Astro’s Playroom Review – A Delightful Pack-In

When the PlayStation 5 launched in 2020, it came with many exclusive titles, including Demon Souls, Spider Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and a pre-installed pack-in title: Astro’s Playroom.

Astro’s Playroom was a tech demo dedicated to the DualSense, PlayStation 5’s signature controller. The controller cames packed with a lot of new technology, making it incredibly unique. The latest PlayStation mascot showed off its capabilities while being a fun little game all on its own.

Developer & Publisher // Team Asobi, PlayStation Studios
Platforms // PlayStation 5
MSRP & Release Date // Free, November 12th 2020
Reviewed On // PlayStation 5

Entering the PlayStation 5

Astro’s Playroom lets you control Astro on a 3D platforming adventure across 4 different components of the PlayStation 5. You can go through Memory Meadow, a cloudy realm of wind and storms. Or visit the Cooling Springs, featuring a beach party setting and a surprise ice level later. You can also visit the GPU Jungle, which, as the name implies, is more of a jungle ruin to play around in, and the SSD Speedway with its neon sci-fi backdrop.

Astro’s Playroom is a very simple and small in-scale and scope game. Every bit of platforming presents almost no challenge, and so do the enemies. It does have some variations, however. With rotating platforms, ones that disappear shortly after stepping on them, and lightning platforms that can take out Astro in one hit.

The game’s 16 levels feature nasty little bots to defeat, and little secrets and character cameos to find, such as the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy 7 or Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima. Levels have Astro jumping on fluffy clouds in Memory Meadows, skating along the ice in Cooling Springs, or blowing up asteroids in a later level in SSD Speedway.

What caught me off guard the most was the hub area, CPU Plaza, having surprise platforming sections along its walls that spring to life instantly. However, the gameplay highlights in Astro’s Playroom are the special suits of the four areas.

Suiting Up in Astro’s Playroom

In between each standard platforming level are dedicated sections to unique suits for Astro. Memory Meadow, for instance, Astro becomes a little roller ball that uses the Dualsense’s trackpad for control instead of the left thumbstick.

In SSD Speedway, Astro gets to control a tiny ship with motion controls and uses the triggers to boost it up for intricate navigating in a side-scrolling fashion.

Both the roller ball and the ship suits were easily the best of the ones on offer. Considering both get more interesting levels after their introduction. For example, the roller ball goes from being asphalt paths to a pinball machine-like level, while the ship mostly stays the same but has a fun boss to beat with its rockets.

The other two are much weaker in comparison, considering the frog suit in Cooling Sprints is heavy to use with directional launching and motion controls. Meanwhile, the monkey suit in GPU Jungle is very frustrating to use outside of the cool swinging action due to the weird timing and its usage of the motion controls.

That’s not to say the normal levels do not have fun variety. For example, one level of SSD Speedway gives Astro a mini gun to fight against a swarm of enemies, and one level in GPU Jungle gives Astro a bow for some ranged combat. Enemies themselves are either simplistically designed slimes, enemy robots, or spring-action bird things that can take out Astro with a surge of electricity.

But it’s not all suits and colorful levels to enjoy, there’s also a mountain of collectibles to find that tug on the nostalgic heartstrings of any PlayStation fan.

A Museum of PlayStation’s History

Every level has tons of retro tech to collect and store in the PlayStation Labo. In every level of the game, a little piece of PlayStation’s history is hidden in many nooks and crannies. Whether it’s more recognizable products like the Memory Cards, or historic handheld devices like the PlayStation Portable, they all get stored in the Labo as a form of nostalgic lookback.

What makes this all even better is that if you punch any device, they are reactive: PlayStation 1 disc tray popping up, or the original PlayStation VR headset showing a small gameplay clip of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, for example.

But what brings this touch altogether is the attention to detail. Every single device, or UMD or game disc, is lovingly crafted right down to the movable thumbsticks of a controller, or the input and output ports on the back of a console.

Simple Speedrunning Challenges

The final neat feature of Astro’s Playroom is the Network Speed Run challenge levels. You can do normal platforming challenge levels with Astro or ones focused on each suit to earn the best times.

While the normal levels are fun and do not pose too much of a challenge, the suits are still a mixed bag, and therefore, only half of them are enjoyable to use, and stunted my current best time in the game. But overall, in a free game, a slew of challenge levels to test yourself in is just icing on a near-perfect cake.

Flawless Performance, Slick Art Style, and Wonderful Music

Astro’s Playroom looks and runs flawlessly without a single stutter, freeze, or crash in my experience. While it is a short 2–3 hour experience, Team Asobi did not falter on the technical side, and it shows. Especially looking at the game’s art style.

It is all very simple, but very detailed and clean at the same time, with little touches like the PlayStation Symbols everywhere you look.

An Astro Bop – Music & Audio in Astro’s Playroom

Finally, the music in Astro’s Playroom is a joy to listen to. Whether it’s the main menu with its signature Astro theme to celebrate the character, or CPU Plaza’s grandiose techno track and even Cooling Springs having a nice and cozy tune in its ice level. My favorite track overall, however, was the SSD Speedway, featuring sounds that match the game’s presentation perfectly.

This is also true for the sounds that come from the DualSense. Such as Astro’s feet grating against the ice while he skates, the wind blowing in Memory Meadows or the coin collection sound effect. It is a one-of-a-kind audio and visual feast.

Final Thoughts on Astro’s Playroom

As the PlayStation pack-in title for the PlayStation 5, Astro’s Playroom is a short and masterful experience. While it was originally just a tech demo for the DualSense, it offers a colorful and expertly crafted platforming game to tie in all of that controller’s features.

While the two suits I did not like are minor problems, the rest of the game has more good than bad. It felt like a fun and creative new platforming endeavor that lets Astro shine as a new mascot for PlayStation. This tech demo is more than worth your time!

Final Score: 9.5/10

Pros:

• Great Gameplay
• Colorful Visuals
• Nostalgic Collectibles
• Fun Level Design
• Wonderful Music

Cons:

• A few unfun suits