Astro Bot Rescue Mission VR

Nintendo, in my mind, has always been the master of platforming hop-and-bop style games (although I would put Sega at a very, very close #2). Sony has had a winner with Little Big Planet, but the company wasn’t around early enough to establish much else. Side-scrolling platformers/action/adventure games have made a comeback in recent years. Nothing on the level of Mario or the original Sonic games, to be sure. And as far as 3-D platforming, Nintendo rules the roost.

But wait. Here comes Astro Bot Rescue Mission. A 3-D platformer for sure, in fact better than mere 3-D, it is a Virtual Reality experience that really delivers. It has all of the action, all of the smooth control you want and NEED in this kind of game, and something else required in this genre: a completely LOVABLE, ADORABLE little character that is a JOY to control. The little robot is comical; when under heavy fire from even the most vicious of bosses, upon pause he will look at you, make a happy little squeal and wave frantically. You are his backup-bot, a floating, “big-brother” kind of guy who does the heavy lifting so he may do his thing to get through the level. As the little robot you must hop, bop, and rescue the other little robots that have crash-landed (breaking their ship into pieces that span 5 “worlds”, of course). You do this by looking, listening, and then finally kicking them in the ass when you find them. They then find their way into a virtual instance of your controller, squealing happily all the way.

Cute as it is, it starts easy enough, but becomes increasingly difficult. This is the earmarks of an excellent video game of ANY genre, and this one does it. The further you go, the more you have to work. It looks like a kiddie game, but trust me, it is a challenge for even the most seasoned veteran gamer. Bring your old-school skills. (As well as your new-school skills.) Completion of a level grants you the treat of seeing the little robot do a hilarious little dance while the robots he rescued cheer. I laughed at this EVERY time, like some little kid.

Sony really has something here, and on a platforming-game-genre level, they have something Nintendo and Microsoft do NOT. They have a VR Platformer. That’s that! If this was 1995, I would put the little Astro-Bot on par with Mario and Sonic and call it their “mascot”. More so than Sack-Boy, in my opinion (although Sack-Boy is no slouch).

WAY worth playing. In fact, if you are doing PSVR, I COMMAND you to get this game and play it. You’re WELCOME. I am looking forward to this becoming an established VR franchise. As well, I expect merch.

What can I say? I give this one a 10/10. You gotta love it.