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.