Most obscure Astro Bot cameos

Astro Bot shares all the best tropes of a 3D platformer. You have colorful levels to run and jump through, catchy music, unique power-ups, and tons of things to collect. Your main collectible — and the way you will make progress through the game — is the hundreds of Bots hidden within each world. Most of these are generic white Bots, but there are also a host of Bots that pay homageto other video game characters and franchises.

Most of these Bots are instantly recognizable — no one is going to confuse the bearded bot with a red tattoo wielding an ax for anyone but Kratos, for example. However, Team Asobi didn’t limit itself to only the big faces from gaming history. It went deep into the well of gaming to pull out some incredibly obscure characters and give them a nod of recognition. Even if you’ve been a lifelong PlayStation fan, there’s a good chance at least a few of these cameos went over your head. Here are just a few deep-cut cameos and where they come from.

1 Pure-Hearted Puppet

Kutaro from the PS3 game Puppeteer

Between the hair resembling something from Kingdom Hearts, the giant scissors he’s holding, and the title of Pure-Hearted Puppet, it would be hard to guess where this character comes from if you didn’t play the game yourself. It’s actually Kutaro from the game Puppeteer on the PS3, in which your main character is transformed into a puppet that immediately gets decapitated.

One of the main mechanics becomes swapping heads that give him new moves. While it got great reviews, it ended up being a hidden gem — it came out on the PS3 just after the PS4 came out and never got a port.

2 The enigmatic Elfin Prisoner

Yorda from the PS2 game ICO

PlayStation

There’s a lot that makes this a hard character to pin down, especially since the term “Elfin” can be very misleading. This is Yorda from Fumito Ueda’s first game, ICO.

Yorda is the main NPC in the game who you need to help lead through the mysterious castle, except, neither of you speak the same language. Thus, you mainly travel together holding hands. Most people are more familiar with Ueda’s work in Shadow of the Colossus, but ICO is often cited as one of the most influential games for other developers.

3 Dreamwalker might be the deepest-cut

Alundra from the PS1 game Adventures of Alundra

PlayStation

The PS1 was overflowing with amazing games, and sadly, Adventures of Alundra was mostly lost in the currents. This action game starred Alundra as a warrior with the ability to enter people’s dreams who finds himself on an island where the locals are all suffering from deadly nightmares. It was well-received and found a decent audience, but only got one sequel that hardly resembled the first one.

4 Young Holidaymaker

Boku from the PS1 Japan-exclusive Boku no Natsuyasumi

PlayStation

This one is just mean. Not only does it look like any generic kid, but it’s a callback to a game that wasn’t even released outside of Japan.

Boku no Natsuyasumi (or My Summer Vacation in English) was a PS1 game that later got a port to the PSP as well as two sequels that also never left Japan. The game is about a young boy named Boku who spends his summer with his relatives in the country. You’re free to spend your time as you wish, with no specific goals or objectives except to spend your youthful summer as you see fit.

5 The most adorable Urban Survivor

The Pomeranian from the PS3 game Tokyo Jungle

PlayStation

Tokyo Jungle was one of the most bizarre PS3 games of its time, which is saying something considering the lineup of games that the console has. This game was a survival game in which you played various animals in a future version of Tokyo where nature and animals have reclaimed the city. The story mode puts you into the role of various animals, but the Pomeranian story section is certainly the most memorable of the lot.

The game also has one of the wildest twists, so check it out if you have access to a PS3.