[GameSpot] - Astro's Playroom Preview - A DualSense Showcase

[343iBot]

Perhaps the first game you'll play when you fire up your new PlayStation 5 is Astro's Playroom, a bright, light platformer that comes bundled with the console. Astro's Playroom isn't an extremely challenging platformer, but it is one with a lot of heart--and a big emphasis on showing you what your new console is capable of delivering. In a big way, your adventure as the robot Astro is a tech demo for the PS5's DualSense controller, as well as a showcase for some spiffy next-generation graphics, and a love letter to PlayStation history.

When you fire up Astro's Playroom, you actually find yourself inside your PlayStation 5, exploring its many components rendered as video game locations. We spent some time in Cooling Springs, one of four sets of levels you can access, and one which represents the PS5's fans and cooling components. Playing into the theme, the first of Cooling Springs' four levels is a beach that sports a giant fan, filled with other robots playing in the water and building sandcastles and enemies wandering around making trouble. Later portions of the level include a section in which you skate across ice floes, bounce across lily pads, and scale platforms in a spring-loaded mech suit.

Each of the sections of Astro's Playroom is about exploration and discovery, with lots of collectibles to track down along the way. The platforming gameplay is pretty similar to what players will recognize in games such as Super Mario Odyssey or Super Lucky's Tale, but it's really much more about using the DualSense to add another layer to what's familiar. Levels are designed to really show off how deeply the DualSense controller's features can be integrated into gameplay.

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