Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast From The Past Gets First Playable Demo at Tokyo Game Show

Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast From The Past is heading to Tokyo Game Show 2026 with its first public playable demo, giving fans their earliest hands-on look at Blast Zero’s action-platforming revival.

The demo will be available at publisher Red Dunes Games’ booth in Hall 7, Booth N03 throughout Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 17 to 21 at Makuhari Messe. Nearly a year after the game’s announcement, the appearance marks its most substantial public showing yet.

For TGS, the developers are concentrating on the fundamentals: platforming, combat and switching between the three Pizza Cats. Speedy Cerviche handles close-range fighting, Guido Anchovy brings aerial attacks and extra mobility, while Polly Esther specializes in ranged projectiles.

Players will be able to swap between the trio instantly, chaining their different abilities into combos. Card-based upgrades will also expand their move sets, adding another layer to the character-switching system.

The public demo is deliberately narrower than the finished game. Blast Zero says the full release will add RPG-style customization, character levelling and exploration, alongside a completely new adventure rather than a retelling of episodes from the animated series.

That distinction should give Blast From The Past room to do more than trade on nostalgia. Little Tokyo and its familiar cast are returning, but the developers are building a new story around them and recreating the world as an explorable game setting.

The presentation is leaning heavily into hand-drawn animation inspired by the original show. Art director and lead animator Laurent Romero reportedly assembled more than 10,000 location-reference screenshots while mapping out Little Tokyo and studying how its landmarks might connect.

The English and Japanese editions are also being treated separately instead of receiving a straightforward translation. That matters for Samurai Pizza Cats, whose English localization famously developed its own jokes and characterization. Original anime writer Satoru Akahori is involved with the Japanese script.

Red Dunes Games’ current announcement materials point to a 2027 release across PC and consoles, although the game’s Steam page still lists its release date as “to be announced.” For now, Tokyo Game Show attendees will be the first to find out how the Pizza Cats handle in action.