While Game Freak’s fully embraced three dimensions, it’s clear some smaller developers aren’t ready games behind. This monster-battling RPG boasts exceptional sprite work, while its central conceit seems to have been borrowed from Pokémon Fusion, the website where you can input the names of any two Pokémon and a strange (and frequently hideous) chimera will emerge. Here, the hybrids are a little more controlled. So whether you’re combining a Pomeranian and a raven or splicing a rattlesnake with a salamander, the results will look good – or at least consistent with the game’s nostalgic aesthetic. In an intriguing twist, rather than battling these monsters, your trainers them, the transformation triggered by pressing play on a magic Walkman. Now that’s what we call a mixtape.
