Former Nintendo boss says "I have to admit it," Astro Bot "almost outdid Nintendo at its own game"

A little bot in a Gex costume adorably waving his arms as he watches TV with a bucket of popcorn on his lap. I hope nobody knocks it over
(Image credit: Team Asobi)

As anyone who has played it can attest, Astro Bot is a bit of a banger. I know it, you know it, and seemingly, the former president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, knows it, too.

The former Nintendo boss was once again co-hosting the New York Game Awards this week, which arguably means he'd inevitably speak about Team Asobi's throwback platformer. After all, it was up for four awards and even won the 'Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year' prize.

Given the House of Mario's own track record of platforming excellence, Fils-Aimé knows a thing or two about the genre, so the following playful comment was high praise, indeed. "I have to admit it," he said. "Astro Bot almost outdid Nintendo at its own game."

Alongside the top prize, Astro Bot also won the 'Tin Pan Alley Award for Best Music in a Game' and the 'Central Park Children’s Zoo Award for Best Kids Game.' That's hardly the only show Astro Bot has done well, with the platformer also doing well at the Golden Joysticks.

And you can see why. In our own Astro Bot review, we gave the game a perfect score as it "soars above and beyond to serve up a near-perfect platformer."

"Astro Bot doesn't just deliver on the promise and potential displayed in PS5 pack-in demo Astro's Playroom, but soars above and beyond to serve up a near-perfect platformer to rival – and possibly surpass – the best of Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom romps," we said.

Clearly, we're just about on the same page as Fils-Aimé. Thankfully, given that Nintendo Switch 2 hype is amping this year, Ninty's right of platforming reply may not be all that far away.

Nintendo Switch 2 will need big growth outside the US and Japan to do as well as Switch 1, says veteran analyst: "There have to be some surprises."

Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.

Read more
Ape Escape
After Astro Bot paid tribute to dormant classics, PlayStation's CEO is "looking at opportunities to leverage past IP"
Astro Bot
Astro Bot director says precisely what the industry needs to hear: "It's OK to make a small game" because "players today have a backlog of games" they can't complete
Nintendo Switch 2 controllers by console
Ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida says Switch 2 "could have been a larger reveal" and "the only surprise to me was that mice thing that they showed"
A Helldivers-inspired bot in Astro Bot placing a flag into the ground.
After Helldivers 2 and Astro Bot success, live service and family games are genres PlayStation wants to "expand in the future"
Star Fox
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto once asked ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida his thoughts on Star Fox Zero on Wii U, and well, we've all been there: "Should I say my honest reaction?"
Mario racing on a desert track during the Switch 2 reveal trailer.
Zelda and Star Fox veteran says the Nintendo Switch has been a global success, but thinks the House of Mario still has "something" up its sleeve for the Switch 2
Latest in Platforming Games
Animal Well screenshot, captured on PC
After his excellent debut Metroidvania took 7 years, Animal Well's solo dev says his next game shouldn't "take nearly as long"
Crash Bandicoot PS1
Former Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida says the PlayStation marketing team had to completely redesign Crash Bandicoot in PS1 commercials because he was too ugly for the Japanese market
Astro Bot
Astro Bot director says precisely what the industry needs to hear: "It's OK to make a small game" because "players today have a backlog of games" they can't complete
Sonic and Shadow clash in front of the moon in Sonic X Shadow Generations
Sonic gets an official lore timeline that goes "tens of thousands of years" into the past and 200 years into the future, and somehow canonizes a party game spin-off
Super Mario 64
Blindfolded Super Mario 64 speedrunner declares "70 Star is DEAD" after he "absolutely obliterated" his old record
Spyro the Dragon speedrunner Dayoman
Spyro the Dragon speedrunner caps off a 5-month grind with a legendary world record milestone: "They said it couldn't be done!"
Latest in News
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor in Superman
Superman star to lead upcoming thriller movie from Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train director
The Witcher 4 cinematic screenshot showing a closeup of Ciri, protagonist of the new adventure
"We slept under our desks and lived in chaos": Before the Witcher 3 became an RPG phenomenon, CDPR's CEOs had a tough time making the original game
Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter
Jason Isaacs says Meryl Streep should play Lucius Malfoy in HBO's Harry Potter series: "She can do anything"
WOTLK
Following a high-profile guild quitting WoW Classic Hardcore, Blizzard makes the unprecedented decision to revive MMO characters that die during DDoS attacks "at our sole discretion"
Wanda in Doctor Strange
Scarlet Witch star Elizabeth Olsen is one of the first Marvel actors to say she's not in the next pair of Avengers movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania
Paul Rudd is still thinking about that one Thanos and Ant-Man fan theory: "I often wonder, though, could he really have stopped Thanos in that way?"