Rogue Flight PS5 Review

 

Rogue Flight is a indie arcade rail-shooter was released in 2024 for PS5, XSX/S, Switch, and PC. 

It was developed by Truant Pixel and published by Perp Games.

Before I begin my review, I wanted to talk about the classics rail-shooter games that was became a thing in the 80s and 90s, so we had games like SEGA's After Burner which is a sprite-scaling arcade shooter that uses the motion cabinet are fully designed for rotating cockpit. It became very popular in the mid-80s was praised for its impressive visuals and fast-paced gameplay, and is seen as being the most important and influential game in arcade history.

Then pushing forward to early 90s with Nintendo's Star Fox is a very first SNES title that make use of system's additional enhancement chip called Super FX are designed to run with 3D polygon graphics looks really incredible for 16-bit machine can manage to pull-off a graphical showcase that looks more like the early PS1's game than the standard SNES software, so it received critical acclaim reception by gaming media and is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time.

Finally SEGA's two well-regarded rail-shooters for Saturn such as Panzer Dragoon and II Zwei which is a 32-bit system's graphical showcase to utilize the 3D environment world with post-apocalyptic fantasy settings and in-engine video for story cutscenes, as well as adding the addition for gameplay system featuring 360-degree field of view and lock-on targeting reticle, so both of these titles became Saturn's very best software title was praised for its astounding presentation, beautiful visuals, outstanding soundtrack, and innovative gameplay. 

These are the classic rail-shooters that are incredibly fun to play back then because not only it defines my gaming nostalgia, but also it changes the video games forever due to leaping towards 3D gaming approach gets really creative in later years.

As the time goes forward to nowadays where I focused on playing latest consoles, I began to explore some of the indie games through gaming websites, content creator's channel, and video trailers that could interest me in playing retro-influenced games, so I've discovered the game called Rogue Flight which is a indie game plays so much similar to classic rail-shooter titles like After Burner and Star Fox in the style of space combat action and arcade scoring spree which is why I am here to review this because I really into with playing the arcade-style rail-shooter stuff with crazy amounts of enemy's ship on whole screen, throttling on high-speed range, firing an insane amounts of missiles and valcans, and of course do the barrel roll to evade projectiles is the kinds of arcade rail-shooter I really wanted to play it.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game sets 3 years prior to the game's events where the A.I system known as ARGUS are designed to protect the Earth, but unfortunately it's turned on its creators and launched a devastating orbital attack destroying most of the population causing the human extinction.

3 years later after the event of horrible attack by A.I defense, the last living person Nadia Sawas who is a fighter pilot for the Arrow, an space fighter jet is humanity's last hope to stop ARGUS from continuing attack.

With the help of ex-commander of the Solar Defence Force Griffin and orbital mechanics doctor Mason, she then sets out on her mission to defeat ARGUS and save the humanity before its too late.

The story in this game is actually decent for arcade rail-shooter game like this because it's really great to have an actual cutscenes in each chapter which delivers a 5 mins sequences before the mission starts, so I liked the idea of the plot that involves a chaotic A.I system wipes out many human beings as possible which led the pilot fighter, who is a last survivor of the terrible event, went on her mission to defeat ARGUS from continuously harms humanity.

Its great to have it in the game with good set of story and action just got it right, and I should say the characters in the game is actually not bad but not completely the best in my opinion because it only had 3 characters in the game such as Nadia Sawas who is a female lead protagonist had a pretty face but I just don't like oversized helmet looks too ridiculous on her...I mean come on guys she ain't buzz lightyear for f**ksake, at least learn to make her helmet design better than that.

The supportive characters such as Griffin and Mason are both looking fine in the game with no issues whatsoever.

The presentation in this game is excellent for its art-direction in the style of 80s and 90s golden age of anime just looks incredibly amazing in the settings of cutscenes and environments.

I also wanted to praise the scenery and settings of the stages which had a great mix of environments such as earth airspace is just simple blue sky with white clouds, badlands: fleetcom are filed with large debris flying everywhere and has night looking space with moon light, umbriel crust is a endless dark looking tunnels that has very narrow spaces to travel through, dreadaught core is another tunnel area has less tight spaces, io: molten plain is a red fiery place with hazardous ground of lavas, titan surface are filled with thundery dark clouds and layers of ground stones, and saturn a-ring are full of stray rocks object and massive size of planet in long distance. 

Overall, it has decent story, fine characters, and excellent presentation settings.

Gameplay

In single-player playthrough, you're playing as Nadia Sawas in 3rd-person perspective of on-rail ship, as your main goal is to reach it to the boss stage and defeat them in order to proceed next stage.  

There are game's difficulty to choose from such as the easy mode is designed for players who want a more relaxed experience without the constant threat of dying, the medium mode is a recommended option for those who prefer slightly more forgiving experience while still providing a challenge, and of course the hard mode is cater to players who wanted for high-intensity action with bullet-hell style gameplay, so you can choose a difficulty settings that suits your skill level and preference for intensity level which impact damage from enemies and obstacles. 

                

On the on-rail gameplay, you move the ship with the left-stick control which not only it controls the ship but also moves targeting cursor on-screen, and you can use right-stick control for various of maneuvers such as pushing up to boost forward also deflect shots and lock onto distant targets, pushing down to slow down the ship to collect power-ups, and pushing left or right to initiates a drift and wing tail attack for close-range enemies.

You can also use barrel roll by pressing the left or right shoulder button which acts as parrying system to deflect the enemy's projectiles away.

You can switch your perspective view from far-back distance to full-on cockpit screen by pressing the triangle button, so this will give you a full view screen makes easier to target thing for those who prefers to play it on cockpit view perspective.

For combat, press and hold the cross or right trigger button to fire your weapon, where as the left shoulder button fires the missile, so you can hold the left trigger button to lock-on enemy's fighter ship then release it to fire multiple of missiles at them deals heavy damage attack.

Defeated drones will drop down items like weapon upgrades, missile packs or health, and then your shield recharge is tied to combo hits by taking out multiple enemies in rapid succession or you can then instead collect the health pickups to increase your shield health points.   

You can cycle your weapon of choice by pressing the square button which I will explain what kinds of weapons are designed to use for space combat system.

You have 4 types of weapons to obtain such as valcan cannon acts as a primary weapon used for basic bullet attack, laser cannon that shoots out energy beam that can damage enemy's ship from long-distance, lighting blast out heavy projectiles dealing severe damage attack effectively against large enemy's ship, and wave shot fires a close-range shot against the enemy's ship.

After beating stage, you can access to loadouts menu to customise your ship's upgrades that affect your weapon power, shield strength, and missile capacity, so in order to do that you will need to collect the upgrades items can be found on any stages during the playthrough action, then once you have obtained the upgrades items you need then go to loadouts and you will see the lists of upgrades that will benefit your ship's ability.

   

So far, the gameplay system plays it really great because I find the default control layouts worked quite nicely, the weapon firing is responsive especially with the use of adaptive triggers depending on which weapon you're using during the combat action, so I really liked the way of right trigger button rattles when firing the weapon is pretty awesome for flight action shooter like this.

The choice of weapons works effectively against the enemy's ship or bosses depending on which any types of weapons that delivers the astonishing amount of damage attack just works well throughout the action-packed stage.

I also wanted to praise the use of parrying systems and other maneuvering moves are effectively great for evading the enemy's incoming attacks that you won't get caught with their projectiles near you.

The speed of your ship is ridiculously fast just like you've seen on other similar arcade rail-shooters like after burner were known for its high-speed gameplay action making this game looks incredibly fast-paced. 

I just love flying through the stages in fast-speed while spending time of shooting down bunch of enemy's ship, avoiding many obstacles of objects, and of course dodging multiples of enemy's projectiles throughout the space, the tunnel, the lava, the asteroids, the sky clouds, and other stages is what I've loved about the whole segments that are exciting to play and I also wanted to praise the boss battles that kinda just like other rail-shooters like Star Fox where you had to fight out against these bosses which had their weak patterns to defeat them, so it had various of fun bosses to fight out such as large and massive machines, enormous boss's jets, and other insane stuff that fires a multiples of missiles, lasers, and flames at you that are insanely unavoidable, but also keeps you feel well entertained to play this kind of game with big amount of challenge.

I just love the bullet-hell style of gameplay when playing it on harder difficulty can get very frantic with the stages with loads of projectiles shooting at you, some crazy obstacles gets in the way, and of course these tough bastards can get your ass-handed instantly is what makes the game pretty unforgiving but also adds up your fun factor experience of the rail-shooter action.

The multiple playthroughs of single-player game does have a 3 branching paths within the game's campaign leading to different endings, as well as to unlock various of customisation options and upgrades really adds up the game's replayability. 

I say the customisation is f***ing awesome because not only it had multiples of badges, logos, and themes you can customise, but also you can customise your loadouts which improves upon your ship's power including your weapons, shields, and others that makes your firing power and shield energy a much stronger to fight against these tough enemies and bosses just adds up a overall elements.

Aside with standard arcade mode, you can also enjoy other game modes to play like roguelite mode which is a challenging experience with permadeath and randomised elements, caravan mode is where players can test their skills and endurance in a loop of gameplay, void challenge mode is a time-based challenge where players must maintain combos to pause time, and of course retro mode offering a 16-bit PCM version of the game which replaces all of the game music with PCM audio, character portraits are demade into pixel-art style, and voice audio are being decimated for true 16-bit feel.

While the whole game is positive, there are one thing that's missing in the game is the online leaderboard because the most majority of playing rail-shooter games is gaining many scores as possible to compare their progress to other players in the ranking list, but sadly it is absent in the game which is shame that they will never able to save their latest hi-scores without having the dedicated online leaderboard system around.

Overall, it has great gameplay system, cool customisation for upgrades, amazing game modes, and of course action-packed stages.

 

Graphics

The graphics in this game is visually stunning for its anime-style environments especially in story cutscenes and in-game design just looks really amazing as a whole.

I love the razor-sharp details on the stages for its quality textures and surfaces are certainly bold just to make it look clearer on-stage environments.

I also got to praise some of the levels for its unique environmental design such as floating rocks just came directly at the screen, the endless tunnel had a long distance of dark tight and narrow spaces, and of course the magma area of heavy lavas are full of fiery obstacles just adds up the in-depths settings to make the entire stage look appealing.

The use of special effects is also great too with the lens flare, flashy beams, smoke, clouds, lavas, debris, lighting and shadows are being well built and designed correctly without cramming up the stage design.

The game also has an option to change filters such as film grain that simulates the look of older film by adding a subtle pattern of noise to the image used to create a more retro feel, where as the VHS effects replicates the visual feel of 80s aesthetic with graininess, distortion, and color shifts, so this adds up a old-school style of 80s anime era that made the game appeal to those who grew up with the 80s nostalgia. 

I say I really liked the design of the ships such as fighter jet, large airship, drones, and mecha-robot are quite unique which kinda look like you see it from the golden-age anime TV shows and films is what I loved about the style concept of the design in the game. 

The game is incredibly fast to play which offers a smooth and responsive performance especially on both the consoles and PCs can able to run on full 60fps, so it runs well on consoles like XSX/S often targeting 4K resolution with full 60fps, Switch being able to run on 1080p docked and 720p undocked with full 60fps, and finally the base PS5 runs at 4K resolution with 60fps but the PS5 Pro can achieve at 120fps offering a smoother gameplay at the higher frame-rate performance.

Well of course most of the gaming PCs did optimised the game well in which you can customise your own graphic settings for resolution and performance to suit your playability.

Overall, it has stunning environmental design, great special effects, and smooth performance.

  

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in the game is f***ing fantastic, so the song tracks such as "Earth Escape", "Ice Ocean", and "Umbriel" are kinda gives the style of mid-2000s metalcore music just really adds up the epicness of rail-shooting action.

I also did enjoy the calmness side of the haunting piano track of "Catharsis" are quite soothing to listen in the end of the game. 

The best part of the game is that it also has PCM audio track of all songs, which is a great 16-bit rendition of the original soundtrack can be played on retro mode.

It was composed by Fat Bard did a excellent job of creating the amazing score for the indie rail-shooter like this really deserves the soundtrack that are so good to listen.

The sound effects in this game is very good for its loud noises coming from the jet engine, the firing shot from the weapon is sharp as nails, the environmental sounds of crashing everywhere coming from the background noises, and of course the sounds of the explosion that impacts the enemy's ship is booming on my surround speaker is what I've loved about playing the rail-shooter game with great sound design.

The voice acting in the game is not quite bad for their character's role delivering a decent lines of dialogues during the cutscenes.  

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and decent voice acting.

Special Features

The game has unlockables stuffs such as roguelite mode, caravan mode, retro mode, new game plus, and void challenge. It also has various of customisable for ship including badges, logos, and color themes.

The physical copy of the game comes with the manual book and postcard art are also a nice bonus for collectors.

Overall, a pretty good content.

 

Advantages

Excellent presentation settings

Great gameplay system 

Cool customisation for upgrades

Amazing game modes

Action-packed stages

Stunning environmental design

Fantastic soundtrack

Disadvantages

Lack of online leaderboard

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent story, fine characters, and excellent presentation settings.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - great gameplay system, cool customisation for upgrades, amazing game modes, and of course action-packed stages.

Graphics 8.5/10 - stunning environmental design, great special effects, and smooth performance.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and decent voice acting.

Special Features 8/10 - unlockables game modes, various of customisable for ship, and physical copy comes with bonus manual book and postcard art. 

Overall 8.5/10 - Rogue Flight is a remarkable rail-shooter title feels like a true love letter to classic games of 80s and 90s era like After Burner and Star Fox which I am happy to say this is definite a must play for those who are growing up with the classic rail-shooters from the past will likely going to get their hands-on with this kind of indie game filled with cool anime-style visuals, great gameplay system with weapons and upgrades, has game modes to play, and of course epic space-shooting action is what makes the game so incredibly amazing to play. 

The physical copy of the game for PS5 cost around £18 or more, where as the digital release for PS Store, Xbox Store, eShop, and Steam are slightly cheaper in between £15 and £16, so is it a definite buy? absolutely if you're the big fan of the rail-shooter genre will likely going to enjoy this title for both PC and Consoles. 

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Air Twister PS5 Review

 

Air Twister is a Arcade Rail-Shooter game was first released on 2022 for iOS and MacOS, and was later released on 2023 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch, and PC. 

It was developed by YS Net and published by ININ Games, and I believe it is a spiritual successor to SEGA's 80s arcade classic such as Space Harrier.

Before I begin reviewing the game, I wanted to talk about the classic era of SEGA arcade games that became a big thing for gaming in the 80s and 90s.

We adored the creator like Yu Suzuki, who is a mastermind behind his successful titles for SEGA arcade system boards such as After Burner, Outrun, Hang-On, Space Harrier, Virtua Racing, and of course Virtua Fighter was credited for popularising 3D graphics in video games, as well as the critical acclaimed series such as Shenmue was credited for pioneering systems features including quick-time event sequences and large open-world environments.

I grew up playing these incredible games that defines my gaming childhood starting from sprite-scaling shooter to fast-paced racing then 3D fighting arena to open-world interactive adventure is what I loved about his classic masterpiece, so never forget my good old days at theme parks about putting a one pound per play on the arcade machines or having to own the game from the local shop to play these on home consoles. 

As the years going forward when I'm starting to focus on newer platforms nowadays, I got interested in playing several of indie games that became a thing in mid-2000s and so forth especially most of the old-school inspired genres like beat-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, side-scrolling action, platforming, and etc. 

I've began to explore these kinds of indie games off from the gaming news website and gaming content creator that covers the upcoming titles with the trailers and screenshots had attracted to those who are interested in playing old-school style titles which is why I've discovered the game called Air Twister, an arcade rail-shooter that just plays like the SEGA's 80s arcade classic that we know back in the childhood days, so despite being a spiritual successor to SEGA's Space Harrier which really got me to try out this game on my PS5 to see if this rail-shooter successor does captures a pure magic of Yu Suzuki's arcade-shooter hit or does it became a fully missed opportunity? 

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game takes place in a fantasy world of floating islands which begins with the opening cutscenes of the vanguard's invasion forces where they attacking the entire homeland overwhelms the swan-riding defense force which prompting Princess Arch to take flight on a giant swan and sets her journey to fight against the invading forces and save the entire world.

To be honest, the story cutscenes is rather short which lasts just a less than the minute and also quite dull which really lacks the narrative of the plot to know what's going on in the game, so I understand the invasion had taken place but I wish they could have put more effort on the narrative side which they should have add the dialogue with it, so that we could understand the whole story.

I do like the design of the Princess Arch which kinda look like Sarah Bryant wearing Samus Aran's zero suit which I thought it look really suits her for fantasy sci-fi arcade game especially you see it on the front cover of the game cases is what I liked about this character.             

I wanted to talk about the presentation settings which I really liked the style of pre-historic and futuristic environments in each stages starting from a calm-greenery paradise in garden to big water of ocean in aquarium then large pile of sand in desert to hot-air balloons in floating city which kinda gives me a vibes of SEGA's Rail-Shooter classics like Panzer Dragoon which was best known for its atmospheric stage design that made the game quite recognisable back in the old days, so I think Air Twister has the good amount of scenery and setups which YS Net really nails the stage presentation just feels like the old-school Dreamcast game that we never got it back then. 

Overall, it has dull story cutscenes, but has fine character and good presentation settings.

Gameplay

In single-player regular mode, you take control of Princess Arch in 3rd-person perspective behind her navigating a continuous series of 12 stages while having ability to fly and shoot with her laser cannon, set in a surreal world composed of landscapes filled with floating objects, as your main goal is simply to destroy all enemies and bosses while remaining in constant motion in order to evade projectiles and obstacles.

You have health bar at the left-side top of the screen indicating player's health points, the scoring system on the middle-top of the screen which displays how many scores you gained during the gameplay, the star collectables displayed next to scoring system which shows how many stars you have collected which I will explain it for later on the review.

For the gameplay controls, you use the laser cannon with the cross or right trigger button to fire projectiles at the enemies and bosses to damage them, and you move Arch around with the left-stick control which not only you use it to move her around on-screen but also it auto-locks the enemies or bosses which displays the targeting symbols on their patterns allowing Arch to fire multiple of her blast projectiles by simply pressing the cross or right trigger button when targeting them in multiple spots resulting a higher damage, so these are the basic controls scheme which are straight-forward to play.

While flying throughout the stages, there are various of the enemies will fire out their flashy projectiles directly at you which damages your health, so you will need to dodge these things without taking damage.

I say the health system in the game feels really different because instead of taking a one-hit damage and had limited life remaining like from the Space Harrier it's more dependent on how many health point on the bar you had left, so if you had run out of your health point on the bar then the game is over, but you still have 2 continues left to carry on playing the game.    

What's really important about playing the rail-shooter game is not only you had to complete the whole game by defeating various of bosses, but also focuses on scoring system which most of the arcade games were known for back then, so defeating multiples of enemies and bosses adds up your scoring points which resulting a higher ranking grades depending on how well your overall performance in each stages.

You are also rewarded with the collectable stars by defeating numerous of enemies and bosses during the playthroughs or you can claim the rewards by completing the various of event tasks which had a list of challenges with objectives on the main menu screen are also comes in handy too.

These collectable stars are used for adventure map which displays various of unlockables, so you will have upgradables such as increased health capacity, increased powerups such as slow-mo time and lock-on system as well as enhancing abilities such as attack power, faster movement speed, or temporary invincibility, and then you have various of weapons to select such as cannon and missile, so these of the upgrades improves upon your player's abilities making the game easier to defeat tough bosses in later stages.

So far, I did however being managed to enjoy the entire game which shares a 12 decent stages filled with so many enemies and obstacles to go through until you've reached the boss battle gets really impactful with the multiples of their attacking patterns you had to evade it while fighting back at them with your laser cannon is what I liked about the game.

I like how these enemies are lined-up together on-screen while firing many of their projectiles directly straight at your face prompting you to dodge these in circles, and you will spent time blasting many enemies on-screen to gain enough scoring points for higher ranking grades is what makes the SEGA's rail-shooter arcade classic so amazing in the mid-80s, so the Air Twister does have the same charm as it really deserves.

The boss battles in this game is actually fun to encounter such as flame serpent which is a eagle-like dragon throwing long-range of fireballs at you, bone dragons is a three of the undeaded creature also has long-range projectiles, mecha mosquito is a robotic-like creature with two large of lethal arms, clock congregation is a group of clock and candles throwing bunch of clocks around, monster manta ray is a floating sea creature firing with multiples of projectiles, concrete crab rangoon is basically giant enemy crab releasing projectiles of round-fiery ball, succulent squid is a large tentacle monster blasting a dark-laser projectiles, dimensional rift knight is a enormous knight with big arms has ability to use shield protection, mecha gorilla is a robot-like ape firing hordes of missiles and blasts laser around it, and of course the polygon of DOOM is a diamond-shaped machine blasts a wave of powerful projectiles. 

These bosses are just as challenging which you will spent time mashing button to blast them in pieces till they been defeated is what makes the rail-shooter arcade like this so great to play, but for those who

are not a fan of the button mashing which unfortunately there are no rapid-fire options I'm afraid to say because unlike some of Space Harrier's home console ports did share with the rapid-fire options which is really cool features for SEGA's classic arcade game, this game can get tedious for some players who rather much go for a rapid-fire options unless some of you won't mind with the button mash.

Having the adventure maps are not only you can upgrade your player's abilities, but also you can unlock various of cool mini-games and other game modes to play like the arcade mode is a high difficulty game with no items and single life making it tougher to play which adds up a true arcade experience, turbo mode focuses on faster and more challenging version of the main game, fluffy mode is a 2D side-scrolling mini-game where players must dodge enemies without shooting, tap breaker is a mini-game where players tap numbered boxes in sequence against the clock, stardust mode is a timed wave-based mode where players must defeat enemies within the time limit, and lastly the boss rush is where players must face all bosses aiming for high-scores.

These game modes and mini-games is a great addition to this content just adds-up the overall fun factor of the game, and having to participate the event challenges and playing single-player mode to collect all stars to unlock stuff in adventure maps just adds-up replayability makes the game even worth replaying it again.   

Overall, it has decent stages, fun boss battles, and various of game modes and mini-games.

Graphics

The graphics in this game is rather not bad visually despite originally developed for Apple's iOS and MacOS are being ported to PCs and Consoles, the environments in stages are simplistic in some settings like the floating objects of mushrooms and balloons, man-made structures, glossy looking ocean, multiples of roses and gardening areas, and landscape details are quite acceptable in some stages.

The usage of colors and lighting effects are quite bold with the sharp beams and neon lights which is fine, but the main criticism is that the enemy's projectiles goes everywhere on the screen can get really flashy during the playthroughs because having the bright looking enemy's projectiles like plasma and beams could be really difficult to spot where they shooting towards at you, so I wish they could have an options to reduce the high level of projectiles to make it easier to see the enemy's shooting patterns.

The model of the character, enemies, and bosses in the game is looking decent with solid animation and fluid design are just fine as it is.

I say the game's performance ran butter smooth for PC and Consoles with full resolution and plays on 60fps which you will have no problem playing the game on which PC and consoles you have, as long as you can enjoy the whole game without encountering any of frame-stuttering and dips meaning this game plays it well throughout the single playthrough.

Overall, it has acceptable environment design, fine colors and lighting effects, and smooth performance.

Music and Sounds

I say the soundtrack in the game is quite an interesting choice for arcade game like this because it was composed by Valensia, an Dutch rock artist being influenced by the likes of british rock band like Queen, had agreed with YS Net to create his music for the game.

It features 19 tracks in which some tracks are completely new, where as other tracks are new renditions of known compositions including his hit song "Gaia" from his self-titled first album. 

I say the music is just so much sounds like Queen in the terms of rock opera style, so there are some of the songs that are pretty cool to listen such as "Gaia 2022", "Maia", "Phantom of the Opera 2022", "Aglaea 2022", "Michelle Mambo 2022", and "Princess Mystique".

The sound effects in the game are solid with projectiles clinging noises, roaring effects from the enemies and bosses, and environmental explosions.

Overall, it has great soundtrack and solid sound effects.

Special Features

Of course the game has tons of unlockables content from the adventure maps like several of game modes, mini-games, outfits, and weapons, then you had the event challenges to complete the tasks may reward you with collectable stars.

Overall, a good content.

Advantages

Decent gameplay

Fun game modes and mini-games 

Acceptable visuals

Great soundtrack

Has plenty of unlockables

Disadvantages

Dull story cutscenes

Lack of rapid-fire options

Flashy enemy's projectiles

Final Verdict

Presentation 6.5/10 - dull story cutscenes, but has fine character and good presentation settings.

Gameplay 7.5/10 - decent stages, fun boss battles, and various of game modes and mini-games.

Graphics 7/10 - acceptable environment design, fine colors and lighting effects, and smooth performance.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - great soundtrack and solid sound effects.

Special Features 8/10 - has unlockable content and event challenges.

Overall 7/10 - Air Twister is a fine rail-shooter arcade that does the job right, so with fast-paced stages, frantic bosses, and many game modes and mini-games to play with is what makes this game a highlight of the arcade experience created by a same person who bought you his wonderful SEGA's arcade classics from the 80s and 90s we know and love.

I am happy to say that I get to play a good arcade title that SEGA could have given us a new Space Harrier game for modern platforms, so it's really good to see YS Net had created the spiritual successor plays really close to classic rail-shooter from the past which is why Air Twister is a decent alternatives for the arcade gaming fans will likely gonna enjoy this fast-paced game with fun single-player arcade action and has tons of replay values thanks to event challenges and unlockable content that keeps you busy with the game for hours of fun.    

You can get it physically on PS5 and Switch for less than £20 off from online retail store, where as the digital releases for PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam which you can get it digitally for £20, so I say it is a recommendation for those who grew up with the arcade classics will likely to purchase this title, so please check it out.

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Stellar Blade PS5 Review

 

Stellar Blade is a Action-Adventure game was released for PS5 in 2024, and it was also later released for PC in 2025 this month. It was developed by Shift Up and published by SONY Interactive Entertainment.

The genre of Action-Adventure or Action-RPGs in general are quite an fun experience for video games, so it's all to do with the big open-world environments where you get to do stuffs like exploring around the towns, talking to NPCs for hints and tips, collecting hidden items, gathering more golds, opening treasures, visiting the new locations, upgrading weapons and armours, levelling up your skills and attributes, and of course your major goal is to defeat the evil and save the world is what makes the genre quite interesting to play, but not only just the whole gameplay design but you do really need a rich storytelling, likable characters, and strong presentation throughout the quests are also the major key part of the genre to enjoy the game.

I previously had a great time with the games that I've been spending time of playing it for 6 to 9 hours a day, so stuff like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, Terranigma, Ys I and II, Demon's Souls (2020 remake), Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and of course Nier: Automata.

While I'm still keeping busy with the video games to play, there's one of the game that caught my attention when I remember back then in around 2021 watching the SONY's Playstation Showcase where I've discovered the teaser trailer of a South Korean action-adventure titled as Project EVE which I was impressed to see the stylish fight sequence, large open-world environments, rich-detailed presentation, and of course combat gameplay design which really reminds me of similar game like Square Enix's Nier: Automata in terms of style and settings.

It was then been renamed it as Stellar Blade as the main title of the game and finally got released in 2024 for PS5 release with mostly positive reception for its visuals, sounds, and combat. It had sold over 1 million copy for PS5 release in 2024, and as in 2025 launch day for PC release it had ranked 1st on Steam's global top sellers list reached over 183k players on Steam within a day, which made the game the highest played ever for a Action-Adventure game published by SONY being loved by the gaming fans communities.

I've bought a copy of the game for my PS5 console to see if this game is actually fun to play, so I've spent playing it for a whole week on single playthrough and did managed to beat the game entirely.

What are my thought on this game? it's a stellar PS5's Action-Adventure title that I'm incredibly amazed to see how gorgeous this game plays which is why I am here to review this game with pros and cons to discuss through.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been forced to escape the earth after their defeat in a war against the monstrous creatures known as the Naytibas.

It's all started with the gorgeous android lady named EVE and her squad are deployed from the colony in attempt to liberate earth from the Naytibas.

Unfortunately the invasion ends in disaster with EVE being the sole survivor of the landing force, and then her close friend Tachy sacrifices herself to save EVE from an unidentified creature named Alpha Naytiba.

She then being rescued by a scavenger named Adam offered her help throughout the quest, and then she also encounters a survivor named Lily who are also joining her as engineering support. 

As they settled in the city of Xion, they begin forming relationships with the residents, and of course made an established contact with the elder named Orcal who insisting them in search for hyper cell power source are needed to restore Xion to it's full functionally are the only way of keeping the humans alive, so they agreed to go on their quest in the mission is to save the humanity and reclaim the Earth back to normal, as well as on their goal is to defeat the Naytibas empire once for all.  

The story in the game is very good because it's explains the war conflicts that took place in planet Earth are being invaded by the group of evil empire creatures that wipes out many human beings as possible causing a lot of people to flee their home I repeat running for their life from the terrifying war invasion attack which the earth are no longer safe to stay at dangerous warzone.

It's just like any of video games with similar story setting, but it's more than that because it's all really to do with EVE and her two companion had survived from the invasion and both made an agreement to join themselves for their journey to find the ways of saving the world is what I liked about the game's plot. 

I say EVE is a stunning female protagonist that are eye-catchingly attractive with her long-ponytail hair, glossy-green outfit, has smooth face with eye-lashes and lipstick, and of course her body-physics and design is what I find her quite appealing.

She described as a strong-wiled and compassionate person that deeply cares about her friends and allies, as well as making interaction with people in Xion's residents who are in desperate needs referring to her as Angel.

She also shares with her interest in learning about human culture and loves collecting stuffs like books, maps, and cans added to her collection is what makes her character's personality quite interesting in the game.                       

Then you have some supportive characters like Adam which I described him as helpful guy who has a desire to bring humanity together and help everyone in the earth, and lastly you have Lily Artemis II who is a loyal skilled technician committing to help EVE with her quest such as providing the upgrade equipment and solve puzzles.

     

While the game shares with great characters, I got to say those Naytibas creatures are looking f***ing insane in terms of designs that looks just like any of creatures just straight out from H.P Lovecraft stuff like you had minions such as thornheads, creepers, mites, and tentacles are small but hideous ones, where as the warriors like beholders, barnacles, butchers, hydras, and lurkers are just as ugly as f**k with creepy faces and noises, and the elite ones such as brutes, abaddons, corrupters, stalkers, juggernauts, behemoths, and belial are suddenly big and scary ones is what I've liked about these enemies and bosses that are looking terrifying indeed.

The presentation in this game is excellent because I really liked the style of settings that are kinda has a Nier: Automata vibes to it in each locations, so stuff like you had Eidos 7 which is an abandoned city filled with empty spaces street, underground parking lot, library, memorial tower, and plaza.

Xion City is a quiet home place for residents has various of junk shop, food store, bar, hair salon, phone booth, and etc.

Wasteland is a large open environment filled with big landscapes, junkyard, great canyon, ruined buildings, and great valley campsite.

Matrix 11 is a underground facility filled with railway bridge, dark tunnels, rotten labyrinth, and sewers.                         

Great Desert is another large open area filled with broken site of roads and buildings, quicksand area, opera house, statues, towers, palmtrees, and fishing area with big puddles and fishes.

Eidos 9 is another site of area filled with collapsed bridge, rooftop buildings, parking lot entrance, and of course secret garden.

Spire 4 is a space complex zone filled with enormous space center, maintenace sector, cargo lift, lounge, and garden.

Levoires is another underground facility but darker filled with control room, laboratory, laser room, and pods room.

Each of these locations with post-apocalypse style of environments is what I've liked about the game's settings just adds up the overall atmospheres of this open-world exploration...looks so much appealing for action-adventure game like this.     

Overall, it has very good story, great cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of EVE in 3rd-person perspective of open-world environment, as your main goal is to save the humanity and reclaim the Earth by completing various of main objectives that was displayed on pause menu.

Pushing the left stick control to move EVE around and rotating the camera system with the right stick control.

Press the cross button used for jumping on the platform, as well as climbing on walls and running on red-flat surfaces.

Push the left thumbstick button to sprint allowing EVE to run faster makes easier to traverse through the area.

Press and hold the right trigger button is to interact things like activate the button or picking up objects nearby, but you can also set auto-pickup on the pause menu if you don't want to keep pressing the right trigger button to pick up stuffs.

You can access to item inventory by holding the d-pad up button then select any of items by pushing the right stick control around, so after selecting the items you can use them by pressing the d-pad up button which are used for healing your health bar as an example.  

In combat gameplay you'll be engaging with the enemies in battle nearby, so pressing and tapping the square button uses as light melee attack which are quicker but deals weak damage attack on enemies, where as the triangle button uses as heavy melee attack which are slow but deals strong damage attack on enemies.

You can also lock-on enemies by pressing the right thumbstick button to focus target on enemies making it easier to stay on target at enemies nearby, but you can switch target on other nearby enemies by pushing the right stick control.

Press the circle button which acts as the dodge button, so there are ways of avoiding the enemy's melee or projectile attacks where you will see the highlighting colors appeared on enemies which tells you where to dodge on the right spot such as pushing the left-stick forward then press the circle button when the blue-ring appears on enemy, where as you have to push the left-stick backward then press the circle button when purple-ring appears on enemy, so this allows you to evade the enemy's incoming heavy attacks. 

The dodging system is also fills up your burst skill meter which I will explain it for later on the review.  Then you will have a left shoulder button which allows you to use not only just blocking the enemy's melee attack but also uses as the parrying system which is a phrase where you can perfectly make the timing right by pushing the enemy's melee attack away from you, so you will press the left shoulder button at the same time as the enemy's melee attack came close to you causing to parry them away from you.

The parrying system is also fills up your beta skill meter which then again I said I will explain it for later on the review.

You will also obtain a ranged weapons for later playthroughs which are used for firing a various of weapons such as machine gun which are used for mid-range shot distance deals light damage shot, shotgun shell is for close-range firing shot deals heavy damage shot, rockets fires multiples of missiles with lock-on system deals lethal damage shot, and finally charging laser beam fires a big beam of laser deals much damage shot.

In order to shoot the enemies with your ranged weapons, press and hold the left trigger button to aim then press the right trigger button to fire the shot on enemies, and also you can cycle your weapons by holding both the left trigger and d-pad down button together then it will display the weapon selection on the screen, and you just select these by pushing the right stick control around.

You will also obtain a two skills for later playthrough such as beta and burst, which I will explain how these two skills are used for in combat system.

Beta skills are special active abilities that consume beta energy when performed that is built up through successful attacks and perfect guards, so you can use beta skills by holding the left shoulder button while pressing any of 4-faced action buttons.

Burst skills are powerful energy-based attacks that are triggered by using burst energy which is charged by successfully dodging, blinking, and repulsing enemy attacks, so you can use burst skills by holding the right shoulder button while pressing any of 4-faced action buttons.

These are the two skills which allowing you to perform various of special powerful attack moves dealing a massive amount of damages on enemies, so stuff like you have slash launches an energy blade forward, shockwave unleashes two waves of fatal energy, shield breaker delivers a sudden strike stuns enemies and deals high damage to their shield, triplet continuously generates arcs to attack forward with the third hit stuns enemies, descending break jumps high and then releases burst energy to crush the enemy, tempest unleashes a devastating storm of blades with the power of burst energy, overdrive loaded the body with burst energy to increase melee attack and speed, and finally punishing edge releases burst energy to deal a fatal blow to nearby enemies. 

The best part of the combat is the tachy mode which is a ultimate form can be activated by pressing the both thumbstick button when the tachy energy bar are fully filled, so this will offer you a increased damage output and can be used for both offense and defense attacks.

What makes the combat quite interesting to play is the skill trees that can assign to EVE for use during combat or exploring, so there are 5 different skill trees such as attack, beta, burst, survival and tachy mode which can be unlocked with the special points, so you will able to obtain these special points by defeating more enemies, collecting data items, and completing various of quests. 

Each of them revolves around different abilities and you will be able to select what suits your playstyle better when selecting skills and upgrades, so this will improve upon your fighting abilities such as chain system, counter system, damage boost, range boost, quick boost, energy recharge, double jump, double dodge, perfect parry, precise landing, threat detection, and various of skills and upgrades that makes you feel more powerful and stronger to fight against the tough enemies and bosses in later quests.

If this is not enough then you will have two useful enhancements such as exospine and gear, which gives you an option to choose the suitable enhancements like increased beta or burst attacks, increased health points, increased attacking speeds, and others that might benefit your combat system.  

The others such as weapon where you can upgrade your blade to its maximised attack power, drone where it extends your types of ammunition like slugs, rounds, and missiles which benefiting your range weapon.           

Lastly your body cores that also needs an upgrades which extends upon your health bar status, and finally the beta cores that increase your beta energy capacity making you use beta skills more.  

So far, the combat system in the game just works well for most of the time is because the collision detection just feels smoothly for its responsiveness of parrying system and dodging mechanics which I finding it a lot easier to evade the enemy's incoming attacks, and I got to praise the chain attacking system of combos and counters is easier to pull off the amazing moves which I consider it as stylish and acrobatic to play throughout the battles.

I also wanted to praise the use of beta and burst skills which are also a helpful tool for combat battle which does many good things to pull off these special powerful attack moves dealing a massive amount of damages on enemies, and I got to say the parrying and dodging are also really helps with my beta and burst fill meter if perfectly doing it in a right timing.

The range weapons are fine for some parts depending on which weapons are mostly effective on enemies, so it worked better against the types of minions and warriors does take a high damage, where as the elites are tougher ones to kill them with the range weapons but there are ways of shooting them in the right spot during the battle.

The use of skill trees, enhancements, and upgrades on the menu screen is quite a straight-forward to navigate stuff without any of complications because it's simple and easy to use which helps you to pick and choose to equip any of gears and exospine that benefiting your enhancements, where as the skill trees gives you a choice to unlock various of abilities and moves to suit your combat playability making you feel more powerful to fight, the weaker your enemies and bosses becoming vulnerable to fight against you during the battle. 

While the combat gameplay is solid throughout the playthroughs, the exploration in each locations are fantastically amazing throughout the open-world environment because I like spending time of doing a lot of discovering and collecting stuffs, as well as participating the side-quests with NPCs or requests boards gives you a task to complete the side objectives which will reward you with the items like your special points, gaining more currencies, and obtaining useful items which is why I like doing something outside of the main story objectives on the whole campaign adventures.             

I say eidos 7, wasteland, and great desert are by far my favourite locations to explore is because not only the open-world environments are quite big to wonder around, but I just love going up the high buildings, climbing on the walls, swimming on the underwater, opening a secret crates with codes, finding a camping site, and fighting with the random creatures that kept me busy with the game.

I got to say the whole story campaign quest had a tons of great segments that made the game quite entertaining to play, so stuff like the prologue mission started off with insane openings of many crash landing and falling objects everywhere in battle zone, sliding through the tunnels with so many hazardous obstacles all over the places, there are a room full of lasers everywhere in space center and abyss leovire, there are a sawblades trap in the ventilation room, figure out the correct order to step on the symbols, the capsule cluster room had a floating bridges of platforms to jump on, the laboratory ruins are full of platforms to run and jump without falling off, fighting the enemies off before the lasers scales down, finding way through on collapsed rail bridge with the train hanging upside down falls apart in matrix 11, defeating multiples of cocoons in sector area of eidos 9, evading the falling heavy-duty crates from above in spire 4, and has tons of action-packed boss battles that are incredibly awesome to play thanks to strategic combat fight between the player and boss making the contact with lot of attacking, dodging, and parrying patterns to do is all about the challenge where you had to carefully defeat these bosses without taking multiple of damage from them is what makes the boss battle a fun to play, so I can guarantee with that you'll be satisfied with the game that offers with great single-player quests and epic boss battles becoming a highlight of the whole action-adventure title.  

Overall, it has solid combat system, amazing open-world exploration, great story campaign quests, and satisfying boss battles.

Graphics

Despite running on Unreal Engine 4, the game itself is looking damn gorgeous especially on PS5 console which I did not expect the title like this delivers a significant details of game's environment just to make it look beautiful to see on 4KTV or monitors.

I actually liked the crispy environment of open-world design that are massively big especially in places like matrix 11 and spire 4 shares with large depths of areas from top to bottom, as well as wasteland and great desert are full of details with many foreground objects and landscape settings you see is just looks incredible to see adding the overall atmospheres.

I liked the texture details on the buildings, surfaces, and objects just looks sharp and clean with many signposts, posters, windows, doors, lamp posts, stairs, statues, rooftops, roads, and etc. which they did a wonderful job of keeping up with the details.

The use of lighting and shadow effects are also good in some of places like leovire and some underground area that are sometime can be dark and some others may have light just adds up a good mix of tone that fits the game's settings.  

I also liked the use of special effects in some areas like the opening mission in prologue are full of explosion and debris flying everywhere, where as in the eidos 7 uses the rain effects nicely, and the water on the fishing area has a reflection effect in great desert.

I say the character's animation is outstanding for its facial details and capturing movement just looks stunning in the game, and what's even more stunning is the EVE's body-physics just makes her character's design look more appealing and recognisable even with multiples of her costumes. 

The game's performances on base PS5 console did able to ran on both 1440p and 4k output depending on these 3 graphical options that might suit your visual preferences, so stuff like you have performance mode ran on 1440p display with 60fps maintaining the better frame-rate performance but little less detail on visual image, where as the balanced mode is on 4k output with 50 to 60fps really maintains the solid visuals image and decent frame-rate performance without any signs of frame-dips and image shimmering thanks to VRR display just makes the whole image of the game look amazing on both 4KTV or monitor, and lastly the resolution mode ran on full 4k natively with 30fps did make the image quality look better but it really dips down the overall performance during the game which really affects the whole gameplay, so I highly recommended to play it on balanced mode which is a perfect way of playing the game with good level of visual quality and performances throughout the playthrough, where as the performance mode are actually better for smooth gameplay that people mostly prefers it to play it on this mode which I can understand that, but for those who really wanted to have both very good visuals and performance then go for a balanced mode is an definite recommended to play it on base PS5 console. 

For those who owns the PS5 Pro console, you get to have a two new exclusive graphical options that the base PS5 console had lacked which is the Pro mode and Pro Max mode are fully designed and optimised for PS5 Pro console, so the Pro mode is a enhanced balanced mode which utilizes PS5 Pro's PSSR for superior quality, where as the Pro Max mode is a enhanced resolution mode provides a higher frame-rate performance resulting a superior quality for both visuals and performances to make the game incredibly polished to play.

I also discovered the Steam users who had the PC version were really impressed with the game being optimised well on their gaming PCs with AI upscaling and frame generation using NVIDIA DLSS4 or AMD FSR 3, unlocked framerates, higher texture resolution, and ultrawide display support from 4:5 to 32:9 screen ratios providing the best overall performance for PC hardware. 

That being said, no matter what the versions you're playing on because both of PS5 and PCs are still very good indeed to play which has achieved the biggest technical marvel of 9th-gen gaming so far.     

Overall, it has beautiful open-world environment design, rich-detailed textures and special effects, and outstanding character's design.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in this game is incredibly brilliant to listen because I really liked the south korean style of mix instrumentation and vocals shares with numerous of great tracks such as "flooded commercial sector", "eidos 7 silent street (combat)", "eidos 7 clock tower", "Tachy boss fight" and "eidos 9 (combat)" which is a electronic synth that are upbeatingly catchy songs, where as others are mix of rock and metal music like "Stalker" and "Belial" are also quite epic to listen making it a perfect fit for combat action.

I also liked the chillout acoustic songs such as "xion 2", and "wasteland 2", where as the easy calm songs like "shelter", "xion 1", "the song of the traveller", and "the song of destiny" which really fits the mood of some area like where you can able to sit and relax in camping site or have a great wonder around in the city or land. 

It was composed by Oliver Good, Keita Inoue, and Shift Up's in-house music team did such a stellar job of creating the best video game soundtrack that made the game quite memorable.

I also wanted to praise the sound design in the game for its environmental noises and ambiences throughout the open-world areas just adds up the atmospheres, and I got to like the sound effects of combat system with lot of clings and slashes just to make it sounds gritty, and of course the voice acting in the game is pretty decent especially with the English dub on their character's role is quite acceptable for action-adventure games like this shares with good dialogues throughout the story cutscenes. 

Overall, it has brilliant original music, very good sound designs, and decent voice overs.

Special Features

The game has various of costumes, ear-rings, and hairstyles to unlock, as well as some collectables like data, documents, books, and of course cans.

You can also enjoy going on fishing as a mini-games in great desert, and if its not enough then you will have boss challenge on the main menu where your goal is to survive and defeat many bosses as possible with great scores.    

It also has 3 endings to choose in campaign, has unlockable modes such as hard mode which is a challenging difficulty for story campaign, and new game plus which lets you start the game at the beginning while retaining your stuffs you have obtained from the first playthroughs really adds up the replayability.

It does have collaboration DLCs stuffs based on other titles such as Square Enix's Nier: Automata which includes 2B's outfits, accessories, hairstyles, and cosmetics from Emil's shop. 

It is also confirmed that Shift Up's Goddess of Victory: Nikke will be available on this month which includes Rapi's outfit, new boss battles, and new area.    

Overall, an stunning overall content.

Advantages

Excellent presentation settings. 

Very good story and great characters.

Solid combat system. 

Amazing open-world exploration.

Great story campaign quests and satisfying boss battles.

Beautiful visual design and brilliant soundtracks.

Disadvantages

Resolution mode on base PS5 console dips down performance. (Just stick it to balance or performance mode instead are way better to play).

Final Verdict

Presentation 9/10 - very good story, great cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.

Gameplay 9/10 - solid combat system, amazing open-world exploration, great story campaign quests, and satisfying boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - beautiful open-world environment design, rich-detailed textures and special effects, and outstanding character's design.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - brilliant original music, very good sound designs, and decent voice overs.

Special Features 9/10 - has unlockable contents including game modes, new game plus, collectables, cosmetics, costumes, mini-game, and DLCs.

Overall 9/10 - Stellar Blade is an absolutely stellar action-adventure title which I considered this as one of the most beautiful games of 9th-gen platform especially on PS5 console which I am amazed with the visual quality and overall presentation design just looks really outstanding in every details showcasing the system's hardware power.

The story and characters in the game is done pretty good in single-player campaign that you might going to enjoy watching the entire cutscenes of their adventurous mission quest.  

The open-world exploration is largely fun to discover around with multiples of side-quests and collectables to do, and the story campaign quests are full-on with action-packed segments and epic boss battles does adds up a fun factor of the whole single-player experience.

The best of all is the gameplay just plays it really well with the combat system, upgrades, and enhancements is what I call it a solid fun to play, and of course it definitely has various of the best soundtracks in the entire game is what makes Stellar Blade a must play for the fans of the genre.   

The physical copy of the game is cost around I say £40 on online retail store (via Ebay), where as the digital release on both PS Store and Steam cost about between £60 and £70 on standard edition and £80 on digital deluxe or complete edition.

I say it's a definite recommendation for those who previously enjoys games like Nier: Automata or other action-adventure titles in terms of style and settings, then this game is definitely for you to go check it out.  

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Astro Bot PS5 Review

 

Astro Bot is a 3D platforming game was released in 2024 exclusively for PS5. It was developed by Team Asobi and Published by SONY Interactive Entertainment, and it is also a full-length sequel to 2020's free tech-demo title such as Astro's Playroom for PS5.

I always been a fan of the platforming games as an genre in video games, so back in the days of early-90s we all know the competition between the games company had faired shares with their own video games mascot for platforming series such as Nintendo had Mario and SEGA had Sonic that not only it kept the gaming industry going forward but makes the console wars quite exciting that attracts the consumer's attention to buy the video game system, up until when SONY had entered the console wars competition with their first system called Playstation 1. 

At the time when PS1 had been introduced in mid-90s, SONY had an interest to create the video games mascot that will attract the players to buy the PS1 system which is why we had Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon made a forthcoming debut on the SONY's platform becoming the PS1's benchmark characters that everyone know and love.

Going forward to year 2000s when PS2 came around in time, they also bought a characters for the new original IPs such as Ratchet and Clank, Jax and Daxter, and Sly Cooper which are also quite an likable characters being loved by the fans of the Playstation's hardware system.

Then in the late 2000s, we had cuddly little plushie like Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet for the PS3 which not only we liked the game but it's the character which I felt he's an adorable little thing that made the series quite memorable back then.

SONY had shared with their interesting things to create the characters for their own platforming franchises, but there's one of the character that had caught everyone attention when made the debut in the year 2013 where they had released the PS4 system at the launch release being pre-installed with the game called The Playroom, a collection of augmented reality mini-games meant to demonstrate the use of PS Camera and DS4 controller, so it featured a cute little robots known as AR Bots where you had to interact them using the camera's motion capabilities, and then 3 years later they had own VR title called The Playroom VR, a series of 6 asymmetrical minigames to demonstrate the features of PSVR headset running on PS4 had one interesting game called Robots Rescue which would in fact be made into a 2018's fully-fledged game in itself titled as Astro Bot Rescue Mission, a series very first 3D platforming game for PS4 which requires PSVR headset to play and it is also featuring a AR Bot now finally being given the name as Astro Bot goes on a quest to rescue his lost crew scattered across different worlds.

The game had received critical acclaim at the launch release in 2018 with praise for the innovative gameplay and level design.

It was followed by the 2020's pre-installed tech-demo title Astro's Playroom for PS5 to demonstrate the DualSense controller making it a first game in the series not to feature the VR headset like the previous title and it is also receive generally positive at the release calling it a great launch title for PS5 debut, which led them into creating a 2024's full-length sequel titled as Astro Bot had gained universally acclaimed by the critics and fans calling it the PS5's best 3D platforming games and had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide as of 2024 making it one of the PS5's best-selling title on the list.                    

It is also positively compared to Nintendo's Super Mario series particularly most of 3D Mario games in terms of gameplay design and visual art-direction, and it also become the most awarded platformer game of all time including best family game, best Playstation game, best platformer, and of course game of the year 2024. 

First of all, I never had a VR headset for PS4 which is why I never had a chance to play Astro Bot Rescue Mission, so that was quite a bummer because I heard many positive things by those who owns their VR headset had their great experience of playing the game, but thankfully I get a chance of playing a non-VR game when I had a PS5 console last year which is why I had played Astro's Playroom, so what do I think about the game? it's quite short but plays really great throughout the campaign with cool motion controls systems and segments in many levels which I've adored the creativity of gameplay design just worked really well for tech-demo title, which is why I've decided to pick-up a full-length copy of Astro Bot as a 2024's sequel title for PS5 just to see if this game are actually done it better, so the answer is hell yeah, I f***ing loved the game it's genuinely being the best f***ing thing that defines the PS5's libraries, which is why I am here to review this game for all pros and little cons to discuss.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game starts out with Astro Bot and his crew enjoying their time flying around with the PS5 console...yeah as their spaceship which is cool, but moving on.

As they exploring around in space, the UFOs creature just showed up known as Space Bully Nebulax, a mean ugly green alien began to chase and attack them, then rips open PS5 console and held CPU Kid in captive causing the PS5 console crash land into a desert planet.

Astro Bot then wakes up from unconscious and began to go on his adventure in the search of his missing crew, retrieve the missing parts for the PS5 console, rescuing CPU Kid, and defeat the alien Space Bully Nebulax as his primary goal. 

The opening story in this game is incredibly fantastic and easy to follow, so you're an Astro Bot going on the quest to save and reuniting your friends to find their way of getting back to their home planet, as well as rebuilding the PS5 console back to life by finding the missing parts being scattered to the different planets, which I really liked how they made games like this featuring a bunch of adorable bots living inside the game console just seems to be a really cool concept for the platforming game.

I say Astro Bot as a protagonist of the game is looking KAWAII!!!!!!!! yes that's right everyone, he is adorably cute as an his appearance because it's looks like of one of those Japanese Kawaii action-figure toy (such as Eilik robot by Energize Lab as an example) in terms of overall design and cuteness personality which is why I find this character quite appealing in the game. 

Then you have bunch of bots buddy as an NPCs including most of V.I.P bots which are based on various of video games characters from the series that we all know and love such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank), Jax (Jax and Daxter), Ryu and Ken (Street Fighter), Dante (Devil May Cry), Jill & Chris & Leon & Claire (Resident Evil), Joel and Ellie (The Last of Us), Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Kratos (God of War), Aloy (Horizon), Joker (Persona 5), Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza), Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid), Dracula (Castlevania), and you name it because there's so many V.I.P bots to discover in the game.

Lastly, you had a mean ugly-ass green alien named Space Bully Nebulax which his character's design kinda gives me a vibe of Nickelodeon's cartoon characters aesthetics which I liked the way they designed it to make it look wacky and goofy as f**k.

It made me laugh to see this green alien bully picking on that poor CPU Kid in some scenes...yeah poor little fella getting teased by the villainous green alien, but it works mostly well to have a mean bad guy like Nebulax in this game. 

The presentation in this game is amazing because I got to praise the title screen sequence which display Astro Bot and his buddy flying on the DualSense Controller at the same time as you move the controller in motion from left to right side of the screen and thrusting the ship with the haptic trigger buttons to go faster...yeahhhhhh!!!! I'm flying.

I also liked the design of the overworld map which displays the screen of world select where you get to fly around the planet with the DualSense ship and navigating the location of the levels.

The settings of the worlds has different kinds of scenery and style such as crash site which is a desert land like hub world where it had 4 ruins to discover, but what I've liked about the central area of crash site is that it had PS5 console on the construction area, it had various of shops like gatcha lab, DualSense's paint shop, and dress-up costume, the outside of the areas had filled with sands, palm-trees, and puddles, and you get to interact with V.I.P bots buddy does do a funny animated parts. 

Each worlds such as Gorilla Nebula, Tentacle System, Serpent Starway, Camo Cosmos, Feather Cluster, and Lost Galaxy has fair shares with different layouts of each levels such as Sky Garden are filled with flamingos, trees, and pools where as the water slide are blocked by many colourful balls. 

Construction Derby takes place in the city filled with constructible stuffs like cements, paint cans, metallic bricks, and bridge lifting machine. 

Wormy Passage took place inside the dark cavern filled with glowy crystals and ancient looking objects around the area.

Trunk of Funk had a forest like areas with trees and waterfall featuring a singing trunk guy which makes us dance to this song. 

Slo-mo Casino set in the place full of casinos stuff like dominos, pack of cards, slot machines, dices, and tokens. 

Spooky Time set in Halloween style settings filled with ghouls of ghost, tombstones, crooked branches, candles, and haunting old castle.

Balloon Breeze takes place in a world of gardening stuffs like plants, flowers, gardening spade, bug-bots, and that iron giant.       

Hieroglitch Pyamid are filled with old-fashioned stuff such as ancient tomb, antiques objects, and idol statues. 

Bathhouse Battle sets in asian-cultured stuff like hot baths, falling pink leaves, bamboos, roof temples, and bunch of lanterns. 

Djinny of the Lamp sets in middle-eastern stuff like sandstorm, palace with big dome, empty old house, and that large looking magic lamp. 

Overall, it has fantastic openings, adorable protagonists, and amazing presentation.

Gameplay

You take control of Astro Bot in 3rd-person perspective, as your main goal is to retrieve all the missing parts and rescuing all bots, but in order to do that you must beat the entire level which you'll need to search and find the missing bots whereabouts in the area is the only way of unlocking the new paths and the missing parts can be retained by defeating the main bosses in each world.

You will see the list of bots on the overworld map screen to see how many bots have you rescued which became quite handy for later part of the game in the crash site area.

In the gameplay, pushing the left stick controls to move Astro Bot around and pushing the right stick controls is to rotate the camera around, but you can also turn the camera assist on at the option menu which allowing you to reset the camera position by pressing the circle button.

Press the cross button to jump which are used for basic platforming, where as press and hold the cross button is to hover in mid-air allowing Astro Bot to reach at the long platform in 3 seconds, but while in the mid-air your hover has a laser on the feet which can be used as mid-air attack works effectively against the ground enemies.

Press the square button to use Astro Bot's punch acts as an melee attack which deals the light damage against the small enemies, but you can also hold the square button till it charged then release it which allowing Astro Bot to perform spin attack deals heavy damage attack worked effectively on big enemies.

The major focus part of the game is the make use of the DualSense controls capabilities such as gyro-scope motion sensor and haptic triggers which I will explain how it works with this type of game are fully designed to use various of power-up abilities such as rocket powers does a various things like bulldog allowing to thrust players forward and break through objects and surfaces like glass, and you have chicken will launch players upward to reach higher platforms, and the penguin will make players swimming faster underwater.

Then you have Octo-Balloon which makes players float high up into sky and blow up enemies, the iron suit is a set of heavy armor that will weigh players down with power allowing them to roll through spikes or getting pelted with lava, as well as shove themselves into vaccums to clog up enemies or mini volcanoes to blast elsewhere in a stage.

You have elephant equipment which sucks up liquids to produce platforms and hop around which means players can able to perform various of platforming such as being able to bounce up high or deploy grass shrubs below them to do some platforming, so this can be deployed 3 times after every sucking motion.

The fist weapons such as frog gloves which allow the player to punch forward with both triggers on the controller and can also use them to pull on enemies to unmask them, whip them around or even grapple onto certain surfaces marked by red objects, where as the monkey arm are used for climbing certain sections using the motion controls and the triggers.

Using the mouse ability which makes the player shrink down in sizes allowing them to enter small-sized paths like tiny doors as an example but you can also revert back to regular size which also can break certain barriers like cages that fellow bots are trapped in, so this makes the creativity of level design quite interesting to play starting from big to small areas.

The sponge which absorb water making the player big so that they can tear through levels in destructible ways like a Godzilla style, but you can also then spray it on things like flames to extinguish them, water can create pathways once cooled on lava, and also makes the various of small sponges into a big platforms.

Lastly you have the time stopper which allowing the players to stop time meaning that it does a various of things like halting the hazardous objects such as buzzsaw and being able to jump on normal hazards to get where they need to go, but they can only have a few seconds till its ran out of time. 

The rumble feature can work for puzzle solving such as the tiles that hide the hidden passages, so it will start vibrate when touching one of the tile will able to open.                 

The adaptive triggers are designed for certain stuffs like shooting with a pistol or bow in one of segment level, and you also had a built-in microphone which allowing you to blow stuff like colourful fans.

The motion gyro-sensor which I did mentioned about monkey climbing ability earlier, I also wanted to mention other motion gyro-sensor actions like tilting the controller when flying with the DualSense ship at the beginning of the level before landing and there's one of the bonus stage with the bridges can be tilted with the DualSense controller. 

I say the controls system plays really great because not only the basic controls plays smoothly throughout the level which I am completely fine with moving around and jumping on the platforms seems very easy to play, but I got to praise the use of the motion controls and adaptive triggers works really well for many levels such as tilting mechanics, climbing stuff, flashing light at ghosts, flying on DualSense ship, shooting out with pistol and bow, squashing capsule to open, and etc. because it feels immersive to play with the DualSense controller had a good feel on the vibration feedback on the triggers, and the motion gyro-sensor is quite responsive as I'm tilting side to side just feels great for this kind of 3D platforming game like this.   

Each levels has shares with many fun segments that made the game so entertaining to play such as walking with the blue ball on spikes in Rolling Star Sola, finding the hidden passages on the tiles in some levels, transforming from big to small sizes in Downsize Surprise, let's boogie with the singing tree in Trunk of Funk, make destructible stuffs in Bathhouse Battle, save and interact with iron giant in Free Big Brother!, swim and discover underwater in Bubbling Under, jumping on floating platforms of sandstorm in Djinny of the Lamp, changing the day and night cycle switches the platforms in Luna Sola, squirting out the water on lava creates the paths in Cannon Brawl, chasing after apes with the capture nets in Apes on the Loose, swinging and throwing axe at them in Bot of War, shooting down enemies with pistol in Dude Raiding, rolling round about in Going Loco, there's big huge robo t-rex chasing after you in Machine Learning, and of course the shoot-em-up action in PlaySquadron Go! which proves that the 3D platforming games can be a full of creativity and challenging fun to play makes this game a major key of entertainment.

The best part of the game is that some of the levels has the secret exit which means that if you found one of the secret exit that can be discovered in the hidden area of the level then you've unlocked one of the secret bonus stage will be added to one of the world such as Lost Galaxy. 

I also wanted to praise the game's content which includes various of bonus challenging levels such as retro rampage which is a stage full of retro-style layouts where as the crumble rumble which has a fragile floor surfaces so your goal is to defeat many enemies to rescue Bots, lost void is a challenge stage where you had to rescue Bots all the way to finishing point without taking damage, and of course great master challenge is slightly much harder than the lost void which has a multiples of dangerous obstacles layouts to evade.

The crash site is a hub world which really has the interesting discoveries to explore around it, so there are 4 locations to access which requires many Bots that you had rescue from the levels which means the more you rescued multiples of the Bots then you are able to gain access to the undiscovered areas with the help of the bots.

Not only you really needed the Bots, there are some of the unlockable areas which requires collectable jigsaws to unlock those such as gatcha shop which you will unopen these capsules toy from the gatcha machines which unlocks stuffs like customised skins for ship, multiples of costumes for Astro Bot to wear, and has V.I.P Bots animations added in Crash Site's central areas.

It had a safari park which is a zoo touring place has a full Bots of animals to discover around, the custom room which allows you to select any of favourite costumes for Astro Bot to wear, and of course the paint shop which allows you to select any of themed skins for DualSense ship.        

I had such a wonderful time of playing this game is because I really liked using the cool power-ups which allowing me to do things like punching and jabbing on enemy's faces, crushing and smashing stuffs in pieces, blasting up so high in the sky, freeze time on stages in slo-mo effects, shrinking and enlarging the size, and climbing on stuff just works really well with the DualSense controller.

The stages are packed with lot of cool stuffs to play like collecting jigsaws, finding the secret exits, gather the coins, and of course rescuing various of Bots is what keeps me playing the game.

I also enjoyed various of bonus challenge stages which are very good to play because I really liked dodging various of obstacles and defeating many enemies as possible to rescue the Bots.  

I also forgot to mention about the boss battles which I consider it as entertaining to play such as Mighty Chewy the big hairy ape, Specter the albino monkey, Wako Tako the red-octopus with goggles, NidHog the raging pig bot, Lady Venomara the golden venomous cobra, Chief Cawah the undeaded skeleton with gold hat, Mecha Leon the chameleon punk, Falcon McFly the large feathered bird with yellow helmet, Blunderjaw the robo T-Rex, and of course Nebulax the space bully green alien, which I'm praising these bosses for its crazy over-the-top action is what makes the whole game so great to play.

Overall, it has immersive controls, fun and creativity stages, cool power-ups system, and entertaining boss battle action.  

          

Graphics

This game looks absolute perfect for its visual quality showcasing the PS5's hardware power which I can guarantee that you'll be amazed with everything you see in the game.

The environmental design is incredibly big for its large landscape on the far-distance backgrounds, solid build-up level design that are well-built, has nice and sharper texture surfaces, well-designed foreground areas with multiples of objects and scenery around, shared with lighting and shadow effects in some levels, and the art-style of the whole game is filled with wackiness of interactive details really fits the game's overall presentation such as colourful settings with lot of details they putting in the levels, particles goes everywhere on the screen with the bunch of party poppers, leaves and round balls objects, has lot of slimy and sludges of paint cans and water bombs, the lavas and water is looking clear as crystal with nice reflections and shades, and the character's animation is quite fluid and comical just really adds up a game's charm is what made the game look appealing for 3D platforming games like this.       

The game's performance is running so smoothly at the 60fps with no signs of slowdown and being managed to play on full 4K resolution natively without displaying any of shimmering and laggyness on screen meaning that your image quality level of the game plays flawlessly on your 4KTV making it the most polished PS5 games they ever achieved resulting a clean and stable overall performance throughout the playthrough. 

The loading time between the levels is surprisingly load quicker done in 1 second thanks to PS5's SSD just really helps the game go faster, so which means no more sitting, waiting, and staring at the screen too long till its fully load because it's the power of the SONY's 9th-gen machine guys.

Overall, it has incredible environmental design, detailed art-style, fluid animations, and of course solid overall polished performances.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in this game is fantastic especially with the theme song at the title screen sings "I am Astro Bot" is the recognisable things we hear stuff from the game like this, and if this is not enough then there are various of amazing music from each levels like "Astro", "Crash Site", "Disco Tree", "Bar BOT" "Specter" "Push the Boat Out (beach remix)", "Tan Tradicional", "Tite Mites (Crystal Cave)", "Papa Tree", "Quel Fromage", "Twinkle Toes", "Ninja Bots" "Broken Bridge", "Pit of Peril", "Muteki Funk", "Windswept", "SSD", and "A Fire In Your Mind".  

It was composed by Kenneth C. M. Young, who previously worked on audio works for games like LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway, did a solid job of creating the very best video game music for 3D platforming games like this filled with very catchy tunes.

The game also included the songs from various of video game series such as "Spike Bot" from Ape Escape, "Bot of War" from God of War, Drake's BOTune from Uncharted, "The Strength to Stand Alone" from Horizon, "Going Loco" from LocoRoco, and of course the best part of the song is got to be "PlaySquadron Go! (A.K.A Rising Blue Lightning)" from Thunder Force V.   

The use of the sound effects are excellent in this game filled with cartoony sound environments and atmospheric background noise depending on the settings of the levels, and I got to praise the sounds of the DualSense controller's speaker which you can hear multiples of sounds noises like the footsteps, shattered glass, rocket blasting, ground pounding, noisy winds, exploding, and of course Bot's adorable voices is just sounds great on the controller.     

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack and excellent sound design.

  

Special Features

The game had unlockables stuff like V.I.P Bots, paint skins for ship, and costumes wear for Astro Bot. It also has secret exit for bonus additional stages, Lost Void's challenge stages, Tick-Tock Shock's speedrun stages, Vicious Void's 5 new levels, and of course the new level such as Winter Wonder with various of new V.I.P Bots.

Overall, a perfect content overall so far.

Advantages

Amazing presentation for opening scene and adorable characters

Immersive controls system for DualSense controller

Fun and creativity stages with tons of great platforming action

Entertaining boss battle action

Incredible visual and performances

Fantastic soundtrack and excellent sound design

Disadvantages

No negatives at all 

Final Verdict

Presentation 10/10 - fantastic openings, adorable protagonists, and amazing presentation.

Gameplay 10/10 - immersive controls, fun and creativity stages, cool power-ups system, and entertaining boss battle action.

Graphics 10/10 - incredible environmental design, detailed art-style, fluid animations, and of course solid overall polished performances.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - fantastic soundtrack and excellent sound design.

Special Features 10/10 - Unlockables such as V.I.P Bots, ship's skins, and costumes, secret bonus stage, challenge stage, and etc. 

Overall 10/10 - Astro Bot is indeedly a masterpiece title that became a major key point for PS5 console owners should get a hands-on with the 3D platforming games like this are fully jammed packed with the wacky worlds with tons of platforming action, fun and creative stages, lot of discoveries with secrets and collectables, participate the challenge stage, and has crazy bosses to fight is what makes Astro Bot an outstanding PS5's library to play, as much as I say Super Mario 64 is to N64, Sonic Adventure is to Dreamcast, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon is to PS1 proves how much I loved the 3D platforming games as an my personal favourite video game genres over the years.

Its really great to see this game had gained universally acclaimed reception and won the The Game Award's Game of the Year 2024, which deserves the same recognition as the classic 3D platforming games we knew back then.       

This is what many modern generation gaming really needs to have something that are very good and fun to play in order to attract many newcomers, who are new to the 3D platforming games as an genre, should able to see game like this that are wonderfully entertaining for both younger and family audience will likely to enjoy this kind of game. 

I say Astro Bot is an definite to be on my favourite PS5 games list which I am happy with the result had turned out to be a success.   

You can get a physical copy of the game off from online store are much cheaper around £40, where as the digital copy from PS Store cost around £60 for standard edition and digital deluxe edition for £70 are slightly bit high, so is this game a must buy? absolutely correct because Astro Bot is a must buy for PS5 owners will likely to enjoy this masterpiece without doubt.  

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