The name’s Pippit! I’m on my way to become the best yoyo player in the world! Now, behold this little beauty! My lucky yoyo! My weapon of choice, you could say. Not that I go around whacking people in the face with it, or anything like that… I mean I use it in every tournament. See the stickers? I must be a genius designer or something. I’m only 16, but I’ve already got the 319th place in my last tournament! …Oh? Ah, yes… You wanted to hear about my family too. Errr… My family are the Pipistrellos. I know, I know… Everyone starts behaving so weirdly when they hear about my family, so I usually try not to bring them up… But, fine — I’ll tell you all about them.


I call her "auntie", but her full name's Pepper Pipistrello. But if you work for her, you should make it a point to call her "Madame" Pipistrello! She’s the big-person CEO for Pipistrello Industries. We single-handedly run the electric grid in the city, and do stuff like energy generation or whatever. I say "we", but the company's more her thing. She’s always cared more about it than anything else. She’s still nice to me, I guess, but she’s always about business and so formal. Oh! If you ever meet her, watch out for the weird old-person accent, and be sure to bring a dictionary for the big words she loves to use. Not that I’m not smart! She just-- She doesn’t have to talk like that. I’m not really sure where she's from, but I heard our family comes from somewhere else. I think she insists on calling me "pipsqueak" just to make me angry. Yeesh, I'm not five anymore — I'm practically the yoyo champion in the regional division! Have some respect!


Pepita’s one of my cousins! But she acts more like she’s my big sis or whatever. She’s all about the numbers for auntie… Accounting for the family, or something like that? I dunno — it sounds boring. She handles all the money, and she seems pretty stingy. I hear she hands out Upgrade Contracts too, but if you don’t read the fine print, it’ll get you in a deep, deep hole! I don’t think I’d wanna be on the receiving end of one of her Contracts, but I assume there’s a bunch of powerful Upgrades you can get. Maybe something that helps me win yoyo tournaments? It looks like the benefits outweigh the negatives — at least if you’re able to pay off the Contracts quickly!


Cousin Pippo is one of the big-brain science dudes working for auntie, always wearing his lab coat like he’s in some kind of science show. He’s always putting on this military speech style, calling me “sir” like he’s all fancy. He’s the one testing all the crazy new machine ideas for auntie, to help with energy generation or whatever. Auntie says it’s all a secret, though, so I don’t know what’ll come out of it. I also hear he’s good with Badges. Y’know, the kind you can wear on your shirt, or pin to your backpack. But his are not like anyone else’s! He says they’re technological science-y Badges, and he’s always babbling about the effects. Maybe someday I’ll ask him to Refine one of my own Badges… But, man, it’s not like I wanna spend too much time hanging out with him. He’s got those creepy vibes, y’know?


Ugh. He's the big, dumb rat in charge of Plaza Roquefort, the largest mall in the city. He likes to put on a theatrical routine, adding flourishes to his every sentence and movement — the cheese smell must be getting to his head. I hear he’s into junk-food — but I mean, he’s into selling it! Viciously! He’ll get you addicted in no time. You gotta watch out for that stuff. If you believe the rumors… *whispers* …They say he’s killed someone. He’d do anything to protect his business. Maybe we should stop talking about him…


The Slime Tycoon’s straight up nasty. Literally all greasy. He acts like every one of his employees are stupid. I don’t think he’s got much respect for them… He's the one in charge of construction around the city, digging up everything around here and destroying those fun parks I played at as a kid. At least, that’s what he says he does, ‘cause I’ve never seen a single one of his buildings get finished. As if the never-ending construction noise wasn’t enough, the city’s riddled with potholes now. Why can’t he ever finish these buildings? What is he even working on…?


She’s like the ultimate nerd queen, running some yearly pop-culture convention with all the latest celebrities. She’s got this whole cute act going on, but don’t let it fool you. She’s just hustling her nerd fans into buying her latest gadgets and stuff. Oh, the zPhone 18 comes in a Toxy-light-blue casing now? I…have to resist the urge. It’s all just about making money to her…


He’s a cosplayer, and a pretty fanatic one at that. He always attends Toxy’s convention, and I hear he’s made it to the finals of the cosplayer face-offs this year…again. I’m, uh, not even sure what he actually looks like beneath all that makeup, to be honest. I don't even think *he* knows what he looks like without the costume. I kinda like to read the same manga, but not in the level that he does… Maybe he knows something I don’t — I should try cosplaying sometime. People always say I look like the Dark Shadow Lord of Shades, anyway.


He owns the city’s football team, the Poultries. You wanna watch a game? He owns the stadium. You wanna place a bet? He owns the betting agency too. To be honest, I don’t know who’d wanna watch the Poultries play… They suck. Well, they sucked until recently, that is. Apparently they got into a streak of luck, beating even the Dream Team United 7 to 0 — and those guys had three world championships under their belts! I think there must be some foul-play involved in this… It’s not a coincidence he runs the betting lounge, right?


See you in our next chat with Pippit where we'll dive into some gameplay!

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is an exciting Yoyo-vania from Pocket Trap, adding an exciting twist to the genre as you go on an adventure to save the city; now you can try it out in Steam Next Fest!

Tighten up that string, and bust out the yoyo moves! In this 2D top-down adventure you'll explore a sprawling urban landscape, reinterpreting your surroundings through your mastery of yoyo tricks. Solve puzzles, fight the city's rival crime lords, and regain the influence of the Pipistrello family!

This exciting demo gives you a taste of the abilities, enemies and fun that'll arrive soon in Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo.