Astro’s Playroom

Astro’s Playroom

I waited a year to get a PlayStation 5, managing to snag one in December 2021.
First thing I did was install Spider man Miles Morales and have a quick whip on Astros playroom. I did the controller show case at the start and shortly after Spider man had installed and I went balls deep straight into that game, leaving Astros playroom to gather virtual dust while I swung around Manhattan. After finishing Miles Morales, and trying to fill my time until Horizon Forbidden west release’s, I gave Astros playroom another bash. What a banging little game.

For anyone that doesn’t know. Astros playroom is a little platform game that comes pre installed on the ps5 and was made to tickle your senses with the new haptic feedback, beautiful graphics and crazy loading times. It smashes all those targets and hits you with nostalgic pieces of PlayStation history as you complete levels designed to showcase the new features.

From controlling a space rocket with haptic feed back on your triggers, to a robo-monkey that vibrates your socks off and blowing on your duel-sense to power windmills, the new controllers immersive capabilities are incredible and need to be felt to be truly understood. Pairing this with finding a VR headset or a ps1 memory card makes a truly grand experience for fans of Sonys gaming work.

The levels are well designed and visually spectacular. Vibrant colours and textured blades of grass would be more than enough, but the levels are littered with snippets of all Sonys masterpieces. It did take me until around half way through and seeing an adorable robot Kratos sat on a boat with his little robo-son to realise they were all game snippets, and I probably missed quite a chunk of them but nevertheless, I enjoyed trying to find as many as I could.

My favourite though was probably collecting the pieces of PlayStation history and having them displayed in the vault. Upon finishing each level you are gifted with each mighty console from the PS1 to PS4, and after nabbing then all, you can climb the path to gaming heaven and are met with the big grand daddy PlayStation 5 to complete your journey.
This all brings back memories from whatever era you played as well as giving you a taste of the future.

The only thing I can think of that i’d really want added is the ability to play snippets of old games in the vault, like classic Crash bandicoot but with Astro wearing a pair of ears. Maybe that’s wanting too much from a free game however and all in all I totally enjoyed it.

Certified rating 9.5/10 Many Big Tasty

By, MoonHead

Sony PS5 November 12th 2021