Castaway: Everything We Know

It appears that the early chapters in The Legend of Zelda series are still being translated into fresh-faced emulations for both consoles and PC. There’s a new one on the horizon, too, apparently—an “action-packed” 2D retro pixel art game called Castaway. Rumor has it, the upcoming adventure will transport players to a soft and dynamic world in which odd creatures run wild, and a loyal companion known only to you will beckon for a savior. And that’s just a snippet; it seems as if there’ll be plenty more to nibble directly from the woodwork over the coming months.

At present, Castaway is without a concrete release date. Having said that, developer Canari Games has suggested that it’ll be shaping up for a soft launch on PC at some point in the (hopefully) near future. Not quite satisfied with that? Don’t sweat it; here’s everything we can tell you about it based on the information that’s been provided to date.

What Is Castaway?

Castaway is an upcoming 2D retro-style adventure game that harkens back to the Zelda age—a period in gaming that saw the escalation of vast open worlds, tiered dungeons, and loot systems. The game, which will serve as a love letter to fans of the genre, will also pave the way for an exciting new adventure featuring a hero, a trusty companion, and a dynamic locale.

“Embark on an action-packed adventure in Castaway, diving players into a pixelated and retro universe,” developer Canari Games writes in a press release. “Assume the role of Martin, whose spaceship crash-landed on an uncharted island where his faithful pet was taken by hostile creatures. Retrieve your weapons and venture out to rescue your kidnapped companion in this endearing and unexpectedly dynamic world.”

It goes without saying at this point, but if you’ve ever taken the opportunity to flex your aged wisdom in your fair share of pixelated planets, then you’ll no doubt already have a clear understanding of how Castaway will shuffle the deck and deal its cards. If not, then you might want to consider onboarding a few before checking back in with Martin and the aforementioned uncharted island.

Story

From what we’ve gathered so far, Castaway will take place on a seemingly uninhabited island—a paradisal world on which “hostile creatures” are free to wreak havoc and tug on the strings of those who dare to overstep their boundaries. But there’s a problem: your loving pet, who’s been with you for as long as you can remember, has been kidnapped by the creatures in question. Oh, and your spaceship is in tatters, too. To cut a long story short, you will need to brave the unknown and embark on an epic quest to rescue your loyal companion — even if it means having to ascend a multitude of levels and confronting a plethora of obstacles and bosses. The things we do for our pets, eh?

Gameplay

Take any cult classic pixel adventure game ever, and you’ll have a rough idea of what Castaway is aiming to replicate. In short, it’ll be a top-down adventure and, from the looks of it, a dungeon crawling-type game, which effectively means that there’ll be a mixture of levels to plow through, weapons to harness and upgrade, and a treasure trove of enemies and boss battles to carve through en route to some form of apex.

According to the devs, Castaway will feature a plethora of gameplay modes and difficulties to choose from, “from the “pacifist” mode without enemies or “invincible” to the challenging “unfair” mode, Castaway caters to all ages, from seasoned gamers to younger players discovering the genre for the first time.“

In addition to the mixed difficulties and gameplay modes, Castaway will also make enough room for a variety of “chiptune” melodies—“whether heroic or haunting, paying homage to the 8-bit console era!” Can’t complain there, to be honest.

Development

In case you missed out on the initial announcement, developer Canari Games first lifted the veil on its newest IP earlier this month, at which point the team released a short teaser trailer outlining several of its characters and core gameplay components. However, while the studio was quick to lather a bit of context over the storyline, the team did fail to mention when the game would be coming to see the light of day. If all goes according to plan, then we should be hearing a bit more about it relatively soon. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Trailer

Ready for a bit more of Canari Games’ Castaway? You’re in luck; the team recently released a short trailer for the game over on their official streaming channel. You can check it out for yourself in the snippet embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Castaway doesn’t have a release date — yet. With any luck, though, we’ll be hearing some more updates about the game’s potential launch date over the course of the next several months. In the meantime, we can tell you this: Castaway will be launching on PC via Steam, which essentially means that there’s yet to be an announcement pertaining to any potential console versions. Here’s hoping, then, that we catch wind of a new formal update relatively soon.

Interested in staying up to date with Castaway? If so, then be sure to check in with the team over at Canari Games for all the latest pre-launch updates via their official social handle here. If anything changes ahead of its global debut, then we’ll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

So, what’s your take? Will you be picking up a copy of Castaway when it arrives on Steam? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.