The first Astro Bot impressions suggest that PlayStation finally has a game that can challenge Mario's platforming crown

Astro Bot is here and the reviews are outstanding - in fact, Sony's new platformer is getting the kind of praise typically reserved for Mario games. One throughline in all the early praise is that PlayStation might finally have a contender against Nintendo's platforming crown.

Our own Astro Bot review gives the game five stars and calls it "a near-perfect platformer to rival – and possibly surpass – the best of Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom romps." Our praise isn't an outlier, either, as Astro Bot has now surpassed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as the highest-rated game of 2024 , and one of the best-rated games of all time.

More precisely, it's the 76th best-rated game of all time according to Metacritic's rankings. In terms of platformers, it's darn near unmatched - except by a small handful of Mario games. The only platformers to match Astro Bot's aggregate score are the GBA upgrade of Super Mario Bros 3 (94), Super Mario Galaxy (97), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (97), and Super Mario Odyssey (97). There's one more contender in Sony's own LittleBigPlanet (95), but it's worth remembering that LBP was always lauded far more for its creation tools than its actual platforming.

Critics and influencers with early access have been quick to compare Astro Bot to 3D Mario titles, too, with many of them sharing their reviews on social media alongside lines like "the best 3D platformer since Super Mario Galaxy," "the best 3D platformer I've played since Mario Galaxy 2," and "the best 3D platformer I've played since Super Mario Odyssey."

I'm particularly interested in comments from MinnMax's Ben Hanson, who says "Astro Bot is my favorite 3D platformer of all time. It's rock solid. It's pure joy. You're all in for a treat." Directly comparing it to previous 3D Mario games, Hanson says "It's much simpler, but dense and solid. No downtime or complaints."

So will Astro Bot manage to take Mario's crown? The fun part is that it doesn't matter. Regardless of which 3D platformer ends up being your favorite at the end of the day, it's simply incredible that we have another genre entry that's so quickly entered the 'all-timer' conversation. We're all winners here.

Astro Bot confidently stands among the best PS5 games .