It’s the kind of charming 3D adventure rarely seen outside of Nintendo, one dripping with inventive ideas and heartwarming details. And it might just be the ideal game to sell you on a PlayStation 5. Astro’s Playroom comes pre-installed on every PlayStation 5, so when you first start it up, you may assume it’s a tutorial designed to introduce you to the system’s capabilities. Yes, the game is a great showpiece for the PS5’s DualSense controller, applying its haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and motion-sensing technology to a variety of inventive situations. But Astro’s Playroom is much more than a tutorial; it’s a joyful and polished platformer that ushers in a new generation of PlayStation hardware with a big smile. If you’re new to platformers, or video games in general, you may find yourself rushing in and dying quickly for seemingly no reason.

Cross the controller cable bridge to the island with the strong wind, and then a second controller cable bridge. Directly ahead is an Astro Bot in Ape Escape cosplay hiding in a bush. Look over the edge of the island to see a blue aura in the clouds.

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If you just bought a PlayStation 5 or had one at launch, it would be a shame to miss experiencing a game that is completely free in 2025. In the final shaded section of the level with the long wooden bridge, look down on the left-hand wall to see a Bot on a bike escaping a swarm of Bots. The Bots chasing the bike refer to the huge swarms of zombies featured in the game. When you get to the Checkpoint just after the Uncharted easter egg, head around the corner of the cliff to find a reporter pointing out a black painting on the rock. The symbols above the soldiers refer to the rhythm-based nature of the gameplay to help take on large beasts. Immediately to the left of the Wires that start this level is a water tank showing a Bot in a shark tank that’s circled by two dangerous Pirhanas.

” Trophy, awarded for jumping into one of the water fountains at the end of Hotel Hopalot in Cooling Springs. Appropriately located in s8 that ends Gusty Gateway, next to a shelter you can find a Bot on the ground with an origami crane on him. This references 2010’s Heavy Rain on PS3, developed by Quantic Dream. In it, a serial killer known as the Origami Killer uses long periods of rain to drown his victims, and uses origami as his calling card. In the second mud pit of Gusty Gateway you’ll find a Bot carrying several crates while being surrounded by crabs. This is a reference to 2020’s Death Stranding by Kojima Productions on PS4, which stars Norman Reedus as courier Sam Bridges in a post-apocalyptic America.

Astro’s Playroom Ps5 Review

The car being driven is the one of the game’s boxart, the F/A Fiera, also known as the Kamata Fiera. About halfway into the level you’ll cross over a DualShock Cable that is then blown by a fan. Use the fan to Beam Glide right to a platform where a Bot with goggles and a small rabbit are standing.

Every time I had fun with the game, it always ended in me encountering an area that is simply impossible for me to finish. This includes all the aforementioned key areas of levels with physical mandatory controls, but also some minor elements that appear briefly through the game. Further mandatory physical interaction with the controller includes blowing into the microphone and flicking your finger to launch Astro like a slingshot. Whilst there are serious problems, I personally found these to have a workaround that made them doable. The core quest in Astro’s Playroom is to retrieve the four main artefacts across four different, diverse levels. Each level is split into four key areas, two of which are reliant on a feature of the DualSense, all are mandatory to complete the levels.

The “Wild Arms” Trophy, awarded for Spinning while firing the Gatling Gun in Deep Dataspace level of SSD Speedway, is a reference to 1996’s Wild ARMs on the PS1, developed by Media Vision. Wild ARMs is a Japanese role-playing game, and received a remake on the PS2 in 2003. The “Twisting Metal” Trophy, awarded for jumping three times whilst Spinning on ice, is a reference to 1995’s Twisted Metal for the PS1, developed by SingleTrac.

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Continue following the wooden path forward to the next wall, defeating three Knockers and a Spiky as you go. That is basically it, a game that even small kids (6y) can play and enjoy. It also uses the capabilities of the controller in creative ways that hopefully all games capture in the future for a better experience.

This zone’s suit is the Frog Suit, again controlled with the Adaptive Triggers and the SIXAXIS. Memory Meadow is chronologically the first zone in the game, with Artefacts covering the original PlayStation era from 1995 to 2000. The suit in this zone is the Baseball Suit, which you can move around by swiping on the Touch Pad.

What’s so remarkable about Astro’s Playroom is that while it’s ostensibly about showing off the features of the PlayStation 5, it’s also a fabulous platformer. Levels constantly throw me new toys to play with that totally change the way the level plays. Later levels include a spaceship (with rockets powered by the adaptive triggers) and a rolling ball (controlled by swiping the touchpad on the DualSense), intermingled with platforming sequences. The smooth, 60-frames-per-second gameplay makes controlling Astro a real treat. While none of the sequences are terribly difficult, there’s enough of a challenge here to keep me busy for around six hours as I chase the Platinum Trophy. It doesn’t stop at the collectibles; some bots pay tribute to past icons.