Five tough new levels (plus bots) coming to Astro Bot, starting… now

Team Asobi has announced that five new levels are coming to Astro Bot as weekly drops, starting on Feb. 13. (That’s today!) As with previous additions to the Game of the Year winner, the new levels are free to download — and, of course, each comes with a new Special Bot to rescue. It’s hard to say what cute, robotic PlayStation characters could possibly top the twin Spider-Man bots from the Christmas level, but I’m excited to find out.

Studio director Nicolas Doucet warned players to expect “harder levels to test your jumping skills” from the staggered update. Once players have completed each level and unlocked its Special Bot, it will become accessible in Time Attack mode, with online rankings. (You need to have completed the main game to access the levels.)

Here’s the weekly schedule for the release of the new levels. The first, Tick-Tock Shock, is available now. All levels drop at 9 a.m. EST/6 a.m. PST on a Thursday.

• Feb 13: Tick-Tock Shock
• Feb 20: Thrust or Bust
• Feb 27: Cock-A-Doodle-Doom
• Mar 6: Hard to Bear
• Mar 13: Armored Hardcore

Cock-A-Doodle-Doom! Now that’s a good name for a video game level.

Alongside the new content, Team Asobi has also released a PlayStation 5 Pro patch for Astro Bot, “featuring a constant best resolution while still running at 60 frames per second.” So that’s nice.