Can Astro Bot Be PlayStation's Mascot Equivalent of Mario?!

After buying a game console, what’s the first thing you wanna do? Trick question. The easy answer is "play a game" of course — that’s why you bought the dang thing! But with how expensive systems can get nowadays, not everyone has enough extra funds to afford a game or two to play with your shiny new toy. Take the infamous launch of the PlayStation 5 back in November of 2020. The good news for Sony was that they were selling like hotcakes (or cold cakes, if that suits your fancy). The bad news? There was an unprecedented chip shortage that led to massive stock issues for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, which used similar hardware.

For Xbox owners, they had the relief of an entire backlog of every Xbox game released for every single Xbox system. Meanwhile, the PS5 was only backwards compatible with the PS4 and was in even higher demand. So, IF you were able to get your hands on one of these things, you’d be lucky to get one with a game (let alone one you actually cared about). Seems bad, right? Fear not! Packed in with the PlayStation 5 was Astro’s Playroom, a sequel to the PSVR game Astro Bot Rescue Mission that was designed to test what the PS5 was capable of, while also acting as a celebration of PlayStation’s history.

Critics loved it, young gamers loved it, the fella writing this article loved it! If the game was released individually, it would’ve been considered a smash hit. As is, Astro’s Playroom was still considered one of the best pack-in titles since Wii Sports. It also left gamers wanting more, especially in the hands of PlayStation fans who were overjoyed to get something bright and colorful amidst the usual crop of Triple A grimey shooters. Enter the May 2024 State of Play where we got our first look at Astro Bot.

Developed once again by Team Asobi, Astro Bot is the fully featured follow-up to Astro’s Playroom. No longer is Astro relegated to the sidelines, as this game is set to give the adorable robot the spotlight he deserves and then some! Story-wise, well… think of Astro’s stories like that of Mario’s: they’re not deep, nor do they need to be. All you need is a good time in the gameplay department, and, I mean, just watch the trailer -- where does this game not look fun? Astro Bot looks to be as innovative with the technology the PS5 has to offer as it is cheeky. After all, there are not many mascot platformers who use the controller itself as their spaceship! On top of that, the amount of level variety and unique ideas that every trailer has shown seems astronomically high. 'Tis a good sign that Team Asobi has not taken the bigger budget and $60 price tag for granted in the slightest.

Simply put, Astro Bot looks like an extraordinarily great time that looks to give PlayStation fans an exclusive worth owning the system like that Italian Plumber can for any Nintendo console. If you’ve noticed a lot of parallels to Mario in this article, good eye! Nintendo had the luck/good fortune to have one of their breakout video game titles be perfect as a mascot character for the company. For PlayStation, they’ve dabbled with several characters over the years to be the “Mario equivalent”, yet none of them have been able to truly hold that title in the public eye. Even Microsoft has something of the sorts with Master Chief from the Halo series.

Well, all of that is to say that the spot of PlayStation mascot has finally been filled with the lovable Astro Bot! Having had the chance to play a demo kiosk a couple weeks ago, it could be not be a bigger relief to know that the wait is finally over and the game is finally out this weekend! With a high Metacritic score of 94 and praise across the board, what more convincing do you need? Play Astro Bot and be prepared to have your face stuck in a permanent smile for several weeks to come!