{"id":22251,"date":"2018-09-30T22:03:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T12:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22251"},"modified":"2018-10-30T22:15:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T12:15:18","slug":"astro-bot-rescue-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22251","title":{"rendered":"Astro Bot Rescue Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"astrobotposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>SIE Japan Studio
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Sony Interactive Entertainment
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Playstation 4<\/p>\n

V<\/span>enture Beat games journalist Jeremy Horowitz turned heads back in September when he announced a teaser that the Playstation VR was going to have its ‘Super Mario 64’ moment.<\/p>\n

It seems like an absurd statement to make and an unfair burden to shoulder on a game.\u00a0\u00a0Super Mario 64<\/em> is one of the most critically acclaimed and influential games of all time.\u00a0 It established and popularized analogue stick controls and 3D movement as we know it today.\u00a0 It sold millions of copies.\u00a0 What hope did\u00a0Astro Bot Rescue Mission<\/em> have to compare?<\/p>\n

Having played the game since it launched, I think I understand Horowitz more clearly now.\u00a0 I think he was being much more literal about what\u00a0Astro Bot Rescue Mission<\/em> accomplishes and how it compares to Super Mario 64<\/em>.\u00a0 It is a 3D platforming game that has incredible level design and ridiculously charming character animation.\u00a0 It gets right so many of the little things.\u00a0 The way the Astro Bots interact with the player.\u00a0 The pixel perfect controls.\u00a0 The jaunty music.\u00a0 The visually arresting worlds that you explore.<\/p>\n

All of it comes together beautifully and feels like a game that has that Miyamoto touch.\u00a0 The Nintendo magic<\/em>.\u00a0 After a session with\u00a0Astro Bot Rescue Mission<\/em> (particularly stages like 2-2), it’ll feel like you’ve played a Nintendo platformer in virtual reality.<\/p>\n

It’s that good.<\/p>\n

\"astrobotthumb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Astro Bot Rescue Mission<\/em> is a killer app for virtual reality gaming.\u00a0 It literally wouldn’t be anywhere near as enjoyable if you played without it.\u00a0 What makes the game sing in virtual reality are a number of key design elements.\u00a0 Firstly, the player is a physical presence in the game.\u00a0 The Astrobots acknowledge you, wave to you and interactive with you.\u00a0 You can also interact with the world by doing things like headbutting the environment to bust through walls (!) and physically peek around the world to spot hidden Astro Bots to rescue and coins to collect.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I think the developers have created the stages in such a way that you feel like a little kid in them.\u00a0 The objects in each level are big, bright and cheery.\u00a0 The enemies in the game mostly look non-threatening (like Koopas in Super Mario<\/em>), have playful animations and have a buoyant size about them.\u00a0 As for the\u00a0End Level Bosses – they’re positively ginormous.\u00a0 The scaling of all of this is achieved through virtual reality in a way that traditional televised gaming can’t compare.<\/p>\n

What makes\u00a0Astro Bot Rescue Mission<\/em> the finest game on the PSVR to date is the game design.\u00a0 In short, its absolutely exhilarating.\u00a0 Time and again the game brought a smile to my face thanks to a fun little animation, a clever snippet of level design or a well crafted boss encounter.\u00a0 This is the game that gets me excited about virtual reality all over again and makes me think that one day, this has to<\/em> become the future of gaming.<\/p>\n

At its best moments,\u00a0Astro Bot<\/em> fills you with a sense of wonder just like that first time you booted up\u00a0Super Mario 64<\/em>.\u00a0 It feels like a new frontier in entertainment.\u00a0 It’s a 3D platformer sure, but the experience feels special and wholly unique.\u00a0 Platforming is a difficult beast to master at the best of times in non-VR gaming but SIE Japan Studio have absolutely nailed the controls.\u00a0 The game is forgiving enough with the handling so that you rarely mistime a jump, fall cheaply to your death or get bested by the basic enemies in the game.\u00a0 But it still gives you enough control that the experience doesn’t feel compromised and as you master the various mechanics the game introduces, it rewards the more skillful player with bonuses like the collectable chameleons which unlock a new playable Challenge Mode.<\/p>\n

Let’s be real.\u00a0 Astro Bot\u00a0<\/em>will be lucky to sell a million units.\u00a0 It will only be played by a fraction of the audience that it deserves to reach.\u00a0 Its clear that at the current price point and with the current technology available (wired headsets, limited movement) that virtual reality gaming won’t become a mainstream form of entertainment.\u00a0 Yet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But when that time comes, I hope\u00a0SIE Japan and\u00a0Astro Bot<\/em> are re-released so it can\u00a0reach that wider audience.\u00a0 It really deserves it.\u00a0 It’s maybe the best designed game I’ve played in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a rogue alien kidnaps his friends, Astro Bot must go on an adventure exploring the universe to help get them back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2780,1702,2615,2782,2781],"class_list":["post-22251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-astro-bot","tag-playstation-4","tag-playstation-vr","tag-super-mario-64","tag-virtual-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22257,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251\/revisions\/22257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}