Please Send Help: My Daughter Is Obsessed With Astro Bot

At bedtime, I asked my daughter why she likes Astro Bot. Her response? "Because I get to play it with you!”

My biggest gaming-related surprise of 2024 was Astro Bot at the top of my PlayStation recap. Was this really my game of the year, when I’ve had countless late nights with Baldur’s Gate 3? When I couldn’t put down Balatro? But the recap showed Astro Bot had dug his joyous robotic hands into me. 

Then, I realized what had happened: my four-year-old daughter’s taste in gaming had already influenced my own.

Her game of the year is now my game of the year, even if, along the way, her singular obsession with Astro Bot had me questioning my sanity. How many times can a person try to find ways to turn real-life into Astro Bot? If you ask a four-year-old, it’s everything.

I have never been a platformer superfan. As a child of the 90ss whose first “real” system was a Nintendo 64, how could I not at least have a soft spot in my heart for a certain plumber? But I’m a story-focused player. I’m Majora’s Mask, not Mario Sunshine. Platformers are great, but give me some narrative meat on those gameplay bones. 

My daughter was born in July 2020, a COVID baby through and through, which led to my wife and I being super-aware of her screen consumption. And while we tried to limit screens throughout the day, the mornings were often where we were lax.It was in these bleary early hours, too sleepy for Bluey or Ms. Rachel, that I would slowly introduce my daughter to my love of gaming.

We started slow with Sago Mini games, but as years passed, we moved on to “big kid” games. We played through all of Chicory, with her coloring the world as I solved the puzzles. We took turns in Mario Wonder and Princess Peach Showtime, and eventually graduated to Tinykin, with her deciding our next objective as we explored together. To this day, it’s my favorite part of the week, just the two of us, on the couch, sharing in these worlds together.

To say that my daughter gets obsessed is a bit of an understatement. It started with a Gandalf Little Person toy I got her for her first Christmas. It went everywhere with her, at least until she turned two and got a knock-off Nemo stuffie—which she can’t sleep without to this day. That obsession extended to games, as well. I showed her the Super Mario Brother movie trailer six months before it was released…which led to us watching it every single night at dinner for weeks on end. 

Do you believe me about the obsession now?

Her tendency to dive deep into whatever she finds interesting wasn’t on my mind when Astro Bot was announced last summer. It seemed like a cute, PlayStation-focused platformer. Nothing more than Astro’s Playroom, which I bounced off of in 2021. But we had just finished Tinykin and were looking for a new game, so I bought it on a whim. It seemed like another chance to bond over an easygoing experience.

Astro Bot oozes in charm. It’s hard not to break out in a smile when he turns and waves at the camera. Punching little sprinkles or bouncing balls in a level feels good tactilely and emotionally. Within a week or two, Astro Bot had become the new obsession. Move over, Mario.

Now, every blue car in the real world is Astro Bot’s car. I’ve garnered the nickname “Big Brother,” after the giant robot character you see in a few levels. We’re singing the nonsensical Roco Loco theme song on the way to morning drop-off. She knows who Nathan Drake and “Bot of War” are by sight. She used the bathroom and her poop was “as big as the Snake Boss!” 

As the kids say, she’s Astro Bot-pilled. 

At first, this annoyed the hell out of me. Not everything needs to be Astro Bot themed! It gets old when she sees a penguin and it can’t just be a cool penguin, it has to be a penguin from the Astro Bot snow level. It gets tiring trying to balance the screen time with other activities, when all she wants to do is be in that world. 

But over time, I’ve seen the positives, and we’ve found ways to bring her Astro-love and skills out of the PlayStation. Her creativity and artistic skills have exploded since she started playing—she has gone from 100-piece puzzles to 300 pieces on her own. She’s gained a confidence to do hard things, even if it’s because “Astro Bot would be brave, too.” She sees the world in Astro Bot-shaded lenses, and I’ve come to learn that’s not a bad thing.

We’re months into our new Astro Bot life, and I’m enjoying it more and more. I can feel the fleeting moments of my time with her at this age, with these interests, and I’m holding onto them as much as I can, even if that means playing more platformers than JRPGs.  

At bedtime recently, I asked my daughter for one reason why she likes Astro Bot. And while this reads like a fake pretentious-parent quote, her response was “because I get to play it with you!” 

That seals it. Astro Bot: Game of the Year.

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