Poor Peppino Spaghetti just wanted to find a job. The mustachioed restaurant owner had finally had a stroke of luck: a nice Spanish restaurant where he could make pizzas and serve piping hot plates of spaghetti and sauce. And instead, fate came to give us a leg (chicken, good for broth), with the opening of the nearby Pizza Tower, a threat to the survival of the poor and humble Peppino restaurant. But the last word is not said, since Peppino does not give up and, angrier than his sauce, he has decided to make a single bite of the tower. Helping him in this 2D platform game with a very nineties flavor will undoubtedly be a pleasure.
Let's find out the details on this one. Pizza Tower Review.
From Wario Land you dominate the valley.
Do you remember Wario Land? It was a very fun series of 2D scrolling platforms from Nintendo, originally born as a spin-off of the Super Mario Land series for Gameboy. The protagonist was the garlic enthusiast Wario who, running like a madman, broke everything in his path. Over the years, various developers have taken over the series, but Nintendo seems to have abandoned it a while ago. On the other hand, it has been 15 years since the last title, Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for Nintendo Wii.
Pizza Tower picks up right where the Nintendo series left off. In fact, Peppino Spaghetti is clearly a less boastful, but much more frustrated and angry Wario (hey, he's Italian after all, short temper is our typical trait). The tendency to run and crush everything in its path is borrowed from Nintendo's garlic eater. Surely Pizza Tower's gameplay incorporates several concepts from the Wario Land series., adding a dash of Sonic the Hedgehog speed and a dash of '90s platform madness. Peppino will have to climb all five floors of Pizza Tower, completing levels and defeating bosses.
Tasty ingredients (to store)
In each level we will have to save some of the typical pizza ingredients (mushrooms, cheese, salami, etc.), in order to obtain monetary bonuses at the end. Once you've accumulated enough money, simply pay to open the boss door and face the last obstacle before moving up to the next floor. In between, there are various bonus levels, costumes to unlock, and other benefits, but the basic gameplay of Pizza Tower remains the same: finish the levels in the shortest time possible, earn money, defeat the bosses. However, it doesn't end there, there is definitely a lot more to discuss.
Of course, the first thing that stands out, even from a single image of Pizza Tower, is the graphic style. In fact, it's a tasty minestrone between the craziest animated series of the 'XNUMXs (most notably Ren & Stimpy), idle doodling in Microsoft Paint, and a dash of good-old-day Nintendo. The final cup is to be enjoyed calmly, especially because of the sea of details that we will find on each screen, as well as such a number of animations that, even after two hours of play, we will continue to find new ones.
In fact, it is no coincidence that there is a constant guide monitor top right with Peppino's sweaty face telling us his emotions. Did he hurt himself? Do you find him especially agitated? The monitor, in addition to making us smile with Mr. Spaghetti's funny faces, also helps us regulate the combos we are doing and the speed at which we are going, elements that we will have to pay attention to during each level.
Run, run, Peppi.
So let's get to the game. As we have already said, Pizza Tower cannot be defined as a mere clone of Wario Land, since the objective is not to finish the levels, butexploration and bring home the highest possible score (the so-called score attack). Each level is ideally divided into two moments: the purely exploratory one, in which it is important to try to kill as many enemies as possible (and store combos) and the final escape. The exploration phase allows us to collect ingredients, learn the tricks of the level, as well as search for secret areas. Escape, on the other hand, gives the player a limited time to return to the starting point and exit the level. Once the available time has passed, we will be unceremoniously expelled and will have to start again from scratch.
And here we come to the crucial point where Pizza Tower puts everything at stake: i Controls. Taking into account that much of the time we will spend running through increasingly complex levels, trying not to interrupt combos or escape before the timer reaches zero, the key is precision. Regarding this, we confess that Pizza Tower has not seemed exactly perfect to us, especially because we will need more practice than usual before reaching what we could define as... total control of Peppino. Not because you have to memorize keys, actually only a couple, but during execution each small directional movement will have to be precise and correctly remembering the (simple) key combinations will still take some time.
In this it is difficult to blame those who believe that a control that involved more buttons on the gamepad would have been better, instead of putting the directional cross in the middle. Surely, before getting caught up in the frustration of throwing a pot of boiling sauce at the monitor, it will be better to do a little practice on the first few levels. Certainly, the satisfaction of being able to guide the good Peppino in exquisite and tasty combos (from "Cheesy" to "Brutal") seems exactly the same as when we managed - or could - make Sonic move forward without anything stopping him.
But something to eat, a pizza?
Il level design in Pizza Tower is generally well done, even if it suffers from some solutions that are perhaps a little bad and will brutalize those who have not yet suffered with platforms of various infamy. After exploring the first floor, each level usually adds a few new elements that characterize each setting. For example, the cemetery where we can surf on corpses (yes), or the farms where a violent chicken will curl up in Peppino's hat or, again, transform into a ghost to overcome some sections. Here too, Pizza Tower goes beyond the realm of the simplest Wario power-ups, taking it to a much more surreal and fun dimension.
We believe that what emerges most strongly from Pizza Tower, managing to convince even the most frustrated to try that damned level again, is, however, humor that permeates every bite. Aside from the perfect way the entire game is fueled by Spanish food, including spaghetti, pizza, and meatballs, the comedic ideas in each level are amazing. We could list the concerned face of the ingredients when Peppino burns his butt in the boiling sauce, the Pope who blesses us by treating his throat burned by spicy chicken wings with holy water or Peppino who gets stuck in a pizza box that use to fly. .
Who gets the last piece?
Finally, it is impossible not to mention the excellent work done in sound design, truly full of delights. Instead of the easy and banal solution of filling everything with pseudo-Italian vocals, Pizza Tower makes every sound immediately recognizable. Also exquisite soundtrack, which goes from funk to metal with ease, always staying within a typical sound palette of platform games from the late 90s.
In short, the Pizza Tower team seems to have succeeded where Nintendo seemed to have fallen asleep, preferring to focus on easy ingredients to chase the most popular flavor. Here we find a succulent pizza covered with crazy 90s animations, fast-paced gameplay and fun tricks that will keep even the least hopeful player's attention awake towards the true return of quality 2D platform games. Grab a slice and bite into it all, because Pizza Tower is a rich and fragrant offering.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (13) 7.5 your votePizza Tower is a juicy slice of fast-paced 2D platforming. Taking the stranger sides of the classic Wario Land series and guiding Peppino Spaghetti through increasingly curious and crazy levels will be one of the most fun experiences of the year. If you're looking for a remedy for the lack of that 'XNUMXs flavor in your video games, Pizza Tower will definitely be for you.
PRO
- Delirious graphic style
- Classic but updated gameplay.
- Very tasty soundtrack
AGAINST
- Sometimes a little too difficult
- Fine-tuned controls
