One of PlayStation’s newest mascot characters, Astro Bot quickly shot to fame, rising from a quirky, family-friendly protagonist to the face of the PS5 console. He’s an adorable little fella, with the potential for a promising career as the face of the whole PlayStation brand.
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Origins
Astro Bot, also known as ‘Captain Astro’ or simply ‘Astro’, not to be confused with Kobunsha’s ‘Astro Boy’ manga character, is the titular protagonist of Astro Bot and the ‘Astro’ series of games by Team Asobi. The character was created by Team Asobi founder and studio head Nicolas Doucet. Astro Bot debuted in 2016’s The Playroom VR as the main character of the ‘Robot Rescue’ mini-game. His face also appears in the Team Asobi logo.
His design is a modified version of the robots introduced in 2013’s The Playroom. The positive reaction to Robot Rescue led to the release of 2018’s Astro Bot Rescue Mission and 2020’s Astro’s Playroom, which introduced Astro to wider audiences. Astro has a variety of talents, skills and abilities.
Story: Starship Trooper
Astro Bot is the Captain of the Bots in the Astro Bot Series. The series generally has very little noteworthy storyline or character development, instead preferring more lighthearted adventures with quirky gameplay, however the plot of the later standalone PS5 game, also known as ‘Astro Bot’, would expand on the plot considerably.
One day, in space, a starship resembling the PlayStation 5 console is seen flying around the cosmos, featuring Astro and numerous bots resembling him, representing his entire crew. They suddenly encounter a green alien named Space Bully Nebulax, who chases after the starship, attacks the crew and steals its CPU. This causes the starship to explode, with its parts scattered throughout space, and the Bots stranded on other planets.
Shortly after the attack, what is left of the ship crash-lands on a desert planet, and Astro, knocked unconscious, is revived by the Dual Speeder, a much smaller ship resembling a DualSense controller. Astro begins the search for his fellow Bots while in pursuit of the missing parts of the starship. Shortly after Astro explores the first planet, the ship reactivates itself, and the crash site is turned into an oasis and settlement for Astro and the rescued Bots.
Astro continues to explore the galaxies, retrieving lost parts of the starship in the process and rescuing his crew. Eventually, Astro encounters Space Bully Nebulax once again and gives chase, initiating an intergalactic war in the process, with most of the crew using older PlayStation hardware as part of their squadron, thus forming the PlaySquadron.
Legacy
Astro Bot has been well-received by the gaming press since his introduction, and was noted for his design and cheerful animations. He has been considered a strong potential mascot for the PlayStation brand. He is occasionally compared to an earlier PlayStation mascot character, the considerably more poorly-received Polygon Man, who also has robotic qualities. Astro is considered the antithesis of Polygon Man, with Astro being small, cute and friendly, while Polygon Man is huge, intimidating and scary. Astro has also been compared to Insomniac’s robotic character, Clank.
Astro Bot has made appearances in other games and media. Astro appears in Fall Guys as an unlockable skin, but was free for PlayStation Plus members from June 7th, 2023, to September 7th, 2023. Astro appears as a free DLC skin for Sackboy in Sackboy: A Big Adventure. He’s also shown briefly in the PlayStation Studios logo intro, at the start of both the Uncharted Movie and the Gran Turismo film.
