Among the many reasons Astro Bot is so wonderful is its soundtrack, created by returning composer Kenny Young. Some of the best tracks are the brilliant remixes of the themes from beloved PlayStation series, and now, the composer for God of War’s last two games has shared his thoughts after hearing the cheery spin on his moody music.

Bear McCreary, who produced the soundtracks for God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarok, has spoken to VGC about Bot of War, the level inspired by Santa Monica Studio’s iconic franchise.

The level features an appropriately poppy spin on the main theme, and McCreary is a big fan of both the game and the music.

“I had a chance to tell Team Asobi to their face how much I love their game,” he said, explaining he’d met them at The Game Awards and told them how much he enjoyed the game and “loved the [Bot of War] level”.

“I had seen it well in advance because my friends at Santa Monica Studios were like ‘you gotta come see this thing!’ because they had been working with Team Asobi on it,” McCreary says. “While obviously I didn’t work with [Kenny Young, composer for Astro Bot] on it, there was no need. He nailed it.”

He said the fresh take on the music gave him a new appreciation for his work on God of War.

“What Kenny did for me is that when I got to the Bot of War level, and you heard those three notes, it doesn’t matter that they were completely recontextualized, it didn’t matter that they had been redone in this fun, robo-electro-pop style. When you hear those three notes, that’s God of War,” McCreary explained, adding that it makes him “so proud, because it really hit me that I made something.”