Why “Cassette Boy” might’ve been Einstein’s favorite Xbox game

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Palworld, the game often described as “Pokémon with guns,” quickly became a huge hit when it launched in early access just two years ago, putting developer Pocketpair in the gaming spotlight. However, Palworld wasn’t their first attempt at a viral sensation. The studio had previously gained attention with their adventure game, Craftopia, and a smaller, more casual game called AI: Art Imposter.

When it was difficult for small, independent game developers to find publishers, Pocketpair took a cue from successful indie studios and started its own publishing division to help support its development efforts.

This publishing division will find promising games from independent developers and provide the financial support and publishing services they need to release their games on consoles and PCs. In 2025, their first collaboration with Surgent Studios, creators of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, will bring the game Dead Take to players.

Pocketpair Publishing has three games planned for release by 2026, starting with Cassette Boy, which came out recently. Created by a single developer, Wonderland Kazakiri inc., Cassette Boy launched on January 15th. Pocketpair Publishing handled the release on Steam, while Forever Entertainment S.A. published it for Xbox Series X|S.

Cassette Boy is a retro 2D pixel game inspired by a question from Albert Einstein: if no one is looking, does the moon still exist? The game starts with a dreamlike sequence where the player, a simple white pixel character with black eyes, discovers the moon has vanished and broken into pieces. A key rule of the game is that anything not visible simply doesn’t exist.

This strategy will help you tackle the tricky puzzles in Cassette Boy. You’ll discover useful items throughout the game to overcome challenges. Weapons like swords or bows are great for dealing with small enemies blocking your way, but you’ll need more than just those to escape the large, furious cat you’ve been chasing in the meadow.

With a good pair of headphones, the game Cassette Boy transforms from a flat, 2D experience into a fully rotatable 3D world. You can use the controller bumpers to shift the world left or right, changing your view of puzzles and battles. For example, instead of running away from a large cat, you might be able to rotate the world to hide it behind a wall at the edge of the map, effectively solving the problem!

Cassette Boy immediately appeals to those who fondly remember older games. Its pixel art and color scheme – a mix of navy blue, bright green, black, and white – strongly resemble classic Nintendo Game Boy titles. The game’s world, viewed from above and filled with interesting characters, feels like something you’d find in an old Zelda or Pokémon game. However, beneath this retro exterior lies a surprisingly complex and challenging puzzle experience.

Okay, so this developer has created something really clever with how objects work in the game, inspired by this player called Cassette Boy. They’re calling it a “Schrödinger System” – it’s like things only *exist* when you can see them! Basically, if I flip a switch to open a gate, it might close again if I walk away. But here’s the crazy part: if I flip the switch and *then* turn the camera so I can’t see the switch anymore, the gate stays open, even if I move! It’s like the game ‘forgets’ the switch is there because it’s out of my view. It’s a really interesting way to play with how the game world works.

As you play Cassette Boy, rotating the game world to solve puzzles gets increasingly complex. You’ll sometimes need to rotate the world multiple times to activate switches, and other puzzles will challenge you to think outside the box when placing blocks. Before difficult sections, you can save at bonfires, and if you fail, you’ll restart at the last bonfire with full health. Exploring dungeons and solving puzzles will reward you with useful items like new weapons and collectible moon fragments.

Cassette Boy is a puzzle RPG for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One where you play as a single player. While it’s a fun challenge, it isn’t playable on handheld devices and doesn’t support Xbox’s ‘Play Anywhere’ feature. The good news is it’s reasonably priced, and you can even download a demo on Xbox to try it out before purchasing.

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2026-01-23 16:40