Astro Bot is two things at once: firstly, it’s a delightful little platformer with some really good “damn PS5 is actually a powerful console” moments and level design that makes you feel pretty clever. Secondly, and slightly more depressingly, it’s a reminder that PlayStation isn’t what it used to be, thanks to its fair share of cameos throughout the platform’s 30-year history.
If this feels like an expensive ad for a massive console, I understand at first, especially considering the whole goal is to fix your spaceship, which is actually a PS5, and there are even levels themed after specific iconic PlayStation games. But playing it, Astro Bot feels more sincere than that, and you can feel the love Team Asobi has for it. It’s clear that everyone there loves all the games that appear in Astro Bot, especially when combined with some of the behind-the-scenes videos PlayStation released talking to the developers.
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One episode in particular that caught my eye was episode three, which focused on the guest characters themselves, with Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet saying, “One of our hopes is that younger generations will be exposed to these special characters and then be inspired to play these older games and try them out for themselves.”
I couldn’t agree more with this comment, especially since a lot of modern games *ahem* live service games *ahem* are only meant to keep you busy doing busywork and earning money through battle passes and microtransactions (yeah, I know I sound outrageous, you can keep going). But there’s one small problem: a lot of these games aren’t even playable on modern consoles.
Luckily for us (sort of), PlayStation Plus offers a lot of classic games, like the Jak & Daxter series or Ratchet & Clank, but only the former has an actual port available to buy on PS4 – the latter has to be streamed from the cloud. While not perfect, at least you can play the original Ratchet & Clank, but what about the games that aren’t on PlayStation Plus?
Take the very niche Devil Dice. It has a cameo, a very special cameo in fact, and a whole room that is a little homage to the PS1 game, but it’s not available for purchase anywhere. Okay, so the game was technically made by THQ, but you know who helped make it? The Japanese studio that is one of the best ever, and the original home of Team Asobi.
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You’ll find lots of interesting references to the Japan Studio’s vast library of games, from games it developed itself to games it just helped develop, like Devil Dice. There’s also Boku as a cameo, from the Japan-only Boku no Natsuyasumi, a beautiful little game that fans have been begging for a translation for, but haven’t received yet. Or Vibri from Vib-Ribbon, another game the Japan Studio helped develop and a true PS1 classic. And I haven’t even mentioned Toro Inoue from Doko Demo Issyo, the mascot for PlayStation Japan for many years and a game that never made it here.
Of course, not all of these games are for everyone, but they should be available to everyone so they can at least say that these games aren’t for them. I’d go so far as to say that cloud streaming versions of PS3 games don’t really make them usable, because what happens when PlayStation inevitably decides it’s not worth it? Is poor, laggy cloud streaming really how we want the next generation to play The Hidden Cry, the other most influential game in Dark Souls besides The Legend of Zelda?
There are too many games that the younger generation can’t easily access, and subscription services with too many tiers and ridiculous restrictions just send them straight back to Fortnite, which is fun, but it’s still just Fortnite. Yes, I know I’m advocating for protection here, but companies will never care about this kind of behavior because it’s unlikely. But maybe PlayStation shouldn’t allow someone to make a game that shows people everything it doesn’t have.
