Just two short years ago, Pocketpair broke the gaming news cycle when its “Pokemon-with-guns” title, Palworld, launched in early access. The game was a breakout success for the studio, but it was not the team’s first shot at virality. It had previously garnered significant attention for its adventure sandbox, Craftopia, and a smaller drawing party game titled AI: Art Imposter.
Title: Cassette Boy
Genres: Puzzle, action adventure, RPG
Released: January 14, 2026
Developer: Wonderland Kazakiri inc.
Available on: Xbox One, Series X|S, Switch, PS4/5, Steam
Price: $12.99
Xbox Play Anywhere: ❌
Xbox Game Pass: ❌
This publishing arm would seek out creative offerings from indie studios and provide the crucial funding and publishing support that these studios needed to see widespread release across consoles and PC platforms. In 2025, Pocketpair Publishing’s first partnership with Surgent Studios (the team behind Tales of Kenzera: Zau) would result in the launch of Dead Take.
Pocketpair Publishing has three titles currently announced for 2026, with the first among them being the recently released Cassette Boy. Developed by a solo developer under the banner of Wonderland Kazakiri inc, Cassette Boy launched on January 15 with Pocketpair Publishing and Forever Entertainment S.A. providing publishing support for the Steam launch and Xbox Series X|S console launch, respectively.
Cassette Boy invites players to explore a retro-inspired 2D pixel world built upon a question once posited by Albert Einstein, himself — Is the moon there when nobody looks? The game begins with what seems to be a dream sequence where the simple, all-white-pixel protagonist with two little pixel black eyes finds themself in a world where the moon has disappeared and become fragmented. There is one important rule in Cassette Boy: if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
This rule can be used to help solve Cassette Boy’s unique puzzle challenges. The player will find helpful tools in the world that can assist with overcoming obstacles. A long sword or a bow and arrow are handy for taking out pesky slimes that may be obstructing your path. But they’ll only go so far to help you to avoid the giant, angry cat you’ve tracked to a meadow.
Thankfully, a pair of headphones can unlock the 2D world of Cassette Boy and make it a rotatable 3D space. Shifting the world to the left or right using the controller bumpers can help change the perspective of the puzzle or combat engagement the player is currently tackling. Instead of running from that giant cat, shifting the world might allow you to block it with a giant wall on the edge of the map — out of sight, out of mind!
At first glance, Cassette Boy strikes at the nostalgia cords without shame. The game’s pixelated art style, combined with its retro-inspired color palette consisting of navy blue, bright green, black, and white, gives Cassette Boy a notable Nintendo Game Boy vibe. Cassette Boy’s setup, with its top-down 2D world littered with quirky NPCs, would feel just as at home in an old-school Zelda or Pokémon title. But its core gameplay loop offers a deeper, mind-bending puzzle experience.
The developer refers to Cassette Boy’s object permanence query as a “Schrödinger System”, where every item in the world can be affected by a simple rotation of the view. Stepping on a switch that is locking a gate may open that gate, but stepping away from it can result in the gate closing back. However, if the player steps on the switch, and then rotates the camera to obstruct the view of the switch, then the gate will remain open even if the player moves as the switch is technically no longer part of the world.
The challenge of rotating the world becomes more elaborate as the player progresses through the world. Some switches will require the world to make several rotations before properly activating, while other puzzles might require the player to be more creative with placing blocks to overcome obstructions. Cassette Boy features a bonfire-style save system before risky encounters, and failure will result in the player respawning at the last bonfire with full health so they can try again. Dungeons and puzzles can provide a myriad of rewards, from new weapons to moon fragments.
Cassette Boy is a single-player adventure puzzle RPG available now on the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. It has not been confirmed by the developer nor the publisher that the game is compatible with handheld devices, and it is not an Xbox Play Anywhere title. Thankfully, it does have an affordable price point, making it a great pickup for anybody looking for a few hours of challenging puzzle action. A demo of the game is also available now on Xbox, so you can try before you buy.
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