Astro Bot Revamped Crossovers Better Than Fortnite Ever Did With a Real Soul: A True Game of the Year Contender?

Team Asobi’s latest title, Astro Bot, is a love letter to the PlayStation. This mascot platformer takes you through multiple linear levels and sprinkles them with just the right amount of nostalgia and Easter eggs to keep the players engaged. Despite its linear design, players will want to explore every nook and cranny of Astro Bot’s levels to ensure nothing is left behind. 

Backed by an excellent soundtrack and some stunning mechanics, Astro Bot is easily one of the best games of 2024. You don’t have to take our word for it, though, as this title has been nominated for the 2024 Game of the Year awards. With a Metacritic score of 94, it wouldn’t be surprising if it won it all.

Does Astro Bot deserve to win the 2024 Game of the Year award?

Astro Bot has been crafted with love and is celebrated by the masses for all its platforming goodness. It has only been two months since the game came out, and fans still can’t stop raging over the cuteness of the bots and the beauty of this title as a whole.

While the enemies in this title leave a lot to be desired, it can easily be compared to Super Mario when it first came out. If a game draws comparisons with Mario, then it has already solidified its place as one of the best platformers.

What Team Asobi has been able to achieve with this title is massive, and it most definitely deserves its place amongst the 2024 Game of the Year nominees. However, with games like Metaphor: ReFantazio, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Balatro, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and Black Myth: Wukong also contending for GOTY, Astro Bot could fall short. 

Balatro is an indie masterpiece, so apart from that, all the other games on the GOTY nominees list have bigger audiences than Astro Bot. Combine that with the fact that this title is not everyone’s cup of tea, and its chances of winning the 2024 GOTY start to look like a long shot, despite it being fully worthy of the honor. 

Astro Bot doesn’t just deserve to win because it is an excellent game; it’s also worthy because of how it has innovated with its level design and has completely revamped crossovers by making them better than Fortnite ever did. Let’s take a closer look at what we mean by this. 

Astro Bot’s Crossovers have more soul to them than Fortnite ever did

If something is relevant in pop culture today, then there is a good chance that you’ll see it in Fortnite within a few weeks. Fortnite often does crossovers with many different games and iconic characters, but their crossovers lack soul.

More often than not, a Fortnite crossover means that you’ll be getting a new pass along with a couple of POIs that don’t really have a ton of impact on the map. 

Astro Bot, on the other hand, handles their crossovers with a lot of heart. Often the game will take you to the world of another franchise owned by PlayStation. During your time in this different world, you’ll get to see a ton of Easter eggs, get access to unique mechanics limited to that world, and you will also get to see cameos from iconic characters dressed as one of the many bots in this game. 

That feeling of diving into an old world but experiencing it anew is something that Fortnite will never be able to replicate. Moreover, Astro Bot will bombard you with nostalgia and Easter eggs, but the developers have found a sweet balance that never lets you feel overwhelmed.

This attention to detail and excellent level design is just one of many reasons that make Astro Bot a true Game of the Year contender. What do you think about Astro Bot being in the running for the 2024 GOTY award? Let us know in the comments below.

This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire