Game of the Year Award Candidate Astrobot is getting a free winter update this holiday season. Released on September 6, 2024, Astrobot is a platform game featuring characters, locations and concepts from PlayStation games of all time. At its launch, Astrobot It received rave reviews, with critics commenting positively on its charming gameplay and ingenious innovations. It is also one of six games nominated for Game of the Year at the 2024 Game Awards, in illustrious company such as Elden Ring: Shadow of Erdtree, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, ReFantazio Metaphorand Balatro.
But lest you think you've already experienced everything the best platformer of the year has to offer, Sony announced that Astrobot will receive a free holiday update in a post on the official website PlayStation Blog. The update is expected to be released tomorrow, December 12, 2024, at 6pm PT (9pm ET, 2am GMT). The update includes a single winter holiday-themed level, Winter Wonder, with snow-covered rooftops, a gigantic tree wrapped in ribbon, and a cheerful figure dressed in red driving a flying boat pulled by a reindeer.
Winter Wonder update is Astro Bot's latest big addition
What to expect from the new Astro Bot level
The Winter Wonder update focuses on a single level of the same name, which will be available to most Astrobot players from Thursday. This is a post-game level, designed to be tackled only after finishing the main campaign - in fact, players can only access it after defeating the rest of the Astrobot. However, the update will remain free for all players and should remain available even after the holiday season ends, so don't worry about rushing through the rest of the game just to play it.
According to the PlayStation Blog and the image posted above, Winter Wonder will contain tons of festive surprises for players to discover. This includes special gifts as well as exclusive, likely Christmas-themed, Astro Bots for the player to recruit and collect.
Unlike other levels, Winter Wonder is designed to be completely family-friendly - specifically, that it won't be as difficult as some other Astrobot levels. Although the game itself is completely PG (or more specifically, E10+), Astrobot gained some notoriety for its difficulty, especially when it came to winning the Platinum trophy. Ultimately, the goal of this update is to spread holiday cheer with a series of fun and creative challenges, not to push players' skills to their absolute limits.
This isn't the first free DLC to arrive Astrobotwhich has already had some post-launch content updates. Previously, Astrobot devs Team Asobi released five individual speedrun levels – one per week from October 17th to November 14th. Each of them represented a unique challenge, requiring players to optimize their strategies to complete the level as quickly as possible. These levels came with ten new bots to unlock.
Our opinion: Astro Bot deserves its GOTY nomination
Astro Bot is the biggest surprise of 2024
Whether or not you think you deserve to win, I think we can all agree that AstrobotThe GOTY nomination is more than deserved. At the very least, it's the most creative platformer released this year, and a lot of fun to boot. It's a worthy addition to any PlayStation 5 user's collection, a celebration of 30 years of great, iconic PlayStation games.
For many, playing Astrobot It's also a nostalgic experienceand not just because of all the PlayStation character cameos. As a pet-centric platformer, it feels like a game from a bygone era, aside from all the flashy PS5 technology it flaunts. It avoids many of the pitfalls of modern monetization, like battle passes and paid DLC. It prioritizes a beautiful, colorful, and effective art style over hyperrealism. And it's just fun, with no dark patterns or forced grinding.
And if all the amazing features included at launch weren't enough, Team Asobi continues to impress with the regular addition of new free levels aimed at introducing new ways to play. For these reasons, among many others, Astrobot deserves its laurels.
Source: PlayStation Blog