(Review) Pizza Tower: A cheesy high-energy tribute to 2000s animation.

Found in The Mystician 84.8, Page 7

https://www.bscmysticmedia.com/_files/ugd/628cb3_df7d3f29978c4f1397a9305c946000f0.pdf

Over the years, many indie games have taken inspiration from the past. From old school JRPG-inspired games like Undertale and Omori to platformers like Shovel Knight and Celeste, there have been hundreds of games created out of nostalgic fondness for the genre. Once in a while, there are certain games that breach the indie barrel and enter the mainstream, earning a cult classic reputation among their peers. This year, a game has entered the halls of the greats running at mach speed piping hot: Pizza Tower.

Pizza Tower is an indie platformer released as the premiere title for the studio Tour De Pizza run by new developer McPig in January of 2023.It is inspired by Wario Land, a spin-off game series of Mario that hasn’t seen a release since 2001 on the Gameboy advanced with Wario Land 4.

The game has had many demos since 2018, going through many iterations before the final version was released. Over the 5 years, the game received a bunch of support on Patreon from thousands of donors, with rewards given out through sneak peeks on their Discord server.

The main protagonist is Peppino Spaghetti, a tired Italian restaurant owner under a ton of debt, stress and anxiety. When his pizza restaurant is threatened to be destroyed by a menacing sentient pizza and his titular tower, Peppino bursts into action, running towards the tower at mach speed fueled entirely by fear and pure primal Italian rage.

Peppino’s moves consist of a simple jump, crouch, grab, taunt that acts as a parry, and a mach dash– the most important ability in the game as it’s the main way to break blocks, run up walls and kill enemies. While this moveset is simple by concept, the true flexibility of the gameplay comes out when these moves are combined in sequence, giving the game a brand new depth.

Some examples include a super jump by holding and releasing the up key after obtaining mach speed; an uppercut that can be performed with a combined up, jump and grab;and, my personal favorite: a midair shoulder bash performed by pressing grab before a super jump hits the ceiling, keeping the dash and momentum. The variety of moves work together to keep the speed and combo through many fast-paced, cartoony levels.

Each of the game’s 20 levels, spread amongst five floors with a boss fight between, has a unique theme from the other. Some of the themes include a pizza dungeon with boiling pits of lava sauce, a desert with alien cows, a city of anthropomorphic pigs and golf.

Yes, golf, which somehow became my favorite level in the game.

With first impressions coming from screenshots, Pizza Tower doesn’t seem like it’s anything special on the surface. The game sports a roughly animated art style based on 90s Nicktoons and 2000s Cartoon Network shows like Ren & Stimpy, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd and Eddy, giving the impression that the game was drawn in Microsoft Paint.

The true magic of the game is the animation style. When Peppino runs into a wall at mach speed, an animation plays where he shows missing teeth from the impact and then has to catch his breath after stopping. With the number of different animations in sequence, the game gives highly chaotic energy to every action.

Along with the animation, the soundtrack emphasizes the style tenfold. The musical style draws inspiration from sounds of the 90s, with the electric guitar found in rock to the classic chiptune music found on the SNES and Sega Genesis.

The main goal of the game is to reach the end of the level as fast as possible. At the end of each level is a pillar that must be knocked down. This action causes Pizza Time, which sets a timer and the player must return to the beginning of the level before Pizzaface comes, giving a Time’s Up game over.

Aside from boss battles, Peppino has no health bar. Because it’s a score game, the only way to lose in the main levels is running the time out while escaping but the game is merciful enough on a normal run. The true difficulty lies on the scoring system and the combo meter working together to get the highest ranks.

The game has a range of ranks from D (horrible) to P (Perfecto) based on the player’s score which is increased with collecting items and keeping combos.

During the first playthrough, the main rank most players would get if they collect all of the toppings is a B, with an A rank given to those who get enough points by collecting secrets and treasures.

The real challenge comes with the S Rank and the P Rank. The S Rank (Super) is an achievement given to those who gain the most points possible in a level while finishing a second lap. To get the secret P Rank, the player not only has to do all of the requirements for an S Rank, but also has to keep one continuous combo throughout a level, leaving next to no room for error.

Yet, when the player does obtain a P Rank, it is a pure shot of dopamine stronger than any illicit drug on the market. While I have never acquired an S or a P Rank, there is always the constant feeling that I am closer and closer to my goal every time I play.

The game is a speedrunner and completionist’s paradise, with the game rewarding players for beating it in under two hours and another reward for getting more than 95 % completion in the same time limit.

Pizza Tower is a game created with pure passion, years of dedication, different sources of nostalgia and fresh mozzarella, made hot and ready and delivered in under 2 hours or it’s free.

The game is only on Steam for $20. While there are no plans to port the game to consoles, it runs smoothly on most modern laptops. All it requires is 300 MB of open storage space, 512 MB of RAM and a Steam account, which is free to create.