A lot of people in the gaming community have fallen head over heels for PlayStation’s mechanical mascot, and for good reason. Astro Bot is a polished, meticulously crafted 3D platformer bursting at the seams with creativity and character, rivalling the greatest titles of the genre.

I won’t repeat what has already been covered in our own review of the game, as well as the many other reviews you can read. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly agree with the scores and praise the game has received. But the elements I would like to highlight are the approachability and family friendly nature of Team Asobi’s latest release. Astro Bot is a game that can be played and enjoyed by young and old gamers alike; a great opportunity for parents and their kids to play and share, just like I have with my mine.

My two quickly became obsessed with finding the bots, especially the VIPs (the ones dressed as characters from many IPs synonymous with PlayStation). Some they recognised like Ratchet, Spyro and Kratos, while others led to fun ‘video game history with the old man’ moments. It was while watching my youngest play the game that I had the sudden realisation that led to this article.

She had just finished the first galaxy and returned to the central hub, the Crash Site. At this point, the game highlighted one of the beacons that Astro Bot can use to call his bot buddies to access new areas, as long as you have found enough of them while playing. She called them over, watching as they built a single file bridge out of themselves so she could cross a wide gap and continue to explore. As she ran across the bridge of bots she exclaimed “My friends are helping me! They’re helping me!”, which got me thinking. I had seen this mechanic in action several times during my own playthrough, making me smile and chuckle on each occasion, but I had never stopped to think about what was actually happening.

Up until then, I was viewing these bots not as characters, but more as collectibles. A clever mechanic to spice up gameplay and used to unlock more of the game; a means to an end. Sure, I had many moments of nostalgia when finding bots representing games from my childhood, but I never thought to see them as the actual characters.

Now those moments have a whole other meaning to me. I wasn’t just using these bots to reach my goals, they were there to lend a hand. The characters, many from games I have fond memories of playing over the last 30 years, were now coming to my aid! This all culminates in an bombastic final boss fight that really drove home this feeling for me, and I was a little misty eyed by the end.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that at the end of the credits it hangs on the phrase “Thank You For Playing”, but this time it felt different. It wasn’t just the Team Asobi team, the people who made this incredible game, thanking the players. To me, it was all the VIP bots and the IPs they came from as well, thanking the player for helping them on their journeys. Astro Bot was already an excellent and very meta game, but this has taken it to a whole other level for me. Whether or not this was what the dev team intended, I commend them on making a game capable of creating that feeling for someone.

You may completely disagree with me or have come to this conclusion from the moment you started playing, but I think we can all agree on one thing. There isn’t anyone who celebrates video games more than the players, and there isn’t another game that celebrates the players more than Astro Bot.