My son reviewed a Playstation 5 - and he doesn't hold back

This might be the most honest review you read of Sony's new console :)

My son is at the age where he’s getting into gaming in a big way.

His current fixation is playing Among Us online with his friends, but he loves anything to do with cops and cars, like Forza, Need For Speed and the Dirt rally series.

I’ve written before about how I let him play Grand Theft Auto V - but only on special occasions, with me sitting beside him.

Now, he’s at the age where he just gets it. He’s obsessed. His friends are too. They chat about video games at school all day, forming plans for what they’ll play on afternoons and weekends together.

It’s cute. It reminds me of what I was like at that age. Only with far inferior technology.

I think we had a 386 home computer that I played Monkey Island on.

Last week, we were lucky enough to nab a brand new Playstation 5 console for review.

My son nearly lost his mind. He wouldn’t stop talking about it, or looking at it, or asking if he could use it.

Sometimes he just walked around the house holding the controller.

None of his friends believed we had one, so he’d bring them home, one by one, to see it.

He even printed out a photo of himself holding the controller to prove to everyone else at school it was true.

Anyway, the Playstation 5 is out today and it’s great! You can read my full, official review here but my son decided he wanted to have a go at writing one of his own.

So I’m turning today’s newsletter over to him.

I hope that’s okay!

Arlo’s Playstation 5 review!

Firstly, I must say I do approve of the bulkyness and texture. The controller vibrations are great and even though it’s huge in comparison with the new Xbox, it’s configured just the way I like it. The loading times fit with the size of the box - it’s fast!

Two downsides are that the PS5 console is wobbly sideways and its really hard to find the way to turn it off. The stand doesn’t work with the console sideways, so if you want to place it in a cabinet or on a table you better be careful! I had to Google how to turn it off as it’s different to the Playstation 4. To be fair they are different consoles.

The first game I want to talk about is the new Spider-Man! Miles Morales is really cool, but sometimes it is hard. Playing it for the first time, I thought it was bad. Once I played it I had second thoughts. You start off protecting a prison convoy helicopter that’s carrying Rhino, your first boss fight. Once the chains break, sending the ‘copter hurtling into the prison trucks, you have to vs about 30 hardened criminals (some have guns) while the other Spider-Man tackles Rhino. Then Peter Parker gets injured and Miles Morales takes over.

After steering him through a mall full of busy shoppers you are left to vs him alone in a parking lot. After defeating him you and Peter go get pizza. Yes, pizza. Seeing as I don’t want to spoil it too much we’ll leave it at that.

Music plays for each app and it has really fast loading times. I would also recommend Astro’s Playroom as it is good for all ages. Me and my sister play and my parents play as well.

The thing about Astro’s Playroom is that you use every part of the controller. In one level you are a monkey and you have to rock climb. In another you are a frog. Basically you play as a tech bot. If you don’t move for too long he puts on a VR headset. You are on a trek that involves smashing up penguins, acting the hero and flinging bots into the stratosphere.

From me, the new Playstation 5 alone gets 5 out of 5 stars. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales gets 4.999999999999999999999999999999999999 out of 5 stars and Astro’s Playroom gets 9 out of 10 stars (it could have more proper levels).

-Written by Arlo Schulz, age 10

• The Playstation 5 is out now.