ℹ️ - Astro Bot's Hidden Photo Mode
Developer: Team Asobi
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PS5
Initial Release: 6th September 2024
After the delightful success of Astro's Playroom as a free launch title on PS5, Team Asobi's characterful robot is back with a full-scale 3D platforming adventure. This time, the PS5 mothership that housed the first game has suffered the kind of crash that would make you fear for your hardware. Scattering components and some 300 bots across more than 50 planets that bring many more varied levels and all sorts of environments to explore.
As you'd expect, rescuing the stranded crew is another treat for nostalgia-loving fans with over 150 robotic versions of classic and contemporary characters to find. Some even open up their own themed level with unique gameplay, and everywhere you go is enriched by the studios typically adorable animations and iconic Astro eyes.
It's certainly not short on charm and personality that help to make this a glorious way to celebrate 30 years of PlayStation history while also giving you something to play with in the hidden photo mode. Yes, there is a camera to discover too along with all the cameos, although it may feel a bit more like part of the tributes than anything truly useful for virtual photography.
To get your hands on it, you'll need to play a fair chunk of the game first and acquire 64 of the 116 puzzle pieces that are hidden across the levels. That means completing at least the first 3 galaxies along with finding some of the pieces at the Crash Site and the similarly concealed Lost Galaxy.
Once you have enough pieces, head back to the Crash Site where one of the completed jigsaw puzzles will build the Safari Park booth. As soon as you go into this new zone, you'll be given a Polaroid-style camera that unlocks the photo mode for use in any area by simply pressing D-Pad ↑.
As photo modes go, this is very much a basic one. It does at least freeze the action though, letting you explore the endlessly adorable robots and beautiful environments with the camera, albeit within a pretty small area around Astro. It's also a free camera with the LS & RS giving easy control of its lateral movement, pan, and tilt, while L1 / R1 will shift the camera vertically up and down.
Camera roll makes interesting use of the controller's motion sensors, but this is disappointingly limited to something less than 20°! Overly keen collision detection is also a problem, especially with the floor where the photo mode camera cannot even get as low as the in-game camera manages.
This frustrating limitation, along with the fact that there is no field of view adjustment of any sort, is a real shame and restricts the compositional freedom quite a lot. If you are prepared to overlook that though, then it is possible to get into a bit of a casual groove with this camera and it can be a lot of fun to augment Astro's antics with one of the 10 facial emotes.
The one slightly technical feature that this little photo mode does boast is an auto-focus that is perfectly fitting for the game as it uses some of the haptic features of the controller. Just like on a real camera, half-pressing R2 until you feel some resistance will trigger the auto-focus detection. A centre reticle turns green when the focus locks-on and the background blur fades in automatically to give the shot a more photographic look as you fully press the button to release the shutter.
As pleasing as that added depth of field is, that's as far as the optical features go and you can see what I mean about this feeling kind of like a simplistic tribute to photo modes. That's actually an idea that I could quite enjoy given the context of the game. After all, it was PlayStation that brought the first in-game photo mode to the world with Gran Turismo 4 way back in 2004, and support for the feature has grown tremendously in PlayStation Studios releases over the last 6 or 7 years.
Let's not forget the PS4's SHARE button either, a crucial element in getting people to share their content and a feature that has since been replicated on most other platforms. These have undoubtedly contributed to the growing the art of virtual photography and helped it to reach the popularity that it currently enjoys.
That said, I do think that the game deserves more, not least because of the beautifully crisp texture details that match the haptic sensations and wonderfully varied animations that Team Asobi do so well. Even just adding field of view and reducing the camera collision box would make all the difference.
On the plus side, the current direction really does fit well in the game. Much like the always entertaining face-in-the-hole boards that can be found in various levels, and the hundreds of cameos and character appearances, the camera is still able to put a smile on your face. If Astro Bot is the ultimate tribute to PlayStation, this hidden camera is a fun way to capture your own nostalgic keepsakes.
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