“Astro Bot” might be a glorified advertisement for all things PlayStation, but it’s also the best Nintendo game Nintendo never made. Plus, we review early September’s other big releases: “The Casting of Frank Stone” and “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
September opened with the arrival of the pristine PlayStation platformer “Astro Bot,” the cinematic horror of “The Casting of Frank Stone,” and the gothic camp of “Space Marine 2.” NPR’s Corey Bridges, Allen Walden and I reviewed these early harbingers of a promising Fall gaming season.Lush music tumbles from my TV and chipper sound effects fizzle out of my controller as I jump, spin, punch, roll and rocket-blast through “Astro Bot.
If the game wasn’t so exquisitely crafted it’d be hard to forgive this shameless self-promotion. Your little metal feet cause different sound effects to play from the controller’s built-in speaker depending on the surface they’re running on. The triggers adapt to whatever you’re pushing or pulling, giving each object and power-up a distinct texture.
Mutually reinforcing systems reward this completionism. Bots unlock boss stages and populate your home base . When they’re not linking limbs to form bridges, ladders and ramps to help you explore the hub world, they’ll assemble by your downed spaceship. Mostly, they just stand around, but you can spend collectible coins to draw randomized items for them, which come with new animations. I was lucky enough to score Pyramid Head’s colossal sword, for example.
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