Pizza Tower review: a paradise platformer for Wario freaks

It is impossible to believe. Pizza TowerIt is just as great as it can be. I don’t mean to doubt the skill of Tour De Pizza, the small studio behind the wacked-out platformer — it’s just that, in my experience, a retro-inspired indie title of this scope normally has some ambitious element that doesn’t Very land.

However, it is not! Pizza Tower. This is an excellent game that aims for precision platforming, hand-drawn animation and lots of game-changing powers-ups. sports level — And its reach doesn’t limit its potential. Pizza TowerIt holds its goals in confidence and pushes them through brick stacks.

Allow me to backtrack a little.

Pizza Tower is a 2D platformer inspired by the Wario Land series, which was a quirky departure from Nintendo’s mainline Mario titles. Wario Land’s levels were less linear — full of switchbacks, gimmicks, hidden rooms, and puzzles. Wario’s move set was all his own. He didn’t have Mario’s UpsHe was able to compensate with shoulder charges and grapple attacks. He was also invincible Some of these games may not be available.

Pizza Tower is a funhouse mirror reflection of Wario Land, with a Nicktoons-by-way-of-MS-Paint art treatment. Our not-Wario is Peppino SpaghettiA tense, agitated mass of anger and anxiety on a mission for his pizza shop to be free from the devil that lives in the Pizza Tower.

It’s a feeling. Very goodPlay as Peppino. His main attack is the grapple, which has multiple directions. He can chuck an enemy at another victim, punt them skyward, or hit ’em with a downright Zangiefian spinning piledriver. It’s a limited move set, but it’s snappy and intuitive, and I never got tired of seeing Peppino’s unhinged combat animations.

Pizza Tower’s movement systems and level layouts complement each other brilliantly. Peppino’s speed can be accelerated to a fast, intense sprint with just a small runway. Peppino can climb up steep cliffs, jump off of a wall, launch himself upward with a Metroidy shinespark, or flip down on his stomach. I had a whole lot of fun learning how these techniques could (and couldn’t) be chained together. However, there are limits! Even as Peppino blazes through levels, the game rarely feels like it’s on autopilot. While sprinting into a wall can bring you to an abrupt halt, holding down the sprint button might cause you to scramble up a barrericade.

Image: Tour De Pizza

Which is all to say that navigating levels requires constant, thoughtful input — not just twitch reflexes. Many levels offer some form of modifier in addition to their rock-solid movement system. Maybe it’s a totally new player character. Maybe it’s portals. Maybe it’s a gun. I won’t spoil them all, because they are genuinely delightful and funny. Whatever the wrinkle, your goal is to get to the top of the platform, take down one pillar and then escape before everything collapses.

Escape sequences are my favorite. Each one sends you scrambling back to the start of the level, testing your memory of the level’s layout and your mastery of whatever level-specific gimmick you’ve been granted.

These sequences, however, are not part of Pizza TowerThat can cause a failed state. I think that’s really cool. Pizza Tower doesn’t have traditional difficulty levels. Its difficulty level is almost completely self-serving. It’s as hardcore as you want it to be. Peppino has inherited Wario’s invincibility, so bumping into enemies only stuns him and hurts his combo meter (yes, there’s a combo meter). Nonlethal Pitfalls do not exist. While it is sometimes difficult to locate collectibles and hidden areas, these are generally nonlethal. And even those frantic escape sequences give you a pretty generous countdown — but bold players can double down and attempt another lap before the timer expires.

I feel silly using the word “elegant” in relation to a game where a frenzied cartoon Italian uses a corpse as a skateboard — but Pizza TowerIndeed, it has an elegant approach to game difficulty.

Image: Tour De Pizza

Pizza Tower may be inspired by platformers of yore, but it’s much more than nostalgic fluff. It’s sharpened and tuned. PerfectionThis niche is unique in platforming. It’s the rare homage that is actually better than the things that inspired it, and I think you should give it a try.

Mamma mia.

Pizza TowerReleased Jan. 26, 2009. Steam. It’s not Steam Deck-verified yet, but I played the whole thing on there and it was great.