ASTRO BOT RESCUE MISSION

Developer Asobi Team, SIE Japan Studio Publisher SIE Format PSVR

There is nothing truly relevatory about Astro Bot. Rather, its magic comes from the obviousness of everything it does – or rather, how obvious its many tricks seem as soon as they’ve been and gone. This is a parade of ideas that each make natural, but no less brilliant, use of PSVR’s feature set.

How appropriate that it should be a 3D platformer to be the first game to make such effortless use of everything PSVR has to offer. It might not match Super Mario 64 – few things can – but like its spiritual forebear, it provides a perfect entry point to a bold new piece of technology. To play it is to briefly forget the struggles the VR community has had with camera movement, locomotion, comfort and all the rest of it. It just works.

And frequently, it sings. While it is notionally about the titular robot that scurries about the place in search of his lost crewmates and the components of their destroyed spacecraft, the real star of the show is the player. Cast as a large helper robot – seen in reflections or monitor screens – you are in equal parts travel guide, support act and cameraman. The latter is the game’s greatest trick, and solves one of its genre’s longest-standing problems: perspective. If you’re struggling to line up a comfortable angle, just move your head. You’ll do likewise to smash through scenery, play headers-and-volleys with an enemy, or indulge a robo-sunflower in an impromptu dance-off.

There may have been better 3D platformers down the years, but none has been so immersive. When a rising water level reaches your chin, you’ll instinctively take a big gulp of air; when some critter flings itself at you, you’ll flinch, then shake your head furiously to dislodge it. When something smiles or waves at you, you’ll do the same back – but in fairness, chances are you’ll already be smiling anyway. A charming little triumph.