Pizza Tower

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Pizza Tower
Pizza Tower Promo Art.jpg

It's PIZZA TIME!

Protagonist(s): Peppino
Gustavo & Brick
The Noise
Genre(s): Action-platformer
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
Release: January 26, 2023
Engine: GameMaker
Developer(s): Tour De Pizza
Publisher(s): Tour De Pizza
Country: Canada


Pizza Tower is a 2D platformer developed and published by indie developer Tour De Pizza for Microsoft Windows. Initially released as a demo in 2018, it was officially released in 26th January 2023. The gameplay involves controlling a Pizzareria chef Peppino who must collect Toppins and then destroy the Pillar Johns and rush back to the entrance to complete the level. The collected Toppins are then exchanged for cash which is used to unlock bosses to progress.

Summary

Peppino Spaghetti struggles with his failing pizzeria until Pizzaface shows up and threatens to destroy the former pizzeria with the titular Pizza Tower's nuclear laser. So it's up to Peppino to stop him from doing so.

Along the way, Peppino has to put up with Pepperman, The Vigilante, The Noise, and Fake Peppino before facing Pizzaface himself. He's also assisted by Gustavo and his Stupid Rat, Brick at certain points of the game.

Why It's the Best-a Pizza In-a Town-a

  1. For starters, the whole game's aesthetic perfectly captures the spirit and vibes of various cartoon shows from the '90s and early 2000s era (including, but not limited to Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Rocko's Modern Life). Because of this, it's filled to the brim with all the 90s-2000's wackiness and humor you'd expect from the cartoons that inspired it.
  2. Challenging, yet engaging gameplay that combines the elements from Wario Land and Sonic the Hedgehog.
  3. Wonderful, 90s-inspired pixel graphics, character sprites, and animations that are all comparable to memetic artwork drawn in Microsoft Paint. Even the cartoon-styled title cards (for the levels) and character portraits (in boss intros) look well done, especially this title card from "The Crumbling Tower", which really speaks for itself. Even though the graphics may not be visually refined, the way they are animated are of outstanding quality, breathing with life with the characters and backgrounds all so animated fluidly!
  4. Speaking of title cards for levels, most of these are quite hilarious such as:
  5. Everything in this game is absolutely hilarious through and through as it ranges from light-hearted humor to black comedy. This includes the aforementioned title cards, character animations, dialogue, and plenty of references and parodies of various games, movies, shows, and even a few internet memes.
  6. Many of the characters are extremely funny and likable, especially Peppino himself.
  7. Great soundtrack with a lot of goofy 90's vibes. Notable examples:
  8. Boss fights, while difficult, range from epic to incredibly humorous and provide a thrilling challenge.
    • The boss battle with The Noise, for example, has him doing funny things such as shaking his butt at the camera or straight-up giving Peppino the middle finger (as if to insult the latter).
    • The final battle with Pizzaface and his true form, Pizza Head. Enough said!
  9. Tons of replay value, with several secrets to discover and opportunities for a Rank P for every level.
  10. All of the levels are intricately well designed to accommodate the gameplay with each of them having their own diverse flair to them, some of them even shifting up the general gameplay! From GOLF which the player must strike a goal with a cheeseball throughout the whole level, Don't Make a Sound's stealth sections that brilliantly mix stealth and fast paced gameplay together, to Deep Dish 9's rocket riding and portals insanely taking players to locations, and finally not to mention, WAR's literal running and gunning gameplay that really puts challenging pressure with a timer that will commence a Game Over if the players aren't quick enough.
  11. Peppino controls very well and his movement speed is very hard to learn yet easy to master, especially in the later levels where speed is very prevalent throughout the game, mainly in the Pizza Time escape sequences that put great emphasis on Peppino's agility, and the level makes great use of the smooth controls and good movement speed into order to make it one of the most challenging levels in the game to date.
    • The same thing applies to Gustavo, who has less momentum than Peppino but can still stand on his own as a playable character since he rides a Rat and it has good speed movement and can break some things that Peppino can't do.
  12. Two playable characters, that have different control styles and have several differences from each other to make them unique from other platformers.
    • Peppino, who is the owner of a dying pizzeria, controls very similarly to Wario from the Wario Land series but also has some gameplay elements of Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, since he can run extremely fast and can break various walls and terrain that's in his way, and can also grab enemies and combat them in the same vein as a 90's beat-'em-up game, which makes him very fun to play
    • Gustavo, who is Peppino's assistant and rides on Brick (the Stupid Rat), can dash just like Peppino but has two different playstyles one he rides on Brick while the other hand, he runs on terrain without him and can run very similarly to Mario, and has enough differences from Peppino to make him still fun to play as a character, despite him being inferior to Peppino in various ways.
  13. The game could have potential DLC in the future, especially having it feature the addition of a Co-op mode and the Noise as a playable character just like in the early beta versions of the game itself.
  14. Overall, the game is a huge love letter to gamers that grew up with Wario Land and the 90's cartoons.
  15. The Noise is now a playable character since the Noise Update and new game.

Bad Qualities

  1. Some of the bosses and chef tasks can be frustrating at times.
  2. No co-op mode, at least for now. However, the developer promised that it would be added in a future update.
  3. The game is currently unavailable on other platforms besides PC even though there's still an opportunity to port it sooner or later.
  4. Some occasional gameplay hiccups, such as forced timing and control faults within levels such as The Crumbling Tower of Pizza due to the frantic and fast-paced nature of the stage itself.

Reception

The game received an extremely positive reception from gamers and reviewers alike. It holds 89/100 on Metacritic and an "Overwhelmingly Positive" score on Steam.

Trivia

  • Character design-wise, Peppino is inspired by Wario while Gustavo is inspired by Mario.
    • One of the bosses, The Noise, is inspired by Domino's advertising mascot, The Noid.
  • The game features an eponymous character from a poorly-received PlayStation game, Mort the Chicken, as the developer asked Ed Annunziata (the creator of both the game and the character) for permission to use him in the game.

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