Simple pleasures
Astro Bot’s
aims are straightforward, even if the mechanisms to achieve them are anything but. Every moment is geared to extract maximal joy, from the inventiveness of the level design to the audio, visual and haptic feedback that erupts from your efforts. Less constant, yet still frequent, are the hugs of nostalgia triggered by dozens of PlayStation-related cameos, but most comforting here is that the whole game feels like it comes from an age where pure gamey-ness was all that mattered. Here is a title that merely invites you to play with its toys.