The attention to detail is meticulous, from its aesthetics to voice actors, to sound and special effects - it is truly second to none. As for the gameplay, well, it's incredibly fun, challenging and top-notch! Those attending the Tokyo Game Show can find out for themselves, as there is an awesome demo to PLAY for the FIRST TIME, along with the opportunity to meet the development team.
Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast From The Past at this year’s Tokyo Game Show - RDG booth Hall 7, Booth N03 - where visitors will be among the first to play an exclusive demo of Pizza Cats! Offering a first hands-on taste of its fast-paced platformer, combat, and teamwork between the three playable Pizza Cats, the demo arrives nearly a year after the game’s initial announcement, which sparked widespread interest and a strong wave of anticipation among fans. With development continuing behind the scenes and fans eagerly calling for updates, the wait is finally nearing its end as Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast From The Past prepares to make a major impression at TGS with its first public playable experience.
The current demo focuses purely on the platforming and action aspects of the game. The full game will offer much more, including RPG customization, character leveling, and exploration. The story, while featuring familiar faces and expanding the world fans remember, is an entirely new adventure rather than a retelling of existing episodes. Developer Blast Zero added that it couldn’t fit everything into the demo without making it far too long for TGS, so it was decided to focus on giving players a strong first impression of the combat, impact, and overall game feel.
Meticulously hand-drawn animation, staying true to the original cult series.
All three Pizza Cats have distinct personalities and playstyles. Speedy (Yattarou) excels in close combat, Guido (Sukashii) is focused on platforming and aerial attacks, while Polly (Pururun) uses projectiles and suits players who prefer to keep their distance. Together, they allow players to create impressive combos and switch between characters almost instantly. A card-based upgrade system adds further depth, letting players customise each cat and develop their own play style.
Pizza Cats! is an action-RPG inspired by the iconic 1990s anime, combining fast-paced platforming and combat with RPG customisation, progression and exploration. The game brings the three Pizza Cats together in an adventure designed to capture the energy, humour and visual identity of the original series while introducing a new interactive experience for fans and newcomers alike.
There is so much the team has done to maintain an incredible level of attention to detail. Blast Zero has stayed as faithful to the original show as possible, while also ensuring that the gameplay feels polished and enjoyable. Every detail has to be just right because the team are huge perfectionists—sometimes to the point of driving themselves crazy.
Achieving this requires creative solutions and a completely different approach from that of a developer creating their own original enemies and characters. The research process alone is incredibly extensive. For example, Laurent Romero, the Art-director/Lead animator, has taken screenshots of every location and every attack from every character and meticulously organized them into folders. The location screenshots alone total more than 10,000 files.
The team also had to establish the precise locations of everything in order to create the world map. They carefully studied the screenshots to determine which parts of the world could be seen from different locations and how those areas connected. They even consulted an actual map of Japan to identify the real-world regions that inspired certain locations and determine whether they should be positioned in the north, east, or elsewhere in the country.
Independent video game channel over 20 years on YouTube (since 2006).
