Summary
Astro Botsurprisingly doesn’t have cameos fromMarvel’s Spider-Man,Kingdom Hearts, or any of theFinal Fantasygames that have become synonymous withPlayStation.
Just like Astro’s Playroom before it,Astro Bot isn’t just an excellent platformer, it’s also a celebration (or a graveyard, depending on how you viewpoint) of PlayStation as a whole.There are a ton of different characters from PlayStation games that cameo in Astro Bot, but there are also some iconic heroes thatdon’tshow up to the party.
It almost seems a little greedy to point out the characters and series that don’t show up in Astro Bot considering there are 169 VIP Bots who do make an appearance, but some of the missing series are ones that really come as a surprise considering how linked they are to PlayStation’s history. Let’s go through the cameos that are still waiting for their invite in the mail.
Astro Bot Doesn’t Have Nods To Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Or Spider-Man
Let’s start off with the most surprising miss of them all - Marvel’s Spider-Man. Ever since the first game released in 2018,Insomniac’s take on Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Venom has become very important to PlayStation, which makes the fact that no Marvel characters appear in Astro Bot a big surprise. There are rights to consider, but it seems that Marvel and Sony have a good relationship, so it’s all a bit strange.
Then there’s Final Fantasy. Cloud Strife didn’t appear in Astro’s Playroom,but his Buster Sword could be discovered in one of the levels, leaving him wide open to show up in Astro Bot. That didn’t happen, though, as no characters from Final Fantasy have bothered to show up in Astro Bot. That’s right, not even Clive from the previously PlayStation-exclusiveFinal Fantasy 16.
If you’re wondering where Returnal’s Selene and Gran Turismo’s driver are,you’ll need to get them in Astro’s Playroom before they appear in Astro Bot.
On a personal level, it’s also a shame that Sora from Kingdom Hearts doesn’t show up in Bot form for Astro Bot. Yes, part of that statement is me being a big fanboy, but it’s also undeniable how much impact Kingdom Hearts had on PlayStation during its PS2 era. The series is now multiplatform and overseen by Disney (making it less of a surprise), but it’s still weird that Sora and Riku were missed out.
While it is a shame that all of these characters don’t make cameos in Astro Bot considering how important they are to PlayStation, for all three of the ones mentioned above it likely comes down to rights issues with Disney, Marvel, and Square Enix. Let’s hope that they eventually sort things out so Astro can have a few more iconic friends.
