Random: Astro Bot "Almost Outdid Nintendo At Its Own Game", Jokes Reggie

Almost? I'd argue that Astro Bot was much better than Mario Odyssey.

@IceClimbersMain agreed. In fact I'd say its better than any of the 3D Mario games.

I have no interest in a non-Nintendo system.

...Or at least I didn't till this released. Now I am stuck not wanting to spend that much money but not having any friends with a PS5 so I can't even visit them to try it out.

To be honest it outdid 3D world and Oddesy, the older ones not. Still think Galaxy is one of the best platformers out there.

I'm happy astrobot did this well, it means Nintendo will get competition on the platformer genre again, Wich only means good things for us gamers

I’ve gotten word from Nintendo’s lawyers, they’re hunting Reggie down tonight

@Steelhead Honestly if I were able to put aside my nostalgia for 64 and Galaxy I'd be able to agree with you lol

I liked Astrobot. It was very familiar in relation to a lot of the Mario Mechanics. Stylistically it was very fresh.

If there was a few gripes I had with it was the fact it didn’t do a good job letting you know where you were in the 3D space sometimes (the camera angle shifted at awkward moments), the level design on the challenge levels were unfair as you had no awareness of what was coming next before it killed you, and on occasion the buttons where fractionally unresponsive when you had to jump multiple times in succession. Mario does these details better.

It gave me hope for the future of gaming.

Astrobot totally did

My very unpopular opinion.
I voted Super Mario Odyssey over than astro bot game in my defence.

Meh it's good but not better, Astro Bot just took everything Nintendo did and crammed them into one big pile of stuffs. When you play the game you can tell the game doesn't have a main focus objective or story. It's literally just a game filled with references as levels/characters. That is all it is. It's like if you're playing as ROB and just going through reference levels based on Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Kirby, Pokemon, and so on. While that make sense for an anniversary game, the idea won't stick if the game doesn't had any original unique aspect that could help it exist on its own.

My personal top 3d platformer : Mario 64 , Mario galaxy 1-2 , Mario sunshine, Mario odissey , Astro BOT , mario 3d world (far too easy). I have to say on the 2d side mario wonder was phenomenal . Astro BOT make Great use of the haptic dual sense (it is something unique and really fun), has great graphics but apart from this it’s far from Nintendo’s best.

The "Almost" might have saved him from Nintendo's ninja assassins.

"During the recent New York Game Awards 2025 event, ex-president of Nintendo of America offered his own opinion on the game after it won the award for 'Best Kids Game', jokingly stating "I have to admit it, Astro Bot almost outdid Nintendo at its own game"."

The game has won 16 awards so far.
And gotten top scores by a lot of game critics. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Bot

So why must it be a joke when Reggie says it's a good game?

Reggie has told he bought an Xbox instead of a GameCube.
And he did host an Xbox event for Microsoft in 2021.

Honestly, I could never get into Mario Galaxy; I just plain didn't like Mario's physics, he is too sluggish. Astro Bot and Crash just feel better to play.

Being honest I’m glad Astro was magnificent.
Some competition for Nintendo in its own market.
And Nintendo definitely need some.
Just one new 3d Mario for the switch over 8 years isn’t great. Bowser fury was a tickle.
We got two on the Wii within 3 years SMG1 and 2.

Blasphemous as it may sound I genuinely believe Astro Bot is better than every 3D Mario game… except for Odyssey. Odyssey was a cultural reset

Don't intend to ever own a PS5, so unsure when I might ever get to playing this Astro Bot game. Maybe in another 5-10 years I'll dip in just to play it and any other exclusive essentials.

It was a great game. But that monkey power up speedrun level 🤮🤮

@Serpenterror complete agreement, people are way over praising Astro bot in this comment section. Every single mechanic was from a previous, more innovative, Nintendo game. Really enjoyed Astro bot, but it’s so derivative, and people saying it’s better than any single 3d Mario are genuinely losing it!

My top 3 Mario 3D games are: Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Mario 3D World and Bowser's Fury. Haven't played AstroBot and don't even have a PS5 but from what I've seen, looks like It's a fun game taking ideas from other games especially Mario, without putting new ideas on the table, being content just being a compilation of what had been done before.

Still haven’t played it yet, can’t justify $60, or even on sale for $50, for a 12 hour game, but I am very much looking forward to it. I think I’ll like it better than Odyssey, but I wasn’t a huge fan of that one anyway. Galaxy is the pinnacle, and I don’t think it will get that high, but it doesn’t have to to still be great. Some day. Probably as soon as it’s on PS+ Extra I’ll pay $15 to rent it for a month. Maybe it will be done by then, seems like there are levels left to release.

its rlly nice to see that sony and nintendo are getting along in the industry, instead of fighting one another 😸

Astro Bot was fun!
Not Mario Odyssey fun, but a great game nonetheless!
I look forward to whatever Team ASOBI does next.

@IceClimbersMain Agree, much better level design

@Serpenterror I kind of agree with this. One thing that bothered me on Astro Bot was a lack of sense of identity. A bit of heart, perhaps? Yes, it's cute and all but still, the whole aesthetics kinda the same all the time in all worlds.

The mechanics are interesting but I never felt I was in some magical world, just waiting for the levels to end. Don't get me wrong, the game is great, not on a Galaxy/Odyssey level great.

I really hope Nintendo brings some new 3D Mario on the vein of Bowser's Fury, that'd be awesome

I'm enjoying it but I'd probably say it's worse than every main Mario game. Which isn't like, a bad thing, it's still a 7/10, it just doesn't do much in terms of doing anything new.

@IceClimbersMain Sorry but no, I loved the game but just look at the move set, it doesn’t even come close to match Odyssey, and it’s over twice as long than Astro.

The closest comparison imo is to Super Mario 3D World which I’d actually put both on par and are similar in many ways, that’s why the director himself paid tribute to Mario games and Nintendo while receiving the GOTY at TGA.

I have yet to play it and I doubt I ever will, but as a Nintendo fan I'm glad that Astro Bot did so good. Why?
Well Nintendo has to up their game now, competition is always good.

Astro Bot is a delight. Finally got some use out of my PS5 after almost a year of collecting dust. It'll collect dust again now until at least Indiana Jones and GTA VI, though ...or the next Blu- ray movie night. Base launch model with disc drive is definitely worth it for both that very occasional cutting edge title coming along I want to try, and for its great Blu- ray player ...while Switch (and Switch 2 later) remains my main game playing device.

Honestly, I'm just so tired of the toxic tech race outside Nintendo and all these marginal overpriced upgrades. All games I've played recently look more than good enough for my already years- old base PS5 to serve as the 'graphics machine' for another half a decade at least ...and after it kicks the bucket, I'll probably just ditch Sony for Nintendo only, as graphics have pretty much peaked and levelled out if all this recent forced AI fakery and minuscule improvements from Nvidia is any indication.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but me actually starting to think games are more than good enough on base hardware, soon only needing a good old, low powered Nintendo ...feels pretty good, honestly.

@IceClimbersMain nah, it isn’t imo, for reasons also stated here: https://youtu.be/KnDDHR-OMxw?t=2796&si=-yZcZKHWQD7SDGoF

Im sorry guys, no game can beat 3D Marios.

Source:
My own biased opinion

Better than Odyssey? potentially, still need to give it a play, but better than Super Mario Galaxy 2? Absolutely not.

Astro Bot is very good, but I like it more as a fun collectathon rather than a platformer

Astro's moveset really is quite limited and basic compared to the 3D Marios makes it alot less fun to actually platform

Astro Bot is an exceedingly tight game that throws exquisitely designed platforming challenge after exquisitely designed platforming challenge at you. Mario Odyssey is an exceedingly robust and inventive sandbox rewards you endlessly for your own ingenuity and willingness to experiment. Both take heaps skill, both earn my awe.

It’s insanely good. Its use of all the tech in the PS5 controller really shines and produces those “wow” moments that have typically only ever come from Nintendo. The triggers, the motion control, the audio coming from the controller and the myriad sensations from the haptic feedback are simply incredible. If you’ve only seen video of it you might not really understand what all the fuss is about.

AstroBot was a lot of fun!

I did feel that it lacked that little something extra to put it in the top league alongside the likes of Mario. But who knows what the next installment might bring!

Nah, but I get the recency bias. Sony needs to get more platformer experience again in recent times to consistently be at Nintendo level.

More Astrobot type platformer focus projects and less industry trend chasing Concord type flops then I can see it being genuine competition for Nintendo. What good is it if Sony treats it like the current “once or twice a generation”.

@Hellburner918 Mario Odyssey was way too easy, the capture ability is cool but it completely invalidates 90% of the enemies. Same with the cappy jump and movement tech, it's cool but it just makes the game too easy. I think I died once the whole game and it was in the darker side gauntlet.

I actually find it surprising that you like the bosses, as I think they've got lots of critics. The bunnies are bland and easy, the octopus and wiggler are tedious, and the dragon and Bowser are cool but then again when ISN'T a dragon and Bowser cool lol.

The worlds are actually my biggest issue with Odyssey besides the difficulty, there's just no platforming. Even in the sub-areas it's typically capture-based or just too easy. Astro Bot has actual platforming and good challenge.

@IceClimbersMain thats fair, nostalgia is a powerful thing. Personally I don't have nostalgia for any platformers, it's a genre I got into in more recent years.

@Serpenterror,

Astro bot has no originality just rips every Nintendo game off.

Odyssey is just more epic in my own humble opinion, Mario is an institution at this point.

Almost? Oh Reggie, you joker you.

A Super Mario Galaxy 3 would be welcome, I thought of the franchise many times during Astro Bot

It's a close one but I think odyssey is better but also it's game design is different with large open world segments compared to Astro Bots linear level based design. It's more comparable to 3D world in which I'd say Astro Bot is much much better than that.

I'd say it outdid it in many ways.

More 3D platformers outside of Nintendo is always a welcome. Glad to see Reggie giving a compliment to a non-Nintendo platformer

This is why I don’t like the guy. Such an arrogant thing to say. If you’re going to give a compliment like that in public, and you don’t want to offend your ex employer, why don’t you say it ‘rivals’ or ‘matched’ Nintendo. This is just childish.
And between the lines, I interpret this as “I know it outdid Mario but I can’t say”

Idc what anyone says Mario Odyssey is on top

I really loved Astro Bot but for me it never shook that feeling of being a copycat. It’s pretty common to see challenges and gags lifted directly from Galaxy or Odyssey while playing through its stages.

It was a really good copycat, but it still exists firmly in Mario’s shadow and kind of felt like that was where it wanted to be, like it intentionally didn’t want to do anything new because its purpose was to celebrate the past.

Haven't had a chance to play Astro Bot but the game looks incredible. Definitely gives off the Mario Galaxy vibe. Maybe it'll inspire nintendo to release galaxy 3 lol?

Nintendo just erected a corporate museum, it’s no secret they will go down ever arrogant about their own products. Whatever it takes to keep their quality assurance up, I guess

I think Nintendo need to up their game as astrobot was at least equal to most 3D Mario’s…

I platinum'd Astrobot and it was very good for a platformer on a Sony console. Doesn't hold a candle to Mario though.

The one thing that makes me want a PS5. Don't know if it would ever top Galaxy or 3D World + Bowsers Fury, but it looks good nonetheless.

Astro Bot makes a great mascot for Sony if they ever wanted to care about that thing again. I'm sure it won't be the last we've heard from him.

@IceClimbersMain Hey, let's not gas up the car too much, m'kay?

Astro Bot is the Galaxy 3 we will never get. Sony killed it, they deserve the accolades.

@batmanbud2 if you
Like those games, you will enjoy Astro bot. There is lots of inspiration from Galaxy in it while still doing its own thing.

I really enjoyed it! I hope we get more Astro got games like it!

@IceClimbersMain Bosses were extremely easy in Astrobot and also very formulaic. Not sure what you're trying to say when most were about as bland as Mario's.

Meh, It would of been miles more enjoyable if they VR-ified AB for PSVR2, even if it was never designed with VR in mind like Rescue Mission.

Stereoscopic 3D, life sized characters & environments, in 3rd person VR like Rescue Mission, with the Dual Sense Controller and it's unique features(Gyro, haptics, Adaptive triggers etc) would of this made this experience unforgettable and totally magical.

When Astro Bot came out to rave reviews that one after another proclaimed: "It out-Marios Mario!", I concluded that this was good, because it will force Nintendo to "raise the bar" for the next 3D Mario game.

But, it seems everyone expects a new 3D Mario game to be out for Switch 2 launch day. Assuming that they took a year to "polish" the game, I think it's entirely possible that the new 3D Mario was essentially "in the can" before Astro Bot was released.

Which would mean that Nintendo couldn't learn from or know how to "out-Astro Bot Astro Bot" in the making of the new 3D Mario.

And if it doesn't end up clearing the Astro Bot bar? That would be sad.

Easily my GOTY last year and I prefer it over a good chunk of 3D Mario.

Without a doubt it's amazing for sure.

If Astro Bot had been on the Switch instead of PS5, I bet it wouldn't have got even a sniff of the awards it's snagged.

I mean if it's on a Nintendo, it's for kids, innit.

@Olmectron Most of the bosses in Astro Bot had a phase two that is pretty unlike most Mario bosses. The snake boss is what I remember most, it went from fighting you on a platform to you jumping around on its body as it blazes through a jungle. Mario bosses turn red and move a bit faster.

Almost only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades. (Odyssey was kinda poop and IDC about Astro Bot so I have no dog in this race really).

Lmao for anybody to say astrobot was better than any 3d Mario games was only because it was fresh in their minds at the time. Unlike their last outing with Mario. Not only was it not better. It wasn't even close to as good. If was a really good game. Ain't saying it wasn't. But it was only good because it was a Mario clone with different graphics and a controller that did cool stuff. Mario's next 3d adventure will have everyone back on the team in no time. Astro bot will be out of site and mind. With a new mouse mechanic and whatever else Nintendo has planned for Switch 2. We may see the best of all entries in the next console. (Mario 3d, Mario kart, yoshis island 3d, Kirby 3d, Star Fox, donkey Kong 3d, f-zero, ice climbers, kid Icarus, mother, mario maker, mario paint, mr.game & watch, duck hunt, captain toad, pokken tournament 2, Pokemon, Pokemon pinball, the options are endless)

@IceClimbersMain Even with that second phase, they were easy. I thought that was one of your complaints for Mario bosses.

I enjoyed them, but there was no difficulty at all in Astrobot. That doesn't make Mario games harder, but still.

I'm just addressing your complaints. At times, Astrobot was fairly obvious and easier than Mario, while some other times, it was indeed harder.

Not even close Reggie.

Sounds like an awesome game - definately worth a look at in 2035 when you can grab a PS5 at a decent price.

Now it's time for Nintendo to beat Sony at their own game and make an M-rated Zelda game with FromSoftware.

@CaleBoi25 It'll probably be on Steam eventually.