Team Asobi wanted Astro Bot's cameos to encourage kids to go back and play the classics, so when is Sony going to let that happen?

Astro Bot is two things at once: in the first instance, it's a delightful little platform with some really good "damn the PS5 actually is a powerful console" moments and level design that makes you feel smart. In the second, and slightly more depressing instance, it's a reminder of everything that PlayStation isn't anymore thanks to its bounty of cameos from across the platform's 30 year history.

Off the bat I'd understand if you felt that this just feels like one big expensive ad for the console, particularly considering the whole aim is to repair your spaceship, which is literally a PS5, and there are even some levels themed around specific iconic PlayStation games. But playing it, Astro Bot feels a lot more sincere than that, and you can feel the love that was put into it from Team Asobi. It's clear everyone there loves all the games that make an appearance in Astro Bot, especially when paired with some behind the scenes videos PlayStation put out talking to the devs themselves.

Astro Bot - Behind The Scenes Series EP3: PlayStation Fiesta | PS5 Games

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There's one specific episode that drew my attention, the third one, which focuses on the cameos themselves, where Team Asobi's studio director Nicolas Doucet had this to say: "One of the hopes we have is that the young generations will come across these special characters, and then would be inspired to go off to these older games and actually try them for themselves."

It's a comment I wholeheartedly agree with, especially because of how much modern games *cough* live-service games *cough* just want to keep you occupied with busywork and take your money with battle passes and microtransactions (yes I know I sound out of touch, you can jog on). There's just a small problem: plenty of them aren't even playable on modern consoles.

We're (somewhat) lucky that there are a number of classic titles available through PlayStation Plus, such as the Jak and Daxter series or Ratchet and Clank, but only the former has actual ports you can buy on PS4 - the latter you have to stream from the cloud. Still, while imperfect at least you can play the original Ratchet and Clanks, but what about all the games that aren't on there?

Take, for example, the very niche Devil Dice. It has a cameo, in fact a very specific one with a whole room that's one tiny homage to the PS1 game, but it's just not available to buy anywhere. OK, fine, this one was technically made by THQ, but do you know who helped on it? One of the best studios to have ever existed, and the original home of Team Asobi, Japan Studio.

You'll find plenty of fun references to plenty of Japan Studio's library, from titles it developed all by itself, to some like Devil Dice it just helped out on. There's also Boku as a cameo, from the Japan-only Boku no Natsuyasumi, a beautiful little game that fans have been begging to receive a translation for, but haven't received just yet. Or there's Vibri, from Vib-Ribbon, another title Japan Studio helped on and a bonafide PS1 classic. I haven't even mentioned Toro Inoue from Doko Demo Issyo, PlayStation Japan's mascot for many years, and a game that never made it over here.

Sure, not all of these games are going to be for everyone, but they should be available to everyone just so they can at least say that it's not for them. I'd even say that the cloud streaming versions of PS3 games isn't really making them available, because what happens when PlayStation inevitably decides that it just isn't worth it? Is shitty, laggy cloud streaming really how we want the next generation to play Ico, the other most influential game besides Zelda on Dark Souls?

There is so much that just isn't readily available for the younger generation to play, a subscription service with too many tiers and ridiculous limits will just send them straight back to Fortnite, and yeah Fortnite is a fun enough time, but it's still just Fortnite. Yes, I do know that I'm making an argument in favour of preservation here, an act that businesses will never care about because it's not very possible. But maybe PlayStation just shouldn't have allowed someone to make a game showing people everything it doesn't have.