While there’s obviously plenty to love in Astro Bot, one of the most heartwarming platformers in years, its celebration of PlayStation history has some notable omissions. Why is it that a number of iconic franchises are nowhere to be found?
Astro Bot is one of the very best of the generation, earning a 5/5 in our review as we hailed it as one of the PS5’s most delightful experiences. Yet while Team ASOBI no doubt nailed the fundamentals, not everything is perfect from a historical standpoint.
Much like Astro’s Playroom before it, Astro Bot frames itself as a celebration of PlayStation’s rich history. From the most popular series-leading characters down to some of the most niche references of the brand’s origins, both positive and negative, it seemingly leaves no stone unturned.
With over 300 bots to rescue along the journey, dozens of which reference games, moments, and even advertisements from PlayStation’s 30-year lineage, on the surface, it looked to have made mention of just about everything possible. Though now having snagged the Platinum trophy, seeing all the game has to offer, that logic doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
A number of legendary figures from PlayStation history have been excluded from the project. While some made smaller cultural impacts, others are objectively huge properties, leading to the question, why aren’t they featured?
Resistance
A personal favorite, I have to say the Resistance trilogy (as well as the two handheld spinoffs) has long been near the top of my list for single-player, story-driven FPS experiences. Unfortunately, the series has been wildly mistreated since we left the PS3 era behind.
While Killzone got a flashy PS4 launch title, Sony’s other flagship FPS from the past generation was passed over.
Insomniac got busy as a Marvel machine and well, their shooter was effectively thrown in the waste. There’s been no real acknowledgment of the series since its last release 12 years ago, Sony bizarrely acting like it never existed.
That’s never been more pronounced than with Astro Bot. A game so rife with references to the past, so chock-full of Easter eggs and subtle throwbacks, you’d think Resistance an easy shoe-in.
Five games over six years, helping establish Insomniac as more than just a kid-friendly dev with Spyro and Ratchet their only offerings. Iconic imagery, massive marketing campaigns, blockbuster action, the series was certainly no pushover to be swept under the rug.
Yet even with space for hundreds of bots, Resistance is notably absent from PlayStation’s playable museum of sorts. There’s no Chimera, no Nathan Hale, no Joseph Capelli, nothing.
Given how nitty gritty some of the bots get, it’s a shock to not see even just one inclusion from Resistance, our money would be on a simple Chimera. Was Resistance a generational hit winning game of the year awards? Of course not. Was it a mega-popular commercial success generating tens of millions for Sony? No, it certainly wasn’t. But it’s a crucial piece of PlayStation’s history and acting like it never made an impact is completely inaccurate.
Twisted Metal
Next is a more confusing omission. While it’s been 29 years since the Twisted Metal series made its debut, and 13 years since the last proper game, the IP has been thrust back into the spotlight of late.
Whether you love or feel indifferent about the live-action series starring Anthony Mackie and Samoa Joe, the Peacock series has clearly done well enough, earning a second season set to film later this year. So why then, is there no reference to this beloved PlayStation franchise in Astro Bot? Your guess is as good as mine.
Confusingly enough, Sweet Tooth, the unmistakable face of the series, was even present in some early Astro Bot concept art that surfaced shortly after the game’s release.
Was there a plan to include at least this one bot in reference of the hectic vehicular destruction series? The developers clearly had ideas for it from early on based on the concept art. Did Sony then step in for whatever reason to shut it down? It’s their IP at the end of the day, they control exactly what happens with it and where it shows up.
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Why choose not to celebrate with one of the PS1’s leading games?
Syphon Filter
Another property owned by PlayStation Studios directly, Syphon Filter is noticeably overlooked in Astro Bot. Bend Studios is indeed present, though not to everyone’s delight, with Days Gone, but the series that first put them on the map after the infamous Bubsy 3D, is nowhere to be found.
Kicking off in 1999, the Syphon Filter franchise went on to receive six games in total, spanning the PS1, PS2, and PSP. While housing beloved stealth-based third-person shooter campaigns, it was also among PlayStation’s first forays into the multiplayer world.
The first three games alone combined for millions of total copies sold. It was no small endeavor that only the most hardcore would know about. No, Syphon Filter is a crucial part of PlayStation’s history.
SOCOM
Sticking with shooters owned by Sony, there’s no looking past SOCOM. Cherished as one of the brand’s first proper online offerings, the competitive shooter was a smash hit, delivering 10 games across just nine years.
While both Zipper Interactive and Slant Six Games, the two studios leading the franchise between 2002-2011, are now defunct, that should be no reason for the IP not to feature in a celebration of PlayStation history.
It’s not as though Astro Bot shies away from the more adult-oriented properties to achieve its kid-friendly rating either. There’s plenty throughout from other shooters, horror titles, and the like. So why then has one of the standout shooters in the brand’s history been excluded?
The Getaway
While not a blockbuster franchise on the same caliber as the titles already mentioned above, we had to throw some love to The Getaway. With just two mainline entries, Team Soho proved it had the chops to hang with Rockstar’s GTA, delivering an extremely authentic open world by actually recreating much of London street for street.
Selling hundreds of thousands of copies, a third entry was planned though ultimately canceled. The series hasn’t been revisited or really even referenced by PlayStation again since.
Heavy Rain
As a smaller note, Heavy Rain is interestingly not featured in Astro Bot, despite having been present to some degree in Astro’s Playroom. This is a peculiar one as Quantic Dream’s other PlayStation titles, Beyond Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human, both have characters as bots in the game.
Perhaps Team ASOBI simply didn’t want to fall back on this already-referenced property, though that’d be a little odd given how many other recurring appearances there are.
There’s absolutely no doubt we’ve failed to mention plenty more from PlayStation’s lineage. We’ve seen countless titles come and go over the years, but for Astro Bot not to include some of the most notable, it raises plenty of eyebrows.
We know DLC is on the way with extra VIP bots in tow, but the signs are pointing to other titles, none of those mentioned above.
Dexerto has tried contacting Sony PR directly but no comment on the matter has been provided.
