Astro's Playroom is, by far, the best pre-packaged game ever released with a console. Not only that, it's an early contender for my GOTY this year.
While this game is fairly short (maybe 4-5 hours if you do everything), every single minute with this game is an absolute joy. I haven't smiled this much playing a game in years. The game revolves around the history of Playstation and you enter into 4 different world with linked levels that explore the history of the Playstation consoles and games. The "secrets" you find are Playstation consoles and gear from throughout the years. Finding these is an absolute joy and brings you back to your childhood when you sat around playing Crash Bandicoot with your friends. The game is also chock full of game references, from the obvious like Tomb Raider or Metal Gear Solid, to the obscure games that you've never heard of. The references are always totally adorable. Basically, little robots act out different scenes from Playstation video games and you can sit there and watch them or just totally ignore them and move right along. The level of love and care the developers put into this game is not even usually seen in AAA games, let alone a boxed-in game with a console.
Each of the 4 areas has 4 levels. 2 of these levels are general platforming sections, with added in features that show off the new Playstation 5 controller. These features are more impressive than you would imagine. You can actually *feel* what surface you're walking on, you can feel the wind pushing you back through your controller, and my favorite was the fact that you could feel and hear the raindrops in your controller. It's pretty incredible what this controller is capable of. The other 2 levels in each section are the "gimmick" sections, where you play as a ball you have to roll or as a spring that jumps around, etc. Your character turns into whatever character it is and it makes the game into something totally different. Each level is short, maybe 5-10 minutes long, so they are easy to replay to go find all the hidden secrets.
And these hidden Playstation artifacts you find actually show up in a room in the game that you can visit. You can even interact with the artifacts, like jumping on a PS One and the CD tray opens. You can hear the original playstaion music startup when you interact with it. The game is just an absolute joy from start to finish. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the epic soundtrack, full of electronic beeps and boops, that add to the fun of the game.
The only downsides to this game are 1) It's a little too short; and 2) it's a little too easy. Other than that, this is an early contender for my 2021 GOTY.
9.5/10