Right from the start, Cassette Beasts touches on all the nostalgia: cosy music, old-school graphics, a whole UI based around cassette tapes, and that good feeling you had when you played Pokémon for the first time. The game seems to be aiming for that retro-modern vibe, and it’s nailing it at every turn.

The art style is striking too - 2D sprites beautifully integrated into a 3D world. I didn’t think I’d be a fan of the 2.5D style at first, but it grew on my super, super quickly. It feels both familiar and fresh, blending the pixel art aesthetic with the depth of 3D environments. The result is a world that looks alive while still evoking the charm of classic retro games.

And here’s the twist: in this game, you don’t just collect monsters - you ARE the monster. Or more specifically, you record wild beasts’ forms onto blank cassettes, instantly triggering that warm, fuzzy memory of taping songs off the radio back in the day. Then, when you pop them into your walkman, you turn into them. It’s such a creative spin on the monster-collecting formula and feels like a fresh take on the genre. And if that wasn’t a big enough trip down memory lane, the moves your monsters have are determined by stickers that you can stick onto or peel off your cassettes. It’s such a tactile, satisfying mechanic that ties the game’s theme together beautifully.