I don’t think it would be unfair to say that it’s been a relatively quiet year for PlayStation.
It was to be expected, I suppose.
Recent years have brought usMarvel’s Spider-Man2,God of WarRagnarök, andHorizon Forbidden West.
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That rules out several of the company’s biggest IPs from appearing for a couple of years.
We did get the excellentFinal FantasyVII RebirthandHelldivers IIthis year, and whileStellar BladeandRise of the Roninfaded into oblivion fairly quickly, those too were both decent titles.
The last few months in particular though have been exceptionally quiet, perhaps becauseConcordhas died an instantaneous death.
Worry not though, a familiar little bot is on the way to restore our faith.
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That’s right, we’re just over one week away from the launch ofAstro Bot.
A sequel to the very popularAstro’s Playroom,a free tech demo installed on everyPlayStation 5console,Astro Botwill see the lovable little guy return for a fully-fledged adventure.
You can even bag yourself anAstro Botthemed DualSense, although they’ve almost sold out.
Just likeAstro’s Playroom, Astro Botis set to feature nods to PlayStation’s vast history - and that includes both the company’s IPs and hardware.
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We already know that God of War, Ratchet and Clank, and Bloodborne are just a few of the franchises that’ll be referenced.
Crash Bandicoot. Let that sink in. Crash. Bandicoot.
ThisNaughty Dogcreation was once the face of the PlayStation brand but as we’re all aware, he then became the property of Microsoft following the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
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With Toys For Bob splitting from Activision but retaining a partnership with the company, it’s not exactly clear what fate beholds Crash but we do know that he’s returning to PlayStation to feature inAstro Bot.
In a new PlayStation Blogpost, Team Asobi’s studio director spoke about the evolution of the character and how Astro’s appearance is adapted to mimic various IPs.
“Sometimes LED eyes just didn’t work on certain characters because the original design relies so much on the pupils being a certain size or color for instance . So for more cartoony VIPs like Crash Bandicoot or from Ape Escape, the Bots are wearing a mask to help bridge that problem,” he explained.
Yes, that confirms Crash’s inclusion in the game. That’s all we have to go on right now but withAstro Botreleasing on 6 September, we don’t have long to wait to discover the game’s secrets for ourselves.
Topics:Crash Bandicoot,PlayStation,PlayStation 5,Sony,Retro Gaming
