I'm gonna be completely honest this game is fun as hell, I love its art, its music, its gameplay, it's all really good and would have been a highlight of 2023. Why did I give it less then one star? becuase I dont think you should buy it. The devs are just blatantly racist for putting in an antisemitic and anti indigenous stereotype in their game while knowing FULL WELL it's a stereotype. This is not a case of "they didnt know" they knew and mocked the people showing concern for it. The devs are shity, they drop ableist and homophobic slurs and are very transphobic and misogynistic. I get when games have shitty aspects to them, some games just have casual racism, homophobia, transphobia, ect without the creators being really malicious or even aware (hell a lot even apologize or patch them out) but McPig knows what hes doing is shitty and he thinks it's funny. I dont really care what people spend their money on I'm really not gonna give you a hard time for it (hell I have 100+ hours in this game before I saw the discord messages) and it's ok to like this game. But personally I do not support putting money into the pockets of bigots.

tldr; game is good but I cannot in good conscience reccomend it to anyone becuase the artist cannot be separated from the art.
also this isnt "cancel culture" if anybody wants 2 whine about that. you literally can play the game all you want I dont care this is my review

edit: I should have put a link in the first place my apologies lol thanks for the comment (sorry for making you look at tumblr but it basically complies everything) https://at.tumblr.com/girlballs/i-dont-pay-attention-to-pizza-tower-stuff-what/ix9vftouw3nb

Finally, a modern game that gives the same feel as retro games!! Forced to get good at it or you’re shit outta luck, and man does it feel good when you do get good at it.

Wacky faces, weird bosses, insane humor. You can tell a lot of love and passion went into it, with gorgeous art, insanely catchy music, and amazing controls. I think my favorite part was one of the last stages, clearly based around FNAF influence in indie games and the such. At first, I was a bit disappointed to see yet another FNAF reference put into an indie game, that was until the halfway point where they give you a gun. Now instead of needing to avoid the jumpscare creatures, you just shoot them in the face! It’s pretty hilarious, and felt like it fully encompassed the Cartoon Network-ish violent, wacky humor the game was aiming for.

Before I say anything, I got to preface this by saying this has got to be one of the most insane starts to the year I've ever seen for games. Playing this and Hi Fi Rush in the same week really makes you realize that video games are fucking here man.

Pizza Tower is a fucking absurd game, from my point of view it has essentially been lurking in the background of my Twitter timeline, always making an impression, but I never really considered the day it would actually release. An indie reboot of Wario Land was always inevitable I reckon, but this feels like the ultimate culmination of those original concepts. This game is pure distilled chaos, every part of the game is filled with such fluid and dynamic animation, that it makes the exaggerated cartoonish grime this aesthetic have pop like nothing else. Your main character is an anxious wreck who runs and moves around as fast as humanly possible, you will literally zip through the stages at pure adrenaline at all times. And despite that, every stage manages to pull of insanely unique gimmicks, including just a level where they bring a surprise guest character that literally no one but true platformer die hards would recognize.

Pizza Tower is a video game ass video game. This essentially because my companion title to another insanely indulgent passion project, Hi Fi Rush. Both are obviously leagues apart from each other, but they have oddly complimented each other very well. Both filled me with that same feeling of "oh my god, video games are so fucking cool." It can be hard to gauge what we love in this medium as the years go by, but Pizza Tower is definitely a shining example of why video games are such a blast to play. If you like the idea of having fun, this is an absolute must play. (And then you can play Hi Fi Rush after, like I did!)

Also thank you for the Peppino game crash jump scare. Very cool!

♪ When Peppino runs and cries,
And you're never out of tries,
That's amore~ ♪

This game is incredible. Straight from the oven of a person who thought "What if I made my own Wario Land 4 and made it just as insane?" If you're familiar at all with Wario Land 4, you'll immediately be able to draw comparisons, from the abstract level design and art style to the insanely well made soundtrack.

You play as Peppino, a pizza shop owner who must now climb the titular Pizza Tower so that Pizza Face, an evil Pizza, doesn't blow Peppino's pizza shop to smithereens. If the word "pizza" doesn't start sounding strange to you now, give it some time, I'm not done using it yet.

The gameplay loop for Pizza Tower is simple; go through stages in each zone, collect enough cash in each zone to unlock the boss door, fight the area boss, repeat. The real sauce of this game is how each stage has you frantically searching for ingredients that net you a total amount of cash on level completion. Peppino's moveset is oozing with flavor, having a sprint, bash, wall climb, ground pound, dive, and even a Metroid shine spark because, yes, every 2D game needs a Metroid shine spark. This doesn't even count some stages that have gimmick abilities like spicy breath, rockets you can fly on, bubbles, and so much more. These stage specific abilities help in giving each stage their own identity among the various zones, with some abilities being as absurd as a flying chicken companion based on an old 3D PS1 platformer, to an entirely contained mini golf course.

Peppino can't die from normal damage in regular stages, instead only losing points that go towards your total score at the end of any given stage. Your incentive to not get hit all comes from how well you want to be scored, the lowest rank being an undercooked D, and the highest being a well baked P. This way the game can draw in both types of motivated players; ones who want to improve on every playthrough and those who just want to play the game as is.

No matter what type of player you are, you'll probably end up blasting through each stage at breakneck speeds. Stages are built with this high speed of play in mind, including ramps to maintain your momentum and enemies being helpless to your fastest sprint speed. The speed you move at is key because, once you make it to the end of every stage, the game has you run all the way back through it to the entrance before the timer ticks down. At this point in the stage, new paths are opened that were originally walled off, incentivizing those who feel so bold to now explore more of the level before Pizza Face wakes up and kills the player for real.

So that's gameplay. And it's great, but the real special sauce to this pizza is the presentation. Pizza Tower is one of the most manic looking episodes of a game I've ever seen. So much time and love was put into every animation present throughout the entire game. Peppino has a wide range of expressions, from his timid idle animation to his deranged full sprint speed. The humor and expressiveness in this game feels like it's inspired from older cartoons like Ren & Stimpy or Rocko's Modern Life, with the anatomy of Peppino, his allies, and enemies all incredibly exaggerated for comedic affect, even down to the audio.

The music captures that Wario Land 4 feeling almost perfectly. There aren't as many slower tracks through out Pizza Tower, but the ones that go hard and fast are incredible. Many of the samples used throughout are the same used through out much of Wario Land 4, and the core theme, "It's Pizza Time", always delivers that rush of adrenaline when sprinting back to the entrance of a stage before time is up. I really can't praise the music enough. All stage themes fit their aesthetic perfectly, always lending to create that extra feeling that every stage was crafted with every key detail in mind.

Pizza Tower truly is a supreme example of the type of game that can be crafted through the inspiration of another. Since it's time, Wario Land 4 hasn't really been topped in how it shook up the 2D platforming genre. And while Pizza Tower takes much of the way Wario Land 4 is structured, it never stops being it's own game that derives a similar yet separate enjoyment all together. I'm so glad the developers could deliver such a flavorful deep dish of a game. This is one mom and pop's that I'll be coming back to several more times, even after finishing my first slice. Highly recommended!

I haven’t played Wario Land to say how it compares to this, but Pizza Tower’s really fun! Levels are short but very creative with all the different power ups you use to get around, and the bosses are enjoyable. Can see them having a lot of replayability to try and master them for higher scores (I mostly got B ranks and kept running into walls…)

The pixel art emulating that grimy 90s Nicktoons style like Rocko’s Modern Life or Ren and Stimpy is so cool too, has a ton of charm! And the music’s awesome

They don't make 'em like this anymore. By which I mean, they don't make games where even the most inconspicuous block has a face somewhere between Peter Griffin and a creepypasta, they don't just put random-ass golf levels and FNAF parodies on the critical path and they don't spontaneously sprinkle in power-ups that constitute you rolling around in a barrel on Tony Hawk-style half pipes or getting squished into a pizza box and flying by flapping the lid up and down like a pair of wings.

Maybe the world's most boring, stick-up-the-ass critic could argue that they shouldn't make 'em like this anymore, because damn - this game sure does get confusing sometimes! I'll admit, sometimes Pizza Tower verges on sensory overload; it has the same problem I have with 2D Sonic (ironic, considering how many cues it takes from those games) in that it throws too much shit at you too fast. So many mechanics, objects, enemy types that it kinda hurts the flow of the level. But even this was less egregious than most 2D Sonics I've played in that regard, it all still flows together well enough and more importantly - so much of the stuff that these levels throw at you is so inherently wacky and fuckin' funny that you just kinda gotta throw the sneering critic aside for a moment and appreciate how much fun this game is having with you.

I think mechanically Pizza Tower does have a bit of an identity crisis. It supposedly went through quite a lot of versions and drafts during development (apparently originally being a horror game, which you can definitely see with some of the late game stuff, lmao) and the bones of indecision are still there a bit I think. I'm not sure if this game wants to be Wario Land or Sonic Mania. When you get to go fast and blaze through the level, it feels amazing! Because the game is super mechanically sound with a lot of movement options and the level design mostly accommodates for that really well - yet it also wants you to explore somewhat and pick up all the collectibles and secrets, which sometimes requires you stopping and looking, or even turning around and going back on yourself and breaking the pace. Personally, if a sequel were ever made (and god I hope it is) I think they should lean in on the Sonic stuff! The game is absolutely at its best when you're going fast and feeling the rhythm of the level design, the existence of P Ranks seems to acknowledge that, and the levels are brilliantly crafted in a way that makes them feel good to go fast through and to escape through equally fast on your way out. It's really miraculous how different almost every level feels on your way out - and how many interesting things Pizza Tower does with its level design in regards to going backwards.

As a certified goober, I love this game thematically, artistically and creatively, it has all the colour and personality and fun that only indie games and occasionally Nintendo really deliver on nowadays. In terms of pure gameplay it has moments of brilliance, but some pace-breaking and frustration that holds it back from being the very best it can be in my opinion. I know indie games don't do sequels very often, but that's why I want one to Pizza Tower so bad - because this thing is already really good, and just a touch of polish away from being in GOAT territory. Crust Cove and Deep Dish 9 are already some of the best video game levels I've played in years and that finale in general just fuckin' rules. More of that please! And less unintuitive boss hitboxes and water that behaves one way in one level and then totally differently in another!!

Asides from some of the smaller platforming parts being completely annoying with these controls and just don't mesh well with the game's overall breakneck pace and the shotgun which just flat-out doesn't work with the pace here, this is one of the most exciting games I've played in a while. 90's Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network art style alone is enough to recommend it. Soundtrack kills too! Or at least the iconic It's Pizza Time! track which violently overshadows all the other tracks with how catchy it is. Took a good while for me to get into this (and I'm still trying to figure out if I'm fighting with the controls or if they're fighting with me), but boy does it feel otherworldly when you start to feel yourself getting better at it by racking up higher and higher combos and cursing less (or less at the stuff you struggled with in the beginning) as you work your way up the tower. Highlights are Peppino's facial animations on the television (and everywhere else, the taunt button is just wonderful), corpse surfing, and the finale with racing down the tower through all the levels once again. Love that the game understands that jumping on enemies nowadays is LAME. Suplexing tomatoes and cheeses are where it's at now. So much unique stuff going on here that I could easily rack up several more hours in this. Know for a fact that should this ever get ported to Switch or should I ever acquire a Steam Deck that those several more hours would be immediately acquired. Very good game but a perfect handheld/portable game.

Sonic if it was actually good

In all seriousness though; this game is the absolute proof that games don't always need to be these cinematic "masterpieces" with deep story or overly complex gameplay systems; all you need sometimes in a game is just some very goddamn addicting and fun high-speed platformer action, an absolutely knee-slapping sense of humor, art, and animation, and some of the tightest controls and the most creative level design in recent memory, and hey, doesn't all a game need is to be fun sometimes?

God bless you, Pizza Tower, you magnificent bastard.

Might be a bit early to call this before I've even really started going for the high level rankings, but this might just be my favourite 2D platformer already. It just feels like an absolute perfect storm of some of the greatest character control I've experienced in a game combined with level design that perfectly supports this, but it tops all of this off with such an absurd amount of personality baked into even the smallest of details. It's a pretty huge accomplishment for a game that looks like this to be able to surpass any expectations I had, but Pizza Tower just did it in every single regard. The aesthetic is absolutely on point, being this neat combination of embodying the spirit of really feral, crusty looking 90s cartoons all put through the filter of MS Paint, but then it ends up being further elevated by how chaotic the actual gameplay is. I expected things to look really bizarre and charmingly gross, but the sheer amount of expressive animation for everything takes it to a whole other level, something particularly notable with the increasingly depraved facial expressions of Peppino as you build speed from a sprint.

This kind of vibe works equally as well for the enemies, with each of them feeling as if they have so much charm even when you only sometimes see them on screen for a second or two before running past. The brand of appealing ugliness that the game takes on is something I heavily appreciate in general and I would love more things to lean into such a style, especially if done to this level of quality. I also think it's really cool how this game just, has some of the greatest character control in a platformer to me, with so many moves perfectly flowing into one another while also facilitating frankly ludicrous speeds. Everything has a great sense of weight to it as well, you might be fast, but more in the way of being a bizarrely mobile freight train than what the archetypal fast character might look and behave in gameplay. The level design and sense of difficulty the game has also play into this really well, with the levels being built around being able to maintain a sense of momentum, and the lack of ability to die making it that you never feel truly punished for going too fast, with the worst that can happen almost always just being losing this pace momentarily and also potentially losing your combo.

While initially, the decision to focus so heavily around building these levels with getting high rankings and combos in mind didn't really do a whole lot for me, I ultimately think that it was a great choice for the way the game plays as a whole. Rather than focusing on a more traditional, hazardous obstacle course to get through and encouraging a more careful playstyle, by placing the vast majority of the difficulty here on perfecting the levels rather than purely beating them, it allows for this much more confident and often reckless playstyle to feel not just feasible, but the ideal way to play, especially on the first runs before you start caring about such rankings. There were so few times where I really ended up taking my finger of the sprint button throughout my playtime because even when it felt a bit ill-advised, the simple action of being fast felt awesome nonetheless. There's a nice variety of stuff thrown your way too, with most levels having some cool, unique mechanics in them that almost never felt fully transformative and pace breaking (though I'll admit that I don't really like playing as Gustavo anywhere near as much as Peppino), but they were still significant enough to always add some kind of unique dimension to the experience that would make it stand out from the crowd.

I cannot think of the last time where I so feverishly wanted to just, keep playing a game and never put it down as I did with this one, I cannot think of the last time I played a game that I genuinely felt had absolutely no glaringly weak elements or moments along with making everything feel this varied and special, I just, cannot think of another game that surpassed my expectations to the extent that Pizza Tower did. Maybe my opinion will shift to an extent after attempting to P rank some of the levels here, but for the time being, I consider this as nothing short of a masterpiece.

Edit: After P ranking a decent chunk of levels I'll lower this slightly, still a fantastic game but some of these levels really weren't built too well with keeping your combo feeling especially good thanks to some of the more inconvenient detours you need to make.

Oh man, this game was a BLAST. Simple plot, satisfying controls, wacky art, extreme speed and a humorous attitude to top it off! Pizza Tower may be a little short with 20 levels and 5 bosses but every inch of the world is stuffed full with details, secrets and sweet mechanics. There are TONS of achievements that I'm excited to try so there's still plenty for your average completionist. Wario-likes have proven there's still a lot of potential in this formula, so definitely give Pizza Tower a go!

EDIT: I have obtained all achievements and P-ranks. While the elusive Ps were a 'P'ain in the ass it was extremely satisfying to pull them off. I find myself keep wanting to come back to this game even though there is nothing left to do, and I think that speaks volumes for Pizza Tower's addicting mach speed gameplay!

If there's one thing I love about Wario Land 4, it's the meticulous level design. And the genius use of mechanics. And the incredible variety. And the thematically perfect subversion of traditional platformers. And-

Anyway, back to level design. It's a game where pretty much every little detail of the level is perfectly considered, and I think the game being slower paced than many other 2D platformers helps the level design feel truly compact. The slow pace was almost certainly due to the small screen size, but it also meant the designers had to engage the player in more thoughtful ways, where players had to consider their surroundings in ways that you're not really going to do in a game series like Sonic the Hedgehog.

What does this have to do with Pizza Tower? Well, after playing the demo, it felt kinda like a mix between Wario Land and Sonic the Hedgehog, which, as I have established, are on pretty much opposite sides of how you can design platformers. As fun as the demo was, I wasn't sure if the game could actually blend these two polar opposites together in a cohesive way. After playing the game though, I think it did a surprisingly fantastic job at it.

The way the game handles difficulty is one of its best aspects, and a great way that it blends these two series together into something completely new. Just like in Wario Land, Peppino can't die in most cases, and hits are penalized by losing points and, often, a waste of time. This works extremely well in a speed-based platformer for two reasons. One, it keeps makes the pacing feel great for any player, and two, you obviously don't want to go slower in a speed game, especially in the escape sections where actual death is often only a matter of time.

This could trivialize any sense of difficulty aside from a player's intrinsic desire to improve, but the game actually requires you to rescue nearly of the Toppins to fight the bosses, which are analogous to the Teensies from Rayman. So basically, players are gonna have to do pretty well at all the levels anyway.

This could hurt the pacing in another way; If a player only barely scrapes by with Toppin requirements, they may have to replay a lot of levels before the climax. I only had to replay one to reach the requirement though, and I have to say, I don't know if I would've minded replaying more levels, because the one I replayed actually enhanced my experience.

This is because the game is far more difficult when you try to achieve the elusive P Ranks, or just try to improve your ranking in general. On replays, you get the opportunity to do the escape sequences twice in a row, which are consistently some of the most exhilarating moments of any game I've played.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. What about the bosses? These are the other times Peppino can actually die, and can be pretty difficult. However, they're mostly pretty fun, although maybe a bit disconnected from the core game. It likely would've been possible for the game to have really challenging bosses while also keeping its core systems. If, for example, the game had a time limit for bosses and the bosses used transformation attacks that wasted your time. However, the bosses were still fun so I'm not too upset.

Speaking of transformations, the mechanics work a lot better than I would've expected. All of them are introduced well and are mostly simple enough to immediately understand. A few feel a bit disruptive, such as the bombs, but most promote the fast-paced nature of the game, and many have that true to Wario Land style of 'power-up or detriment based on context'. By far the best example of this is the level (Excuse my language) 'Oh Shit!', which may be the best level in the game. And while a few of these transformations are analogous to those of Wario Land, they're all pretty distinct and well done.

I could certainly see someone not liking the visuals, but I though they were excellent, and the 90s cartoon style greatly enhanced the energetic nature of the game. The animation and attention to detail is incredible, but I noticed that at least one stage has no parallax scrolling with the background, and I think this may be universal. It's not a big deal though, and is really only noticeable in stages with more expansive backgrounds.

Audiowise, the sound effects and soundtrack is great. However, I wish the soundtrack leaned more into either stereotypical Italian music or 90s Cartoon music instead of Funk and Rock. It would've added to the thematic unity a bit more.

Everything considered, I love this game. It's truly something special, and one of the few spiritual successors to truly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the game it succeeded. Dare I say, it's a Masterpiece. 10/10.

...By the way, you unlock a costume if you keep Peppino in the dark for about a minute on the menu screen. Go do that right now. Actually, maybe wait until night to do it.

Warioland 4 has always been a game that's stuck out in Nintendo's library. It's a game that throws a smorgasbord of ideas at you. Each level is packed with an interesting gimmick, and it never seems to falter with it's bombastic tone.

Pizza Tower takes Warioland as a concept, and puts it into a more modern, speed focused perspective. What it accomplishes in the 8 hours that I've played is nothing short of astonishing!

Fast, energetic puzzle platforming, with an insane amount of movement tech that expands just how fast you can speed through levels. Grabbing an enemy and pile driving them into other ones while still maintaining your momentum is insanely satisfying! There's moves I'm still not entirely sure how to do, or string together, but it just shows the mechanical depth to the moveset. There's also a combo meter as well as a ranking system, which play intandum with each other to create a high, but rewarding skill ceiling. Being able to get an S rank in this game will require mechanical and level mastery, which will be something I'll have do at a later point in time. This is the type of game that will really shine with repeated playthroughs, and I can tell just tell that's what the intention of the designers wanted it to be. Usually I'm not very good with ranking systems, (I tend to get frustrated with aiming for perfection), but who knows, maybe I'll get something out of this game's ranking system.

The boss battles in this game are excellently designed, each feeling like a tough but fair challenge. They're all about learning the attack patterns and when you can attack, and it's all telegraphed effortlessly. The final boss to this game is fantastic, another one of those final bosses that takes everything you've learned from the game thus far and tests you on it. It also acts as a bit of a boss rush mode, but cut down for impact and time. It's insanely good!

I'm in love with the ugly expressions of the characters. The art tends to be rough around the edges and bombastic, while being really well animated. Not everything is consistent, and that's absolutely okay, since it brings out such a wild and expressive attitude. It's that sort of early NewGrounds rough-ness that I love, but grown leaps and bounds in both a technical and artistic prowess.

I would make every facial expression in this game a fucking profile picture, they're all my little scrimblos.

The music to this game runs on all cylinders. Each track is energetic and full of early SNES-Sega era inspired tunes and samples. Sometimes funky, sometimes chip tune, sometimes groovy. A lot, and I mean A LOT of this soundtrack rules. The final boss's music, which is about 3 different variations to fit the different phases, are so wildly different and insane sounding. Absolutely my favorite tracks from a game that's already full of absolute treasures.

Man, Pizza Tower just fucking rules in general. It's another one of those games this year that has just put a big goofy smile on my face. If there was ever a complaint, it would probably be that levels sometimes gate you forward if you missed a topping, making you have to replay the entire level. Which can be somewhat annoying given that these levels tend to be more on the long side. But it's whatever, I had the same problem in Warioland 4, and it's more of a preference thing anyways.

Not much I wanna say here, quite the fun and unique experience. Glad to have seen that this game exploded since first hearing about it several years ago during the initial builds around 2018-2019(?) and glad that its overall an extremely polished game at its core.
My main hang up is that its just not my kind of game when you get to that core, that being a very speedrun, skill-intensive, combo building mad dash while having to manage collectibles and enemies along the way. In that sense it does remind me a lot of why I have a hard time really liking sonic games, even in 2D. I love a ton of the speed sections, hell the escape segments remain my favorite aspect but I think im not the biggest fan of having to deal with enemies during platforming, as well as some of how the boss fights play out. Namely -and maybe its just me- I just had a hard time really get the hang of certain bosses' attack patterns and what would be considered an attacking state (e.g. one boss just running past you but making contact during this state actually doesn't proc damage). You do at least have the parry mechanic to help you out with this, although its reliability varies. Also I really would have liked a faster restart upon death after boss fights, being sent to the boss door always felt like a waste of time- so I usually just gave up and restarted the level from the pause menu if I got down to 1 HP.
Regardless, its definitely a title I recommend, and I'm glad I don't have the kind of brainworms that egg me on to try for P ranks.