Why Astro Bot should win Game of the Year

Astro Bot isn't the kind of game that usually wins Game of the Year. Team Asobi's rude botboy is pitted against a typical selection of hardcore games for hardcore gamers: 80-hour RPGs, highly demanding action games, and immersive open-world adventures that took thousands of developers years to craft.

So stuck to standards as this award is that they're trying to give Elden Ring the highest honor yet again. Astro Bot, meanwhile, a lively, happy, fun-for-the-whole-family affair, feels like it snuck onto the list (perhaps by shrinking down to the size of a mouse). GOTY is for real games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Sekiro, so what's the little Mario rip-off doing here?

And yet The Little Bot That Could is considered a front-runner this year – an obvious contender from the moment it launched to universal acclaim in early September. Before the arrival of Astro Bot, there really weren't any clear standouts, as the final nominees make clear.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was good, but didn't stay in the conversation for long (largely because it's for long and many never finished it). Black Myth: Wukong is popular, but reviewed worse than any other GOTY nominee so far. No one expected Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to be eligible, and Balatro, an obvious Best Indie nom, is even less of a GOTY-type game than Astro Bot. Unless you were one of the eight people who played Metaphor: ReFantazio last month, you probably voted Astro Bot game of the year back in September and haven't seen anything since that might change your mind.

Astro Bot is for everyone

And while Astro isn't the typical Game of the Year game, it's not the first of its kind. 2021's winner, It Takes Two, has much of the same charm, creativity and ingenuity as Astro Bot, while sharing the same 3D platformer genre. The comparison goes even deeper for me personally, as I played through Astro Bot by passing the controller back and forth with my partner who, despite my near-constant prodding, barely has a gamer leg in his body. In fact, It Takes Two was the last game we played together. She loved it, and she also loves Astro Bot. That's good enough for me.

Astro Bot should win Game of the Year for much the same reason It Takes Two did: it has the most potential to touch the most people. Astro Bot is a game that satisfies the desires of the gaming audience while also appealing to the casual and non-gaming audience. It is the games that manage to inspire the widest audience that deserve the highest award. If people who don't even play games are connecting to Astro Bot, there must be something deeply special about it.

Games this good don't come along every day

For us students of the craft, it's easy to see Astro's genius. It's an exceptionally well-paced and beautifully crafted experience filled with unbridled creativity. Team Asobi held nothing back in designing Astro Bot and it shows in every exciting level, every ingenious power-up and every delightful Easter egg. Any of the dozens of mechanics introduced in Astro Bot are strong enough to carry their own game, but Team Asobi had the confidence to throw them all out before they could become stale, and the talent to follow each one up with an even cooler , more exciting mechanics in the next level (and the next, and the next).

Rarely are games this delightful so packed with compelling gameplay, but Astro Bot manages to strike the perfect balance between white-knuckle precision platforming and joyous, unguided exploration. It is sometimes the embodiment of pure play, offering aimless interactivity in a world full of curiosities, and sometimes intensely demanding of your reflexes and muscle memory. But whether you're dressing up as a cow and dancing with Crash Bandi bot or frantically spraying lava with a rubber duckie to create tiny trails while gripping the controller so hard you might break it, Astro Bot is unique in its vision and flawless in its execution.

I don't know if I've ever played a game whose “side content” feels as mandatory as Astro Bots. Every collectible bot, puzzle piece, and bonus level is so well implemented that it feels crucial to the experience; done with so much care an intention that you feel compelled to do and see everything. There's no fat to trim, no triple-A bloat to find. Everything Astro has to offer is worth your time and attention. A 10/10 if ever there was one. The other nominees are great in some ways and flawed in others, but Astro Bot is as flawless as a game can be, and it deserves to win Game of the Year.