Bytten Studio, the dev behind 2023’s wonderful Cassette Beasts, was teasing that it had something to reveal at the PC Gaming Show, and what do you know, it’s a full-blown sequel!

Cassette Beasts 2002 is another Pokémon-inspired creature collector/battler, where you’ll use the magic of your cassette player to transform into and control monsters through a series of turn-based battles. There are over 240 beasts to discover this time around, any two of which can be combined together — that’s a lot of fusion options.

This one deploys the same visual style as its predecessor, with pixel art sprites standing out against more detailed backdrops, and it even brings Crush 40’s own Johnny Gioeli (the voice behind Sonic Adventure 2’s ‘Live & Learn’) into the soundtrack mix.

There’s no sign of a firm release date at the time of writing, but we’ll be keeping an eye out in the coming months.

Here’s a rundown of the key features and a handful of screenshots, so you can see the action up close:

Deep Battle Systems – Alongside an eclectic roster of companions, seek out, record, and transform into powerful beast forms to turn the odds of battle. Prepare utility, support, and offensive attacks alongside elemental advantages to overcome even the fiercest opponent. Rogue monsters will even learn from players’ battle techniques, adapt, and return with new challenges.
Fuse Monster Forms – Record beasts encountered on the field to change forms in turn-based combat. With over 250 beasts to choose from, including evolutionary lines, there are over 50,000 beasts to fuse into, all fully animated.
Create the Perfect Team – Meet 12 different companions to befriend or romance, each with their own stories, motivations, and quests. Create even more powerful beast forms by improving bonds with companions met throughout the adventure.
Play with Friends – With robust multiplayer mechanics, players will trade cassettes, fight alongside friends in random encounters, face off in 1v1 battles with power scaling, solve an occultist mystery in story mode, and take on timed objectives for fantastic rewards!

We described Cassette Beasts as “one of the better monster-battling games not starring a little electric rodent that you can enjoy on your Nintendo Switch” in our review, and the ‘2002’ sequel looks like it’ll be just as nostalgic for us classic Pokémon fans.