My children have been asking to play Astro Bot, so I recorded our experiences together and took notes about what it's like playing games with young kids.
"I wish Astro Bot had a mode like Super Mario Galaxy, where a second player could be involved in the action."
This isn't exactly that, but you can connect another Dual Sense controller and help your daughter with the tough parts. It came in an accessibility update not long ago.
I just want to say how much I appreciate the part about you getting frustrated. So much parenting media presents anything remotely like that as a parenting failure, which is pretty disingenuous! And it rings doubly true for anyone who has tried to teach a highly opinionated kid how to do something in a game. This felt way more honest, and I think is important to put out there.
Oh, no problem. It happens. I think the trick is catching yourself, and trying to figure out a path forward for the two of you. Parenting is hard under the best of circumstances, and it's okay to tell your child "hey, your approach is frustrating me."
My 4 year old son is blasting through Astro Bot. I was playing an early level, since he's much farther than I am, and he was backseat gaming me the whole time haha
What my eight-year-old has had the most trouble with is the concept of the player-controlled camera, and the fact that she's basically responsible for the view of the action.
Yes! It's SUCH a big leap for kids to figure that part out, I wish more games automated it. I don't care if the result is a camera that doesn't always function right, it's one less thing for them to think about.
It's been super interesting to see how my kids have reacted to the game, as they both enjoyed Astro's Playroom and I've showed them trailers of this. They're 8-year-old twins but with different gaming habits. One almost exclusively plays Geometry Dash on his iPad, while the other flits around, largely playing on his Switch (EA FC, Mario Wonder/3D World, Pokemon, Mario Kart, etc.). The one who plays Geometry Dash got tired of mistimed jumps because of the camera pretty quickly, but he still really enjoys watching it because it's so dang delightful. (He recently said his favorite TV show is "Watching Dad play Astro Bot.") The other, with more practice in these types of games, has stuck with it. He's gotten frustrated at times if his brother is watching and providing commentary, but he's been making solid progress! He'll ask for me to help him through certain parts sometimes, but he did over the weekend beat the Octopus boss on his first try. I think the biggest hitch for him is the requirement to have collected a certain number of bots to unlock the bosses, since some of them are trickier to get, even if you're replaying with the bird and know where they are.
Still, one of the best family games we've ever had on the PS5, and I'm really hopeful the next iteration has co-op!
(BTW, I've Platinum'd the game myself at this point, and it's been a fun point of pride to show them videos of some of the insane challenge levels that I've beaten. 35 years of gaming has finally paid off!)
I had the same observation about the number of bots, actually! The game makes that requirement surprisingly strict as you go along. I was being careful and cleaning up every level as I went through them, but I can see lots of players going "okay, well, I'll do that once I beat the game" and eventually the game is like "no, go back now." It's an interesting choice.
"I wish Astro Bot had a mode like Super Mario Galaxy, where a second player could be involved in the action."
This isn't exactly that, but you can connect another Dual Sense controller and help your daughter with the tough parts. It came in an accessibility update not long ago.
https://nerdschalk.com/add-second-controller-ps5-playstation-5/
Oh, I'd missed that. I'll have to do that when we boot it up next! That's clever.
I just want to say how much I appreciate the part about you getting frustrated. So much parenting media presents anything remotely like that as a parenting failure, which is pretty disingenuous! And it rings doubly true for anyone who has tried to teach a highly opinionated kid how to do something in a game. This felt way more honest, and I think is important to put out there.
Oh, no problem. It happens. I think the trick is catching yourself, and trying to figure out a path forward for the two of you. Parenting is hard under the best of circumstances, and it's okay to tell your child "hey, your approach is frustrating me."
My 4 year old son is blasting through Astro Bot. I was playing an early level, since he's much farther than I am, and he was backseat gaming me the whole time haha
Incredible. My four-year-old does the same, though she doesn't have the tools to really play much of it yet.
What my eight-year-old has had the most trouble with is the concept of the player-controlled camera, and the fact that she's basically responsible for the view of the action.
Yes! It's SUCH a big leap for kids to figure that part out, I wish more games automated it. I don't care if the result is a camera that doesn't always function right, it's one less thing for them to think about.
It's been super interesting to see how my kids have reacted to the game, as they both enjoyed Astro's Playroom and I've showed them trailers of this. They're 8-year-old twins but with different gaming habits. One almost exclusively plays Geometry Dash on his iPad, while the other flits around, largely playing on his Switch (EA FC, Mario Wonder/3D World, Pokemon, Mario Kart, etc.). The one who plays Geometry Dash got tired of mistimed jumps because of the camera pretty quickly, but he still really enjoys watching it because it's so dang delightful. (He recently said his favorite TV show is "Watching Dad play Astro Bot.") The other, with more practice in these types of games, has stuck with it. He's gotten frustrated at times if his brother is watching and providing commentary, but he's been making solid progress! He'll ask for me to help him through certain parts sometimes, but he did over the weekend beat the Octopus boss on his first try. I think the biggest hitch for him is the requirement to have collected a certain number of bots to unlock the bosses, since some of them are trickier to get, even if you're replaying with the bird and know where they are.
Still, one of the best family games we've ever had on the PS5, and I'm really hopeful the next iteration has co-op!
(BTW, I've Platinum'd the game myself at this point, and it's been a fun point of pride to show them videos of some of the insane challenge levels that I've beaten. 35 years of gaming has finally paid off!)
I had the same observation about the number of bots, actually! The game makes that requirement surprisingly strict as you go along. I was being careful and cleaning up every level as I went through them, but I can see lots of players going "okay, well, I'll do that once I beat the game" and eventually the game is like "no, go back now." It's an interesting choice.