Video Game Review: Astro's Playroom

My grandson has been spending a lot of time at my house this week and whenever he shows up, he wants to play Astro's Playroom. He calls it the "Robot Game." He'll come down in my office, which is where I have my PlayStation 5 set up, and we will play for an hour before we are asked to come join the rest of the family. That is fine though as you really don't want to play video games for more than an hour a day.

Astro's Playroom is a game that comes installed on all PlayStation 5 consoles. When I first saw the game, it didn't interest me that much. I actually didn't want to play it until my grandson wanted to spend time with me and I knew it would be a fun and safe game for him. We tried it out a bit and he really likes most of the game. There are certain levels that are a bit too intense and he doesn't like them. He also gets bored of watching me fail on a number of the challenges. Overall though, we have a lot of fun.

One of the purposes of the game is to get PlayStation 5 owners familiar with the DualSense wireless controller. If you are familiar with the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 wireless controller, it is the next step in the evolution of input. It has all the bells and whistles of the previous controller and also includes haptic feedback. That means you feel things like recoil in the triggers when firing a gun. It adds a new level of sensing to the gaming experience and needs to be felt to be understood. This brings us back to Astro's Playroom and how it shows you all of the features of the DualSense wireless controller.

I encourage everyone to run through the game just to see what the new platform is capable of doing. The game only took me about 5 or so hours to complete and that includes explaining things to my grandson. It has an ESRB rating of E for Everyone and truly is a game that everyone can play and will enjoy.

It is important that I let everyone know that I do work in research and development at Sony Interactive Entertainment, which is the company responsible for the PlayStation 5 console. The game is free and didn't cost me anything, nor will it cost you as long as you own a PS5.