Cassette Beasts Brings a Fresh Twist on Monster-Raising to Switch, Xbox Game Pass - Hardcore Gamer

hardcoregamer.com:

Cassette Beasts dropped in April for the PC and we absolutely loved it – now it’s hit consoles too! This blend of 3D adventure and Pokemon-style monster-raising has some interesting twists on the familiar tropes. It’s a rare terat to find a game that takes an existing formula and tries new things with it, but the usage of a cassette in the town to merge people with the animals and form creatures for battles is a great one and leads to a lot of fun interactions.

Cassette Beasts has a very vibrant art style, but also a darker undercurrent to it thanks to its dungeon design. While Pokemon has its competition-based gym structure, Cassette Beasts tasks you with surviving dungeons against horrific monsters that seem to be stuck in a form of limbo. The core action is familiar enough, but with a lot of experimentation being rewarded.

The usage of cassette markers like stop being used to switch out a monster is fantastic and enables a deeper level of combat while still fitting the title perfectly. The ability to have cassettes be more than just an expy of a Pokeball helps show how much work went into crafting the game and the level of care at making sure combat felt fresh in a well-worn genre. The world of Pokemon-clones has risen over the years, but this is the freshest take yet and the most fun I’ve personally had with a game of this type – including the Switch’s mainline Pokemon games and remakes, in many years. The humor-filled dialogue helps a lot, as does the game’s light-hearted tone.

This mix of the familar and fresh is a must-play for anyone who has been burned out on Pokemon games for a while – or who always wanted to try out the formula, but felt intimidated by starting a series over a quarter-century old. Cassette