However, not everyone is quite so taken with PlayStation's new platformer, or if they are, it's with the caveat that Astro Bot has been studying the classics perhaps a little too closely.
A video posted to Twitter by Post Up from State of Gaming suggests that the origins of various elements and mechanics from the PS5 platformer can be traced back to one of Mario's 3D adventures. See what you think:
In the video above, clips not only from Super Mario games (specifically Sunshine, Odyssey, 64, and Galaxy 1 2,) but also Pikmin, ARMS, and Splatoon are shown to illustrate the inspiration Astro Bot devs Team Asobi seem to have taken directly from Nintendo.
Of course, developers are inspired by each other's work all the time, but this side-by-side compilation of Astro Bot clips paired with analogous Super Mario moments certainly highlights the many loving homages to Nintendo's greatest hits.
As you'd expect, replies to the post vary from vague agreement or surprise at how closely they align to total disagreement and calls that these mechanics have appeared in loads of other games over the years. (There's also a bunch of console-warmongering replies that we can't repeat here.)
The point is, fan opinion seems divided between Astro Bot being a love letter to Nintendo's finest work or the game copying Nintendo's homework "word for word." Nintendo itself rejuvenated the Zelda series with its take on open-world mechanics pioneered many years before by many other devs. Is this any different?
