First game on PS5!

I'll preface by saying that I almost gave this 5/5 stars for two reasons: the sheer high level of enjoyment it gave me, and the cost value considering it's a free pre-installed game that did not have to be half as good as it is. However, it is a glorified tech demo and quite a short game.

I don't do console wars. It's exhausting and negative. I only got a PS5 because I already have an extensive library from the PS4, and I only got PS4 because it's what my friends at the time also got. And it also just happened to have many of the games I wanted to play like Bloodborne. I'm also a one-console-per-generation kind of video game enthusiast because these things are expensive and I'm cheap.

So I'm not a flag-flying Playstation fan boy. I grew up on Nintendo. I chose the 360 over the PS3. I admire PC gaming. I want everyone to play all the games and hoarding exclusives doesn't mean anything to me because I'm not a shareholder in Sony or an executive that works for them.

But I will be damned if I didn't geek out over the overload of Playstation self-masturbatory fart huffing here. I bought it wholesale. It's a thrill ride showcase wrapped up in charm, tight controls, and chock full of celebratory Playstation nostalgia. And my god did it revive something in me that I rarely feel with video games these days: that pure, unbridled joy and excitement. It gave me the warm and fuzzies.

When I was six or seven years old I would rent consoles, shortly before actually getting one of my own when I finally got the N64. Yes, you could actually rent consoles back then. One of those rentals was the original Playstation. I played Crash Bandicoot and Spyro on it that weekend. SNES was magical and sacred to me when I would rent it or play it at older kids' houses, but Playstation was special too. It felt so damn fresh and cool, almost like it wasn't something I was ready for even though it had been out for years at that point and Sony was already working on the PS2.

Then I grew up a bit and got a PS2 with Final Fantasy X, my sole motivator for wanting the PS2 to begin with. And my god how it blew my mind. PS2 to this day probably remains the most special console to me due to the sheer volume of great games I played on it at a time of pre-and-post adolescence.

I got into the 7th gen late and went with Xbox when I finally jumped in. I'm sure that was the case for many. PS3 had a lot of games that interested me, but X360 was where my pals were playing.

Never played the PSP or Vita. Was never much for handheld gaming outside of a 2-3 year period where I played a lot of GBA:SP. But man did I sometimes really want a Sony handheld. They seemed really cool and had really unique games, some of which I would end up playing console ports of anyway.

So in Astro's Playroom when it takes me through this odyssey of Playstation homages and history, when I see the face buttons sprinkled around the levels, when I hear the music that features those classic Playstation sounds like the hair-standing PS2 boot up screen, it just takes me to a place of pure distilled wonder and joy; the same place that made me love video games 25 years ago.

Even aside from all that, this is just such a good little platformer. It's such a fun ride. It's been so long since I played a 3D platformer that I really had fun with. Tight controls, charming characters, fun environmental playgrounds, great music.

I haven't been this jazzed about a new console in a long time.