What Astro’s Playroom Tells Us About PS5’s Potential

Now admittedly, it is a running joke in the Phenixx Gaming virtual office that there has only been a handful of PS5’s made since no one can get their hands on them. Interestingly enough, my father is a bit of a madman and managed to get ahold of one thanks to a GameStop restock this past Friday. As a result, Lisa and I have been digging into the PS5, and I found myself curious about Astro’s Playroom, a game of sorts that helps you get familiar with the possibilities of the PS5’s DualSense controller.

I expected it to be a very short tech demo of sorts. However, I figured that I could dive into it before I took some time to dive into what I’ve truly been excited for, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. To my surprise, Astro’s Playroom is more of a celebration of PlayStation’s history, all wrapped in a fun and adorable Collect-a-thon Action-Platformer.

You play as Astro, a small robot who navigates through various “world” areas (each with four levels) themed after parts of the PlayStation 5. GPU Jungle for example has a jungle-themed world that has easter eggs for games like Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, and Horizon: Zero Dawn hidden inside. Starting out, you can punch, jump, and glide as Astro. However, you can also put him into suits that you zip him into with the touch-pad.

These suits give him different platforming abilities. In the Cooling Springs area, the suit is a frog suit that gives you a spring jump powered by the new trigger buttons on the controller. In GPU Jungle this turns into a monkey suit which allows you to use the motion controls, in conjunction with the triggers, to climb walls and swing from bars.

The triggers (as an example) surprised me since each action you perform with them can change depending on the situation. While one rock may be stronger and allow you to grip it tightly with a fully pressed trigger, other rocks are more brittle and may require a gentler grip. At the same time, performing certain actions with the triggers might actually cause the triggers to give you more resistance, requiring you to push them harder.

The haptic feedback from the controller also surprised me, as each material Astro walks on feels remarkably different via the vibrations. The fact that you can blow into the controller’s microphone to activate windmill-style puzzles feels reminiscent of the original Nintendo DS, yet it also somehow fits here.

In fact, Astro’s Playroom has some interesting implications for game design and for accessibility. I normally have issues with motion controls since I have a specific way I sit to play that is most comfortable for me. Even controllers like the Joy Cons and other motion controls tend to be spotty for me. I had no real trouble with the motion controls with the PS5, however, prolonged use of them would probably get pretty exhausting.

On the same token, the variable resistance of the trigger buttons is a cool feature, but I could see it causing issues for a lot of people with muscle weakness. On the other hand, I could see game developers using that functionality to develop games that promote hand strength, hand-eye coordination, and other beneficial exercises.

Overall, while Astro’s Playroom does feel a lot like a tech demo (which it is), it also feels like a pretty solid platformer too. It gives a taste of how all sorts of gameplay mechanics could be executed with the DualSense controller. If developers embrace the hardware of the controller alone, that will eventually mean some great things for PlayStation 5 owners. There are some accessibility things to work out, and hopefully, developers will keep those in mind. However, the future looks bright if Astro’s Playroom is any place to start.