Astro Bot

Every level here introduces one idea, develops it for four minutes, and ends. Then the next level does the same thing with a different idea. There are more than fifty of them and almost none are reused. That restraint is so rare in this genre that it takes a while to notice what is missing: there is no collectible you are grinding, no ability tree, no map to sweep.

The controller is a character

Team Asobi builds around the DualSense harder than anything Sony has published, and unlike the tech demo that preceded it, the haptics here are load-bearing rather than decorative. You feel the surface you are standing on well enough to identify it blind. A rocket booster's resistance in the trigger tells you how much charge is left.

None of this is required — the game is fully playable ignoring all of it — but the layer is there and it is the most convincing argument anyone has made for that hardware.

Bots rescued

300 of 300

Levels

Over 50

Ideas reused

Almost none

Nostalgia handled with taste

Two hundred of the rescued bots are dressed as PlayStation characters, and it would have been easy for this to be the whole point. Instead it is decoration: the levels do not depend on you recognising anyone, and the handful built around a specific series are affectionate rather than reverent. If you have never played a PlayStation game before, nothing here is lost on you.

Where it slips

It is twenty-one hours with everything found and about twelve if you simply finish, which is the correct length and will still feel short at full price to some people. The difficulty is also gentle throughout — the optional challenge levels are the only real test, and there are not many.

The verdict

The most purely well-made game reviewed on this site. Nothing is padded, nothing is monetised, nothing overstays. It is not the most ambitious thing here and it might be the most finished.

Play it in three sittings. Do not chase the bots until the credits roll.