Astro Bot
While everyone was hoping that Sony’s Astro Bot would be good, I’m not sure anyone was predicting what’s happened here. And we’re now seeing an enormous win for PlayStation in a week where it badly needs one.
As it stands, with dozens of Astro Bot reviews in, it is currently the best scoring full game of the year. It has a 94 metascore, rocketing it into GOTY contention, if not being a clear frontrunner at the moment. It’s being called one of the best platformers ever, right up there with the classics, and the reviews are just absolutely glowing.
That 94 score does indeed put it as the best-reviewed game of the year, if you’re not counting Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion as a full game, which most won’t, and that has a 95. Here’s the list of “game” games:
- Astro Bot – 94
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – 92
- Animal Well – 91
- Balatro – 90
- Thank Goodness You’re Here! – 90
- Tekken 8 – 90
- Tactical Breach Wizards – 90
- Like a Dragon – Infinite Wealth – 89
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes – 88
- Minishoot Adventures – 87
Astro Bot
It’s been an odd year so far. You can see that most of those are indies with fewer reviews counted, and the scores I omitted are for “definitive collections” or remasters which I’m not going to count. And an expansion or two like Elden Ring’s or Destiny 2’s The Final Shape. But if we’re talking about full games, GOTY-potential games, Astro Bot is on top.
At the time of this writing, Astro Bot has 29 10/10 scores out of 78 reviews. Here’s one that sums a lot of it up, a perfect 10 from VGC:
“Astro Bot isn’t simply an enjoyable platformer with some nostalgia tying it together; it’s a generationally impressive entry in the genre that understands PlayStation at an atomic level. The sheer level of joy the game produces makes it impossible to compare it to anything other than Mario’s very best adventure. Astro is no longer a vector through which to reference PlayStation icons; he is a PlayStation icon.”
There is only one score below an 8, a 7.8/10 from GamersRD. There are only seven scores below a nine period.
So, it’s a critical smash hit, and we’ll see if it’s a sales one as well. Players are hoping this game reviewing this well, and hopefully with revenue to match, will further push Sony and other publishers into more solid single-player games than endlessly chasing live service titles, so many of which have failed spectacularly as of late. The contrast between Astro Bot and Concord this week alone is absolutely wild. I cannot wait to play.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.