Astro Bot developer Team Asobi wanted to fill a gap in PlayStation's portfolio that went missing when some of its studios pivoted to "mature, hyper-realistic games."
Team Asobi just released its latest platformer about the adorable mascot who's traversing across almost 30 years of PlayStation history to save the console's most-loved icons - or bots cosplaying as said icons - and Astro Bot quickly dethroned Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as the year's best-reviewed game. But part of its charm comes from the fact that it feels like a game PlayStation used to make decades ago.
In an interview with VGC, studio president Nicolas Doucet explains that "as the audience of PlayStation grew, a lot of these [PlayStation studios] went from making cartoon games to a little bit more mature, hyper-realistic games."
"That's when we at Team Asobi as a studio decided that we really wanted to fill that gap, that used to be the gap filled by other studios 20-25 years ago," Doucet continues. "That's really where we want to be: all ages, colorful etc. Even if we made a horror game, it would be a funny horror game."
That focus seems to have worked out for Team Asobi. "Astro Bot doesn't just deliver on the promise and potential displayed in PS5 pack-in demo Astro's Playroom, but soars above and beyond to serve up a near-perfect platformer to rival – and possibly surpass – the best of Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom romps," Gamesradar+'s Astro Bot review says.
