Astro Bot developer Team Asobi has announced the launch dates for its new–and free–bundle of speedrunning levels. The first one, Building Speed, will be available starting October 17 and will see players team up with the bulldog booster Barkster to help them weave their way through a series of obstacles like cranes, crates, and even a flying car wash. Team Asobi will release a level every week at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET, and in total, there will be five of these new stages to race through.
Each level will also have two brand-new bots to rescue, inspired by characters like Eve from Stellar Blade and the Helldivers. In addition to rescuing adorable bots, each of these levels will have an online leaderboard for the speedrunners looking to earn bragging rights.
Here’s the full schedule for when each stage will be available:
- October 17: Building Speed
- October 24: Let it Slide
- October 31: Spring-loaded Run
- November 7: Helium Heights
- November 14: Rising Heat
Astro Bot was released on September 6 and the game earned critical acclaim for its polished platforming fun. “Team Asobi cements itself as an essential PlayStation studio with an imaginative platformer for the ages,” Mark Delaney wrote in GameSpot’s Astro Bot review.
The future for Astro looks bright, as PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst recently spoke about how Sony is looking to release more family-friendly games. “I think it’s massively important that PlayStation Studios develops games in various genres, and the family market, I think, is really important for us to focus on,” Hulst said. “Astro is very, very important to PlayStation.”
PlayStation fans won’t have long to wait for a new all-ages adventure, as Lego Horizon Adventures puts a cute spin on the Horizon series and will launch for PC, PS5, PS4, and Switch on November 14.