I gave Astro Bot 5/5 in my review. It was the first perfect score I had ever given, and while I try not to care too much about what other people think, I was a little nervous about it. I rarely discuss my scores with other journalists, and this was no exception, so I had no idea what reception it would receive. I’m strict – some would say too strict – on what the bar is when reading other 5/5 reviews, and would have wound up looking a little silly if everyone else thought it was a bland 3.5 at best.
As you know by now, that was not the case. Astro Bot rocketed to one of the highest Metacritic scores a Sony game has ever seen, and is the front runner for Game of the Year. More to the point (since you really shouldn’t care too much what other people think), I still stand by that score. Now the novelty has worn off and even the speedrunning updates have been dispatched, I still consider Astro Bot to be one of the best platformers since its Golden Age in the ’90s. So why am I conflicted about its Game of the Year-elect status?
Astro Bot Is The Most Popular GOTY Nom
There will be a lot of people who have only played one of the six Game of the Year nominees, if we’re assuming The Keighleys as the official shortlist of Good Games this year. In the vast majority of cases, that one game will be Astro Bot. And in the vast majority of those cases, they will have loved it. They will think it deserves GOTY based on that alone, and they might very well be right. Admittedly, most of those people will be the general public rather than the voting jury, but that’s still ten percent of the vote, and I don’t doubt a lot of jury members will not have played all six either.
It just feels a little like an easy win, and it’s hard to root for anything with such a major advantage. It’s why we love an underdog. But The Game Awards are not everything. I freely admit I care about the ceremony more than I should, but it is not the only signifier of whether a game was good. It seemed like Astro Bot had a procession to the crown at launch (the race looks tighter now, even if it remains favourite), and I wrote about why personal enjoyment of a game should be held onto and not viewed solely through the lens of awards and plaudits. But it’s odd to find myself going into GOTY season with a 5/5 in my pocket and sort of hoping something else pips it to the prize.
It’s the antithesis of the phenomenon I felt when playing 1000xResist and wrote about it becoming my indie obsession for 2024. By that point, I had already waxed lyrical about the glories of both Balatro and Thank Goodness You’re Here, but 1000xResist was different. By a hair (to hair), I consider it better than Balatro, and it will place higher in my GOTY list. But it also feels like a cool game to go to bat for. There’s more to say about it than Balatro, and thus I want to say more things about it.
Astro Bot Is Not That Deep – Does That Matter?
Balatro is not ‘just’ a card game (in fact I don’t even consider it a Poker game at all), but it also is just a card game. You stack cards in different chains to make bigger and bigger numbers. It is pure mechanical excellence, but with that means it is pure mechanics. There’s not a lot to the game beyond the physical experience of playing. It’s not a thing that lingers. Astro Bot is much the same.
Everything positive I have to say about Astro Bot lies in the gameplay. I could list a bunch of fantastic levels here, and we all have our favourites (I think mine is Slo Mo Casino, though it changes regularly), but we all agree it plays pretty well. Then there are specific parts of its genius, like the novel use of the DualSense, the sound design of Astro’s feet, the PlayStation cameos, and the electric use of colour. It’s a very, very, very good game. But is it any more than that?
It does leave me with a deeper feeling than Balatro, in that it makes me feel joyously like a child again and Balatro just makes me want to play more Balatro now and forever. But there’s no substance to the game beyond in the moment enjoyment. Then the question becomes ‘why is that not enough?’. With so many games trying to be movies with photorealistic linear narratives with similar and occasionally manipulative emotional beats, why would I want Astro Bot to do that? Is it not enough that an excellent platformer is an excellent platformer? That a video game excels at being a video game and not at effectively disguising itself as an artform with more prestige?
The answer to all that is: I don’t know. If Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth were up for GOTY at The Game Awards I probably wouldn’t care that much because that would be the horse I’d throw away my money on. But while Astro Bot is the favourite, this feels like the first TGA since 2019 (not including the Covid-decimated year of 2021) where we don’t know who will win GOTY before it even starts. And it’s the first TGA in even longer that I’ve had no clue who I want to win. I think it will be Astro Bot, and I think I will be okay with it. But maybe not.
- Top Critic Rating:95/100
- Released
- September 6, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Team Asobi
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment