couldn't have been ignored and that it was arguably like one of the best VR titles that had come out in recent years.

[00:06:57] And that really does track with what Team Asobi's pedigree has been up until this point.

[00:07:02] Obviously, same as the both of you with the ones I got the PS5, the very first thing that I jumped into was Astro's Playroom.

[00:07:08] And it was an immediate showcase of how powerful the PS5 was, not only just from the idea of you have this new SSD, you have a stronger graphics card, but you also have this incredible DualSense controller, which I think is a contention.

[00:07:20] I don't know if there are any controller debaters out there, but arguably one of the best controllers that we've gotten in video games, period.

[00:07:26] And I think that Team Asobi knows exactly what they're doing.

[00:07:30] And Astro's Playroom was an excellent tech demo for the DualSense Haptics and to let you know what people and developers, whether first party or third, could actually do with that type of technology, with that type of haptics that they had in there.

[00:07:43] So as soon as Astro Bot, the main title, you know, the self-titled album of the Astro Bot universe was announced at the most recent state of play, I knew day one that I was jumping in.

[00:07:55] I was like, I can't not play this game.

[00:07:56] This is going to be incredible.

[00:07:57] And I think we're all kind of just blown away by it collectively.

[00:08:01] I'll plus one your DualSense comment because I think the controller itself, if it didn't have an integrated battery that didn't last that long,

[00:08:07] I think the DualSense would probably be closer to the standard controller instead of the Xbox controllers being the like weird de facto for PC industry demos, etc.

[00:08:20] Yeah, definitely.

[00:08:21] I think that it's really interesting and honestly innovative.

[00:08:25] And I think that's something that Nintendo has kind of held the market on when it comes to like innovating in the video game space, especially with their hardware for so long.

[00:08:33] So being able to see that from Sony like in the modern era, but not only packaged with a core console experience, like it's it's just it's really a treat.

[00:08:41] And I think that Astro Bot is like the thing to display at how good it is and how powerful it is.

[00:08:46] But let's go ahead and jump in and talk about what Astro Bot is and set up the story, set the stage for folks to understand where we are.

[00:08:53] So jumping in, if you know anything about Astro Bot, you know, he's got to rescue some bots.

[00:08:57] He's got to jump around.

[00:08:58] He's got to go to different environments.

[00:08:59] He's got to get some robots, you know, out of a sticky situation.

[00:09:02] So the story kind of set up is that Astro has this command spaceship, which is just a PS5 that's blasting through space.

[00:09:09] And he gets absolutely decimated by this evil space alien monster thing and kind of just he breaks it up, steals the processor out of the PS5.

[00:09:19] All the bots go flying into different clusters within space.

[00:09:22] So his mission essentially is to crash lands on this desert planet in the center of this galaxy.

[00:09:28] And his job is just to go throughout the galaxy in clockwise order and save all of the Astro Bot and restore the PS5 to maximum Sony glory.

[00:09:37] Just, you know, right before it gets replaced by the PS5 Pro.

[00:09:42] So that's where we are with Astro Bot and kind of like what you're doing.

[00:09:46] This is a 3D action platformer.

[00:09:49] You're going from level to level.

[00:09:50] You're navigating environments.

[00:09:52] You're avoiding enemies.

[00:09:53] You're solving puzzles.

[00:09:55] You're pulling things out of the ground that looks like little cable ties to open up new areas.

[00:10:00] It's an incredible game.

[00:10:02] I put in my notes here, just imagine Mario, but better.

[00:10:05] And I think that's pretty controversial.

[00:10:07] I feel like people will be very mad at me for saying that.

[00:10:09] What do you guys think?

[00:10:11] Very controversial, for sure.

[00:10:12] Yeah, I think the one thing that kind of against your point is it is incredibly hard to create characters that have staying power that people love.

[00:10:22] Yeah.

[00:10:23] And I think the way that you distinguish between Astro Bot and Mario being very good in their own right, it's essentially the staying power of their characters.

[00:10:30] I will ask you all both the question.

[00:10:32] Do you remember the name of the main antagonist in this game?

[00:10:36] No.

[00:10:37] Yeah, it's something something Nebula.

[00:10:39] But yeah, it's just Nebulax the space bully.

[00:10:41] So I think this game mechanically on par with Mario, but obviously not been around as long so the characters don't have the staying power.

[00:10:49] So I guess that would I would say, hey, maybe not exactly Mario, but like real damn close.

[00:10:55] Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:56] I think I definitely think that that's 100% fair.

[00:10:59] And just like, yeah, I think that's something that I heard from from people talk about like the identity of Astro Bot and the identity of like the characters that they're setting up within it.

[00:11:08] And it's just it is a facsimile for PlayStation IP.

[00:11:12] I think that the difference with with Astro Bot, though, is that this is a game that's quality supersedes its identity as just being kind of a scan of PlayStation IP.

[00:11:23] Like just being like it's not a warehouse just for them to pump nostalgia, you know, cash grabs into.

[00:11:29] I think that it's something that stands on its own.

[00:11:32] It's team Asobi like just the love and the care they put into it.

[00:11:35] If it wasn't a PlayStation game at all, if even if it was an Astro like or just an Xbox title, whatever third party title.

[00:11:41] I still think that it has like that power to stand on its own two legs.

[00:11:46] I think that it's definitely enhanced by the love that they have in the care that they put in for honoring a lot of the PlayStation IP that's out there.

[00:11:54] But it's it's definitely it's an interesting thing to kind of look at.

[00:11:58] And I don't have as close of a touch to Mario because I didn't grow up playing Mario as closely.

[00:12:02] But I will agree with you that everybody knows Bowser.

[00:12:04] Everybody knows King Boo.

[00:12:05] Like everybody knows all of these like wonderful characters in the Mario universe.

[00:12:09] So, yeah, that's it's a tough comparison.

[00:12:13] Like for sure.

[00:12:13] The big thing, too, is as far as like the movement as well, like I love me some Astro Bot.

[00:12:17] But I recently and by recently, I'm pretty sure it was like maybe a year, maybe going on two years at this point.

[00:12:24] But Odyssey, it's obviously Mario Odyssey.

[00:12:26] Incredible, incredible game.

[00:12:28] And it's the kind of thing where it's easy to play.

[00:12:31] And I don't know if hard to master is proper.

[00:12:33] But the big thing is there's a lot of little cancels and ground pounds and things you can do to make like speed running more viable and kind of, you know, make it as difficult or make it as easy, efficient as you can.

[00:12:45] Astro doesn't quite have all that.

[00:12:46] So that's another thing, too, is like that kind of level of skill required or maybe the maximum skill you can hit, like your skill ceiling is going to be higher in Mario.

[00:12:55] But still, I think just like Jake was saying, you know, they're real close.

[00:12:58] Like this is Sony's answer to Mario for sure.

[00:13:00] And, you know, it has, I think, officially crossed over past Sackboy for like the face of Sony when it comes to these kind of platforming titles.

[00:13:10] So I'm excited to see what else they do in the future and just more like refinements they can do to the Astro Bot formula.

[00:13:16] Because right now the formula is strong.

[00:13:17] Yeah.

[00:13:18] Yeah.

[00:13:18] I will say I can't tell you the last time I've popped that hard for consumerism.

[00:13:21] Um, maybe Avengers Endgame, but it's been a long time since I was like, oh, yes, products.

[00:13:28] Oh, yes.

[00:13:28] Oh, man.

[00:13:29] I was right there.

[00:13:30] No, it's, yeah, it's definitely incredible.

[00:13:33] Let's go ahead and talk a little bit about kind of the functional mechanics of what Astro Bot looks like when you're in there.

[00:13:38] So Astro gets attacked by the evil arch nemesis, you know, Nebula Bully and crash lands at Crash Site with a stripped down PS5.

[00:13:48] There are four open areas that you obviously see that you can access.

[00:13:50] There's an entire area that's kind of surrounding the PS5.

[00:13:54] That's just this desert wasteland.

[00:13:56] Um, but there's a lot of stuff like immediately once you land that you can go do, you can collect puzzle pieces, you can collect coins.

[00:14:02] You can see what smattering of Astros are left after that.

[00:14:05] But, uh, essentially what opens up is you get a radar dish or kind of like a satellite that comes down that allows you to open up the first nebula in the five nebulas that are available for you to play.

[00:14:18] And that's the gorilla nebula.

[00:14:19] And you jump in and you realize as you go out, there are, um, four other ones that are surrounding it in order that you can go to and, and choose whatever levels that you have to play.

[00:14:29] And I love the application of this.

[00:14:31] I love the linearity of like kind of jumping in his, uh, dual sense speeder and cruising around just the different space areas, running into asteroids, finding the different, um, you know, coins that are just like being skirted by or being pulled along by little enemies that are in the star system.

[00:14:48] So I really enjoy this, the, the kind of just that user interface of just choosing your level.

[00:14:53] It's really delightful.

[00:14:55] Um, but yeah, so you have the gorilla nebula, the tentacle system, serpent star way camo cosmos and feather cluster.

[00:15:02] Um, there's also a lost galaxy system, which is kind of like a, I it's, it's conceptualized by a black hole.

[00:15:08] And what happens is, is that as you go through these different, uh, star systems and you choose the levels that you want to play, every level has, uh, I believe one secret lost galaxy.

[00:15:18] That you can find that you have to kind of discover.

[00:15:21] And then it opens up an additional level in the lost galaxy system.

[00:15:25] Um, so that's kind of a little bit of the foundation of what you're doing.

[00:15:30] Every single level that you choose, you jump into it and every level is delightful, um, and has their own identity, but you essentially you load into these levels.

[00:15:38] Your job is essentially to go through and find all of the astrobots in every given level, all of the puzzle pieces.

[00:15:44] So you can unlock additional components of the crash site.

[00:15:48] Um, and then just, you know, fight the enemies and have a whole lot of fun.

[00:15:51] So I wanted to ask, you know, just starting off the top, do we have any favorites that were here that kind of, do we just remember really stood out in our mind?

[00:16:00] Yeah, I think that's, uh, for me, I love the big boy levels essentially where there is a very large creature or robot that sort of wraps itself around the level.

[00:16:11] Yeah.

[00:16:11] So the big brother robot, which was very like Gulliver's travels esque where you have to unlock him and then he helps you sort of traverse.

[00:16:20] And even ones with a giant enemy, like the snowman level where essentially a snowman is, is causing havoc to you as you're making your way through an icy paradise.

[00:16:28] That really shows off the, and I think the game maybe doesn't get enough credit for how technically impressive it is.

[00:16:34] Yeah.

[00:16:34] How not only do you have these big creatures that are there, but even the particle effects are just crazy in this game.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:40] Uh, every time there was a pile of gems or coins or rocks, I made sure to spin those away and, and cause some havoc with, with particle effects.

[00:16:48] Yeah.

[00:16:49] Yeah.

[00:16:49] A hundred percent.

[00:16:50] Yeah.

[00:16:50] Every single, like the interactable environment is super impressive.

[00:16:54] Like the little gemstones that you see there, or the, the, there's a level that's kind of like a casino theme.

[00:17:00] There are little poker chips that are stacked up in different points of the level and you can knock them or spin them, spin around your spinning move as astro and just obliterate them.

[00:17:09] Or even if you're walking through flowers, like the attention to detail, the minute attention to detail, like the flowers, they'll bend and you can also feel a slight little pulse.

[00:17:17] And then there's a, there's a noise feedback through the dual sense that kind of is like a, you know, you're jumping on flowers and it's like this shiny moment.

[00:17:24] It's, it's really, really sweet.

[00:17:25] And that's just consistent across every environment, every different, every different thing that astro does.

[00:17:31] It's, it's absolutely incredible.

[00:17:33] Well, what about you?

[00:17:33] Do you have any favorites?

[00:17:35] For sure.

[00:17:36] Like a big fan of the music.

[00:17:37] Once again, like I mentioned before with Playroom.

[00:17:39] So I think my ultimate favorite aside from slow-mo casino, which is like my technically like playing the gameplay favorite, but musical wise for sure.

[00:17:47] Trunk of funk where you first start off and you have the little seed and then you water the seed and it turns into a giant tree that just sings for the rest of the level.

[00:17:53] Like I love that so much.

[00:17:56] Like even going through because I, the platforming, I think it's very strong.

[00:18:00] Some of those things with the little elephant backpack where you have to like make certain platforms was very annoying at certain parts.

[00:18:06] But it didn't really dampen my spirits on that level specifically because you kept hearing the tree sing, narrate what's going on.

[00:18:14] Something's going on up in my branches.

[00:18:16] Get up there, astro.

[00:18:17] Help me out.

[00:18:17] I was like, okay, this is fine.

[00:18:19] Like I'm okay with this.

[00:18:19] Like this is, this is just goofy.

[00:18:21] Keep on going, buddy.

[00:18:21] I'm going to struggle a little bit here, but as long as you're singing, I think I'm going to have a good time.

[00:18:25] Yeah, I would say that, you know, obviously the levels are just all delightful and it's hard to, you know, choose favorites here.

[00:18:31] But the ones that really stand out in my mind just first and foremost was it's actually a lost galaxy level and it's the hot springs one where astro turns into a sponge.

[00:18:40] Yeah.

[00:18:40] And the mechanic of it is you have to go through this feudal Japan styled like hot spring resort.

[00:18:45] And there are these different pools of water and you jump in as astro and you kind of absorb water, which makes astro huge.

[00:18:53] And he's like walking around like a, you know, like a, like a giant, he's just a giant sponge that smashes and destroys everything.

[00:19:00] It's, it's incredible.

[00:19:01] And then when he needs to get through certain parts or extinguish fire or fire enemies, he just, he like, he pushes the water out from his body and splashes it on the ground.

[00:19:10] It's, it's incredibly delightful.

[00:19:12] There's that one.

[00:19:13] And then, um, yeah, I, I really liked the one that's kind of like the, uh, the iron giant or I guess like a, yeah, the iron giant level where it's raining and then you have to free him.

[00:19:22] That's, that was a really incredible one.

[00:19:23] And then, um, uh, there was a, uh, there was, there was another one that it was, I was literally just thinking of as we were talking.

[00:19:30] I mean, it's, it's wild in this game that we have talked about levels for maybe a couple of minutes and we have not talked about a PlayStation level yet.

[00:19:37] Right.

[00:19:38] That's true.

[00:19:39] Yeah.

[00:19:39] That's true.

[00:19:39] Yeah.

[00:19:39] No, it's just the, the identity here is just incredible.

[00:19:42] And, and again, the, essentially the secret and to, to, uh, Jacob's point, the, there are bosses that are at the end.

[00:19:50] There are boss levels at the end of every star system that you choose to go in.

[00:19:54] And, you know, once you rescued enough Astrobots, they're kind of locked behind a gate wall.

[00:19:57] Like you have to find Astrobots to, uh, unlock the levels to fight the bosses.

[00:20:02] And once the bosses are defeated, um, and the boss fights are actually really, really fun to like delightful.

[00:20:08] They're never really that painful to get through.

[00:20:10] They're just kind of more of a visual showcase.

[00:20:13] And then once that's done, uh, kind of one of the PlayStation's, you know, Hallmark IP, uh, levels opens up.

[00:20:20] And, um, and so you have like the Nathan Drake level.

[00:20:23] That was really, really fun.

[00:20:25] Uh, kind of just love Lost Jungle.

[00:20:26] It was kind of like a dude.

[00:20:28] Yeah.

[00:20:28] Yeah.

[00:20:28] Dude rating.

[00:20:29] Yeah.

[00:20:29] It was like a replication of the first game is what it felt like to me.

[00:20:32] It's just the first game in Astrobot style.

[00:20:35] And then of course the horizon zero dawn, um, helping out here.

[00:20:39] What was the, what was the first one?

[00:20:40] Ape Escape was crazy for me.

[00:20:41] Ape Escape.

[00:20:41] Ape Escape is awesome.

[00:20:42] That's the, that's the first one.

[00:20:43] Oh yeah.

[00:20:43] As someone who has not thought about Ape Escape since the PlayStation 2, Ape Escape 2.

[00:20:47] I guess some folks from Asobi used to work on the Ape Escape games, which I guess makes

[00:20:51] the connection make sense.

[00:20:53] But that was just so delightful.

[00:20:55] It made me want Asobi to make an Ape Escape game.

[00:20:57] A hundred percent.

[00:20:58] I've been begging.

[00:20:59] Like I would love for them to make one, especially to like playing it.

[00:21:01] Cause I love Ape Escape.

[00:21:02] I remember playing like the first one on PS1.

[00:21:04] So that was one of my favorite things.

[00:21:06] I'll always talk up Ape Escape whenever I get a chance, but you know, seeing the apes

[00:21:10] run around, getting the net and then actually hitting your ape with the first net and getting

[00:21:13] the little slow-mos 360 like you did in the old game.

[00:21:16] I was like, okay, somebody's been doing their homework.

[00:21:18] Yeah, no, seriously.

[00:21:19] And it's, it's incredible.

[00:21:20] Like, yeah.

[00:21:21] Oh, the God of War level was awesome.

[00:21:23] Yeah.

[00:21:23] Really, really fun.

[00:21:24] Oh, a bot of war.

[00:21:26] And then there's, there's a...

[00:21:27] Loco Roco is the last one, I think.

[00:21:29] Yes, correct.

[00:21:30] Yeah.

[00:21:30] Loco Roco.

[00:21:31] And that was just, it's all, it's all incredible.

[00:21:33] It's so fun.

[00:21:34] I, um, yeah, I, I think that it's one of the, one of the, the classic things about this

[00:21:40] game or just one of the things that are the most memorable is the idea is that whenever

[00:21:44] you unlock these levels, I, I, as a surprise, I mean, I didn't look up anything prior to

[00:21:48] going into it.

[00:21:49] So every single time I unlocked this kind of like Hallmark PlayStation IP section, I was

[00:21:54] just absolutely blown away at how, just how much love and care was put into it.

[00:21:59] And I know that a lot of people, you know, shake their heads at, you know, when you bring

[00:22:02] up Uncharted or God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn, no matter how good those games are.

[00:22:07] But I really think that playing Astro Bot to a certain degree has kind of eliminated

[00:22:12] a lot of the noise.

[00:22:14] Um, just doing video games coverage in general, you hear a lot of like negative feedback about,

[00:22:19] you know, what these companies do.

[00:22:20] And for just, and for very fair reasons, you know, both PlayStation and Xbox, you know,

[00:22:25] aren't up to like very positive things, net positive things when it comes to the way that

[00:22:30] they treat their employees or the way that they treat their consumers.

[00:22:32] I think there are people that try to do good.

[00:22:35] Um, but I think Astro Bot is one of the examples of kind of what, you know, what Jacob was saying

[00:22:41] earlier that, you know, we, we, we don't necessarily stand corporations or products over here,

[00:22:46] but really in this experience, you're like, wow, just the pure nostalgia and the love that

[00:22:51] they have for like what each of these IP mean to you, whether it's, you know, finding the

[00:22:55] Metal Gear Solid characters and, you know, you have snake in a box or, uh, you know, or,

[00:23:00] you know, getting blasted by the, uh, the hunter from Bloodborne whenever you whack him on the

[00:23:04] crash site.

[00:23:05] It's just like, it's all so delightful.

[00:23:08] Oh, I know we talked about bosses a little bit.

[00:23:10] I don't know if either of you had like a favorite boss as well.

[00:23:13] Cause I know I, I personally was a big fan of the Lady Venomara, the, the big snake.

[00:23:18] That was, that was what I was going to say.

[00:23:19] The snake one was really fun.

[00:23:21] The snake one was fun.

[00:23:21] I thought the chameleon was also pretty fun because it was a little, a touch more challenging

[00:23:26] than some of the other ones.

[00:23:28] So yeah, that was, those are two great ones.

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:30] I was a big fan of the djinn, uh, and, you know, facing him more than once.

[00:23:34] And there was just a really satisfying, you know, when you use the, I think it was the

[00:23:38] bulldog backpack to smash a like skull at the djinn and then smack them in the head.

[00:23:43] It just was so satisfying to do.

[00:23:45] And the, I think adaptive triggers really helped with making that even more satisfying.

[00:23:49] Yeah.

[00:23:50] Kind of like that resistance that you feel until you finally can pull down on the trigger

[00:23:54] and then shoot forward.

[00:23:55] I think one of my favorite moments as using the, the bulldog backpack is when they organize

[00:23:59] different, uh, bounce, like bounce barriers where you like run into it and it just shoots

[00:24:04] astro up.

[00:24:04] It's, it's incredible.

[00:24:05] It's, it's so much fun.

[00:24:06] Um, yeah.

[00:24:08] So in, in kind of on that note, that kind of perfectly dovetail us into just the design

[00:24:13] of the level, as we said before, every level has their own unique theme in the unique way

[00:24:17] that allows Astro Bot to kind of traverse through the level so he can, you know, find

[00:24:22] the secrets, help the Astros, you know, get back to the crash site, whatever the case may

[00:24:26] be.

[00:24:26] So most, if not every single one of the levels gives him kind of like a gimmick mechanic.

[00:24:31] It's not a gimmick in like a negative way, but it's just more of a tool that he can use

[00:24:35] to get through the level.

[00:24:36] And, you know, for example, like we just said, he has the, the bulldog backpack.

[00:24:39] There's a chicken backpack that he can throw on that makes him just jet up really high in

[00:24:43] the air.

[00:24:44] Kind of like Yoshi in Mario, uh, super Mario sunshine, um, how he can jet up really, uh,

[00:24:50] high up in the air.

[00:24:51] So that's kind of similar.

[00:24:52] Um, monkey hands.

[00:24:54] Will hates this.

[00:24:55] Will doesn't like the monkey hands.

[00:24:57] And if I, it goes in like a two parter one.

[00:25:00] I know we've been very positive.

[00:25:01] I want to keep it positive.

[00:25:02] So you don't have to chime in, but I'm just going to say straight up.

[00:25:05] There was one level I did not like, and that was go, go archipelago.

[00:25:08] And I would say half of it was because of those monkey hands.

[00:25:11] So that's the one where you first start off and you get those hands to climb out, but

[00:25:14] you have to use the dual sense to like turn it left and right before you can use the triggers

[00:25:19] to then grab the little bananas and make your way up.

[00:25:21] And I was like, if anything's going to give me carpal tunnel, it's going to be this right

[00:25:25] here.

[00:25:25] I'm sitting here like twisting back and forth while also hitting the triggers.

[00:25:28] And I'm just like, I feel my tendon snapping every time.

[00:25:34] Does that make us old when we talk about getting, uh, getting carpal tunnel?

[00:25:38] As someone who's done physio on one of his wrists.

[00:25:40] Yes.

[00:25:41] Uh, and I'm with you there with the monkey hands.

[00:25:43] I think out of all of the sort of add-ons or little gimmicks, as you said, that we can

[00:25:48] pull in here.

[00:25:49] I think monkey hands is, is the weakest.

[00:25:51] And that's truly because like motion works well when you're flying on your dual sense

[00:25:56] and you have to tilt the controller almost like layer style.

[00:26:00] Um, but monkey hands just wasn't it for me.

[00:26:03] And, and strictly from like a climbing perspective, it wasn't pitch perfect.

[00:26:06] Maybe it needed some tuning.

[00:26:08] Yeah.

[00:26:08] A little bit of tuning.

[00:26:09] I think for me, I enjoyed whenever there were like sticky cylindrical platforms where you

[00:26:14] had to like shoot up and grab it.

[00:26:16] And it just slings it like whip, whip, whip, yeah.

[00:26:18] It, whip, whip, whiplashes.

[00:26:20] A little frog hands rule.

[00:26:21] Yeah.

[00:26:21] Yeah.

[00:26:22] So that was the frog hands, not the monkey hands.

[00:26:24] Okay.

[00:26:24] Got it.

[00:26:24] Yeah, exactly.

[00:26:25] Yeah.

[00:26:25] The frog hands, like the little boxing gloves.

[00:26:27] Excuse me.

[00:26:27] Yep.

[00:26:27] That, and the frog hands were great because it was, it just turned into rock them, sock

[00:26:30] them robots where you're just running through and just smashing things.

[00:26:33] It's incredible.

[00:26:34] There was like using your spin with your, you know, fists all the way out.

[00:26:37] It was great.

[00:26:37] Oh yeah.

[00:26:38] No, it's, it's so good.

[00:26:40] Um, yeah.

[00:26:41] So, you know, we have all, all sorts of things, you know, and again, like folks, this is not

[00:26:44] going to be a comprehensive review because everything we say is going to take away from

[00:26:48] the magic that you get to experience.

[00:26:50] Cause I think going into a game like Astro Bot for the first time, knowing absolutely

[00:26:54] nothing is the biggest gift that you can give to yourself because there's just so much

[00:26:58] joy in the exploration and the wonder of like finding out what's out there.

[00:27:03] So yeah, definitely go check them out.

[00:27:04] I think, you know, again, some of more of my personal favorites, the slow-mo clock was really

[00:27:08] fun at some of those levels using the VR set to kind of like stop time.

[00:27:12] There's a kind of Luigi's Mansion styled level where you use that as well.

[00:27:17] Um, that, you know, where they have like spinning knives and cutlery and plates that these ghosts

[00:27:22] are throwing at you and you kind of just have to stop and hop from level to level.

[00:27:25] It's just, it's all so good.

[00:27:27] Um, Will, I think you put in here, there are a couple of single user limited time items.

[00:27:31] Did you want to talk about that a little bit?

[00:27:34] Yeah.

[00:27:34] So the couple of them aside from the major items, we already mentioned a few of where you

[00:27:38] get it at the beginning of the level or close to the beginning, and then it's just on you

[00:27:41] to use whenever you want to.

[00:27:43] There are some that you can either pick up or grab in the world that are either limited

[00:27:46] use or you're supposed to specifically use them to either throw or get past a section

[00:27:51] and then let go of it.

[00:27:52] So something like the rubber ducky, which is one of my favorite kind of single use items

[00:27:58] because it's probably on one of the more challenging challenge levels as well.

[00:28:01] So you use the rubber ducky to shoot water out and build little walkways through lava

[00:28:07] where otherwise you would, you know, get burnt to a crisp.

[00:28:09] And then another fun one is the light bulb.

[00:28:11] We talked about that a little bit as far as with the spooky areas.

[00:28:15] Normally they kind of go hand in hand, but they allow you to see platforms that are normally

[00:28:19] invisible.

[00:28:20] So you need to hold the light bulb while you're getting close.

[00:28:22] Otherwise you're kind of jumping blind.

[00:28:24] So it's fun being able to use that light bulb, maybe in the middle of platforming to throw

[00:28:28] it at a bad guy when you need to, and then either keep a kind of memory lock as far as

[00:28:33] where the little blocks were or having to like pull another one out of the ground really

[00:28:37] fast before you start falling down.

[00:28:38] So both of those very fun.

[00:28:40] Yeah.

[00:28:40] Yeah.

[00:28:40] I definitely really liked the armadillo levels, especially there was a, there's a specific

[00:28:45] challenge level.

[00:28:46] I think it might've been a cross or a square challenge level that used the armadillo that

[00:28:49] I thought was fun.

[00:28:51] But on that note, Jacob, did you enjoy some of those challenge levels that were out there?

[00:28:54] Man, they were, uh, I think when I think about difficulty in Astro Bot.

[00:28:59] This game is pretty breezy except for those challenge levels.

[00:29:03] Yeah.

[00:29:03] And is Astro Bot a game for kids?

[00:29:06] I don't think so.

[00:29:07] Is it breezy for adults?

[00:29:09] Yes.

[00:29:10] But those challenge levels are definitely very challenging, especially the last one that

[00:29:15] you need to do to complete and get the golden trophy.

[00:29:17] My goodness.

[00:29:18] Uh, that one took, I saw it on Tik TOK first, you know, within the cup first couple of days

[00:29:22] of release and went, Oh no, I'm never going to be able to finish that.

[00:29:25] And it only really took me like 10 or 12 tries where there were one or two of the later,

[00:29:30] I think either cross or square challenges that took me 20 or 30 tries.

[00:29:34] Um, but just one quick point about the armadillo, uh, power up, uh, incredibly satisfying sound

[00:29:41] that usually I'd be annoyed by it.

[00:29:43] But hearing that little, like almost a, when you have a plinko board at a carnival and you're

[00:29:47] just putting a chip down, it almost sounds like that, but amplified just the sounds.

[00:29:51] Perfect.

[00:29:51] We've called it out before, but it's so good.

[00:29:53] It's so good.

[00:29:54] Yeah.

[00:29:54] It's so good.

[00:29:55] Yeah.

[00:29:55] I mean, I have a, I have a note here later on in the review, they talk about like the

[00:29:58] sound, the, like just the visual and, and like the, the auditory feedback that you get,

[00:30:04] that you get like specifically with like the big, the big robot that you have, big brother

[00:30:08] robot that you have to save.

[00:30:10] Um, and when you jump into that level, Astro deploys a plastic, um, uh, umbrella over his

[00:30:16] head and you can hear the patter of the raindrops on this plastic umbrella.

[00:30:19] And it feels like it in your hands as you're going through it.

[00:30:22] It's just like, it's hard to kind of explain to someone who hasn't really played a PS5 before,

[00:30:29] or, you know, maybe doesn't have a dual sense controller.

[00:30:31] They're probably thinking, Oh, it just sounds like a silly gimmick.

[00:30:33] It's not, it's genuinely incredible.

[00:30:36] Like the, the way that it makes me feel.

[00:30:37] And that's with everything across the board, I will say the speaker inside of the dual sense

[00:30:42] isn't like the best speaker ever after a while, as you said, you know, there are some

[00:30:46] different auditory signals that they're pushing through there that can be like, okay, I've,

[00:30:51] I've heard this a lot.

[00:30:53] I'm kind of ready to stop stepping on this surface as Astro.

[00:30:56] I'm not really.

[00:30:57] Or even the rocket thrusts on your dual sense.

[00:30:59] If you have your dual sense cranked all the way, it does start to sound a little, I don't

[00:31:03] know if tinny is the right word, but you definitely hear the weak speaker in the dual

[00:31:07] sense.

[00:31:07] That that's gotta be a cheap shit, uh, you know, speaker in there.

[00:31:10] Yeah.

[00:31:11] I don't know if there's like even a solution for something like that.

[00:31:13] I feel like the smaller you make a speaker get, I mean, that's just, it is going to be

[00:31:16] what it is there.

[00:31:17] I don't think, I don't know if there's like, especially if you just want to keep a dual

[00:31:20] sense controller at $70, unless you're buying a $200 dual sense edge, which I don't even

[00:31:25] know if the speaker they would put in that is any better from what you would get in a

[00:31:28] normal dual sense, but probably yeah, it's, I would imagine not.

[00:31:32] Let's go ahead and move on.

[00:31:33] I wanted to talk about something that I thought was really cool.

[00:31:37] And just the idea of playing as Astro in this game in interview, Nicholas to say,

[00:31:41] said that he was in, it was incredibly important to him and team of Sobe, um, to make Astro

[00:31:46] feel like a toy, feel in control, like a toy.

[00:31:49] And of course we've talked ag nauseum about the dual sense controller and that, how that

[00:31:53] goes into it.

[00:31:54] Well, how about you?

[00:31:55] What did you think about like controlling Astro just in general?

[00:31:58] Yeah.

[00:31:59] Astro felt very smooth.

[00:32:00] So because I will say that I am very comfortable with platformers.

[00:32:06] I'm not the platforming King, right?

[00:32:08] I'm not going to look at something like Celeste or super meat boy and be like, oh, that's

[00:32:11] easy.

[00:32:11] That's a cakewalk.

[00:32:12] You know, I'm more of like a, oh, I like playing Greece or it's like, oh, I enjoy, you

[00:32:16] know, the odd Mario game.

[00:32:18] So I, um, I say, once again, very comfortable with platforming.

[00:32:21] So picking up Astro, um, even for the first time, like Nick, I think the first, well,

[00:32:24] I know the first time I played Astro bot was actually over at your place after we had

[00:32:27] finished the recording.

[00:32:28] I mean, it felt very effortless.

[00:32:29] I was like, cool.

[00:32:30] Jump is jump.

[00:32:31] You know, I know how to do my attacks.

[00:32:32] He has, you know, the hold to do spin attacks, very common.

[00:32:36] And then, um, one thing that I just kind of picked up cause I recognize it from platformers

[00:32:41] of yesteryear is you can kind of extend your jumps by spinning in midair, um, by holding

[00:32:47] the square.

[00:32:47] So it's like, you know, you jump, jump, you're doing your little Astro glide with your jets.

[00:32:50] And then if I need like a little bit more distance spinning there, you get a little bit more and

[00:32:55] then you can keep on going.

[00:32:55] So all of that felt very intuitive and very nice.

[00:32:58] Um, so I can 100% see the toy pickup sound and feel with the dual sense, go with that very

[00:33:04] heavily.

[00:33:04] So Astro bots little steps as you're walking on the worlds.

[00:33:08] Um, and then just the cute, incredibly cute things he does.

[00:33:12] Like if you spin the camera around and you're like looking at Astro, he'll wave at the camera.

[00:33:15] Like he'll see you.

[00:33:16] You're like, Oh, Hey, or if you don't touch your controller for like 30 seconds, he'll

[00:33:21] just lay down and take a nap.

[00:33:23] Stuff like that just really puts you into the world and immerses you more and more.

[00:33:27] We talked about the audio immersing you.

[00:33:29] We talked about the dual sense, how he'll most, uh, immersing you, but just being able to

[00:33:33] also have Astro interact and feel very real.

[00:33:37] Um, at least to me, I felt like he was a, once again, I think he's taking over for the

[00:33:41] face of PlayStation because I look at Astro bot and I don't just see a, you know, a corporate

[00:33:45] shell.

[00:33:46] I'm just like, Oh, look, this is a real mascot.

[00:33:49] This is a real character.

[00:33:50] I feel like I'm back in the, you know, late nineties and kind of mid nineties again, where

[00:33:54] you can say like, Oh, look, I see Astro bot.

[00:33:56] I think PlayStation, because it's just like, that's the mascot, right?

[00:34:00] That's the, the flagship is what they may start doing from now on.

[00:34:03] Yeah.

[00:34:03] Um, so no, the, the toy comparison was very apt.

[00:34:06] That was very nice.

[00:34:40] And we, we talked about the way that team Asobi has been able to leverage the dual sense

[00:34:46] into the overall like experience.

[00:34:48] I haven't played any other game that does it to the level that they do, but I've heard

[00:34:52] good things about returnal.

[00:34:54] I know the, I know, Will, you've played it.

[00:34:55] Have you, have you touched on that at all?

[00:34:57] Jacob?

[00:34:57] Yep.

[00:34:58] Uh, yeah, I've, I've played returnal and, uh, the adaptive triggers.

[00:35:01] I think they do a really good job.

[00:35:03] Okay.

[00:35:03] I would almost say on par with the level of Astro bot.

[00:35:06] But for me, it's, it's the different things that Astro bot uses within the controller.

[00:35:10] You know, at one point you're blowing plants or blowing those little pinwheels using the,

[00:35:15] the microphone, the adaptive triggers, the speaker, uh, the, the rumble has some really

[00:35:20] like distinct patterns.

[00:35:22] So, um, I think that no game on the PlayStation five uses the dual sense to the level that,

[00:35:28] um, that this game does.

[00:35:29] And just going back to the toy comparison really quickly, of course, team Asobi, uh, you know,

[00:35:35] who's in Japan, the world of the gachapon creates a game that really evokes everything

[00:35:41] that gachapons are all about is it is a small disposable experience, but the level of craft

[00:35:46] that you see in those toys is way more than if you bought something that's North American,

[00:35:51] where it's just like a, you know, a cheap tchotchke.

[00:35:53] Uh, whereas like, there's a lot of craft in even the smallest gachapon toys in Japan.

[00:35:58] And I think Astro Bot like evokes that exact same feeling.

[00:36:02] Something that I did want to talk with you both about that I thought was relatively important

[00:36:07] to what's going on here.

[00:36:09] And like what the way that Asobi is honoring all of the PlayStation IP.

[00:36:13] We talk about all of the incredible things that we see here, um, whether it's going to

[00:36:17] be super monkey ball, right?

[00:36:18] It was a super, super monkey ball.

[00:36:20] That's in there.

[00:36:21] Ape escape, um, that you find as well.

[00:36:23] Uh, some of like F zero is if I'm not mistaken, F zero is in this as, or what, who, what,

[00:36:28] what was the game where the speeders, there were speeder, I feel like, but I don't believe

[00:36:32] it was F zero though.

[00:36:33] That's straight.

[00:36:34] I'm pretty sure it was Nintendo as well.

[00:36:35] I probably will cut that, but, um, there's just like, I mean, there's a number of just

[00:36:40] incredible IP that you can find here.

[00:36:43] Um, on the 30th anniversary, there was a recent article, um, that was put out that indicated

[00:36:47] Hiroki to Toki said that PlayStation doesn't have enough original IP that it can leverage

[00:36:53] in the modern console era, which seems implicitly contradictory to what Astro Bot is as an entire

[00:36:59] experience in and of itself.

[00:37:01] And arguably one of the best games to come out this year.

[00:37:04] So I wanted to ask you both, like, do you think that Astro Bot not only refutes this

[00:37:08] notion, but is this going to be a message to both PlayStation and the rest of the industry

[00:37:12] that this is the way that we want to see IP from PlayStation going forward?

[00:37:20] Look, I would love for this to be a message.

[00:37:22] I can't say that they'll take it because I'm, I'm at this point, I'm not fully jaded,

[00:37:27] but I'm just like, every time I see something really good happen, I get like three or four

[00:37:30] things where I'm just like, Oh no, why did, why did this happen to me?

[00:37:34] So I would love for them to see the success here and see the quality and the craftsmanship

[00:37:38] and kind of take away from that.

[00:37:39] You know, I, and I haven't done enough of the search on there, but I would just love

[00:37:43] to maybe kind of peek back after this and be like, all right, how long did Astro start

[00:37:47] development and development?

[00:37:48] You know, obviously we know Asobi is not a gigantic team, so they're big enough to make

[00:37:53] things happen, but you know, they're, they're definitely not an indie and then they're nowhere

[00:37:57] near like maybe a naughty dog where it's like hundreds of people.

[00:37:59] Yeah.

[00:37:59] I think Asobi is 65 people.

[00:38:02] There's a great interview on Friends Per Second where they interview Nick Doucette and he talks

[00:38:06] about the studio culture, not only the fact that they're a 65 person team that, you know,

[00:38:11] was working on this game for three years, but beyond that, they were talking about their

[00:38:14] process and how a lot of the time they'll send a designer away or they'll send someone

[00:38:19] away to work on one mechanic, one boss fight, one, you know, little piece of the game.

[00:38:24] And then they'll come back after a two week sprint to the rest of the team and kind of everyone

[00:38:29] gets to play it and see if it's something that they can build a world around.

[00:38:32] Um, so just that, that culture in itself, like is not something that we see often in

[00:38:37] games.

[00:38:37] It's wild to see this come out right after Concord, which for those of you who may be

[00:38:42] listening to this in the future, uh, if you remember it was the hero shooter that was

[00:38:46] and then wasn't, that was on the market for about a week.

[00:38:48] And then Sony pulled the plug may have costed, you know, triple A budget levels.

[00:38:52] Um, the one thing I'll say about your original question, just going back to, do they have

[00:38:57] enough IP that they can leverage?

[00:38:59] I think it's really wild to think that crash and Spyro who are in this game are now technically

[00:39:03] owned by Microsoft.

[00:39:05] Yeah.

[00:39:05] Yep.

[00:39:05] And a lot of their mascot platformers haven't been seen in a long time.

[00:39:10] Uh, where's Jack?

[00:39:11] Where's Sly?

[00:39:12] Where's, um, I'm missing one of the, I mean, ratchet had a game on the PlayStation five,

[00:39:17] but a lot of their core mascots that would be in this game haven't had titles in generations.

[00:39:23] Yeah.

[00:39:24] Yeah.

[00:39:24] I, uh, I definitely think that that's so interesting.

[00:39:27] And I think that it's when I think about Astro Bot, I'm not thinking about narrative components.

[00:39:34] I'm not thinking, you know, I'm thinking about the way that Astro Bot made me feel and like

[00:39:38] just sheer joy in relishing the experience.

[00:39:41] I think a lot of the conversation that Will and I have a back and forth is that we sit on two

[00:39:44] opposite ends of gamers in terms of the way that we like to experience games.

[00:39:49] I think if I'm to speak for you, Will, just very briefly, I think Will sits in the camp

[00:39:53] of, Hey, like I want a game that's going to be technically mechanically really fun to

[00:39:58] play, really actionable to play.

[00:40:00] Um, and if it has a cool story on it, then that's icing on the cake.

[00:40:02] Whereas for me, I want something typically in most cases, that's going to tell a good

[00:40:08] story to bring me into a world that I can experience.

[00:40:11] And then again, if the good gameplay is kind of surrounding it, then that's just, that's

[00:40:16] perfect for me.

[00:40:17] And I can muscle through anything that's a little lesser than, um, but playing as Astro,

[00:40:21] like there's, this is not anything there's, there's not really a story in this game beyond

[00:40:26] the fact that like, there's some incredibly emotional moments at the end here.

[00:40:29] But, um, I think like going through this game is just like, it's about the way that they

[00:40:34] kind of capitalize on joy and wonder and just experience the mechanical experience of this

[00:40:40] game.

[00:40:41] Um, and that's, that's so important.

[00:40:43] And I think that like it going beyond like the IP here, but I am meandering a little

[00:40:48] bit, but to kind of circle back, I think my point is, is that it's not necessarily who

[00:40:54] they have in this game, but like the way that you kind of get to experience everyone in

[00:40:58] there.

[00:40:58] And that goes to the point where it's like, you're going out there, you're finding them

[00:41:01] in the world.

[00:41:02] And then they come back to the crash site.

[00:41:03] You get to unlock different like little, um, animations for them where they get to show

[00:41:08] like what they are, like the resident evil characters.

[00:41:10] You get, uh, Jill and Leon and I think Wesker at one point also, you know, you get to find,

[00:41:15] I could be wrong about that, but then let's like just these cute little adorable animations

[00:41:20] that you have there, you know, crash bandicoot, you know, being able to dance with crash is

[00:41:24] an achievement in this game.

[00:41:25] Like you literally have to, it's, it's a hidden achievement.

[00:41:28] It's, it's so much fun.

[00:41:29] Um, but yeah, no, I think that it's, I think, I just think that straight up like Hiroki was,

[00:41:35] is not necessarily accurate on the point that they have so much good stuff they want to

[00:41:39] use.

[00:41:40] I think maybe what I, to, to make an excuse for him is what he's saying is that he

[00:41:44] doesn't necessarily think that there's IP that they can use that will be super profitable

[00:41:48] in the modern generation.

[00:41:50] And I think that I hope that Astro Bot is an argument in contrary to that, but I've never

[00:41:56] played a sack boy.

[00:41:57] Sackboy's big adventure.

[00:41:58] I never, you know, I, I played, I played a Sly Cooper.

[00:42:02] I played Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and I never got to play any of the PS3 Sly

[00:42:05] Cooper games.

[00:42:06] So I would love it if PlayStation were to like, just take the moment to go back into their history,

[00:42:12] to bring everything we're seeing here in Astro Bot and so much wonder and joy.

[00:42:16] And like to the modern generation, to the modern kids who are playing, because my argument

[00:42:20] is that there aren't that many games that are made for kids these days outside of the Nintendo

[00:42:25] ecosystem.

[00:42:27] And if Sony were to do that, I think it would be a really major thing.

[00:42:30] I think it's kind of surprising too, considering you see movies and like entertainment, they

[00:42:33] go for, you know, kids movies that generally do gangbusters because it's the whole, the

[00:42:38] kid wants to go.

[00:42:39] So then you get maybe one or two guaranteed tickets aside from the child because the parent

[00:42:43] has to take them.

[00:42:43] So it's kind of the same thing with games where you think if you make something that's like,

[00:42:47] hey, this is a T for teen, you know, or maybe, you know, rated E for everyone kind of style

[00:42:52] game.

[00:42:52] Then it's like, all right, well, parents have to buy it.

[00:42:54] And if it's still going to be the standard $70, $60 fare, you know, I feel like it's much

[00:42:59] easier to get a kid to be like, please, mom, dad, I've been really happy versus someone

[00:43:02] who's maybe like working nine to five like us.

[00:43:05] And you're sitting there potentially pinching pennies and figuring out which game of the quarter

[00:43:09] you want to buy.

[00:43:10] But, you know, your kid looks up at you and you're just like, I guess we're getting the

[00:43:13] new Astro bot.

[00:43:14] Let me go ahead and pull out.

[00:43:15] And then two thing is Astro is not even the full 70, right?

[00:43:17] Astro was like what?

[00:43:18] I think $49.99 or $59.99.

[00:43:20] No.

[00:43:21] So I think it was slightly discounted.

[00:43:22] I think it's 60.

[00:43:24] 60 US.

[00:43:24] Yeah.

[00:43:24] 60 US dollars.

[00:43:27] Which, you know, nowadays everything's $69.99.

[00:43:29] So even then you get like a small discount from playing one of the best games of the year,

[00:43:33] which is like, I'm not going to complain about.

[00:43:35] But I appreciate you, Jacob, bringing up before like the 65 team.

[00:43:38] And, you know, the fact that what they said three years, I believe it was.

[00:43:41] Yeah, three years.

[00:43:41] Because that's almost perfect.

[00:43:43] Like I feel like three years is a really good dev time to get everything worked out and

[00:43:47] looking really nice and pretty like it is.

[00:43:49] Like this is not a slouch of a visual game.

[00:43:51] So they did great here.

[00:43:52] And the team is 65 people, nice and intimate.

[00:43:55] People cross-working and know what people are doing.

[00:43:58] You know, I can only imagine from some of these like bigger studios and titles, you may

[00:44:01] have somebody working on something and they don't even know what the programmers are

[00:44:04] doing, right?

[00:44:05] Maybe I'm just working on art or I'm just working on music.

[00:44:07] But there's no real overlap and connection.

[00:44:10] While with these smaller teams, I feel like there's so much that you have to do kind of

[00:44:14] together and cooperatively.

[00:44:16] And that shows in the game how everything just really syncs up together well.

[00:44:20] We talked about the dual sense haptics and the actual technology in there with the music,

[00:44:24] with the gameplay.

[00:44:25] Like everything feels like it goes together.

[00:44:27] You can tell that these people were working on it and putting the pieces versus just I'm

[00:44:31] doing my part of the group project.

[00:44:32] And then I'm doing my part of the group project.

[00:44:34] And hopefully we get an A at the end.

[00:44:36] But you know, sometimes we've seen games that come out a little less polished than most.

[00:44:40] I mean, I think of Ubisoft way too much as a human being.

[00:44:43] Yeah.

[00:44:43] And how I think their distributed development model, although has like served them relatively

[00:44:48] well.

[00:44:49] You can see how it outputs just open world slop, right?

[00:44:53] You have one studio that's in charge.

[00:44:55] And then you may have 20 other studios around the world who are working on one piece, one

[00:44:58] level, one mechanic.

[00:44:59] And it all comes together.

[00:45:00] And for the most part, you know, you get sevens and eights as far as games go.

[00:45:03] But it doesn't have this level of care, this, you know, Disney level of care, this Nintendo

[00:45:08] level of care, this Ghibli level of care.

[00:45:11] And it's really about like that intimacy and how a lot of these devs have been working together

[00:45:14] for a long time.

[00:45:15] So there's trust and trust is not something in game dev.

[00:45:18] I think that maybe we're seeing in AAA at the moment.

[00:45:22] But just to go back to your point really fast about Todoki and the comment around PlayStation

[00:45:26] IP, I think the only real way that I can interpret that as being accurate is if you think about

[00:45:31] Nintendo and how like their big IP, most of them, except for Nintendo is wholly owned

[00:45:37] or Pokemon.

[00:45:38] Pokemon is like one third owned by Nintendo, but everything is wholly owned by Nintendo.

[00:45:42] So they can do whatever they want with it.

[00:45:43] And sure, sometimes they don't like to put, you know, non Mario characters in Mario Karts

[00:45:48] and Mario sports titles.

[00:45:50] Maybe they will someday.

[00:45:51] I know they've started with Mario Kart 8.

[00:45:53] But with PlayStation, I think a lot of their iconic, when you think about the last 30 years

[00:45:57] of PlayStation, you think of their iconic brands or iconic IP.

[00:46:01] A lot of them are third party brands that are, you know, maybe not even going to be on

[00:46:05] PlayStation hardware going forward.

[00:46:07] Your Resident Evils, your Lara Crofts, your Final Fantasies.

[00:46:12] Exactly.

[00:46:13] So I think that's the only way I can interpret that as being accurate.

[00:46:15] But I think PlayStation has a deep bench.

[00:46:18] They just got to pull out some of the weird ones.

[00:46:21] Your Patapons and your Vibribbons from the old box, you know?

[00:46:26] Yeah.

[00:46:27] I love it whenever PlayStation gets weird.

[00:46:29] And I think that this is a perfect time to do it.

[00:46:32] You know, now that we're a little bit in flux, we don't know when the PlayStation 6 is

[00:46:37] going to come, people are a little bit tired of all of the Horizon remasters and The Last

[00:46:41] of Us remasters.

[00:46:42] You know, like we can put a pause on that for now, maybe and do a little bit of a pivot

[00:46:48] from a corporate perspective.

[00:46:49] But yeah, I love that comment.

[00:46:52] And you know, it's similar to what you were talking about in terms of just like the focused

[00:46:56] care that they put on it.

[00:46:57] We just recently reviewed or I both both myself as well as Colby from Switch It Up podcast reviewed

[00:47:04] Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

[00:47:05] And something that is really incredibly important about that game and why that game is so good

[00:47:11] and as successful as it was is because Square found a way to keep everyone from the Final

[00:47:16] Fantasy remake team to come on and work on Rebirth.

[00:47:19] And I think they might have pulled it off again for Reunion whenever that's set to come out.

[00:47:24] So I imagine that development is already in progress for that game.

[00:47:27] And the same thing goes here.

[00:47:29] It's just, you know, when you have a tight focus team with a vision and an idea, the same

[00:47:34] way that Nicholas Dusset had for Astro Bot come together and work on an experience, you're

[00:47:38] going to get solid gold.

[00:47:40] So yeah.

[00:47:41] Teams don't want to make crap.

[00:47:43] It's a very easy thing.

[00:47:45] Just let the devs do their job.

[00:47:47] Let them play.

[00:47:48] And this is what you get.

[00:47:49] Exactly.

[00:47:50] Exactly.

[00:47:50] And I think the money is there to show for it.

[00:47:53] We talked a little bit about music earlier, Will.

[00:47:56] Will, you had mentioned, you know, this idea of, you know, jumping into Astro's Playroom.

[00:48:02] And you had talked to me and Jacob, I don't know if you knew about this.

[00:48:05] There are four secret Astro Bots that were put into Astro's Playroom once Astro Bot actually

[00:48:10] released.

[00:48:11] So in the game, if you do the Platinum, you get 301 Astros.

[00:48:15] That's a little bit of a spoiler, but you get 301.

[00:48:17] If you go into Astro's Playroom, you can unlock four more that you can then go back into Astro

[00:48:25] Bot and interact with and play with in the crash site to get 305 total.

[00:48:32] So yeah.

[00:48:32] I didn't know if you knew that.

[00:48:34] So I just wanted to call that out.

[00:48:35] But something that was interesting to me as I was going up, you talked about it at the

[00:48:38] very beginning of the show, Will.

[00:48:40] Like the GPU, like the songs that they had in Astro's Playroom, like SSD, like all of the

[00:48:47] different areas had this like incredible core thematic, like music, music design score that

[00:48:54] were like attached to that game.

[00:48:55] I will say I liked the music in this game.

[00:48:59] I didn't think that any individual galaxy or any individual star system or every level kind

[00:49:05] of had a cool, fun theme.

[00:49:07] It was more background to me.

[00:49:09] There's nothing that I remember other than getting the GPU, getting the, you know, whatever

[00:49:14] the storage is, the RAM for the PS5 and playing the little mini game to shove the RAM into

[00:49:20] like the PS5 total.

[00:49:22] That was fun.

[00:49:23] And getting able to listen to them sing their songs that was reminiscent of Astro's Playroom.

[00:49:27] But I felt like the music took a little bit of a backseat in this one as opposed to Astro's

[00:49:32] Playroom.

[00:49:32] Do you disagree?

[00:49:34] I mean, I felt like it was a bigger focus in Playroom because if I'm not mistaken, I think

[00:49:38] you were rocking that same song through each of the areas, which had like four separate

[00:49:42] sub areas in there.

[00:49:43] So that makes sense being a little bit more kind of like not absorbed by it, but like you

[00:49:48] have that over your head more in the four separate areas versus every new place has,

[00:49:52] if not completely different tweet music for each of the worlds, which, you know, there

[00:49:56] are like over 70 worlds.

[00:49:57] So there's a little bit of overlap, but I think they try to make it a little bit different

[00:50:01] here and there.

[00:50:02] The big standouts are just like you already mentioned, you have like the GPU and the SSD

[00:50:07] song.

[00:50:07] As you're putting the pieces together in the PlayStation, you can run up to the side and

[00:50:11] the cover slides off.

[00:50:13] And then the pieces that you have available will start singing a song.

[00:50:16] So eventually when you finish the game and you have all the pieces there, they all sing

[00:50:19] a song that like goes together well, which is incredible to listen to.

[00:50:22] Like I would let that sit there for like five minutes and just kind of rock out with the

[00:50:25] baby listening to that song.

[00:50:27] The menu theme, which is the main Astro Bot theme, Astro Bot, do, do, do, like that one

[00:50:33] is incredible.

[00:50:34] Anytime I sit there, you know, whether it be the end of the game, beginning of the game,

[00:50:37] sitting at the menu screen, I had a blast with that.

[00:50:39] And then the occasional music focused song, I think to the beat is really staying on beat

[00:50:46] as far as the challenge level.

[00:50:47] But I thought the sound there was also really good.

[00:50:49] Like I really enjoyed the music for that one.

[00:50:50] And then I already mentioned Trunk of Funk, which is mostly focused on the song, like the trees

[00:50:55] singing to you as you're climbing up the tree.

[00:50:57] It was also a really good time too.

[00:50:59] But I mean, I would agree with you.

[00:51:00] The music for Playroom, I remember more, but I also know that I was listening to like the

[00:51:06] same song more often in Playroom than I was in Astro Bot.

[00:51:09] Absolutely.

[00:51:11] I just want to call it really quickly, the small flares of nostalgia, even in the music.

[00:51:15] Yeah.

[00:51:15] We've talked about the Badavor, but just the fact that we get boy in the mix as the song

[00:51:21] is going, just a lot of little things in this game popped me.

[00:51:24] But I'll tell you boys, the boy in that one popped me pretty hard.

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:30] No, it definitely, it got me, it got me really good.

[00:51:32] And then like the secret, you know, obviously whenever you're in the crash site, there are

[00:51:38] several different things that the games ask you to do to unlock a hidden achievement to

[00:51:45] get the trophy on PlayStation.

[00:51:46] PlayStation.

[00:51:47] And there's one where you can freeze Thor.

[00:51:50] The name of that achievement is Thal, God of Thunder.

[00:51:53] And it's like, just because like you, I think you whack Kratos and then you get behind

[00:51:58] Thor and he throws his axe at him and instead of freezing him into a little block.

[00:52:03] I thought that was just so delightful.

[00:52:05] And it's funny, I know we talked a little bit about the PlayStation worlds as well, and

[00:52:08] definitely not to kind of understate them because they're all good.

[00:52:11] So just to, you know, once again, the PlayStation worlds are all very, very fun.

[00:52:15] But Jacob, yeah, you mentioned the Bot of War music.

[00:52:19] I just love that they all had the little kind of remix themes of the main themes of those

[00:52:23] games too.

[00:52:24] Like another one was back to dude rating.

[00:52:25] And I was sitting there going, I was like, oh, this is kind of jamming.

[00:52:27] I was like, oh, this is just the Nathan Drake theme.

[00:52:29] It's just uncharted.

[00:52:30] It's like a little, it's like a little EDM, like kind of beat to it.

[00:52:33] And I'm like, oh, this is kind of fancy.

[00:52:34] So now I'm sitting here like flipping through Spotify to be like Astro Bot music, add it

[00:52:39] to my playlist.

[00:52:40] My workout playlist is going to be, you know, Astro Bot music.

[00:52:43] Yeah, right.

[00:52:44] You know, Final Fantasy main battle theme, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and then Astro Bot.

[00:52:48] And you're just going to be pumping iron will.

[00:52:51] Bear McCrary remix for Astro Bot.

[00:52:53] Yeah, incredible.

[00:52:55] So we talked earlier about genre comparisons with between Astro and Mario.

[00:53:00] And I really think that you definitely killed it on that one, Jacob, in terms of just

[00:53:04] the kind of the market difference.

[00:53:06] Something that I was curious about, because you both are, have a little bit of a deeper

[00:53:10] touch with Mario and what, from what it sounds like Sackboy than I do.

[00:53:14] What do you think that Astro and, you know, Team Asobi took away from those games successfully

[00:53:20] to be able to put into Astro Bot?

[00:53:23] I think the thing that Odyssey does incredibly well, and I will say that I think Odyssey is

[00:53:27] a slightly better game than Astro Bot, is that Nintendo, and I think Team Asobi hits

[00:53:31] this too, where they're not afraid to give you a mechanic and throw it away when they're

[00:53:37] done with it.

[00:53:37] And so we talked about the number of power-ups or backpacks that he can get.

[00:53:45] Some of them you really only use once or twice in the entire game.

[00:53:48] And I think that is a very Nintendo thing.

[00:53:50] Because if you think about Odyssey and the capture mechanic, they just would throw you

[00:53:58] on the most random things for an Easter egg and a fun smile.

[00:54:01] And I think that's probably the thing that they, going back to the toy-like comparison

[00:54:05] that you made earlier, they're not afraid to just give you something once, twice, and

[00:54:08] then just give you more ideas.

[00:54:10] And are all of them bangers?

[00:54:12] No, but most of them are bangers.

[00:54:14] So I'm sure there's stuff in this game that they could create DLC around, and I'm secretly

[00:54:19] hoping for more DLC after the free pack that we get later in 2024.

[00:54:25] That's something...

[00:54:26] Sorry, go ahead, Will.

[00:54:28] I was just going to agree with Jacob as far as that too.

[00:54:30] Once again, Odyssey played it before.

[00:54:32] I would say Odyssey is a slightly better game, just like Jacob said.

[00:54:35] And the big thing for me that I think I would like Asobi to take away from the next Astro

[00:54:40] bot game they do is to incorporate a little bit of that story or that kind of background

[00:54:44] inciting incident into the worlds more.

[00:54:47] I was a little surprised when you're going through and you're beating each area and you're

[00:54:51] getting your final boss at the end that Space Bullied Nebulax doesn't pop up and remind

[00:54:56] you.

[00:54:56] You get it at the beginning of each one when you go in, right?

[00:54:58] So it's like he's playing around with the processor or the CPU, whatever that is.

[00:55:02] And he's like, oh, it does something goofy.

[00:55:03] And then he's like, uh-oh.

[00:55:04] And then you go and beat your worlds.

[00:55:06] But there's not a whole lot of Astro specifically coming in contact with the big bad before,

[00:55:12] you know, the very end, obviously.

[00:55:13] And that just could have been something, I would think, very easy to add in that kind

[00:55:17] of sprinkles the through line.

[00:55:19] Because each of the worlds are incredible, but they all feel very, which is not a bad

[00:55:23] thing, they all feel very kind of like bite-sized into themselves.

[00:55:26] Yeah, disconnected.

[00:55:26] Which is what I love.

[00:55:27] You can get in and out of each world in like five minutes, which is perfect.

[00:55:30] Which I feel like is different from Odyssey because I loved Odyssey, but you'd go into

[00:55:34] a planet and you'd be like, all right, you're going to be here for at least

[00:55:35] 15, 20, especially in your first time.

[00:55:38] And it was like, if you want to pull every little piece and every world was so layered,

[00:55:42] there might be like a low area or like a high area compared to where you're at.

[00:55:47] But yeah, just having that little bit of a through line story would be nice for the future

[00:55:50] for any kind of Astro Bot titles.

[00:55:52] Just to, you know, maybe even a piece of the people like yourself, Nick, where you said

[00:55:55] you want a little bit more story with your platforming.

[00:55:57] So that'd be kind of nice.

[00:55:58] I don't know.

[00:55:59] I don't even know if I need a story for Astro Bot because I love this game so much.

[00:56:02] I just had fun.

[00:56:03] Yeah, I came here for the fun.

[00:56:04] I think something just like from a visual landscape in a visual language that Astro Bot tells

[00:56:12] you, I think that it is consistent across all fronts.

[00:56:14] Like all of the enemies look the same.

[00:56:16] They might change and they might throw a little bit of different enemies at you in whatever

[00:56:20] level that you're in.

[00:56:21] Like there are spike enemies and sometimes they're black with like red eyes and then

[00:56:25] like glowing with miasma.

[00:56:26] But you always know you're jumping up, you're using your jets to kind of like defeat them.

[00:56:30] But I would say that like in terms of the bosses that are in this game, they don't necessarily

[00:56:36] have a visual language that make you think like, oh, this is a cadre of evil bosses in

[00:56:41] the galaxy that's working against Astro Bot.

[00:56:43] Like they're not creating a seemingly unified front the way that Bowser has his like armies

[00:56:48] at his disposal.

[00:56:49] That's always fighting against Mario.

[00:56:51] So I think that's something that they could do better on and they could, that's really

[00:56:54] easy to fix.

[00:56:55] That's incredibly easy to fix in my, in my opinion, in a way that it will allow people

[00:56:59] to be like, oh, I want the, you know, the Nebula bully plushie or something like that when

[00:57:04] they go into a target or something that it, again, it allows PlayStation to unfortunately

[00:57:08] capitalize upon, but just create a, an identity that's baked into the Astro experience.

[00:57:12] I think to give a Sobi a little bit of credit, Nintendo has had how long?

[00:57:18] 35 years to build these characters.

[00:57:20] And we're talking about arguably one of the most recognizable characters on the face of

[00:57:24] the earth.

[00:57:25] And so, uh, you know, for Astro Bot just to be like, yeah, he's a little guy.

[00:57:30] I think that, you know, we're doing okay.

[00:57:32] And keep me honest here.

[00:57:33] I think that Double Fine had some involvement in one of the playroom games.

[00:57:38] I think I saw Tim Schafer tweeting about this.

[00:57:41] If it's inaccurate, just please cut this.

[00:57:43] But I think that they had a hand in creating the original version of Nebulax, the space bully.

[00:57:50] And so, you know, Tim Schafer was incredibly happy to see, hey, that, that little guy that

[00:57:55] we had a little bit of a hand in designing is in this game.

[00:57:58] Yes.

[00:57:59] Actually, I'm looking at that now amid the, the, the Psychonauts, the Psychonauts studio

[00:58:03] shuts down, but they were during COVID, but they were able, uh, during the, uh,

[00:58:08] development of Astro's playroom to give the bobbly green little alien.

[00:58:12] It came courtesy of Double Fine.

[00:58:14] So that's, that's a cool little blend.

[00:58:16] That's a cool little, you know, kind of like developer note there for folks to jump in on.

[00:58:20] That's awesome.

[00:58:22] Let's go ahead and take a quick music break now.

[00:58:24] And then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about some of our favorite

[00:58:27] quote unquote spoiler moments for Astro Bot.

[00:58:30] So we'll see you all on the other side.

[00:59:06] And we're back.

[00:59:07] I wanted to kind of just save this spot, this spot of the review.

[00:59:12] Cause this, we were in full blown spoiler spoiler territory for folks who are listening.

[00:59:16] I wanted to save it for like the ending and the, what happens at the very end.

[00:59:20] So, you know, in the, in this game, you clear all the galaxies, save all the Astros, collect

[00:59:26] all the puzzle pieces.

[00:59:27] You open up the final boss mission.

[00:59:29] First of all, incredibly fun final boss mission.

[00:59:32] It reminds me of like some of the, you know, return of the Jedi when all of the spaceships

[00:59:37] are coming out to fight against the star destroyer and they warp out of, you know, hyper drive

[00:59:42] and they're flying around and there's just absolute chaos.

[00:59:45] And instead of spaceships, it's all just like an intent or excuse me, Sony consoles

[00:59:49] and peripherals and controllers that are flying around space and helping Astro on his dual

[00:59:54] sense speeder to get through the final boss.

[00:59:57] So just a visual treat, a gameplay kind of like design masterpiece in my opinion.

[01:00:01] And then obviously the end of this game, like fighting the, the nebula bully, like isn't

[01:00:07] particularly like hard or difficult.

[01:00:09] I mean, it was, it was fine.

[01:00:11] It was fun.

[01:00:12] It wasn't any more fun or any less fun than any of the other bosses in this game.

[01:00:16] But the moment I had spent 25 hours total on playing Astro Bot to get the platinum, which

[01:00:22] is, I don't, I guess that's a little bit long.

[01:00:24] I know, I know that's a little bit long, but I might've let the controller sit there for a

[01:00:28] while, gotten up and walked away.

[01:00:29] But I take my time in games like this.

[01:00:32] I like to, I like to relish these experiences.

[01:00:34] So yeah.

[01:00:35] Did you use the hint system a lot?

[01:00:36] The hint system?

[01:00:37] No, I didn't.

[01:00:38] I used it for one achievement.

[01:00:39] And I think that was getting the Katamari Damacy achievement in there.

[01:00:44] But that was, that was it.

[01:00:45] Did you, did you use the hint system?

[01:00:47] Yeah, I used it pretty heavily.

[01:00:49] So just for folks that, you know, might play this game, once you've gone through a

[01:00:52] level once, I think this is arguably one of the best hint systems in games where there's

[01:00:56] a little cuckoo clock that's in a domed little glass container.

[01:01:01] Yeah.

[01:01:01] And if you break it and pull the cord and spend 200 coins, you'll get a little birdie that tells

[01:01:08] you exactly where there's goodies hiding in a level.

[01:01:11] And so I feel like maybe that's why it took me only 15 hours to beat this game.

[01:01:15] Yeah.

[01:01:15] And really the last hour was just doing polls from the Gachapon so I could find, you know,

[01:01:21] Kiryu, Cosma Kiryu so that I could get the final achievement and get the platinum.

[01:01:26] Yeah.

[01:01:27] No, I definitely, a good part of my playthrough, probably a chunk of it, you know, a couple

[01:01:33] of hours in total was replaying challenge levels to beat the challenge levels.

[01:01:37] I would say that was a chunk of it.

[01:01:38] The other part of it is that I, what I did is I would go through these levels, collect

[01:01:43] all of the Astros that I wanted, but I, maybe I was stubborn because I used the birdie like

[01:01:48] once and I was like, I don't need this.

[01:01:49] I can find it without it.

[01:01:50] I think like part of me is just like the fun of this game for me was going around the levels,

[01:01:54] spinning the camera to look for the little nooks and crannies or maybe looking on the,

[01:01:58] off the edge of a cliff to see if there was something hiding behind the vines.

[01:02:02] And I think that might've been a little bit of what would have taken me so long.

[01:02:05] So I'm not, now that I say it, I am a little bit surprised of that runtime.

[01:02:08] So it shouldn't be, it shouldn't, shouldn't have been that long, but regardless, we're here.

[01:02:13] If you're enjoying it and you're loving it, then play to your heart's content, you know?

[01:02:16] Yeah.

[01:02:17] But it was, it was super fun.

[01:02:19] I would say that the amount of hours that it took me to get through this game, you get

[01:02:24] to the final level for them to fucking kill Astro Bot and the end suck him away from all

[01:02:31] of his friends and he sacrifices himself.

[01:02:33] He's, he makes an ultimate sacrifice.

[01:02:35] I stood up from my fucking couch and I was grabbing my head like, what, what is going on

[01:02:40] right now?

[01:02:40] I was like, they fucking killed my boy.

[01:02:43] My boy.

[01:02:44] What are you doing?

[01:02:45] Asobi, Asobi, zero out of 10.

[01:02:47] This is the trash game.

[01:02:48] What is going on here?

[01:02:49] Did you notice too, after Astro dies and the credits start rolling, the Asobi logo has

[01:02:55] like, the Astro Bot head is sad.

[01:02:57] It's sad.

[01:02:57] I was distraught.

[01:03:00] I was distraught.

[01:03:01] I was inconsolable.

[01:03:03] I was like, I can't tell, I can't talk to anybody about this because this game just came

[01:03:07] out.

[01:03:07] They fucking killed my guy.

[01:03:08] For all of 10 seconds.

[01:03:10] Of course they bring him.

[01:03:11] But like, I was like, I was like having, you know, big, strong manly tears, you know, well

[01:03:15] up in my eyes as I, as the Astros were like lending pieces of their body for like the player

[01:03:21] avatar to like put the Astro Bot back together and bring him back to life.

[01:03:26] But man, what an emotional role occurs to that once you have the high from just gliding through

[01:03:31] that and seeing all of like the, you know, the, the light guns and, and I guess the, there

[01:03:35] were like PS2s.

[01:03:37] Yeah.

[01:03:37] PS2, PS3s fight against it.

[01:03:38] And then, you know, obviously the boss fight, but yeah, it was, it was really good.

[01:03:41] Did that, did that resonate with either of you that way?

[01:03:44] Did it resonate with me, sir?

[01:03:47] I've been playing PlayStation since the PS1.

[01:03:50] I was sitting here watching PlayStation one controllers fly by in space.

[01:03:53] And I was just like, Oh my God, like, I mean, we talked about at the top of the, you know,

[01:03:59] the hour.

[01:04:00] Right.

[01:04:00] So, you know, once again, we are not company shills.

[01:04:05] However, when I start seeing old school PlayStation things that I used to own that I don't anymore

[01:04:10] because I was a stupid child that gave them to GameStop.

[01:04:14] Now I'm sitting here just like, ah, I'm like screaming as I'm firing the dual sense shots

[01:04:21] like, ah, I want you back.

[01:04:23] I'm just thinking of all the Tony Hawk pro skaters and, you know, playing Legend of

[01:04:28] Dragoon on demo disc because I never bought the full game, but I played the demo disc until

[01:04:33] it wore out.

[01:04:34] I'm going to play an ape escape.

[01:04:35] So all that stuff is just, it's fun being able to see all the old school, you know, once

[01:04:39] again, that nostalgia drip, the drip kept on dripping.

[01:04:42] And I don't know if you're going to do nostalgia away.

[01:04:45] You got to look at the ending of Astro Bot because that's the way to do it.

[01:04:48] Like, just like Jacob said, the only comparable thing is going to be end game when you're all

[01:04:54] the portals open up.

[01:04:55] And it's like, you get to look at all of your toys from when you were a child and you're

[01:04:59] smashing them all together and watching them fight.

[01:05:01] It's like, it's something you've never thought you would see in your lifetime.

[01:05:04] So it's incredible.

[01:05:05] I just wonder, will kids, if there are kids under maybe the age of 15, if they're going

[01:05:10] to get the same enjoyment out of this game than we would, because, you know, we've got

[01:05:14] that 30 years of PlayStation context, much like the MCU to go back on, that we get this

[01:05:20] like extra bit of dopamine every single time when we see these little Easter eggs come

[01:05:24] through.

[01:05:25] I don't know.

[01:05:25] Like, what's a kid going to do if they see a PlayStation 1, you know, flying through the

[01:05:29] level, going to be like, oh, is that that little like mini console that they put out

[01:05:32] a couple of years ago?

[01:05:34] Oh, that thought makes me want to die.

[01:05:36] Yeah.

[01:05:36] It hurts.

[01:05:37] It hurts a lot.

[01:05:38] It was interesting because my partner, her son watched her play this and he got major

[01:05:43] FOMO while she was playing through it.

[01:05:46] And whenever she was going through the game and she was, you know, in there, there was

[01:05:50] a moment where he was, he was like jumping in and she couldn't get past the level.

[01:05:54] He did a challenge level for her or he did the final golden bot challenge level for

[01:05:58] her breeze through it.

[01:05:59] How old is the kiddo?

[01:06:00] He's nine years old.

[01:06:02] Don't tell me that.

[01:06:03] Love this game.

[01:06:04] I struggle with that last challenge.

[01:06:05] He loves this game.

[01:06:06] And he like, I talked to him last night.

[01:06:08] I was like, yeah, it took me about 15 tries, maybe an hour and a half to get through the

[01:06:11] golden bot level.

[01:06:12] He's like, it only took me an hour.

[01:06:13] I'm like, okay, bro.

[01:06:14] All right.

[01:06:14] That's fine.

[01:06:15] That's fine.

[01:06:16] Okay.

[01:06:16] You can flex on us a little bit if you want, but it's interesting.

[01:06:19] I didn't, I would like to talk to him some more to see about like, what did you like

[01:06:23] the best about the game?

[01:06:24] But yeah, it's, it's going to be interesting to see like how younger folks feel about this

[01:06:29] and like the nostalgia that's just like packaged into this experience overall, because it's

[01:06:34] hard to imagine like what's there for, for kids who don't know what a PlayStation 2 is.

[01:06:39] Something that I forgot to ask both of you earlier on, or maybe we just glossed over

[01:06:44] and didn't get too deep into it is that I, I recently bought a PlayStation 2 because I

[01:06:48] was doing a review for Xeno Saga with Rick Firestone from Pixel Project Radio.

[01:06:52] Incredible, incredible podcaster.

[01:06:53] Please go listen to his show.

[01:06:54] But I bought a few games out there.

[01:06:58] I want to now go buy an Ape Escape game so I can play it on my PlayStation 2.

[01:07:02] Um, but like something that was like very clearly missing, uh, the PlayStation IP characters that

[01:07:10] were missing from this game, Final Fantasy was one of them.

[01:07:13] We didn't get any Final Fantasy characters in this experience.

[01:07:15] Were there any other ones that were just straight up missing or gone that you hope that maybe

[01:07:19] Asobi will package in at the, at the end here for these, this DLC?

[01:07:26] Oh.

[01:07:29] Yeah, I know Final Fantasy was the big one.

[01:07:33] And now you're asking me, of course, I can't think off the top of my head.

[01:07:35] I could swear when I was like putting together and looking at the doc, I was like, oh yeah,

[01:07:38] there was this also yesteryear PlayStation game that I hadn't played for like, you know,

[01:07:43] 20 something years.

[01:07:43] I mean, I was really happy with some of the weird inclusions.

[01:07:46] Yeah, they got a lot of them in there.

[01:07:47] Like Devil Dice and, uh, Buzz from Buzz Quiz TV being in there.

[01:07:52] Oh yeah, a little, a rabbit hole.

[01:07:54] Yeah, guy from Pain.

[01:07:56] Uh, the dog from Tokyo Jungle was in this, right?

[01:07:59] The little Corgi?

[01:08:00] Yeah.

[01:08:00] Yeah.

[01:08:01] Yeah.

[01:08:01] There's not much, man.

[01:08:03] For real.

[01:08:03] I would say that they did an incredible job.

[01:08:05] They captured almost everything, but they really left out a lot of Square Enix.

[01:08:09] So like Final Fantasy, but no Kingdom Hearts either.

[01:08:11] Like Kingdom Hearts was like, that was PlayStation for me.

[01:08:14] I mean, I, right?

[01:08:16] Like, I don't even think it came out on Xbox at any point, did it?

[01:08:19] It came out later on, I'm pretty sure.

[01:08:21] Okay, so you're able to play if you like backwards.

[01:08:22] Fat Princess?

[01:08:24] Fat Princess.

[01:08:25] Well, I forgot about Fat Princess.

[01:08:26] I'm not gonna lie.

[01:08:28] That's a good call though.

[01:08:38] Yeah.

[01:08:39] Yeah.

[01:08:40] You're right.

[01:08:40] That's a missed opportunity there.

[01:08:42] Yeah.

[01:08:42] Missed opportunities all around, but still.

[01:08:45] Was Dante in the game from Devil May Cry?

[01:08:47] Yeah, he was in there.

[01:08:47] Dante was in there.

[01:08:48] Yeah, Dante was in there.

[01:08:48] They should have put Virgil in there too.

[01:08:50] I mean, come on.

[01:08:52] He's like juggling them with the air juggling it with the pistols.

[01:08:56] Yeah, it's so fun.

[01:08:57] It's awesome.

[01:08:57] Yeah.

[01:08:58] But on that note, let's go ahead and jump into Final Thoughts.

[01:09:02] So obviously we talked about the DLC coming.

[01:09:04] We talked about the, maybe some missing IP that's in there that potentially we want to

[01:09:08] see, but they covered so much.

[01:09:09] So it's, they did an incredible job.

[01:09:11] Whatever they throw in there, I trust Timo Sobi under the leadership of Nick Desai.

[01:09:16] So I think it's great.

[01:09:17] I would like to ask the both of you, starting with Jacob, final thoughts for Astro Bot and

[01:09:22] who do you think should play this game if they haven't already?

[01:09:25] Yeah.

[01:09:25] I think that this is a shining light in a sea of live service garbage that we should really

[01:09:32] try and do more games like this.

[01:09:35] And I know that there's a desire from executives at game companies to chase after the Fortnites

[01:09:42] of the world and how they print money.

[01:09:44] But people are stuck in the games that they've been playing for seven or eight years.

[01:09:48] So instead of doing that, why not chase after these small midsize experiences?

[01:09:53] I would love to see more games like Astro Bot.

[01:09:56] This will easily be one of my games of the year.

[01:09:59] If you have a PlayStation 5 and you don't hate platformers, you should play Astro Bot.

[01:10:05] It is not a question.

[01:10:06] It is a, hey, if you don't love Mario games, maybe.

[01:10:09] But other than that, every single human being with a PS5 needs to play this game.

[01:10:14] It's phenomenal.

[01:10:15] And it's going to be, I think, on many game of the year lists in like the top three slots

[01:10:19] of the year.

[01:10:24] So first off, I did think of one.

[01:10:26] And by think of, I meant looked it up because I was confused.

[01:10:28] That's why I couldn't have something.

[01:10:29] But yeah, no twisted metal representation.

[01:10:31] So sweet too.

[01:10:32] Oh, yeah.

[01:10:32] That would have been cool.

[01:10:33] That would have been fun.

[01:10:34] So could call their person online that was like, here are some iconic PlayStation characters.

[01:10:39] However, for anyone that should play this game, look, I'm a double down more.

[01:10:42] If you have a pulse, you got to get out there and play Astro Bot.

[01:10:45] If you're still alive in 2024, the year of our Lord, you got to play some Astro Bot.

[01:10:50] But realistically, you have a friend that has a PS5 at this point.

[01:10:53] Drive to their house.

[01:10:54] I don't care if they live two hours away.

[01:10:55] It's worth it.

[01:10:56] Bring some chips.

[01:10:57] Bring some Mountain Dew Code Red and have a blast.

[01:10:59] This, and I can attest to it because that's the first way I played it.

[01:11:03] And me and Nick had too much fun.

[01:11:05] Like I had to call my wife and be like, oh, I'm on the way home.

[01:11:08] I know I'm late.

[01:11:09] But we were sitting there running challenge levels and just going through stuff.

[01:11:12] And I was like, perfect couch game.

[01:11:15] Oh, yeah.

[01:11:15] It's obviously not co-op, but yeah, you beat a level, pass it to me.

[01:11:19] I beat a level, pass it to you.

[01:11:20] I beat a level.

[01:11:20] Or you get five shots on the challenge mission.

[01:11:22] And then when you don't get it, then I get five shots.

[01:11:25] This is a perfect.

[01:11:26] You'll sit there, crack up, have a blast.

[01:11:28] Look how cute the game is.

[01:11:30] Like this game, and I'm trying not to be like hyperbolic, even though I feel like it sounds like it.

[01:11:35] I think this is the kind of game that can bring people together.

[01:11:38] And you have like a little mini party with your friends or just reach out to a buddy you haven't talked to in a while and hang out.

[01:11:44] Even if you're maybe playing online and you're just talking in the same party together.

[01:11:47] Like this kind of game, the fun and the whimsy and the wonderment is so infectious.

[01:11:53] And if you play this game and don't crack a smile within the first five minutes, then you are not alive.

[01:11:59] Like you need to go to the hospital.

[01:12:02] Resuscitate this person.

[01:12:03] Seriously, I would like this person needs a EKG stat like ASAP.

[01:12:08] But no, it's a blast of a game.

[01:12:10] Top three easy as far as game of the year.

[01:12:13] And I'm excited to hopefully see it win.

[01:12:15] I mean, there's stiff competition.

[01:12:16] I'm not going to act like this is far and away the best game of the entire year.

[01:12:19] But I think it is a very strong showing for a genre that's historically just been ruled by an iron fist by Nintendo.

[01:12:26] That's right.

[01:12:34] If you want something simple, something quick, and something that's just full of joy, play Astro Bot.

[01:12:39] You owe it to yourself.

[01:12:41] You owe it to yourself to just take time out of your day.

[01:12:43] Everybody's stressed.

[01:12:45] Everything is hard out there.

[01:12:46] Astro Bot's not hard.

[01:12:47] So jump in and just have a good time and experience like the joy and the wonder that Atima Sobi was able to deliver to you there.

[01:12:54] But for now, that is going to be it.

[01:12:57] But I want to give a big thanks to all of our listeners who were able to jump in and listen to this show so far.

[01:13:03] If you've enjoyed our content and you want to support us further, please feel free to leave us a rating or review on your podcasting platform of choice.

[01:13:10] I want to give another moment for Jacob to plug his work and his show.

[01:13:15] Please go find them.

[01:13:16] Jacob, where can our audience find you?

[01:13:18] Yeah.

[01:13:18] Thanks again for having me on the show.

[01:13:19] Like I said before, I'm on all places at Jacob McCourt, J-A-C-O-B-M-C-C-O-U-R-T.

[01:13:25] I host a couple of things.

[01:13:27] I host Crossplay Conversations, which is a topical, indie-focused, mostly video game show.

[01:13:33] I write for thegamingbrief.ca.

[01:13:35] If you see me at a convention, I'm probably doing video game trivia.

[01:13:38] Or if you live in southwestern Ontario and you're listening to this, I do it in a bar.

[01:13:43] You can find those details on my Twitter.

[01:13:44] But the one thing I'll plug beyond video game trivia is The Left Behind Game Club.

[01:13:48] Game Club, it's a show very similar in format to this one.

[01:13:51] So if this is your bag and you want to check out more Game Club discussions after you've

[01:13:58] gone through every single episode of this show, then you're allowed to check out maybe one or

[01:14:02] two of our episodes.

[01:14:03] Again, that's The Left Behind Game Club.

[01:14:05] And you know what?

[01:14:06] Don't listen to my stuff.

[01:14:07] Please do me a favor and leave a review and a rating on all things, on all platforms for

[01:14:13] this show because honestly, it helps so freaking much.

[01:14:17] Especially Pocket Cast now has ratings.

[01:14:19] So give these folks some ratings.

[01:14:21] They need it.

[01:14:23] Everybody needs it.

[01:14:23] You heard the man.

[01:14:24] There you go.

[01:14:25] You heard the man.

[01:14:26] Hit the five stars right now.

[01:14:27] If it ain't five stars, throw it in the trash because we don't want it.

[01:14:32] Will, if anybody wants to reach out to you and tell you that Astro Bot is not Game of

[01:14:37] the Year, where can they find you?

[01:14:38] They can find me in an alley where I can give them the one-two punch because those are fighting

[01:14:43] frog hands.

[01:14:44] You can throw some frog hands.

[01:14:45] Easily with the frog hands.

[01:14:47] And then I'll come in afterwards with a bulldog headbutt.

[01:14:50] However, if you're looking to just have a friendly conversation, you can find me on Twitter.

[01:14:54] It'll be RealKingZoZotai.

[01:14:56] That's R-E-A-L-K-I-N-G-Z-O-S-O-T-A-I.

[01:15:00] I will be the guy yelling at Team Asobi that I need a Parappa the Rappa level and I need a

[01:15:06] Persona 5 level with those DLCs.

[01:15:08] I expect nothing less.

[01:15:10] Nothing less.

[01:15:10] Well, thank you both for joining me here today.

[01:15:12] This has been a blast of review.

[01:15:14] But with that, everyone, we want to say please keep gaming, take it easy, and we'll see you

[01:15:18] next Friday night.

[01:15:19] Bye!

[01:15:20] Deuces.

[01:15:21] Deuces.