I love the phrase "They understand the assignment so well, that they understand it better than the people assigning the assignment" so much, that is incredible just like this game!
30:00 That device was made specifically for the smaller version of the OG Playstation: The 'PSOne'. The consoles was small enough to fit comfortably into a backpack and my brother and I would take it with us (and a few games) wherever we went. So that's what the monitor was for since you weren't always guaranteed to have a television with RBY inputs OR the grownups were using the TV wherever it was you were going. On that note, we didn't actually own one of the monitors, but we wanted one... Oh did we ever. Also the mouse was used for point and click adventure games as well as a few arcade light gun game ports.
I love how the product models you can view all have little details like production stickers, pressing buttons on your controller presses that button on the model and sometimes have additional interactions in the model viewer. And that's before you get to actual museum room where can press all the buttons to do fun things like see all the console bootup sequences and disc drives open/close.
Dan, I am 42. I remember watching my best friend's grandmother trying out the cool new joystick she got for her PC so she could play Centipede. I remember pressing the light gun directly to the television because I was mad at the dog for laughing at me every time I missed a duck. Of course I remember the black coating of PS1 disks. I remember the black knockoff NES cartridges Atari made.
Yeah, I'm 45, I just kind of laugh most times Dan says "remember when", because yeah, I do. Just like I remember my back not hurting. Like, I remember that it didn't hurt at some point, not that I remember how that felt. 🥲
Fun Fact: Sony, like many Japanese companies, actually does have a cute mascot character. They just mainly use them in Japan. It's a pair of cats. They don't appear much outside of Japan but they were a character in PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. I think the white cat is called Taro. Edit: 41:30 And here they are.
Astro's Playroom was an unmitigated joy, I platinumed that baby and cannot WAIT to play Astro Bot someday soon. Also just shoutout the Elden Ring play through which i am slowly chipping away at on my lunch breaks. 57 eps deep and still going strong Thanks for the good vibes and keep up the good work.
@@ICountFrom0 Imagine id, after Doom: The Dark Ages, announcing a Jumping Flash spiritual successor where you play as Daisy. People would lose their MINDS.
25:55 I do remember those. I had done it with the GameCube for a few games haha. But, this also has me thinking about Memory Cards for yeah it felt weird buying a whole additional product just for the ability to save your progress, yet with that I just realized it would be like getting an external hard drive where you could easily bring it over to a friend's place with their own Playstation console to share your progress or if traveling then being able to continue your progress on a game with along bringing that disc with you assuming if at the location a friend or family member also had a console. In a way maybe it could have encouraged some folks to gift each other consoles so that then you'd don't have to travel with added luggage with a bulky game system-computer as well. But now either it's only saved to your console or in the cloud with sorta being 'locked with' a console or online account to my own understanding. (For which I think perhaps a regular hard drive could be hooked up with modern consoles yet a thought is having it set up to have internal memory as well external memory - and by extent being able to copy files from one to the other easily) = Though I realize having internal memory would limit the need for external memory in that process and by extent profit wise would it then still be feasible to manufacture. - Adding to this, while drafting this I shared the above part with a older friend who lived before the Game Cube era I was in and they added: "I think there is a lot of context missing on memory cards [(in response to what I, myself, wrote above)]. As someone who lived through most of the consoles, they were expensive with some markup. Some of it was function of saving data and going to a friend's house, but the real reason was the cost of the chips/storage. We live in a time where data storage is significantly cheap. Back then adding that extra memory was either technically limited or it would shoot the price of the entire console past a price point that people could not afford or competitor consoles would beat. Without social forums like we have post 2008, word of mouth and price point played a huge aspect of success. The market that grew from that was more a reactionary market but to your point it did open up unique things like traveling." Which I found neat to include. 31:53 I like how the nostalgia became a bit of an obstacle with trying to remember and then switching back to playing/moving resulting in being flipped. 32:24 Nice platforming! 41:18 Also that sound! I always had found both like futuristic and as well ominously "still" with like the long tone of it. 42:57 Funny that they're called artifacts - it makes me feel old x D 44:06 Lolol, maybe they'll stick the landing. 47:53 Cool!
That PSOne bootup sound is permanently in my brain and almost always brings me back to The Legend of Dragoon which got me into gaming in the first place.
29:49 we had one of those and would play the PlayStation in the car on long road trips. You could plug the system into the cigarette lighter port of old cars. A core memory was playing tales of destiny 2, not saving and dad started the car after filling up at a gas station which blinked the power and lost hours of progress
4:20: So the boosty thing isn't just a platforming tool, but a puzzle-platforming tool. Dan compared the polish of _Astro's Playroom_ to Mario games in general, but I suspect there's a more specific (and sunnier) comparison we could make. 13:35: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a chibi robot falling back and forth in the mud-forever. 17:50: Because consoles want to be PCs _so bad._ (says the PC gamer) 27:05: My brother and I got a Playstation when our uncle got a PS2, and we basically played whatever PS1 games wound up at the local game shop. The only ones I remember offhand were _Tomb Raider,_ some kind of RTS with plastic toy soldiers and vehicles, and the demo disc. And I wasn't any good at _Tomb Raider._ And that was the only console we had as kids. I wonder how my relationship with gaming in general and consoles in specific if I'd had access to more good PS1 games. One of the JRPGs, maybe. 34:05: Insane commitment to the aesthetic. 40:15: Apparently it's a PDA and "memory card peripheral," and some PS1 games "included software that could be downloaded and played on the PocketStation". Seems like a game that's more fun to play than to watch. Which is its intent, but I'm not sure what it offers to someone who doesn't have the controller in their hand? Aside from a smidge of nostalgia, I guess? But I think I've exhausted my personal store of Playstation-branded nostalgia in this comment.
30:02 immediate thing I could see that good for? Going to some relative’s house that may only have one TV in the living room the adults will be talking in. So you take that to another room and have fun there! Kinda like how I would use my gameboy when I didn’t have batteries but did have my A/C adapter. /o/
Also in any one-TV household, that would have been a life saver when the parents claim it for themselves (though I don't know the price point on that peripheral, if it wasn't cheap enough there was no way it would have been bought for this reason).
Why is all the music so CATCHY?! My partner recently showed me Astrobot and I'm looking forward to more of the game! It's so incredibly delightful. They did amazing work on these games! Dan, I love your commentary and historical knowledge, even if you're not always correct (I wouldn't know if you or Carrie didn't point it out, lol). It just makes the game all the better to have someone in the industry explaining the references I don't know!
Having never owned a Playstation nor even held a PS controller more than maybe twice in my entire life... even I still feel some nostalgia coming off of this game just due to my knowledge of Playstation's impact on gaming over the decades. I'm stunned that this game can make me miss a segment of gaming history I was never a part of. Bravo!
Ohhh my gosh!! This game is so fun, I'm so excited to see you play it here on the channel! I play it often, and it's a fun time every time! Asobi indeed understood the assignment quite well, and for that, I tip my hat to that studio and team.
The haptic rumble technology works surprisingly "simple". Traditional rumble modules are just small weights, that spin at different velocities to rumble. But haptic rumble pretty much works exactly as a loud speaker's audio-membrane. But instead of a thin membrane to create sound, it's a thick piece of metal, that vibrates. They are literally using sound files to make the controller shake lol (remember on Switch, Kirby Star Allies, where they put some game boy Kirby song into the Joy-Cons' rumble feature in one of the secret levels)
To be clear, this isn't Astro Bot, but rather, Astro's Playroom. This is the short tech demo that came out in 2020, not the full game that came out this year.
Same, the timing was impeccable with this one lol, but like the guy above me said, this is not the game Jacob was praising it's the demo that came before that
Ok, this is ADORABLE 😍 this may be the first time I'm extremely jealous of a console generation that I'm not part of! I can't wait to see you play the rest of this, Dan!
I think I'm a little bit younger than Dan, and I did not grow up with a Nintendo anything (tell a lie, but the game boy I had was my brother's old and only had a marble game), so much of my nostalgia is for the PS1 and for the games on there. Especially the platformers. Remember not being able to sleep before a trip, so I sat and played Spyro at 3am. Yes, Nintendo has hooked you better and keeps the hooks in, too, with the franchises and I will say that it's got a bigger piece of the cultural significance and osmosis, too, but nostalgia will crop up just about anywhere with anything.
For a minute I thought you were gonna play Astro Bot but hey this is perfect too, and fingers crossed that you do an Astrobot playthrough! I wonder what Mario game you will play this year though
PS1 discs were black, early PS2 games which still used CD-ROMs were blue, whereas the DVD-ROMs were silver or gold, and the console's menu would actually display the disc in the right color :)
Oh boy, now there's some nostalgia I didn't even know I had buried. Now I vividly remember the days I spent playing that and other PS1 games with my old childhood friends. Dan's right about the good will they can foster with such nostalgia bait. I've never desired a console in years, but now I've got a twinge of desire for the old PlayStation library.
Just got around to getting all the collectables on my own playthrough in this despite having it for ages. the background music is going to be stuck in my head for ages
Wonderful video. Wonderful game. Wonderful channel. Wonderful people. I think that's enough said. I feel a lot of gratitude rn. Sending you all Love! 💜
13:10 That is Sir Daniel Fortesque from Medievil. Disappointed you didn't recognise another Dan! Despite Medievil's cult series status, he's been playable or referenced in all five generations of Playstation consoles. He's quite the underdog!
26:30 Ah yes, the nostalgia. I remember my favorite game growing up having a blue disk (and therefore being the worst on trying to read now that it's been fifteen years or so)
@40:41 so if iirc the pocket station had some kind of final fantasy chocobo or mog house type game, they were also never released outside of japan so i am not necessarily surprised you hadnt seen one
33:13 didn't see anyone say it so sorry if it's a repeat, but that's Siren! honestly the weird thing to me is the fact that I instantly recognized it, I think beyond the fact it's clearly a horror game & the straw hat indicates Japanese there's not much to go on (though I did also think that *maybe* it could be Kuon, which is a Fromsoft survival horror game, but the flashlight puts that option to bed since Kuon was set in the Heian period)
OG playstation discs being black: "I guess a lot of you might not remember that. It was pretty long ago." Hey floydo, you hear that sound? It's the sound of my bones turning to dust. Stap' it, I feel old enough already ;)
The "ASOBI" branded generic TVs are kind of a weird choice, since Sony was literally making TVs decades before the first PlayStations. Them being proportioned like portable TVs, though, does hit that perfect nostalgic feel for me, since my first and second PlayStation experiences both involved playing it on somebody's travel TV.
I suspect the one with the evil straw hat guy was a reference to Siren?? Since it's in a rural japanese village. I think they'd do more to make it look ghostly if it was Fatal Frame. The bird one is a head scratcher for me. I'm guessing it's The Last Guardian. But I also thought of Dark Souls (the intro where you're taken to Firelink by bird), but that'd be an even weirder pick cuz Dark Souls wasn't an exclusive at all. The large robot rabbit was a reference to Jumping Flash! It's like a 1st-person platformer. The two cats are references to a japan-only franchise called Doko Demo Issyo. It's kinda like a tamagotchi? Like a pet game that you could transfer to a playsation pocket device. I learned about it cuz I remember being like wtf are these guys when I saw them in Street Fighter X Tekken. Pretty sure they were also in Playstation All Stars as well.
Playstation has had many great potential mascots over the years, but they've always seemed hesitant to actually point to one and definitively say "this is our Mario/Sonic". Well, with Astro, I'd say there's absolutely no more excuse for them to avoid the matter any further. Give our happy little robot his due, Sony! :)
The ps3 is so burned into my memory as it was shortly after I got my 1st job it came out. But it was so stupidly expensive. So on boxing day (Canadian) that launch Christmas I went over to best buy. I had bought the wrong headset so I had to an exchange. And I saw a PS3 not opened but with an Open box sale for like $399.99. So I asked hte sales person like ummm this is super cheap whats wrong with it? And she told me a parent ment to get their kids an xbox so they basically took it back that morning on an exchange so they wanted it gone for new stock. So I bought it asap and it lasted me so long. Thank god I had that job at the time. Played all my old ps2 games etc. So I have such found memories of it. I was pretty sad when it died out and I had to get the slim version since it wasnt backwards. But yah it was the 1st console I bought with my own money. I had been mainly a N64 kid but my brother got a ps2 we shared.
I'm 54 and never have had a PlayStation or Nintendo console, I got a Mattel Intellivision as a Christmas gift when I was 10 and bought a Genesis when I was 20. Plus bought the first 2 Xbox consoles, but now I just play whatever is on steam.
Must say, I am absolutely digging the soundtrack, especially the wah-pedal for the guitars. Though it makes me wonder: Why aren't guitar wah-pedals called guitwahs? Hmmmm...
I bought the PSOne LCD screen based on how good the gamecube LCD screen was. Big mistake. The LCD tech was a gen earlier, and so crude you couldn't read any text, which made it unplayable for RPGs. Aesthetically good though. If you could swap the screen out with a modern one, it would be the bomb.
You know now that you say it out loud yeah as much I loved the Little Big Planet games they don't really fit the Play station Vibe, Astrobot fits that vibe much better. Also I see what you mean about the Nostalgia about Play Station games I grew up with an N64 playing the PSX at friends houses occasionally but this game makes me think of that.
Not only do I remember my PSone (well, Playstation, since it didnt have the "one" until they released the smaller version,) I still have it. Haven't used it in 15 years-ish, but still have it. I should see if it still works sometime.
16:03 Re: Sony's failure to elicit nostalgia, I think a lot of it has to do with different corporate philosophies. Sony (and Microsoft) are tech companies and they approach game development from a "tech-first" perspective: it's all about cutting-edge products, and there's little room for lingering in the past when you're trying to convince people that they need to discard the old to buy the new. Nintendo started out as a toy company and their approach is more playful, more focused on the experience and less preoccupied with the tech. Their long-running franchises create a kind of consumer loyalty that transcends console generations, which explains why their nostalgia-bait is so much more effective.
I love Dan. His enthusiasm is the best kind of encouragement and I would never take that away... and if you take joy in this, then I will not take that away from you; but this entire thing is a gigantic advertisement for the Playstation brand and Sony NOT a game. Rather then have a Sony guided attempt at a nostalgia trip I would much rather have ACCESS to the damned games I paid for. I have been a PC gamer exclusively since the PS4 announced it wouldn't have any backwards compatibility on previous purchases. Meanwhile on Steam I have games I bought when some of ya'al were in diapers and I can STILL install and run! I laud the programmers, artists and game designers of this software and I am glad they put their A game into it.... but ultimately this isn't an Andy Warhol painting. It's a shill and a capitalistically bankrupt thing trying to fool you it's a game. Go play Jack and Daxter. Or Ratchet and Clank. Or Crash Bandicoot. ANYTHING that is an actual game would be better then playing the modern equivalent of the Pepsi Man game or The 7-Up Spot game or any of those brand loyalty brainwash sessions for kids that happened back in the day. God bless all of you and have a happy safe 2025!
PlayStation was founded on "edgy" marketing strategies to appeal to "cool" cynical audiences, they deliberately positioned themselves as the opposite of Nintendo's genuine, family-friendly approach. Which I think is probably why PlayStation lacks the same nostalgic warmth as Nintendo. Nintendo's sincerity and wholesome charm will always evoke deeper nostalgia because their games connect with audiences based on timeless sincerity, trust, and a lack of cynicism or dating themselves with self-awareness. While PlayStation has undoubtedly produced memorable games as have many third party devs, the PlayStation brand itself lacks sincerity. Non judgemental authenticity and sincerity is what I believe nurtures nostalgia in fandom, and Nintendo's wholesome focus contrasts with PlayStation's edgy persona in a way that makes it harder to feel nostalgic about. Nintendo is sincere in the same way FromSoft are sincere, they do silly stuff sometimes or goof around at the players expense, but they don't wink at the camera to acknowledge the absurdity of the silly thing.
This is by no means new to PlayStation with Sony. For many years before they got into the console game, Sony's "brand" amounted to "Our products are exclusive because they're expensive, and they're expensive because they're exclusive." Their stuff was overpriced and deliberately incompatible with everything else in various ways, without actually being better. People didn't buy a Sony TV to watch it, they bought it to show guests that they could afford the high-priced brand. That culture shaped the PlayStation and Sony's attitude toward gaming and gamers in general. "You have the privilege of playing on our console because you are an elite gamer" is not very compatible with "warm", "cute", and "friendly". With all that baggage, the question isn't "Why has Sony been so bad at evoking nostalgia or establishing a wholesome, appealing mascot?", it's "Will they even recognize that someone else has done it for them?"
To be entirely fair to Dan, the game was fun but Infamous is incredibly forgettable as an IP. Carrie flashed the name up on screen and I said 'oh yeah infamous'. Then 10 seconds later when Dan was speculating on the name I had already forgotten what it was called again.
As far as Playstation's Mascot goes? Nintendo's is absolutely Mario. Sega's is absolutely Sonic. Microsoft only really tried on their first generation with Blinx and Voodoo Vince. And as for Sony? Sony has, increasingly, gone with "we're the sophisticated, Archetypal GOTY Nominee, Platform Holder" as their general brand identity. And, because that IS their brand identity going forward, threading that needle is VERY hard. Astro Bot succeeds at being a conventional mascot, but not really a mascot-ized VERSION of Sony's brand identity. Ratchet, honestly, is probably the most accurate standard bearer for that. Sly could have become a safe co-mascot for that brand identity if Thieves in Time's story didn't suck so much.
I would argue that Microsoft forwent having a cutesy mascot in favor of Master Chief as their brand ambassador. To the point where their even named their (now retired) AI assistant Cortana
5:45 I mean, didn't they do that usually? Wii Play, a Wii U version of that same thing, and they also released something like it for the Switch iirc? And those all include some great fun minigames. To me it seems Astro Boy is actually taking something out of Nintendo's playbook. I wish more games would make good use of HD rumble features that the Switch joycons have and that this game was also praised for a lot. Finely designed haptic feedback (rather than mere simple rumble) is brilliant, not *that* hard to implement, and criminally underused in consoles capable of it imo I suppose what you are talking about is that Sony is actually commissioning more than a single such game, which, yeah I suppose Nintendo absolutely could and should do more of that as well
@Kram1032 my Wii came with Sports, Wii Play had a bundle with a remote. Pretty sure Nintendo Land on the Wii U was a separate purchase, and 1 2 Switch definitely was.
Wikipedia tells me that _Nintendo Land_ was a pack-in, just like _Wii Sports._ Nintendo really lost their way with _1-2-Switch_ because not only did you have to pay for it, it was just a collection of tech demos that weren't very fun. Whereas some people bought a Wii just to play _Wii Sports_ and nothing else!
When you said it was the successor of playroom, i thought you meant this old relic of my childhood th-cam.com/video/nKHlVJrbi6g/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Orrf9otRULQc5Q22 I wonder if the name being that same is entirely coincidence?
In fairness to Sony not promoting nostalgia… they historically also don’t really seem to care to make sure their old titles are still playable when new consoles come out, especially in recent gens. I know some of that is practicality due to needing difference scanners for different discs but still. And when those titles are available for newer consoles, it’s the devs and their companies who make sure the games are then rereleased. So that’s probably why, they just tend not to care. Which is sad tbh! (Not saying Nintendo is any better in some cases, but yeah.)
If you haven't already, also give Infinity Nikki a try, it's on mobile, PC and PS5. It's supposed to be a costume change game with open world exploration, but even when ignoring all of the costume changing "gameplay" (it's more about collection than "play" really) it somehow got really solid, Mario level of platforming gameplay, a lot of it even, and it's actually free if you don't care about costume collection (but like, a lot of games have fashion being the true endgame so no need to really ignore it), something that's unusual for what's supposed to be a mobile game. (Well, a mobile game that uses UE5 and even high end PC might struggle to run.)
12:56 Ngl, I do not like how frequently he waves at you, he's got the opposite of BotW Link's problem. Too many idles that fire too fast. 15:58 Reason: I never played any PlayStation game outside Twisted Metal (2?). Never owned a PlayStation console, see very little reason now. 17:31 PlayStation had a *mouse*? I'd make a PC Master Race joke, but people would take it seriously. 20:24 I never got used to rumble in controllers. It's become one of those things I instinctively turn off. 23:28 Thinking about it, I don't know what makes a game nostalgic. Or anything for that matter. I don't get the sensations people talk about playing older games. 25:52 Nope. Even the NES could (technically) save. I have left Halo 2 paused for like... 4 hours once. 26:36 No. 26:55 I'm old enough to remember, I just went NES-N64-XBOX. I technically have a Wii, but it's never been plugged in. I also always played PC as well. For handhelds it was GB-GBC (I had a transparent purple one with matching accessory joystick)-GBA SP-DSi. Also, I still own most of these, only short the GB and GBC, and they all still work. 29:36 Did they try just making the PS1 a PC via peripherals? 31:47 This is kind of my experience trying to think up PlayStation games that aren't FF or Souls. Nothing stands out, except the occasions I remember Twisted Metal. 33:22 I'm not trying to be mean, but are PlayStation games just... not memorable? Is that the problem? 35:28 What does feel "PlayStation", though? 36:35 I would not call PlayStation "futuristic". At least the PS1 and PS2. PS1 looked like a CD player with ports, and idk what the PS2 looked like, maybe a different shape of black brick (with the other being XBOX)? 38:50 I bet you can drift that. 44:34 I have vague memories of Spyro ads.
I love the phrase "They understand the assignment so well, that they understand it better than the people assigning the assignment" so much, that is incredible just like this game!
13:10 that's MediEvil! A ps1 game that's a fan favorite and was remade for ps4 a few years ago. It's a great series that I wish was given more love.
Another dan. Good ol Sir Daniel Fortesque IV.
Beat me to it XD
It's a 1-1 reference. It's nostalgic in real-time.
The thumbnail art is absolutely adorable!
Dan Jones did a fantastic job on it
30:00 That device was made specifically for the smaller version of the OG Playstation: The 'PSOne'. The consoles was small enough to fit comfortably into a backpack and my brother and I would take it with us (and a few games) wherever we went. So that's what the monitor was for since you weren't always guaranteed to have a television with RBY inputs OR the grownups were using the TV wherever it was you were going. On that note, we didn't actually own one of the monitors, but we wanted one... Oh did we ever.
Also the mouse was used for point and click adventure games as well as a few arcade light gun game ports.
There was a car adapter that you could use to plug the system into a car's cigarette lighter port. Me and my brother used that on long car trips
Excellent choice! I hope this paves the way for an Astro Bot playthrough
Ditto! I’d love to see Dan and Carrie play Astro Bot🤩
@@TheArtfulTarrasqueWatching Barry's run was adorable, i'd love to see their reactions. Maybe that's the Christmas this year lol
Yes please. I have no plans to purchase a PS5 any time soon, but I'd absolutely enjoy Dan's playthrough and commentary on Astro Bot.
I love how the product models you can view all have little details like production stickers, pressing buttons on your controller presses that button on the model and sometimes have additional interactions in the model viewer.
And that's before you get to actual museum room where can press all the buttons to do fun things like see all the console bootup sequences and disc drives open/close.
Dan, I am 42. I remember watching my best friend's grandmother trying out the cool new joystick she got for her PC so she could play Centipede. I remember pressing the light gun directly to the television because I was mad at the dog for laughing at me every time I missed a duck. Of course I remember the black coating of PS1 disks. I remember the black knockoff NES cartridges Atari made.
Yeah, I'm 45, I just kind of laugh most times Dan says "remember when", because yeah, I do.
Just like I remember my back not hurting. Like, I remember that it didn't hurt at some point, not that I remember how that felt. 🥲
Fun Fact: Sony, like many Japanese companies, actually does have a cute mascot character. They just mainly use them in Japan. It's a pair of cats. They don't appear much outside of Japan but they were a character in PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. I think the white cat is called Taro.
Edit: 41:30 And here they are.
Astro's Playroom was an unmitigated joy, I platinumed that baby and cannot WAIT to play Astro Bot someday soon.
Also just shoutout the Elden Ring play through which i am slowly chipping away at on my lunch breaks. 57 eps deep and still going strong
Thanks for the good vibes and keep up the good work.
31:20 I didn't realize it before, but even the raindrops hitting the ground form PlayStation symbols. That's... amazing consistency.
13:16: MediEvil.
24:45: Jumping Flash!
*nods* ROBOBOT! I only know it because of Naka. I kind of hope the doom mod of it causes more people to learn about the original.
@@ICountFrom0 Imagine id, after Doom: The Dark Ages, announcing a Jumping Flash spiritual successor where you play as Daisy. People would lose their MINDS.
The AU where Daisy lived, because doom slayer sacrificed himself.
DAN!!! Stop playing things my son wants to watch with me so i can watch them on my own and not wait for him to watch them LOL
25:55 I do remember those. I had done it with the GameCube for a few games haha. But, this also has me thinking about Memory Cards for yeah it felt weird buying a whole additional product just for the ability to save your progress, yet with that I just realized it would be like getting an external hard drive where you could easily bring it over to a friend's place with their own Playstation console to share your progress or if traveling then being able to continue your progress on a game with along bringing that disc with you assuming if at the location a friend or family member also had a console. In a way maybe it could have encouraged some folks to gift each other consoles so that then you'd don't have to travel with added luggage with a bulky game system-computer as well. But now either it's only saved to your console or in the cloud with sorta being 'locked with' a console or online account to my own understanding. (For which I think perhaps a regular hard drive could be hooked up with modern consoles yet a thought is having it set up to have internal memory as well external memory - and by extent being able to copy files from one to the other easily) = Though I realize having internal memory would limit the need for external memory in that process and by extent profit wise would it then still be feasible to manufacture.
- Adding to this, while drafting this I shared the above part with a older friend who lived before the Game Cube era I was in and they added: "I think there is a lot of context missing on memory cards [(in response to what I, myself, wrote above)]. As someone who lived through most of the consoles, they were expensive with some markup. Some of it was function of saving data and going to a friend's house, but the real reason was the cost of the chips/storage. We live in a time where data storage is significantly cheap. Back then adding that extra memory was either technically limited or it would shoot the price of the entire console past a price point that people could not afford or competitor consoles would beat. Without social forums like we have post 2008, word of mouth and price point played a huge aspect of success. The market that grew from that was more a reactionary market but to your point it did open up unique things like traveling." Which I found neat to include.
31:53 I like how the nostalgia became a bit of an obstacle with trying to remember and then switching back to playing/moving resulting in being flipped.
32:24 Nice platforming!
41:18 Also that sound! I always had found both like futuristic and as well ominously "still" with like the long tone of it.
42:57 Funny that they're called artifacts - it makes me feel old x D
44:06 Lolol, maybe they'll stick the landing.
47:53 Cool!
That PSOne bootup sound is permanently in my brain and almost always brings me back to The Legend of Dragoon which got me into gaming in the first place.
29:49 we had one of those and would play the PlayStation in the car on long road trips.
You could plug the system into the cigarette lighter port of old cars.
A core memory was playing tales of destiny 2, not saving and dad started the car after filling up at a gas station which blinked the power and lost hours of progress
This game does feel like the closest you will get, Dan, to a game animation museum.
Sooo glad you are finally getting around to this! Animation Nation at its finest and being played by a man who can truly appreciate it.
I believe the reference at 13:10 is MediEvil
4:20: So the boosty thing isn't just a platforming tool, but a puzzle-platforming tool. Dan compared the polish of _Astro's Playroom_ to Mario games in general, but I suspect there's a more specific (and sunnier) comparison we could make.
13:35: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a chibi robot falling back and forth in the mud-forever.
17:50: Because consoles want to be PCs _so bad._ (says the PC gamer)
27:05: My brother and I got a Playstation when our uncle got a PS2, and we basically played whatever PS1 games wound up at the local game shop. The only ones I remember offhand were _Tomb Raider,_ some kind of RTS with plastic toy soldiers and vehicles, and the demo disc. And I wasn't any good at _Tomb Raider._ And that was the only console we had as kids.
I wonder how my relationship with gaming in general and consoles in specific if I'd had access to more good PS1 games. One of the JRPGs, maybe.
34:05: Insane commitment to the aesthetic.
40:15: Apparently it's a PDA and "memory card peripheral," and some PS1 games "included software that could be downloaded and played on the PocketStation".
Seems like a game that's more fun to play than to watch. Which is its intent, but I'm not sure what it offers to someone who doesn't have the controller in their hand? Aside from a smidge of nostalgia, I guess? But I think I've exhausted my personal store of Playstation-branded nostalgia in this comment.
30:02 immediate thing I could see that good for? Going to some relative’s house that may only have one TV in the living room the adults will be talking in. So you take that to another room and have fun there! Kinda like how I would use my gameboy when I didn’t have batteries but did have my A/C adapter. /o/
Also in any one-TV household, that would have been a life saver when the parents claim it for themselves (though I don't know the price point on that peripheral, if it wasn't cheap enough there was no way it would have been bought for this reason).
Why is all the music so CATCHY?! My partner recently showed me Astrobot and I'm looking forward to more of the game! It's so incredibly delightful. They did amazing work on these games!
Dan, I love your commentary and historical knowledge, even if you're not always correct (I wouldn't know if you or Carrie didn't point it out, lol). It just makes the game all the better to have someone in the industry explaining the references I don't know!
“This music is also very darn catchy”
Oh, just you wait, Dan.
The music on Astrobot and Playroom is so catchy… do do doo dododooo…
Having never owned a Playstation nor even held a PS controller more than maybe twice in my entire life... even I still feel some nostalgia coming off of this game just due to my knowledge of Playstation's impact on gaming over the decades. I'm stunned that this game can make me miss a segment of gaming history I was never a part of. Bravo!
The art on this thumbnail is excellent. DJ (?) outdid themselves.
Also, this is one of the few games I heard pf that make me want to upgrade to the 5.
Ohhh my gosh!! This game is so fun, I'm so excited to see you play it here on the channel! I play it often, and it's a fun time every time! Asobi indeed understood the assignment quite well, and for that, I tip my hat to that studio and team.
This game is just non-stop adorable! The music slaps too. Thank you for playing this Dan🥰
16:18 omg even the cloud platform has the shape of a PSX controller!
The haptic rumble technology works surprisingly "simple". Traditional rumble modules are just small weights, that spin at different velocities to rumble.
But haptic rumble pretty much works exactly as a loud speaker's audio-membrane. But instead of a thin membrane to create sound, it's a thick piece of metal, that vibrates.
They are literally using sound files to make the controller shake lol
(remember on Switch, Kirby Star Allies, where they put some game boy Kirby song into the Joy-Cons' rumble feature in one of the secret levels)
Awesome! I've been really looking forward to your holiday mario playthrough, and this is a great way to get us there faster!
Coming here directly from Jacob Geller's best games of 2024 video. Spoilers, it was his number one and I'm intrigued!
To be clear, this isn't Astro Bot, but rather, Astro's Playroom. This is the short tech demo that came out in 2020, not the full game that came out this year.
Same, the timing was impeccable with this one lol, but like the guy above me said, this is not the game Jacob was praising it's the demo that came before that
Seems like we're once again in for a playstation exclusive I couldn't otherwise enjoy! Thanks Dan!
11:10 They had Ape Escape, and they pretty much let that slip between their fingers.
Love the jungle level! The song is a bop!
Ok, this is ADORABLE 😍 this may be the first time I'm extremely jealous of a console generation that I'm not part of! I can't wait to see you play the rest of this, Dan!
I think I'm a little bit younger than Dan, and I did not grow up with a Nintendo anything (tell a lie, but the game boy I had was my brother's old and only had a marble game), so much of my nostalgia is for the PS1 and for the games on there. Especially the platformers. Remember not being able to sleep before a trip, so I sat and played Spyro at 3am.
Yes, Nintendo has hooked you better and keeps the hooks in, too, with the franchises and I will say that it's got a bigger piece of the cultural significance and osmosis, too, but nostalgia will crop up just about anywhere with anything.
For a minute I thought you were gonna play Astro Bot but hey this is perfect too, and fingers crossed that you do an Astrobot playthrough!
I wonder what Mario game you will play this year though
PS1 discs were black, early PS2 games which still used CD-ROMs were blue, whereas the DVD-ROMs were silver or gold, and the console's menu would actually display the disc in the right color :)
The little guy at 13:09 is a shout-out to Medievil, an old hack and slash game!
Oh boy, now there's some nostalgia I didn't even know I had buried. Now I vividly remember the days I spent playing that and other PS1 games with my old childhood friends. Dan's right about the good will they can foster with such nostalgia bait. I've never desired a console in years, but now I've got a twinge of desire for the old PlayStation library.
@DrDark0 they actually made a reboot (remake?) of Medievil for the PS4. I had bought it for my partner a few years back :)
I remembered "Infamous" the game, but it also took me half a minute to remember the name
"Finally a good PlayStation mascot!"
Sackboy: What about me?
Astro is just robo sackboy. They are the same friend-shaped guy
Sony1: We need a mascot!
Sony2: Yes!
Sony1: But what kind?
Sony2: Yes!
Just got around to getting all the collectables on my own playthrough in this despite having it for ages. the background music is going to be stuck in my head for ages
"Is it Invincible?"
Missed opportunity for Carrie to edit in the Invincible animated TV show title card there.
Wait this is a series, I just know Astrobot
Wonderful video. Wonderful game. Wonderful channel. Wonderful people. I think that's enough said. I feel a lot of gratitude rn. Sending you all Love! 💜
13:10 That is Sir Daniel Fortesque from Medievil. Disappointed you didn't recognise another Dan!
Despite Medievil's cult series status, he's been playable or referenced in all five generations of Playstation consoles. He's quite the underdog!
26:30 Ah yes, the nostalgia. I remember my favorite game growing up having a blue disk (and therefore being the worst on trying to read now that it's been fifteen years or so)
33:08 I might be mistaken, but I think I remember hearing that these bots are a reference to the Siren series.
I thought so too!
Well, this is just the happiest of surprises.
Astro is like, Wall-E and Eve combined.
Actually a little surprised Dan didn't know Jumping Flash, the first console 3D platformer!
27:12 ah, there it is, the reminder that I am getting old. 8)
@40:41 so if iirc the pocket station had some kind of final fantasy chocobo or mog house type game, they were also never released outside of japan so i am not necessarily surprised you hadnt seen one
This dev team is one of the few ones that make me go "wish they weren't stuck creating console exclusive stuff"
Huh... has no one ever thought of adding a rumble track to video? Most of us watch videos on devices with vibration motors now...
His name is Astrobot cause thats what the song says 🎶"I am Astrobot"🎶
Ah yes back when mice had rubber balls in them for tracking as opposed to an optical sensor. Good times.
On a personal note, it is slightly depressing to hear objects that are about as old as me being described as “artefacts”.
This game is an unexpected gem.
Oh jeeze, the pocketstation, memory card minigames. I imported one so i could do the final fantasy chocobo mini game
33:13 didn't see anyone say it so sorry if it's a repeat, but that's Siren! honestly the weird thing to me is the fact that I instantly recognized it, I think beyond the fact it's clearly a horror game & the straw hat indicates Japanese there's not much to go on (though I did also think that *maybe* it could be Kuon, which is a Fromsoft survival horror game, but the flashlight puts that option to bed since Kuon was set in the Heian period)
OG playstation discs being black: "I guess a lot of you might not remember that. It was pretty long ago."
Hey floydo, you hear that sound? It's the sound of my bones turning to dust. Stap' it, I feel old enough already ;)
It was only 29 years ago.
The skeleton is Sir Daniel Fortesque from MediEvil on PS1. I thought you'd at least know your Dans, Dan!
I. Legitimately did not know this was just free on the PS5. Uh, I guess I know what game I’m playing after I finish my current FFXIV goals lmao.
Yes. Yes you should do that.
The "ASOBI" branded generic TVs are kind of a weird choice, since Sony was literally making TVs decades before the first PlayStations. Them being proportioned like portable TVs, though, does hit that perfect nostalgic feel for me, since my first and second PlayStation experiences both involved playing it on somebody's travel TV.
I suspect the one with the evil straw hat guy was a reference to Siren?? Since it's in a rural japanese village. I think they'd do more to make it look ghostly if it was Fatal Frame.
The bird one is a head scratcher for me. I'm guessing it's The Last Guardian. But I also thought of Dark Souls (the intro where you're taken to Firelink by bird), but that'd be an even weirder pick cuz Dark Souls wasn't an exclusive at all.
The large robot rabbit was a reference to Jumping Flash! It's like a 1st-person platformer.
The two cats are references to a japan-only franchise called Doko Demo Issyo. It's kinda like a tamagotchi? Like a pet game that you could transfer to a playsation pocket device. I learned about it cuz I remember being like wtf are these guys when I saw them in Street Fighter X Tekken. Pretty sure they were also in Playstation All Stars as well.
A Playstation mascot that Sony doesn’t own-ah yes, the Halo Conundrum
ASTROOOOO yesss I'm so excited
Playstation has had many great potential mascots over the years, but they've always seemed hesitant to actually point to one and definitively say "this is our Mario/Sonic". Well, with Astro, I'd say there's absolutely no more excuse for them to avoid the matter any further. Give our happy little robot his due, Sony! :)
The ps3 is so burned into my memory as it was shortly after I got my 1st job it came out. But it was so stupidly expensive. So on boxing day (Canadian) that launch Christmas I went over to best buy. I had bought the wrong headset so I had to an exchange. And I saw a PS3 not opened but with an Open box sale for like $399.99. So I asked hte sales person like ummm this is super cheap whats wrong with it? And she told me a parent ment to get their kids an xbox so they basically took it back that morning on an exchange so they wanted it gone for new stock. So I bought it asap and it lasted me so long. Thank god I had that job at the time. Played all my old ps2 games etc. So I have such found memories of it. I was pretty sad when it died out and I had to get the slim version since it wasnt backwards. But yah it was the 1st console I bought with my own money. I had been mainly a N64 kid but my brother got a ps2 we shared.
I'm 54 and never have had a PlayStation or Nintendo console, I got a Mattel Intellivision as a Christmas gift when I was 10 and bought a Genesis when I was 20. Plus bought the first 2 Xbox consoles, but now I just play whatever is on steam.
Have you ever considered doing a subnautica play-through?
Must say, I am absolutely digging the soundtrack, especially the wah-pedal for the guitars. Though it makes me wonder: Why aren't guitar wah-pedals called guitwahs? Hmmmm...
I was there, Gandalf. I was there 3000 years ago. 🧙♂
Well, okay... it was 30 years agao, but still...
I bought the PSOne LCD screen based on how good the gamecube LCD screen was. Big mistake. The LCD tech was a gen earlier, and so crude you couldn't read any text, which made it unplayable for RPGs. Aesthetically good though. If you could swap the screen out with a modern one, it would be the bomb.
You know now that you say it out loud yeah as much I loved the Little Big Planet games they don't really fit the Play station Vibe, Astrobot fits that vibe much better. Also I see what you mean about the Nostalgia about Play Station games I grew up with an N64 playing the PSX at friends houses occasionally but this game makes me think of that.
Not only do I remember my PSone (well, Playstation, since it didnt have the "one" until they released the smaller version,) I still have it. Haven't used it in 15 years-ish, but still have it. I should see if it still works sometime.
My biggest take away from the "astro series" is that team asobi managed to make minions but likable.
16:03 Re: Sony's failure to elicit nostalgia, I think a lot of it has to do with different corporate philosophies. Sony (and Microsoft) are tech companies and they approach game development from a "tech-first" perspective: it's all about cutting-edge products, and there's little room for lingering in the past when you're trying to convince people that they need to discard the old to buy the new.
Nintendo started out as a toy company and their approach is more playful, more focused on the experience and less preoccupied with the tech. Their long-running franchises create a kind of consumer loyalty that transcends console generations, which explains why their nostalgia-bait is so much more effective.
Nintendo usually sells their tech demos as full price releases that never go on sale. 3-2-1 Switch being the most recent I believe.
I wonder if this would be successful if it were an actual theme park, sort of like Universal but with Sony properties.
This is Sly Cooper eraser (by Sony)
I love Dan. His enthusiasm is the best kind of encouragement and I would never take that away... and if you take joy in this, then I will not take that away from you; but this entire thing is a gigantic advertisement for the Playstation brand and Sony NOT a game. Rather then have a Sony guided attempt at a nostalgia trip I would much rather have ACCESS to the damned games I paid for. I have been a PC gamer exclusively since the PS4 announced it wouldn't have any backwards compatibility on previous purchases. Meanwhile on Steam I have games I bought when some of ya'al were in diapers and I can STILL install and run! I laud the programmers, artists and game designers of this software and I am glad they put their A game into it.... but ultimately this isn't an Andy Warhol painting. It's a shill and a capitalistically bankrupt thing trying to fool you it's a game. Go play Jack and Daxter. Or Ratchet and Clank. Or Crash Bandicoot. ANYTHING that is an actual game would be better then playing the modern equivalent of the Pepsi Man game or The 7-Up Spot game or any of those brand loyalty brainwash sessions for kids that happened back in the day. God bless all of you and have a happy safe 2025!
PlayStation was founded on "edgy" marketing strategies to appeal to "cool" cynical audiences, they deliberately positioned themselves as the opposite of Nintendo's genuine, family-friendly approach. Which I think is probably why PlayStation lacks the same nostalgic warmth as Nintendo. Nintendo's sincerity and wholesome charm will always evoke deeper nostalgia because their games connect with audiences based on timeless sincerity, trust, and a lack of cynicism or dating themselves with self-awareness.
While PlayStation has undoubtedly produced memorable games as have many third party devs, the PlayStation brand itself lacks sincerity. Non judgemental authenticity and sincerity is what I believe nurtures nostalgia in fandom, and Nintendo's wholesome focus contrasts with PlayStation's edgy persona in a way that makes it harder to feel nostalgic about. Nintendo is sincere in the same way FromSoft are sincere, they do silly stuff sometimes or goof around at the players expense, but they don't wink at the camera to acknowledge the absurdity of the silly thing.
This is by no means new to PlayStation with Sony. For many years before they got into the console game, Sony's "brand" amounted to "Our products are exclusive because they're expensive, and they're expensive because they're exclusive." Their stuff was overpriced and deliberately incompatible with everything else in various ways, without actually being better. People didn't buy a Sony TV to watch it, they bought it to show guests that they could afford the high-priced brand.
That culture shaped the PlayStation and Sony's attitude toward gaming and gamers in general. "You have the privilege of playing on our console because you are an elite gamer" is not very compatible with "warm", "cute", and "friendly". With all that baggage, the question isn't "Why has Sony been so bad at evoking nostalgia or establishing a wholesome, appealing mascot?", it's "Will they even recognize that someone else has done it for them?"
Please check out Astro Bot if you enjoy this! It's so charming and pretty
To be entirely fair to Dan, the game was fun but Infamous is incredibly forgettable as an IP.
Carrie flashed the name up on screen and I said 'oh yeah infamous'. Then 10 seconds later when Dan was speculating on the name I had already forgotten what it was called again.
As far as Playstation's Mascot goes? Nintendo's is absolutely Mario. Sega's is absolutely Sonic. Microsoft only really tried on their first generation with Blinx and Voodoo Vince. And as for Sony? Sony has, increasingly, gone with "we're the sophisticated, Archetypal GOTY Nominee, Platform Holder" as their general brand identity. And, because that IS their brand identity going forward, threading that needle is VERY hard. Astro Bot succeeds at being a conventional mascot, but not really a mascot-ized VERSION of Sony's brand identity. Ratchet, honestly, is probably the most accurate standard bearer for that. Sly could have become a safe co-mascot for that brand identity if Thieves in Time's story didn't suck so much.
I would argue that Microsoft forwent having a cutesy mascot in favor of Master Chief as their brand ambassador. To the point where their even named their (now retired) AI assistant Cortana
5:45 I mean, didn't they do that usually? Wii Play, a Wii U version of that same thing, and they also released something like it for the Switch iirc? And those all include some great fun minigames. To me it seems Astro Boy is actually taking something out of Nintendo's playbook.
I wish more games would make good use of HD rumble features that the Switch joycons have and that this game was also praised for a lot. Finely designed haptic feedback (rather than mere simple rumble) is brilliant, not *that* hard to implement, and criminally underused in consoles capable of it imo
I suppose what you are talking about is that Sony is actually commissioning more than a single such game, which, yeah I suppose Nintendo absolutely could and should do more of that as well
Nintendo usually sells those rather than including them, I guess.
@@qwertystop not as far as I remember? Those were free games that came with the console iirc?
I'm talking Wii Play, not Wii Sports for instance
@Kram1032 my Wii came with Sports, Wii Play had a bundle with a remote. Pretty sure Nintendo Land on the Wii U was a separate purchase, and 1 2 Switch definitely was.
@@qwertystop alright then I completely misremember... It's been so long that I played any of those
Wikipedia tells me that _Nintendo Land_ was a pack-in, just like _Wii Sports._ Nintendo really lost their way with _1-2-Switch_ because not only did you have to pay for it, it was just a collection of tech demos that weren't very fun. Whereas some people bought a Wii just to play _Wii Sports_ and nothing else!
Wow. Just insulting Sackboy to his face with that title, huh?
When you said it was the successor of playroom, i thought you meant this old relic of my childhood
th-cam.com/video/nKHlVJrbi6g/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Orrf9otRULQc5Q22
I wonder if the name being that same is entirely coincidence?
In fairness to Sony not promoting nostalgia… they historically also don’t really seem to care to make sure their old titles are still playable when new consoles come out, especially in recent gens. I know some of that is practicality due to needing difference scanners for different discs but still. And when those titles are available for newer consoles, it’s the devs and their companies who make sure the games are then rereleased. So that’s probably why, they just tend not to care. Which is sad tbh!
(Not saying Nintendo is any better in some cases, but yeah.)
In penance for getting Infamous so very wrong, you have to play at least the first one in the franchise
If you haven't already, also give Infinity Nikki a try, it's on mobile, PC and PS5. It's supposed to be a costume change game with open world exploration, but even when ignoring all of the costume changing "gameplay" (it's more about collection than "play" really) it somehow got really solid, Mario level of platforming gameplay, a lot of it even, and it's actually free if you don't care about costume collection (but like, a lot of games have fashion being the true endgame so no need to really ignore it), something that's unusual for what's supposed to be a mobile game. (Well, a mobile game that uses UE5 and even high end PC might struggle to run.)
12:56 Ngl, I do not like how frequently he waves at you, he's got the opposite of BotW Link's problem. Too many idles that fire too fast.
15:58 Reason: I never played any PlayStation game outside Twisted Metal (2?). Never owned a PlayStation console, see very little reason now.
17:31 PlayStation had a *mouse*? I'd make a PC Master Race joke, but people would take it seriously.
20:24 I never got used to rumble in controllers. It's become one of those things I instinctively turn off.
23:28 Thinking about it, I don't know what makes a game nostalgic. Or anything for that matter. I don't get the sensations people talk about playing older games.
25:52 Nope. Even the NES could (technically) save. I have left Halo 2 paused for like... 4 hours once.
26:36 No.
26:55 I'm old enough to remember, I just went NES-N64-XBOX. I technically have a Wii, but it's never been plugged in. I also always played PC as well. For handhelds it was GB-GBC (I had a transparent purple one with matching accessory joystick)-GBA SP-DSi. Also, I still own most of these, only short the GB and GBC, and they all still work.
29:36 Did they try just making the PS1 a PC via peripherals?
31:47 This is kind of my experience trying to think up PlayStation games that aren't FF or Souls. Nothing stands out, except the occasions I remember Twisted Metal.
33:22 I'm not trying to be mean, but are PlayStation games just... not memorable? Is that the problem?
35:28 What does feel "PlayStation", though?
36:35 I would not call PlayStation "futuristic". At least the PS1 and PS2. PS1 looked like a CD player with ports, and idk what the PS2 looked like, maybe a different shape of black brick (with the other being XBOX)?
38:50 I bet you can drift that.
44:34 I have vague memories of Spyro ads.
Yay, now I have one less reason to buy a PS5. :D