I’m as excited to play Astro Bot later this week as everybody else. Sony is bringing again the cutesy, easy platformer that’s all about vibes and gameplay at the beginning, lastly injecting some selection right into a library that has lengthy grown oversaturated by cinematic narrative blockbusters. It’s a serious step in the correct course, and one we must always all be supporting to point out that PlayStation is a lot greater than this one particular style it has pigeonholed itself into during the last two console generations.
However Astro Bot isn’t only a cutesy platformer. It additionally pays homage to PlayStation’s wealthy historical past with appearances from icons of the style like Jak & Daxter, in addition to extra modern favourites like Bloodborne. Followers are past thrilled that Sony is lastly acknowledging these long-dormant properties, seeing Astro Bot as one huge celebration of the previous 30 years of PlayStation simply in time for its anniversary, however all I see is a graveyard of wasted potential.
Let’s begin with these two video games. Bloodborne has been idle for almost ten years with no signal of so much as a current-gen update, and the final Jak recreation is a 15-year-old, poorly-received PSP spin-off that wasn’t even developed by Naughty Canine. Lastly paying tribute to the video games that helped form PlayStation throughout a number of generations is superb to see, nevertheless it feels shallow within the wake of fixed studio closures and layoffs — like Bloodborne co-developer Japan Studio — and whereas the main target stays on live-service video games like the already axed Concord and cinematic adventures that take too lengthy and an excessive amount of to make.
Astro Bot might open the doorways to a extra different future for PlayStation, however odds are it will likely be an exception to the rule.
With over 150 cameos, most will inevitably share comparable tales to Bloodborne and Jak: lengthy since deserted video games which have been pushed apart. Already, that feels extra like a sombre reminder of what was than a cheery commemoration of what is.
Even a collection like Ratchet & Clank, which obtained a sequel as just lately as 2021, is a bitter reminder of the present state of Sony. Insomniac has locked itself into a decade of Marvel games, leaving no room for something new or to lastly tie the knot on dangling story threads for the following decade. The trendy Sony is chasing tendencies, not innovation.
Strolling via Astro Bot and ‘rescuing’ these PlayStation-ified droids can have a bitter irony to it. Followers lastly have the company to drag their favourites out from their shallow graves, however just for a quick look in a single huge crossover extravaganza. It’s exhausting to not really feel cynical given what PlayStation has grow to be.
The fervour and appreciation from trailers alone is palpable; Staff Asobi is placing meticulous care into honouring these legacy collection. It’s endearing, even the cynicism can’t take away from that. However evaluating it to Little Large Planet 3’s myriad crossovers from ten years in the past reveals a stark distinction. The context these video games exist in couldn’t be extra completely different.
With Little Large Planet 3, which itself had its online servers shuttered, wiping away swathes of PlayStation historical past, the Sackboy costumes felt like a celebratory coming collectively. It was an uplifting second of all our favourites uniting, wanting on the wealthy tapestry PlayStation needed to supply whereas additionally bringing collectively followers of all completely different genres. With Astro Bot, it’s a bleak reminder of how good PlayStation was, and the way it pushed a lot of that expertise apart in a determined bid to earn the status and respect of movie, whereas clambering to the unrealistic heights of titans like Fortnite.
I have not even talked about the Crash Bandicoot cameo, a platformer mascot who was as soon as a face of PlayStation that’s now within the arms of Xbox.
I’ll be there day one, as a result of outdoors of Ratchet & Clank, platformers have been all however forgotten by PlayStation and Astro Bot might lastly break the mould. However the cameos that persons are leaping with pleasure over really feel hole, as a result of so many formative PlayStation classics are useless and buried.
