Gran Turismo Crosses Over to Astro’s Playroom With New Special Bot Challenge

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Almost four years on from its launch as a PlayStation 5 demo, Astro's Playroom has finally included a nostalgic nod to Gran Turismo by way of a new "Special Bot" challenge.

Over the past couple of months, the folks over at Team Asobi have been promoting the upcoming Astro Bot title with a series of sidequests in the Astro's Playroom. This compact title served as both a tech demo for the DualSense controller and an unashamed celebration of PlayStation heritage.

If you're not familiar with Astro's Playroom, we've got nothing to say to you until you've gone and played it. Aside from being free and bundled with every PS5, it's a great little platformer that's absolutely crammed with references to the history of PlayStation.

In fact there's a special area that gradually fills up with PS hardware items as you collect them through gameplay, from consoles to little-known add-ons like the PocketStation and PSP GPS receiver. However, despite being the best-selling franchise in PlayStation history, references to GT are few and far between. There's a gold Trophy called "A Grand Tour", but when you consider there's another, silver Trophy called "Omega Booster" — referencing Polyphony Digital's non-racing title — it's not much.

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That's changed with a new Special Bot challenge, which is the third of four such monthly events in the lead up to the launch of Astro Bot. The first two, in June and July, referenced Bloodborne and Returnal, and September's will be Ape Escape, but we're interested in August's release of the Gran Turismo bot.

You'll need to go through quite a few special steps to unlock the Gran Turismo bot, as with the previous two, and it's quite a complicated affair.

To start off, head to the Bot Beach section of the Cooling Springs area. From there, you'll need to go stand on some stars laid out on the beach and in the water but only some of them and in a specific order. That'll reveal the captive Special Bot and a clue which looks like an arrow drawing a complex path.

After that, head over to the other side of the beach and smash a shell to reveal a steering wheel peripheral which looks similar to an old Logitech GT Force wheel. Then you'll need to hit the pause menu and move the selector over the level icons in the same pattern as the arrow in the clue.

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That'll free the Special Bot in a neat little animation, and award you the "Grand Tourist" bronze trophy, as well as placing the bot into a little corner of the "Secret Labo" area inside the PlayStation Labo.

It's not just a neat little addition though. Astro Bot will be based around rescuing Special Bots from around various levels, and collecting these four bots now will unlock them in your game from launch.

Astro Bot launches September 6 on PlayStation 5, priced at $59.99 for the regular edition and $69.99 for the Digital Deluxe version.