Epic Games Reveals Cassette Beasts as December 27 Free Game and Its Actually Great
Day 11 of Epic’s holiday mystery game giveaway dropped and holy crap they actually gave us something good.
Cassette Beasts was the reveal for December 27. If you havent heard of it just imagine Pokemon but with a killer synthwave aesthetic and monsters you record onto cassette tapes. Yeah its exactly as cool as that sounds.
The Steam Reviews Dont Lie
This isnt some random freebie nobody’s heard of. Cassette Beasts sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with 95% of over 5,700 reviews being positive. Thats genuinely rare for any game let alone an indie.
PC Gamer straight up called it “the best indie Pokémon-like on PC” which is not a small claim.
The game normally costs $19.99 so if you miss the free window youre looking at actual money. Epic’s holiday giveaways have been hit or miss this year but this ones a definite hit.
What Makes It Different
Okay so the Pokemon comparison is obvious but Cassette Beasts does some genuinely interesting things. Instead of capturing monsters in balls you record them onto cassette tapes. Then your character literally transforms into the monster during battles.
OpenCritic has it at 85/100 with 88% of critics recommending it. The fusion system lets you combine two monsters into something new which adds a layer of strategy Pokemon doesnt really have.
The element types are weird too. Like theres plastic, glass, and glitter as types. GameSpew noted the Metroidvania exploration elements which makes the open world more interesting than just walking through tall grass.
Grab It While You Can
The free window is only 24 hours. It went live December 27 at 8am PT and runs until December 28 at 8am PT. Once you claim it its yours forever though.
NotebookCheck has the details on claiming it if youve never grabbed a free Epic game before.
The Holiday Giveaway So Far
AllKeyShop has been tracking all the mystery games this year. We’ve gotten some decent stuff – Bloodstained was day 6. But Cassette Beasts is probably the best one so far.
2025 has been a weird year for gaming but the indie scene keeps delivering. While the big studios pump out sequels and live service garbage, small teams are making actually interesting games.
Worth Your Time
Look I know another Pokemon-like sounds tired. Theres a million of them. But the Metacritic scores and Steam reviews speak for themselves.
GG.deals has more info if you want to compare it to similar games.
The pixel art is gorgeous. The monster designs are creative. The soundtrack slaps. And its literally free right now so theres no excuse not to grab it.
Video game preservation is a whole thing but at least Epic is putting good games in peoples hands for free. Take advantage.
