Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) is objectively an overwhelmingly great VR game, earning our first ever [10/10] review rating for good reason. Starting next week, you’ll be able to find out why when a free demo lands on the PlayStation Store.
On October 16th, you’ll be able to strap into your PSVR and play a little bit of the charming single-player VR platformer, which exclusively uses DualShock 4 controller.
In our review, Road to VR’s Ben Lang calls Astro Bot “a genre-defining moment for VR platforming on PSVR,” and says it has “tremendous polish and excellent game design.” Check out our full review of Astro Bot Rescue Mission to see just why it scored so highly.
And we know what you’re thinking; Astro Bot was created by Sony’s Japan Studio, so that means it’s a definite platform exclusive.
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is without question one of the best PSVR titles to date. It’s an excellent showcase for how VR technology can transform something familiar in surprising ways and the team at Sony Japan did an excellent job of crafting a game that’s a genuinely great platformer in its own right and enhancing that with the power of VR.
Today, Sony announced on the PS blog in celebration of PSVR’s upcoming 2nd birthday that they’re releasing a free demo for Astro Bot that will hit the PSN Store on October 16th — that’s exactly one week away.
This is great news since there isn’t a proper demo for the game out yet. If you download the (free) Playroom VR collection if mini games you can play the spiritual predecessor to Astro Bot, which was named Robot Rescue, but it’s not an actual demo for the game as it exists today.
What do you think of the news? Have you been interested in trying Astro Bot but unsure of picking it up at full price? Read our full review for more details on the game and let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below!
Today Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is finally out on PSVR! This third-person 3D platformer is really something special, evoking a similar feeling to other whimsical mascot adventures like Lucky’s Tale or even Super Mario. You can read our full review for the run down on why we love it so much and tune in today for a live playthrough and Q&A with the game.
We’ll be Astro Bot on PSVR in front of a green screen so you can see all of the head movements and reactions while we play — we’ll just have to check on chat by peaking under the headset. The stream will be starting at approximately 3:00 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for around an hour or so. We’ll be livestreaming directly to the UploadVR Facebook page will also be using Restream to go directly to YouTube, Twitch, Periscope, and Mixer as well. Either way, you can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is nearing release on PSVR next month, and to help charge up the Astro Bot hypetrain, Sony Japan Studio released a new video detailing some of the absolutely huge bosses that you and little Astro will take on.
Developed exclusively for PSVR, Astro Bot Rescue Mission sees a reprisal of the little bots that were first introduced in The Playroom (2013) and later in The Playroom VR (2016). This time though, you and your little robot pal Astro will have to battle a host of big level bosses, which you meet after each platforming mission.
“These bosses are huge and create an amazing sense of scale in VR. Defeating them will not be a small affair though and your platforming and gadget skills will be put at use,” says Nicolas Doucet Creative Director in a Sony blogpost. “Every one of them features a unique finale with a special mention for the final boss. And you’ll have to play to find out!”
While the game was designed from the ground-up for VR, it makes use of the DualShock 4 controller, which in our hands-on at E3 earlier this summer turned out to be a delight to use.
Doucet told us at E3 that Astro Bot Rescue Mission should provide between 8-10 hours of gameplay, which is played out over a total of five worlds, with four levels per world and 26 ‘extra challenges’.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is slated to release exclusively on PSVR on October 2nd.
Sony’s Japan Studio, the minds behind The Playroom VR (2016), today announced that their upcoming platformer Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is headed to PSVR in the US on October 2nd, 2018. European availability will come a day later, October 3rd.
Japan Studio Creative Director and Producer Nicolas Doucet announced the news via a quick video interview explaining some of the game’s core elements, which include a unique way of interacting with your cute little robot buddy, Astro. Using the Dual Shock 4 gamepad, you collect gadgets that you then use to help Astro on his way through levels to reunite him with his lost crew.
We went hands-on with the charming and cheerful Astro Bot: Rescue Mission back at E3 2018 in June, and walking out of the demo it was clear that Astro Bot has taken some classic Mario-style platforming elements and mixed them in VR to awesome effect.
The game is launching exclusively on PSVR; if the rest of the game, which Doucet told us would take around 8 – 10 hours to complete its 26 levels, holds true to the amount of fun we had during the E3 demo, it appears PSVR could be getting another system-selling hit on its hands. Check out our hands-on here for more.
We’re here at E3 2018, and I got chance to play Sony Japan Studio’s upcoming platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission. As a thematic extension of the little bots that were first introduced in The Playroom (2013) and later in The Playroom VR (2016), you use the DualShock 4 controller to control your little bot-buddy to jump, run and bash your way to through the world to the end of each level. If this doesn’t sound like it needs to be in VR to be fun, that’s where you’re wrong. This is very much a VR game from the ground-up, and introduces fun and engaging ways to immerse yourself in the bright, beautifully realized world.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission follows a deceivingly simple formula that iconic platformers such as Super Mario Bros. (1985) have prepared me for since I first held a gamepad: run, jump, collect coins, bash not-so-difficult baddies, finish the level with style for extra points. Astro Bot goes an extra mile though, and gives you a reason to use your point of view to your advantage, and making you engage with the world directly by using special gadgets collected along the way.
Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio
Taking control of Astro, an adorable little captain of a ship on a mission to rescue its lost crew, I run through increasingly difficult maze-like levels, requiring me to make Astro jump, hover, and smash enemies along the way. Trailing behind him, I eventually find myself craning my neck, peering around corners, and looking far up into the sky to guide him through a death-defying saunter along metal beams connecting buildings and interesting contraptions. Looking even closer, I find hidden areas that I might have otherwise missed had I not taken my time; more contraptions, more coins and bots to rescue, more long jumps to make on my way through a world I can only describe as AAA quality.
Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio
One such contraption, a panel that you have to physically bash your head against, activated a suspension bridge for little Astro to cross over to a secret area. Keeping your composure is important when playing a game; I try not to give into the ‘wow’ so I can take in everything possible in the short amount of time I have with a game, but here I was smiling and giggling at the thought of having to ram my head into a big panel emblazoned with a big “pow” sign. There are of course switches and buttons to activate too, but there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a challenge and literally taking it head on.
The game’s baddies at the beginning are mostly standard ‘goombah’ types that you can kill either with a direct attack, or by activating your hover jump, which shoots out little booster lasers underneath you that do damage to enemies below. Later on in the demo, I encountered enemies with retracting spikes and an electric variant that would do damage on contact, necessitating a hover-booster attack.
Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio
The end of each level presents you with a mini challenge, which plays out somewhat like the flagpole in Mario. Here though, you slingshot Astro through a series of golden rings to a goal using your touchpad in search of the highest extra score.
Playing through two levels, I was then jumped ahead to the world’s final boss – one of six giant beasts you fight at the end of each world (a total of 5 world, 4 levels per world and 26 ‘extra challenges’ throughout). The giant mechanical gorilla towered over me, his head nearly 15 feet tall, dwarfing me and Astro completely. Called the ‘Tooth Fairy’, I had to dodge his flame attacks and smash his teeth in, revealing a hook under each tooth that I would have to yank out with the help of my newly acquired gadget, a grappling hook that shoots out and you physically pull with your controllers to retract.
Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio
Beating the Tooth Fairy after dying once, my demo was over. Even though I only had about 15 minutes with Astro Bot, nearly every interaction I had was immensely rewarding, something I’m looking forward to in the full game, which is said to last between 8-10 hours. While I haven’t had a chance to play with any more gadgets outside the grappling hook, I expect more fun ways to interact with the world directly to help Astro along his way.
Astro Bot Rescue Mission is slated to release on PSVR Fall 2018 with the launch price of $40, and if what I experienced today is reflective of the sort of fun ahead, then it’s going to be worth every penny.
For a lot of VR early adopters that got the Oculus Rift when it was originally released in the first half of 2016 with just an Xbox One controller (a lot of people forget Touch wasn’t a thing until December 2016) the first game they played on the device was Lucky’s Tale. This charming platformer took a familiar concept (3D platforming, like Super Mario 64) and adapted it to the VR medium with some really awesome results.
Since then, we haven’t really seen that genre explored in VR too much. Games like Edge of Nowhere push it to new heights by leveraging mechanics from other third-person adventure games, like Uncharted, and Moss uses a fixed camera angle and strong narrative-focus to hook players. But the pure, twitch-control, pixel-perfect jumping, platforming-focused gameplay that made Mario and his successors so popular is mostly absent from VR headsets, so that’s exactly what Astro Bot: Rescue Mission aims to deliver.
Astro Bot is in development by Sony Japan Studio, the same team that created The Playroom VR. You might remember a similar (and excellent) tech demo experience from that game called Robot Rescue — this is the full version of that concept.
At a recent pre-E3 demo event last month we got to try out the first hands-on demo of Astro Bot and came away impressed with how fun it was and excited to see more. Hopefully we won’t have to wait long with E3 right around the corner next week.
After I played a brief 15-20 minute section of the game (that consisted of two early levels and a simple boss fight) I chatted with Nicolas Doucet from Sony Japan Studio, he’s the creative director on the project.
“The previous Robot Rescue demo came out of a prototyping session we did when we were prototyping a lot of things for Playroom VR,” said Doucet. “That one was always on the side called ‘Platformer’ with a little gray box running around. Playroom VR was all about asymmetry, making things that the family could enjoy together. But it was really frustrating because we had it on the side and we knew that if we didn’t put it in then it might die. So, we put it in last. Creating a full experience is something we always wanted to do anyway, then when the fans loved it and critics started talking about it, like the article you [UploadVR] wrote, we realized we should definitely make it a full game.”
A big part of the magic that Sony Japan Studio tapped into is that not only is just a damn good platforming game in its own right, but they’ve absolutely sold the illusion that you physically exist inside the game world. In Moss, for example, Quill will wave at you and acknowledge your presence, but in Astro Bot you actually interact with the world.
During some segments I had to headbutt obstacles, or shoot a grappling hook and yank down structures, or even use the touch pad as a slingshot at the end of levels to send my little robot buddy flying. From the start of each level to its conclusion you’re constantly reminded that you physically exist in the game other than just as a shapeless controller for the main character. That totally changes how you perceive the world in a 3D platformer.
“Moss has a very strong narrative with the player transported into a fairytale,” explained Doucet. “Whereas Astro Bot is more about twitch reflex action. So I see them as two different genres in a way. We always have several key values established for any project and one of them is being playful. Having a bit of a toy feel to the game. We believe in true entertainment like that.”
The elevator pitch for a game like Astro Bot is simple in concept, but it’s a bit hard to sell on words alone. Theoretically, you wouldn’t think playing a 3D character action platformer in VR would work, but it totally does. Not only does the sense of scale enhance the world design around you, but the relationship you develop with the characters feels incredibly special. For example, I never feel like I’ve connected with Mario at the end of a Mario game despite controlling him across a dozen or more hours of jumping and adventuring. But in 20 minutes I already felt connected to this cute little robot guy.
“What I’ve realized is that it combines the nostalgia of classic games with the novelty of technology, which is really exciting,” said Doucet. “Astro Bot and games like it bridge the two together. We could have just had TV games and VR games separately, but now games like this, and Rez too for example, are bringing them together. These games will be crucial in making VR popular because it can show the appeal to people that may not try VR otherwise.”
And this may end up relegated to the “you’ve really got to try it to get it” pile, but I can’t overstate how magical it feels when you’re inside Astro Bot’s world.
Sony Japan Studio aren’t aiming to skimp out on content either. Reportedly, Astro Bot could take upwards of 8+ hours to truly complete and collect everything, certainly more if you’re a serious completionist. There is even going to be an “interactive diorama” room in the game to display in-VR manifestations of your accomplishments.
Are you as excited about Astro Bot as we are? Let us know your thoughts on the game thus far down in the comments below!
Sony Japan Studio today announced a new platform action game for PSVR starring the cute little robots made famous in Sony’s The Playroom (2013) and The Playroom VR (2016). Called Astro Bot Rescue Mission, you take control of Astro, the Bot captain of a ship on a mission to rescue its lost crew, who are scattered across five planets.
Boasting 26 stages across five worlds, each ending with its own boss fight, Astro Bot Rescue Mission is said to “take advantage of the increased perspective, proximity and the added depth that PS VR offers,” according to the PS blog announce. Yes, that’s a 100 foot-tall gorilla.
Image courtesy Sony Japan Studio
You also exist in the world as a giant robot who follows Astro around as he runs and jumps across levels. Several viewpoints are used throughout the game, letting you play from a top-down view, and multiple angles that best suit the obstacles and action ahead.
As an added touch of immersion, you also have to smash parts of the environment and dodge incoming enemy attacks, which if you fail, means a big game over.
Built for the DualShock 4 gamepad, your controller becomes visible in VR and is equipped with weapons including a hook shot, a water gun, and a ninja star, something Japan Studio says is useful for chopping spider webs, creating platforms or slicing enemies in your way. The goal is to collect the bots into your DualShock 4, with a total of eight lost bots in every stage.
Japan Studio hasn’t announced a specific launch date yet, but says more details about the game are coming ‘soon’. Check out the teaser trailer, linked above and below.
There are few things in life as satisfying as a good 3D platformer. Each time I play games such as Super Mario Odyssey, Ratchet & Clank, Crash Bandicoot, and countless other character-driven action platformer games, there’s always a smile firmly plastered to my face. The bright colors, whimsical music, and precision controls tap into the core of what makes video games so much fun. But we’ve rarely seen this genre explored in VR thus far.
Lucky’s Tale (and more recently Moss) are rare exceptions, but most developers seem to think that playing a third-person game in VR is pointless. Luckily, I’m here to tell you that Astro Bot: Rescue Mission from Sony’s Japan Studio is a third-person 3D platformer built from the ground up specifically for VR and does a remarkable job of selling the genre for the platform.
Back when PSVR first launched it came bundled with a free little pack-in collection of mini games called The Playroom VR. Most of these games were designed with multiplayer in mind and provided asynchronous thrills for everyone in the room — both inside and outside of VR. However, it also included a brief single player-only platformer called Robot Rescue. We loved it so much we called for Sony to make it into a full game and — despite the odds — someone was listening.
At a recent pre-E3 preview event we got the chance to go hands-on with Astro Bot, the full game based on the seed of an idea found in Robot Rescue, and came away extremely excited to play it in its entirety.
What struck me most when I first sat down with Astro Bot is just how polished it feels. The opening moments showed a globe-style world stage with multiple levels spread across it. The developer queued up one of the early stages for me to give a try. Once loaded, I look down at my controller and see the cute little robot peering up at me (shown below), fully aware of my presence. With a press of the X button he’s blasted out into the world, ready to track down his lost comrades on a daring Rescue Mission.
The developer told me that there will be five worlds in total to explore and over two dozen total stages, including six boss fights. Including all of the extra challenges, collectibles, and replayability they liberally estimate it could take upwards of eight or more hours to finish everything. In the span of 20 minutes I did two of the early stages and a boss fight, so if that math holds true, it’s probably more like 3-4 hours just to finish each stage, with all of the collectibles and extra content adding on the rest. That’s just a guesstimate though.
For a game like this, that’s a pretty solid chunk of time and already means it’s outpacing the likes of Moss and Lucky’s Tale from a sheer length perspective.
Controlling the little Astro Bot was dead simple and special abilities will be earned slowly over the course of the whole game. At the start all you can do is jump, hover with a jet pack, punch to attack, and do a charged spin attack for sustained damage.
Near the end of the second non-boss stage that I played I got the grappling hook ability, which you might remember from the Robot Rescue demo in Playroom VR. This shoots a rope out of my controller (that’s right, it’s 6DOF tracked in 3D space in the game at all times) onto compatible surfaces for pulling things down or letting Astro walk along like a tight rope.
Astro Bot carves out a name for itself in its admittedly small genre niche of VR by doing wonderful things with scale and player presence. Several moments in the two levels I played required me to physically move my head and controller in 3D space — things I’d never do in a traditional Mario or Ratchet & Clank game.
While climbing a tower I have to lean forward and backward to keep track of Astro’s movements. In a later level, the developer describes playing the whole stage from belowAstro as he runs along the tops of leaves, meaning all the player sees are shadows. Several hidden collectibles can only be found by craning your neck upwards, turning around and looking behind you, or daring to peak around to the most hidden corners of stages.
In the image below you can see an example of how small Astro is in comparison to the first boss I faced — a giant ape that kept trying to eat me.
While Astro Bot: Rescue Mission may at first glance seem like a game that could exist outside of VR or a game that shouldn’t be in VR at all. But to dismiss its innovations as gimmicks and its charm as meaningless would be a profound disservice. Personally, I can’t wait to venture back into this world, peer down at the hundreds of trapped Bots scattered across the game, and do my part to save them with Astro by my side.
Now here’s hoping that Insomniac can take a hint and make a Ratchet & Clank VR game next.
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission does not currently have a release date or window, but we should expect to hear more about it at this year’s E3 next month. As a Sony Japan Studio title this will be a PSVR exclusive. Let us know what you think so far down in the comments below!
