Samurai Pizza Cats to make a comeback in nostalgic side-scrolling platformer

If you were around in the 90s and had an interest in bizarre, strangely adorable anime series, then you will absolutely remember Samurai Pizza Cats. If that’s you, then there is something incredibly nostalgic on the horizon, in the shape of a side-scrolling platformer.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Samurai Pizza Cats experience without Seymour Cheese being involved, and he’s been redrawn in the classic style to announce the new game, Blast from the Past:

Time for a quick history lesson: Back in the 90s, Saban picked up the North American rights to a Japanese anime called Kyatto Ninden Teyandee. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it ended up) they didn’t get a full translation along with the animations, so they resorted to completely redoing the script, resulting in an English series that is wildly different from the original Japanese version. 

Essentially, Samurai Pizza Cats ended up being an abridged version of the original series, filled with pop-culture references, a huge amount of (sometimes questionable) humor, and went on to become a beloved series to English-speaking audiences. The basic premise was still there, but Saban definitely took things up a notch. 

Now, 34 years later (That’s 1991, for those who, like me, still think the 80s were 30 years ago), the original cast has been brought back to voice Blast from the Past, under development by Dutch studio BLAST ZERO. Both Japanese and English cast members will be returning for their respective dubs. 

For the English audience, Rick Jones returns as Speedy Cerviche, Sonja Ball is coming back as Polly Esther, Terrence Scammell as Guido Anchovy, and Dean Hagopian is once again lending his voice to the corrupt rat Seymour Cheese. 

The whole premise of Samurai Pizza Cats (at least in the West) is entirely nuts. Here’s how Saban describe the series, and its a good indication of what to expect from the game when it releases:

“It’s felines fighting felons in this fantastic furry farce! A mixed-up city of old and new, Little Tokyo is an old-fashioned Japanese city populated by robotic animals, where samurai cats working out of a pizzeria punish packs of pugnacious pillagers all to protect the peace of the people.

They’ve got their work cut out for the, for in between the speedy delivery of pizza pies, the dirty rat (quite literally) of a politician named “Big Cheese” plots to control the city, and with his reach far exceeding his grasp, he’s continually cooking up constantly crazier contrivances!”

Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past is set to release on “all major platforms”, and can currently be added to wishlists on both Steam and Epic Games.