I’m hoping this lights a fire under devs’ asses and reminds them that the platformer genre exists. I’ve played a few recent indie platformers that were decent but I’d love to see the genre get some love from bigger studios (other than Nintendo).
The only recent one I can think of that fits that bill is Yooka Laylee and that game was doodoo.
I have not played it myself but what I’ve seen of it looks at the very least polished and made with care. That being said there just wasn’t that much competition this year. The industry is overshadowed with mass layoffs and a smaller budget pool. And yes, of course some good games released, but nothing in the ballpark of a Baldur’s Gate 3 or GTA 5.
John Linneman from digital foundry said the game reminded him of why he loves games after all the AAA slop and UE5 games they’ve been through. Up there in quality with the Mario games.
As a game? Astrobot is a VERY solid and polished platformer.
But mostly it is the nostalgia and target demographic. If you ever had a PS1 or PS2 growing up then you will have insane amounts of nostalgia for all the costumes and easter eggs while not realizing most are from the late PS3/early PS4 anyway.
So… it is basically a modern Nintendo game. Others do platforming and level design better. But only this has the excessive amount of references to nu-God of War and rare reference to Jumping Flash that makes your heart remember the happy times.
And… even though I see it for what it is, I am not gonna pretend I am above it.
For what it is worth? I think it IS the better game than Balatro (one would hope so since it had a full major studio and platform holder behind it…). But I still think Balatro was THE game of 2024 just for how much it pervaded everything and everyone.
It’s a 100% perfect addition to THE core combat light puzzle platformer games. It also has an age range of 0-99 by both having cute jokes and references that would appeal to older folks while never being even remotely offensive.
Also yea, what else was there? Closest was make Wukong which primarily crushed the market because it again proved that the new or smaller studios can absolutely give a better AAA experience than the big studios these days by focusing on delivering a game not a storefront
I just bought it used for $45. Started 5 hours ago, now time to sleep, then play again.
It is a better super Mario game. The difficulty is a bit higher I think, there’s some platforming where I thought like “ain’t no way some of my friends would get this first try”
Not one bit. Sackboy is a 2d platformer, AstroBot is 3d. It feels like a Super Mario Galaxy 3 - better than 2 in every way. If AstroBot would have a wall jump and triple jump it totally would be a super Mario Galaxy 3.
polygon.com
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