Pure joy is the only way to describe my time with Astro’s Playroom. If you hold any amount of nostalgia or fondness for the Playstation brand and there accompanying hardware or software you will be smiling ear to ear throughout the experience. I remember being slightly disappointed when a new Astrobot was announced without VR and learning it would be a pack in with the PS5 I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What has been delivered here is nothing short of a love letter to the history of Playstation, with a surprising amount of content within its short runtime. The game serves as an excellent display of the Duelsense controller. The controller really is the star of the show here showing the possibilities with every step you take. Every new feature is on display and it does a great job serving as an introduction to the Playstation 5.

Super Life of Pixel is homage to the early years of home computers and consoles. Presented as a bare bones plat former, your own personal nostalgia for the medium will greatly dictate any enjoyment you may find with this title. You play as a cube called Pixel and starting off with early home computers you make your way through the years of advancements in both graphics and music. The strongest part of the game is seeing the quality and fidelity improve as you make your way from level to level waiting for your certain nostalgia to appear. Unfortunately once the novel presentation has worn off you end up repeating the same objective in every level. Collect what you need to meet the end requirement and find the exit. All this might have been OK if it were not for the lack of any checkpoints. This becomes especially egregious as the levels become longer and the chance of you making a mistake is almost a given. Hunting around endlessly for some non descriptive collectibles while avoiding countless one hit kills is somewhat negated by some descent controls and clever variation in game play mechanics. Super Life of Pixel is a love letter to a simpler time in games, I just which it had tried to be a little more ambitious with its content.

Everybody’s Golf VR should of been the premium golf experience in VR but ends up suffering from a lack of courses and features. The act of playing Everybody’s Golf is extremely fun and intuitive. When you are out on the course the sense of scale is fantastic and the way it controls makes it feel as close to golf as you are going to get in your living room. The game looks nice enough even with the PSVR limitations although the lack of NPC’s apart from your caddy gives it an eerie quietness. The problem is there just simply isn’t enough to do. The game has 3 courses and a driving range, to unlock later courses you will find yourself playing the same 9 holes over and over again which unfortunately has become a staple for the series. Everybody’s Golf VR is a great transition for the series but ends up feeling a bit lacking once the novelty of VR has worn off.

I expected Wandersong to be a simple light puzzle based platformer and that is just what I got. What I did not expect was the absolute heights the game would take me too emotionally. The game constantly innovates, lands the humour it attempts but most of all tells a compelling story with characters you can’t help but root for. I would go as far as to say the protagonist is the most likeable character I have ever played as. It’s use of music as a narrative tool is always enjoyable and the soundtrack is one that will stick with me for a long time. Wandersong is a beautiful and creative game that I could not recommend more highly.