Pandemonium

Do you have what it takes to take the golden throne? Pandemonium is a homebrew game by Team Zero Cool where you fight a giant knight in a castle courtroom. It was released on 02 Feb 2026 for the 2025 64brew Game Jam.

You can get the ROM from its download page by using the password demonpanium. You can also get it from Drive or check the source code on Github.

About Pandemonium

A century of darkness smothers the land beneath the Demon King’s throne of gold, guarded by knights that were reduced to hollow armor. You are one of them, cursed into a horrific form as you push through a ruined kingdom. Pandemonium is a dark-fantasy action-adventure platformer. Prevail and the restored ones whisper a final command—free the sun.

In this game, you play as an unnamed knight who strives to take the evil king off the Throne of gold. In your way is the Guardian of the Shackled Sun, a large warrior bound to defend the king.

Pandemonium plays like fighting against a Stalfos/Iron Knuckle from Zelda Ocarina of Time, with you locking onto the enemy and taking turns attacking each other. You have no shield, but you can roll dodge to get some invincibility frames and get out of the way.

You can attack by swinging your sword up to a triple slash, but that third attack usually leaves you open to getting hit. It’s really a matter of learning the enemy’s telegraphed attacks and dodging and attacking accordingly. If you run away, he’ll jump to close the distance so you’ll have no choice but to face your destiny.

Once you defeat him, you can proceed to the next room where the king awaits. A cutscene plays and the game ends.

Credits

Pandemonium was made by Team Zero Cool, which consists of:

• BoxingBruin
• HelloNewman

Review and conclusion

I really like this game, it gives us a souls-like boss encounter on the N64, retroactively bringing a future genre to the past. Any exchange in blows is a toss up as to who gets the hit, so it’s just challenging enough without being too frustrating.

The graphics are great, it has an in-engine cutscene at the start of the game and an FMV cutscene at the end. The textures are detailed and the animations are fluid and varied so there definitely is no lack of eye candy here.

That said, Pandemonium is a very short game. It just has the one boss fight and that’s it. The engine is great so all it needs is some additional boss designs to make it like going through a boss rush in any other game.

I do recommend that you give this game a try, it feels like the first thread of what could be a magnificent tapestry.