During Sony’s May 2024 State of Play presentation, Sony revealed a new Astro Bot game — simply titled Astro Bot. It’s the third game in the platformer series, and it’s due out for PlayStation 5 on September 6.
The game’s reveal trailer shows our hero Astro waking up in a desert by a fox-shaped robot. He then flies off on a ship shaped like a DualSense controller. The trailer shows Astro visiting several diverse biomes, including arctic areas, beaches, and even high up in the clouds. Several PlayStation cameos are in the trailer as well, including Parappa the Rappa, Kratos from God of War Ragnarok, and Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West.
There are six galaxies to explore and over 80 levels for Astro to search for his scattered crew in. Astro has access to over 15 new abilities that offer unique playstyles. One of them is shown off in the trailer, called Barkster, which Astro wears like a backpack. Barkster lets Astro air-dash and smash through enemies, metal, and glass. The game will also make use of the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.
The first game in the series, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, was released in 2018 for PS4 and PS VR. The second entry, called Astro’s Playroom, was released in 2020 and comes pre-installed with every PS5 console.
The series is developed by Team Asobi, which is based in Japan. Back in 2022, the studio revealed that its next project would be a full-blown commercial title and its “biggest to date.” It’s unclear whether Team Asobi was referring to the new Astro Bot game, but this one certainly looks much bigger in scope than the previous two entries.