Astro’s Playroom goes a step further by setting itself entirely inside your PlayStation 5, with the four worlds based on the SSD, GPU, and other major components. While platforming games do not appeal to everyone, players can spend a few good hours going through obstacle courses and hunting a few easter eggs tucked away by the developers. If you just bought a PlayStation 5 or had one at launch, it would be a shame to miss experiencing a game that is completely free in 2025.

Every Easter Egg In Astro’s Playroom

The manta ray was the second tech demo available on the pack-in Demo 1 disc to showcase the console’s prowess, depicting a manta ray swimming in the ocean with a school of fish. In the Labo area is a Bot using a PS1 controller to drive a red car around him. This references Ridge Racer, released on the PS1 in 1994 and developed by Namco. The car being driven is the one of the game’s boxart, the F/A Fiera, also known as the Kamata Fiera. At the second Checkpoint, look left to spot a giant white robot with a rock club, and a Bot with a sword and tunic on a tiny pinnacle in front of him.

While linear, the space feels open enough to have a ton of details throughout. The basics are you’re traversing the area, trying to find items and coins as you reach the next level. Some of the levels have power-ups that are creative in form and function. For example, you’ll get a frog suit controlled through motion controls and the R2 adaptive trigger. There are 789win hidden special collectibles in the levels too that I won’t spoil but they play into the other part of this game and that is how it is a love letter to PlayStation fans everywhere. Every level is full of references and Easter eggs to hardware and games that have released over the course of PlayStation’s 25-year history.

While hunting for realistic depictions of PlayStation systems or spotting a robot wearing the costume of a beloved PlayStation mascot may stick out, it all feels of apiece with Astro’s charming overall design. Running at a smooth 4K 60fps, Astro’s world may not be massive and require huge draw distances or populate the screen with hundreds of enemies, but it’s certainly pretty. Natural environments come together with PS5 internal parts and other pieces of hardware in a beautiful blend of the environmental with the technological.

Astro’s Playroom Media

Go under the bridge and immediately on your right pull the exposed cable cords to grab a throwable canister with a net inside. Punch the shell to reveal a steering wheel, then stand in front of it push the Options button to bring up the map. Go to the far right corner of the beach, next to the building, on the opposite side of where the Gran Turismo Astro Bot is. Proceed through the stage as normal until you reach the first dynamite enemy.

It’s a lot of fun to scale up these objects, and each one has a cool animation. Granted, it’s only a startup noise or something getting popped open. You can tell how much love Team Asobi put into this celebration of PlayStation. You become entranced with all the functions, but it doesn’t stop there.

There’s even a Trophies section to help you earn that coveted Platinum Trophy. The robots from the VR classic find new footing on the PS5 in Astro’s Playroom from the PS5 reveal event. When you return to the main hub area of Astro’s Playroom, the gigantic PS5 Pro will be displayed next to the base PS5, with a little Astro Bot perched on top. Simply interact with each one, help the bots lift up the rock, and they will be added to your collection.

The EyeToy camera was a webcam that allowed the player to participate in mixed-reality minigames, where their body is able to interact with the games on-screen. This makes it a precursor of sorts to Xbox’s Kinect seven years later. The use among games would vary, but it’s most influential game was Toro’s first game, Doko Demo Issyo in 1999, turning him into a PS1 mascot in Japan. Since Memory Cards were sold separately, many PlayStation 1 games (like Crash Bandicoot) offered a password system that allowed you to return to where you left off with all your progress. Sony would later release a USB adapter to connect PS1 and PS2 Memory Cards to a PlayStation 3, even PS3s that couldn’t play those games.

This is the old name for Sony Interactive Entertainment, which changed to that name in 2016. Throughout Astro’s Playroom, notably the Labo area and SSD Speedway, you’ll find boxes of Data with 8MB printed on them. This references the PlayStation 2 Memory Card, which had a capacity of 8 Megabytes. Along the top edge of the ceiling in the Labo area are architectural elements that are from the PSone, the slim version of the original PlayStation. The two blank slots reference the Memory Card ports, which have flaps on them. In the PlayStation Labo area, the wall skirting just above the floor contain references to various PlayStation hardware ports.

The other two are much weaker in comparison, considering the frog suit in Cooling Sprints is heavy to use with directional launching and motion controls. Meanwhile, the monkey suit in GPU Jungle is very frustrating to use outside of the cool swinging action due to the weird timing and its usage of the motion controls. For the next part of our Astro’s Playroom guide, we’re going to answer any remaining questions or queries you may have about the game.

There are a few things that elevate Astro from being just another fun-but-forgettable platformer. I still remember the first time I played Super Mario 64, and how amazed I was that pushing the analog stick slightly would make Mario walk, while a stronger push would make him run. Playing Astro’s Playroom with the DualSense is a similar experience.

This includes all the aforementioned key areas of levels with physical mandatory controls, but also some minor elements that appear briefly through the game. Further mandatory physical interaction with the controller includes blowing into the microphone and flicking your finger to launch Astro like a slingshot. Whilst there are serious problems, I personally found these to have a workaround that made them doable.

What caught me off guard the most was the hub area, CPU Plaza, having surprise platforming sections along its walls that spring to life instantly. However, the gameplay highlights in Astro’s Playroom are the special suits of the four areas. Astro’s Playroom is not a particularly difficult game, so you shouldn’t really have too much trouble finishing it regardless of your ability level. Nevertheless, in this final part of our Astro’s Playroom guide we’re going to share some tips and tricks to help get you started. Explore four worlds, each one showcasing innovative gameplay using the new and versatile features of the PS5 DualSense™ wireless controller.