Astro Bot is PlayStation’s newest rising star. The adorable little tin man was already considered the perfect PlayStation mascot and now finally has his own full-sized game with Astro Bot for the PlayStation 5. But this is far from Astro’s first adventure. In this article, we dive deeper into the history of Astro Bot and list all Astro Bot games in order of release.
The Playroom (2013)
Astro Bots were first featured in The Playroom, a free tech demo developed by Japan Studio that came preinstalled on every PlayStation 4. The Playroom was created to showcase the abilities of the new PlayStation Eye, rather than the power of the new PlayStation 4 or its controller. The Playroom consisted of a handful of minigames. In one of them, called AR Bots, the player could interact with the now-iconic little white robots with big blue eyes.
Asobi, another character featured in Astro Bot videogames, also made its debut in The Playroom, albeit in a different minigame called Play with Asobi. Astro Bot returned in the downloadable minigame Ninja Bots, which was added to The Playroom in 2014.
The Playroom VR (2016)
With the launch of the first PlayStation VR back in 2016, Sony released another iteration of The Playroom. The Playroom VR, once again developed by Japan Studio, contained a selection of minigames created to demonstrate the features of the PlayStation VR. The Playroom VR had a visual style more closely resembling the later Astro Bot games, with Astro Bot-like characters featured throughout the minigames.
The game also introduced a specific Astro Bot with blue details and a cape in the minigame Robots Rescue, which would later evolve into a full standalone VR game.
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (2018)
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission by Japan Studio is the first standalone game featuring Captain Astro. In Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, the blue-caped hero has to save all his Astro friends who are scattered across a wide variety of platform worlds. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is considered one of the best, if not the best, games for the first generation of PlayStation VR.
Astro’s Playroom (2020)
Astro’s Playroom by Japan Studio came preinstalled on every PlayStation 5 but is vastly different from the previous Playroom games. Instead of offering various minigames, Astro’s Playroom is a fully fleshed-out, albeit very short, platformer. Along the way, Team Asobi smartly demonstrated the new capabilities of the DualSense controller that came with the PlayStation 5. Although the game is sometimes considered a tech demo, it is on a whole different level than the previous Playroom games.
Astro’s Playroom can be considered both a precursor to and a prequel to the new Astro Bot videogame. You can even collect some special Bots that will transfer to the new game.
Astro Bot (2024)
After Astro’s Playroom, most Japan Studio was shuttered. The team behind Astro’s legacy however, finally got their own studio: Team Asobi. With a clean title, Team Asobi wants to acknowledge that this is the very first full, complete game for a broader audience featuring the little blue-caped hero. Astro Bot is a direct sequel to Astro’s Playroom and once again a 3D platformer, in which Astro needs to recollect parts for his ship and rescue his friends. With many special Bots based on famous PlayStation characters, Astro Bot promises to be a blast for both youngsters and PlayStation veterans.
Astro Bot will be available on September 6, 2024, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
