“Astro Bot” for Sony’s Playstation: A bot to fall in love with | EUROtoday

Strichmännchen sind die angenehmsten Helden. Sie können, schon wegen ihrer schematischen Physiognomie, kaum Übles ausstrahlen. Was mit Comicfiguren wie Donald Duck oder Asterix begann, ging in den Achtzigern im Videospiel mit Heldinnen und Helden wie den Gianna Sisters oder Bomberman weiter. Sie führten das Erbe weiter, gute Laune mit wenigen Strichen und starken Grundfarben zu verbreiten.

Eigentlich dachte man, jede Androidin und jeder Elf seien schon erfunden. Aber diese Woche wird eine neue kindgerechte Games-Ikone geboren: Astro Bot. Ein kleiner Roboter, der in einem Hüpfspiel seine Freunde suchen muss. Er maunzt wie ein Kätzchen, stammt aus dem Weltall und springt sehr hoch. Und damit ist schon alles über ihn gesagt.

Dass der Hersteller Sony offenbar Millionen in eine simple und niedliche Figur investiert hat, ist überraschend. (Astro Bot kam schon in zwei kleinen Spielen für die VR-Brille vor, bekommt jetzt die Hauptrolle in einem eigenen.) Denn eigentlich sind Videospiele auf dem Weg zu immer mehr Hyperrealismus. Die ersten Bilder aus „GTA 6“ wirken wie eine Buddy-Komödie aus Miami (nur greller). Das Kriegsspiel „Call of Duty Black Ops 6“, das im Oktober kommt, wirkt echt bis in die verhärteten Kinnpartien der humorlosen Käm­pfer. Solche Bilder kann die Playstation 5. Was ihr fehlte: ein niedlicher, harmloser Held, den man einfach lieben muss.

The historical past of such characters is brief and unusual. It begins in 1983 with Super Mario, the small Italian plumber with a moustache. A visitor employee was the primary nice icon of the online game world. He hardly speaks, and when he does, it is just with exclamations like “Mamma mia!”. In the top, he will get the blonde princess within the pink gown. The outdated gender ratio was solely abolished within the newest of the greater than 20 elements of this recreation collection. Eight years later, Sega adopted up with Sonic the Hedgehog, a deep blue, lightning-fast hedgehog who has since had two motion pictures. And so it went on. The elf Link from “The Legend of Zelda”, the marsupial Crash Bandicoot, the Pokemon Pikachu, they have been all enormous successes. Only Sony by no means had its personal, utterly youth-friendly character.

So now, round 40 years late, the little robotic is right here. The excellent news is that the sport is effectively accomplished and enjoyable. For the primary time, the Playstation controller is a principal function, and an important sounds may be heard from the gadget you maintain in your hand whereas enjoying. And relying on the floor that Astro Bot is operating over, the sound and the texture in your hand change. You really feel like you may really feel stone, sand or snow. Astro Bot runs by means of colourful worlds the place the sky is all the time blue. In every degree, he seems to be for his personal variety, different little robotic buddies that must be free of bushes or bins. That sounds banal, but it surely works surprisingly easily and is a superb aid given the considerably harsh present online game world, which has just lately been dominated by horror and first-person shooters.

The ranges have names like “Sky Garden”. Most of them look tropical. And whenever you go on the “Az-Tech path”, the world is filled with clichés from the artwork of the Incas and Aztecs, all digital stones are carved with patterns and a devilishly grinning cactus rolls bombs beneath your toes. Other types of leisure are accused of “cultural appropriation” in such moments. The recreation is seemingly harmless sufficient to get away with it.

The most complicated worldwide recreation presently out there clearly invitations you to easily neglect the world outdoors. Wars, inflation and local weather – what function does all that play when you may race by means of the clouds with flamingos after which shake the pink leaves off magical bushes? Although “Astro Bot” does have a number of darkish ranges in between. And a inexperienced boss who seems to be suspiciously just like the slime ghost from “Ghostbusters”. His crime is that he broken a big Playstation and is now holding again the spare elements. Wonderful worlds wherein the largest downside is you could not play.