Mario Astro Bot
Image: Nintendo Life

Following the embarrassment of Concord's recent launch and almost immediate removal from sale, Sony has scored a win when it really needed one. Astro Bot launched last week to critical acclaim, sitting with a 94 Metascore and being described as a serious contender for — if not the new owner of — Mario's 3D platforming crown.

If you're out of the PS5 loop and want a little overview, our friends over on Push Square have all the Astro Bot coverage you could want, so definitely check out their glowing 10/10 review:

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However, not everyone is quite so taken with PlayStation's new platformer, or if they are, it's with the caveat that Astro Bot has been studying the classics perhaps a little too closely.

A video posted to Twitter by Post Up from State of Gaming suggests that the origins of various elements and mechanics from the PS5 platformer can be traced back to one of Mario's 3D adventures. See what you think:

In the video above, clips not only from Super Mario games (specifically Sunshine, Odyssey, 64, and Galaxy 1 and 2,) but also Pikmin, ARMS, and Splatoon are shown to illustrate the inspiration Astro Bot devs Team Asobi seem to have taken directly from Nintendo.

Of course, developers are inspired by each other's work all the time, but this side-by-side compilation of Astro Bot clips paired with analogous Super Mario moments certainly highlights the many loving homages to Nintendo's greatest hits.

As you'd expect, replies to the post vary from vague agreement or surprise at how closely they align to total disagreement and calls that these mechanics have appeared in loads of other games over the years. (There's also a bunch of console-warmongering replies that we can't repeat here.)

The point is, fan opinion seems divided between Astro Bot being a love letter to Nintendo's finest work or the game copying Nintendo's homework "word for word." Nintendo itself rejuvenated the Zelda series with its take on open-world mechanics pioneered many years before by many other devs. Is this any different?

We're interested to hear what you think. Have you been playing Astro Bot? What's the line between doing your homework and copying it? For the sake of balance, we've embedded Push Square's Astro Bot video review above to give you an idea of the huge amount of gameplay which doesn't so obviously crib from Mario. Take a look and let us know in the poll and comments below:

What do you think? Is Astro Bot a "word for word, bar for bar" retread of Super Mario games?

What do we think, you ask? Well, if you believe that Mario's finally been dethroned as king of the platformers, we here at NL say, 'Excellent - about bloody time!'

Seriously, Mario's been top of the 3D platforming tree for decades and there's nothing like some healthy competition to stir the spirit and serve as inspiration for Nintendo to take things to the next level. Super Mario Odyssey was and still is a fantastic game, but it's nearly seven years old now. It really is time that someone else made a game that aspires to and reaches (and arguably surpasses, depending on who you talk to) that level of excellence. It's great to see PS5 owners enjoying a game so lovingly and expertly crafted as Astro Bot.

And of course, after delivering back in October 2017, the Mario Odyssey team has been extremely quiet for much of the Switch's lifecycle and the smart money is on the next 3D Mario game coming for 'Switch 2' in its launch year. It's probably too late in the day for Nintendo to take much inspiration from Astro Bot, but it'll be fascinating to see where the plumber goes next.

And if it'll take another seven years before someone else follows his lead.

[source x.com]