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Astro's Playroom is fantastic

SkylineRKR

Member
Great pack in, and an awesome little game. Can someone who's played Rescue Mission AND this kind of talk about the similarities and differences in the games? Is Rescue Mission essentially this kind of gameplay but locked behind a bulky, cord-laden headset?

Its about the same but instead of finding puzzles pieces and artifacts you're collecting hostages. The VR adds a shit ton of immersion though, and also some gimmicks where you have to deliver headbutts to certain enemies who fly towards you. Rescue Mission is one of the best VR games full stop.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Its about the same but instead of finding puzzles pieces and artifacts you're collecting hostages. The VR adds a shit ton of immersion though, and also some gimmicks where you have to deliver headbutts to certain enemies who fly towards you. Rescue Mission is one of the best VR games full stop.
Very cool, it’s always been the reason I wanted to check out PSVR since I love platformers. Astro’s playroom is a pretty joyful experience, Japan Studio is onto something here.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
All the little references to the most known Playstation games since PS1 are amazing!
For someone who had all the Playstation consoles, this game is a nostalgia trip.
Before playing this Ghost of Tsushima was my GOTY, now it moved to 2nd place.
The use of Haptics gives a totally new feel to what would have been a basic platformer without it.
 

engstra

Member
Had a grin ear to ear throughout my time with it. Hopefully a new full game in the series isn't too far away. When PSVR2 releases, Rescue Mission 2 has to be available day one to show off the tech.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
For all of you who enjoyed this for its platforming I would recommend Sackboy: A Big Adventure. It’s not quite the masterpiece that Astro’s Playroom is, but it stands out on its own.
It's on my desk already waiting!
But I think after Astro Bot I'm going to play Demon's Souls, I don't want to get platformer fatigue and abandon Sackboy half way because of it
 

OutRun88

Member
It's on my desk already waiting!
But I think after Astro Bot I'm going to play Demon's Souls, I don't want to get platformer fatigue and abandon Sackboy half way because of it
Not a bad idea. Sackboy is decently long, and probably doubly so if you focus on 100% each level.
 

McCheese

Member
Just cleared it yesterday

What a wonderful game. A perfect little showcase of both Playstation history and technology


And I need that whole soundtrack.
Bad


It reuses half the songs from the VR game, which has ab album on Spotify.

I notice they didn't do caves in the PS5 game which is a shame as the music for that level is S tier!

Any tips on how to get the trophy for getting out of the rain? There are no ledges on the level I think it's on..
 

OrionNebula

Member
It reuses half the songs from the VR game, which has ab album on Spotify.

I notice they didn't do caves in the PS5 game which is a shame as the music for that level is S tier!

Any tips on how to get the trophy for getting out of the rain? There are no ledges on the level I think it's on..
Yeah, I’ll have to track down that Astro VR ost

The Heavy Rain trophy?
There’s a little place right next to the fallen bot with the origami on top. Just stay underneath for a few seconds
7I1ngxB.jpg
 

pauljeremiah

Gold Member
Absolutely adored this game. What could have been a simple tech demo for the controller, was developed into a fun platformer dipped in nostalgia. Would love to see Nintendo create something similar and lean heavily into its history and nostalgia.
 
Im blown away with this game have a smile on my face playing it its that good.. such a good free game i hope developers capitalise on the controllers ability
 

JonkyDonk

Member
Just finished it. Will be going back to do everything. What a lovely thing this game is. I feel bad for all the people who either haven't been able to get a PS5 to play this or idiot fanboys who hate playstation that will deprive themselves of such a great experience.

It was a genius idea to make this and include it with the console. I hope they make a full length Astro game next with even deeper platforming and combat mechanics. I would absolutely buy that.
 

Resenge

Member
Just finished it. Will be going back to do everything. What a lovely thing this game is. I feel bad for all the people who either haven't been able to get a PS5 to play this or idiot fanboys who hate playstation that will deprive themselves of such a great experience.

It was a genius idea to make this and include it with the console. I hope they make a full length Astro game next with even deeper platforming and combat mechanics. I would absolutely buy that.
It's already out in VR, Astro-Bot Rescue Mission is a full flegded Astro-Bot game, I cannot reccomend it enough. It is just as much Joy to play as the PS5 version and longer with more bosses.

Check out this quote from a Kev Kev who just played it, this is the reaction most people get from playing. It really is something special.

Just finished Astro bot rescue mission. Got all the little guys in every level and every challenge level.

Honestly, one of the best game experiences I’ve ever had. Didn’t expect this to be so well done. This game made me feel like I did when I played video games as a kid. Going through that first level and immediately realizing how much deeper a platformer could be, and really seeing why being “inside” a video game is so much better than just viewing it through a flat screen, was a pretty redefining moment for what video games could be.

I found myself calling my guy “little buddy” lmao, and was laughing at all the goofy stuff in the game and hardly ever getting frustrated. There is this sense of wonder and amazement I feel every time I enter a new level. The game is not very hard either which I love! It’s deep enough that I had plenty of frustration trying to complete puzzles, sections or bosses, but I never got overly frustrated. It always felt fair! And that’s so rare in platformers (well for me at least bc I suck at video games). The controls felt amazing! The car graphics are really, really good and the perspective feels great.

I used a desk chair so I could swivel around to see things to the sides or behind me. At times I would even stand up to try and get a better view of the playing field. On a rare occasion I would even walk around the area I was in, searching for other little buddies to rescue, coins or those hidden chameleons. This fucking game just did everything right. 10/10 hands down, no contest. Easily in my top 10 of the generation.

I really felt like I was in the game world, like most of us 30 somethings, 40 somethings and beyond, that is a dream I’ve had since I started playing video games as a kid. So exciting that it’s finally here! And the developers of Astro bot absolutely nailed it.
 
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JonkyDonk

Member
It's already out in VR, Astro-Bot Rescue Mission is a full flegded Astro-Bot game, I cannot reccomend it enough. It is just as much Joy to play as the PS5 version and longer with more bosses.
Oh yeh I know, I have it actually but I never finished it cause I can't be bothered to setup the headset. I definitely want to go back and play that properly soon. But I still want a full scale non-VR game with Astro and maybe cameos from other Playstation mascots too.
 
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Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Annoying as fuck in places. I must just be shit at games with motion controls but fuck them electrical things when your in that fucking rocket thing.

Game now deleted and done with.
 

OutRun88

Member
Looks super boring from gameplays I have seen. Perhaps playing with the dual sense improves the experience.
There are some unique gameplay mechanics that make use of the various features of the controller, so yeah, the controller improves the experience.

I do think this is a 10/10, but a lot of it has to do with the nostalgia that comes from playing through the four previous generations of PlayStation.

I don’t think I’d care for the game outside of this theme, and it’s hard to imagine they could squeeze anymore charm or interesting elements out of it.
 

Wonko_C

Member
Very cool, it’s always been the reason I wanted to check out PSVR since I love platformers. Astro’s playroom is a pretty joyful experience, Japan Studio is onto something here.
I'd say the best part of the VR game is looking around every nook and cranny with your head (and with the help of the positional sound cues) to find some of the hidden robots. That wouldn't be as fun nor clever with a right-stick camera (put down your pitchforks people, I mean that if the game was just straight-ported to flat without a complete redesign), I sometimes had to stand up and turn around behind me and that felt great every single time.
 
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PaintTinJr

Member
For me the game is brilliant and a celebration of gaming mechanics(with at least 6 different gameplays I can count), and how they are the real genres of the industry. The update of Thrust's game mechanics using the adaptive triggers is fresh while still being nostalgic IMHO.

The quality on show in this game feels like a mashup from Ex-Nintendo mario sunshine staff and Sega's AM2 Arcade team that made Super monkeyball 1 and 2 for the cube. Pure gameplay sections being the linkage to carry you between visually diverse worlds.

Even the rainy level with electricity and the end credits interaction feel like a hat tipping to level 50 (IIRC) of Super Monkeyball's single player game, and the top left how-to-play overlay( instructions) feel like the intro of Super Monkeyball - simple, brief and unintrusive instruction on how to play.

In many ways, I wonder if Astro was primarily designed with Sony's Japanese market in mind, as a way back from the decline in varied gameplay we've seemingly lost in the western market's most successful games - that probably started with the PS3/360 generation.

As a kid I used to love that many arcade games had different game mechanics and the games in the home market innovated and differentiated themselves in gameplay/mechanics too, sometimes with variety from level to level - a shout out to David Wolf: Secret Agent game for doing that:)

Dreams was/is an amazing game that reignited that innovation for Dreams players IMO, but Astro's playroom now gives me confidence that developers - or at least Sony's Japan studio - wouldn't be scared to build another game with the same amount of variety as Astro and find a market to successfully sell it to.
 
The quality on show in this game feels like a mashup from Ex-Nintendo mario sunshine staff and Sega's AM2 Arcade team that made Super monkeyball 1 and 2 for the cube. Pure gameplay sections being the linkage to carry you between visually diverse worlds.

Love this connection with Super Monkey Ball, especially as a fan of the series; it didn't even occur to me! Lots of elements are reminiscent of Sunshine too and I'm enjoying the suggestion of a GameCube heritage, a vastly underappreciated console. Great post!
 

xiskza

Member
This game got me all in the feels tbh. The nostalgia is hard with this one, especially that PSX intro, damn...
 
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