Fans invited to experience an exclusive!
First Look & Play at the action-packed gameplay of Samurai Pizza Cats! at Tokyo Game Show this year
The Wait Is Over: Fans Get Their First Chance to Play Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast From The Past at Tokyo Game Show
Publisher Red Dunes Games, together with developer Blast Zero, are preparing to reignite excitement for the iconic 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.
“What we are showing this year is already spectacular, but we want to surprise visitors again next year, too”, Blast Zero CEO Dave Baljon. “Our goal is to make players feel as though they’re actually controlling the characters from the anime. We won’t settle for anything less, and that’s how we want the game to stand out.”
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 playstyle.
The demo introduces these abilities, while the full game offers multiple ways to tackle enemies and stages. “We’re excited to see how players experiment with the cats’ unique skills, with a high skill ceiling rewarding creative character switching and clever solutions”, Game Director and Music Composer Sebastien Romero.
Sultan Darmaki (EO and Creative Director) “Blast Zero are doing a truly remarkable and creative job! - Their faithfulness to the spirit and tone of the original extends well beyond visuals and gameplay. Both the Japanese and English versions are being crafted as distinct works, preserving the humour and characterisation fans know from each regional release rather than creating a single unified script.”
About Pizza Cats! - Keeping it Real - Perfectionists! - Meticulous Attention To Detail!
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.
Get ready for some REAL old-school fun!
About Red Dunes Games
Red Dunes Games is an independent game developer and publisher based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. With a global outlook and deep roots in storytelling, Red Dunes creates and publishes original games that resonate with players across cultures. The company is known for its creativity, production quality, and commitment to working with world-class partners.
