Video games are having a meta moment, and I love it

Video games are having a meta moment. New games aren’t just occasionally breaking the fourth wall, but directly acknowledging the influential titles that have come before them. In September alone, Astro Bot, The Plucky Squire, and UFO 50 all showcased what seems to be a unifying moment for the video game industry… All three of those titles are fantastic in their own right, but each is also a love letter to the video game industry’s history in their own way.

To some extent, video games have always tried to replicate what was popular at the time. This moment shows that video games are no longer just chasing trends, though; they’re actively in conversation with those trends. That can be done through cameos, gameplay references, or by embracing the same game design constraints that birthed the medium’s most foundational titles. It’s a new kind of self-referential moment for video games — and I love it.

Astro Bot is the most straightforward kind of referential celebration. It’s meta in the sense that players are collecting parts of a PlayStation 5 and saving VIP Bots that are dressed like PlayStation characters from the brand’s history. It’s not just calling out the big names like God of War either; it features deeper cuts like Alundra and Motor Toon Grand Prix. This not only makes Astro Bot a great way to celebrate the PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, but it also feels like a real acknowledgment from developer Team Asobi that these games truly made PlayStation what it is today. Astro Bot owes a lot to platforming classics, so it’s gratifying to see franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper represented here.

There’s a sadder read of that, too. Some have expressed thatAstro Bot can feel like a graveyard for dormant franchises, but I feel a bit more optimistic about it. Astro Bot exists today because of the PlayStation series that came before it, and Team Asobi pays tribute to that fact in a way that suits its original series at this moment.

I imagine