Go, Go, Go Astro! (New Side Quest! #7)

Game Played: AstroBot - Vicious Void Update 1 (2025), Vicious Void Update 2 (2025)

Astrobot was my Game of the Year in 2024 and it’s a game that keeps on giving with semi frequent content updates adding new levels to sink your teeth into. In the months following its release, we saw time trial levels and a Christmas stage which I enjoyed as they released. In early 2025, hard stages were released weekly which I didn’t play at the time, for whatever reason. Roll on the other day, I was just scrolling social media to see that Team Asobi had just launched another bunch of levels, this time all at once!

Of course with new levels come new bots, which has proven to be a highlight of the game and its levels. This time around Jade from Beyond Good and Evil is here, 2B from Nier Automata and the new character I don’t know the name of from Ghost of Yotei. Of course the reak stars of the show here are Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 that were absent from the base game and were seemingly never coming to the game.

As for the levels themselves, they’re all pretty fun. There’s not one I’d say stood out for better or worse, definitely some amusing titles in there. Each level also had its focus in one of the gadgets Astro Bot can use - the only one missing is the giant sponge form which while not very practical and hard to design a level around, it is my favourite and it would have been nice to see. For a set of levels in the Vicious Void, none of them are particularly difficult. Not being very difficult carries over to the secret 11th level – Megamix Mastery. It’s your usual end of Platformer super level, Ripsnorter from Sackboy, Darker Side from Mario Odyssey or even the Great Master Challenge from this game, but it’s nowhere near as difficult as any of those. I suppose it’s because of the more speedrun nature of these levels? Astrobot isn’t a terribly difficult game anyways so maybe it would go against the design philosphy

Regardless, the “Thank you for Playing” message you get upon finishing it makes me think that this is the end of the Astro Bot content for the foreseeable, as in until Astro Bot 2. I don’t want them to rush AB2 but I defintely want it before 5 years time if at all possible. Whatever the wait is, Astro Bot has been and will be a fantastic game for the years to come and no doubt I’ll be doing another 100% run before too long.