Astro Bot isn’t on Xbox, but you can play these great platformers on Game Pass

Astro Bot is an undeniable win for PlayStation. It’s not just a celebration of the brand and many of the franchises that built it into what it is today, but it’s also a fantastic 3D platformer that uses the PS5 hardware in creative ways. As a Sony-published game spotlighting the history of the company, it’s obviously not on Xbox. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of people lamenting that Xbox does not have a lot of good platformers in the wake of Astro Bot’s well-received launch.

Although it’s accurate to say that Xbox doesn’t have an exclusive quite like Astro Bot, a few excellent 3D platformers are available on Xbox Game Pass. Many of them are even IP now owned by Microsoft or outright published by Xbox Game Studios. If you have an Xbox console and Game Pass subscription and feel like you’re missing out on Astro Bot, consider playing one of these games to make that feeling a little less painful.

Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2

The most recent 3D platformer that Xbox Game Studios played a part in publishing is Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2. It was my favorite game of 2021 and features some excellent level design that even surpasses that of Astro Bot at times. On top of that, it uses its premise about a secret agency that delves into people’s minds to explore topics like mental health, anxiety, and trauma in a way that’s approachable to all ages.

This also applies to its predecessor for the original Xbox, which is backward compatible with Xbox Series X/S and playable through Game Pass. Raz, the protagonist of Psychonauts, is the closest thing to a platformer mascot like Astro or Ratchet that Xbox has right now. Psychonauts 2 is a prime example of the kind of game Xbox should be making more of.

Banjo-Kazooie and its sequels

One of the more frustrating parts of Xbox’s general lack of exclusive 3D platformers is that it has been sitting on a beloved IP within the genre for over a decade. I’m referencing Banjo-Kazooie, Rare’s influential 3D platformer series that started on Nintendo