Cassette Boy review – Fez meets The Legend Of Zelda in a new indie charmer

A new Japanese indie game demonstrates a Schrödinger-inspired puzzle system where if you can’t see something it suddenly doesn’t exist.

One of the many positives about indie gaming is that it allows for developers from all over the world to release and promote games, even if they come from a country that normally has little or no connection with triple-A publishing. This week’s despelote is from a team in Ecuador, game of the year winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is from France, and Citizen Sleeper is a rare reminder that the UK does still have an active video game development scene.

From Brazil to India, indie gaming is often the only way a more diverse range of developers can become involved in the games industry. And yet the one country that always seems underrepresented is Japan. As hugely influential as it continues to be in mainstream gaming, the Japanese indie scene (usually referred to as doujin soft) has made little impact in the West.

There are various reasons to explain that, starting with the fact that lower budget, double-A gaming never went away in Japan and a lot of doujin soft games are never translated for the West. That makes Cassette Boy a relative rarity, which is a shame because while it’s not a perfect experience it’s certainly an entertainingly odd one.

Although Cassette Boy’s green and white graphics are purposefully reminiscent of old Game Boy games this is not the usual sort of faux retro game. In fact, we’re not really sure why developer Wonderland Kazakiri Inc. opted for a monochrome colour scheme like this, other than it was probably cheaper that way. What’s special about Cassette Boy’s graphics is not related to its limited colour palette but the way you can rotate its camera.

That’s obviously not unusual for modern games, but it uses the fact that the game world appears to be 2D but can actually be manipulated in 3D. That isn’t a new idea, with Cassette Boy being reminiscent of the likes of Crush, Super Paper Mario, and Fez, but it’s unusual enough that it still feels novel.

Those games were designed around the idea of changing 2D level layouts by altering the camera in 3D, to look at them from a different perspective. That’s essentially what’s going on in Cassette Boy, although it’s a bit more specific than that, in that once an object, like a door, is obscured from view you can then treat it as if it doesn’t exist.

Although that may sound more limited compared to the other games mentioned the developers milk the concept for everything it’s worth, with some extremely clever puzzles that accomplish that vital goal of seeming to be absolutely impossible right up until the second you figure them out.

This all comes with some bonus philosophising on the question of whether something really exists if you can’t see it – a variation of the old thought experiment of If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? It’s the moon, in particular, that the main character is worried about and while the game isn’t plot heavy there’s some quietly affecting moments towards the end.

Rather than Fez and co., the most obvious inspiration for the game as a whole is The Legend Of Zelda, specifically Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy – which explains both the 2D art style and the monochrome colour scheme.

Inevitably, that also means dungeons, which is where the game is at its best in terms of mixing puzzle-solving with combat. The boss battles are great, as you desperately spin the view around, trying to work out how you can manipulate the existence of switches and traps to defeat the varied range of opponents.

This stands in contrast to the standard combat which, much like the 2D Zelda games, isn’t that much fun, with a stodgy sword and bow being the backbone of your armoury. Unlike Zelda, Cassette Boy is technically an action role-player, although it is a technicality as while you can level up, and even level grind if you’re finding combat difficult, we never found that was necessary, as you gain experience at a steady rate simply by exploring.

There’s also a Metroidvania element to the game, with new tools and abilities allowing you to return to previous areas and collect previously inaccessible items, although this is almost entirely optional. It does help to make the game feel less linear though, since the game world is actually relatively small.

Cassette Boy isn’t as original as it might initially seem and we’re not sure the graphical style works in its favour. The weak combat and unnecessary role-playing elements were probably mistakes too, but not serious ones. But while the perspective shifting might not be unique, it is rare and at its best Cassette Boy can alter reality with the best of them.

Formats: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £11.69
Publisher: Forever Entertainment
Developer: Wonderland Kazakiri Inc.
Release Date: 15th January 2026
Age Rating: 3

Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

Comments Add as preferred source