Pepper Grinder was a really fun time. I had been looking forward to this game for a long time, and I'm really happy that it lived up to my expectations. The drilling mechanic is so simple, but it feels so good and fluid to control, and it provides the player with so much speed and momentum. It also allows for really creative level design. The levels are all so much fun to run through, and every time you think they might need something to shake them up, the game throws some kind of new gimmick at you and themes the entire level around it. This kept the levels feeling fresh until the very end. The final boss was also a lot of fun. The game is pretty short, but the time trial versions of each level add a lot of replay value. Some of the time trials could be pretty difficult, but once I got the hang of it, it was very satisfying to speed run my way through the levels. I 100 percent completed Pepper Grinder, and I'm glad I did. There is a perfect amount of content for going for full completion.

Muito legal quando um jogo consegue trazer uma mecânica diferente para um jogo de plataforma! A ideia do cavar cria um flow delicioso e no geral o jogo tem uma inventividade super gostosa.... Infelizmente um pouco curto, seria capaz de jogar mais 3 ou 4 mundos tranquilamente!

Faltou um polimento aqui, um uso melhor das moedas acolá, coisas que dá para relevar. Maaas, o que me irritou foram os chefes! Dos quatro, três tem um salto de dificuldade absurdo, umas hitbox estranhas e parece que o jogo te pune por você tentar usar com força o grinder e a parte mais gostosa do jogo que é essa fluidez na hora de lutar (principalmente no chefe final que tem uma segunda parte insuportável).

Pepper grinder offers the correct dose of premium schmovement thrughout it's gameplay, the core mechanic of digging is EXCELENT like in it's inspiration (Ori 2) ,it fells ever so satysfing, but it's also much more thant that, different enviroments, twists and even [REDACTED] that caught you off guard makes for a great time.
Truly it does what the best movement games should do, it's easy to play this game, however, to master it? to chain getting out of a digging into another one with full momentum? to just past right through a little gap to continue on faster? so good.
For instance, water, water is slow right? as a begginer you might think that, BUT you can hydroplane, yes, comming back to the first water level and zooming trough it's path just shows you how well this was made.
An excelente game, i must play for movement fans, it leaves you wanting more, and you know what? i'd much rather have that than most games nowadays that don't know when to end.

When i first started playing Pepper Grinder, i was concerned that the Drill mechanic of the game would get old quickly, but i was gladly proven wrong. Throughout the game, they hit you with different movement options, enemies, and types of ground to dig through, which really freshens up the gameplay. There are some mechanics that only appeared for a select few levels, and while i wish the game utilized them further, i’m glad that the levels they were featured in were a lot of fun (especially in some of the later stages). Bosses were alright for the most part, but the first 2 are easily the weakest ones. The best bosses were the last 2 which gave me an actual challenge, and the final boss in particular was so sick. After the final boss, i decided to go back and play through the optional Time Attack mode for all the levels, and it was a blast. Trying to optimize all the levels in the game was a really nice challenge, and some of them in particular were so satisfying to get the gold medal on. Before Time Attack, this game was probably a good 7/10 game for me. After Time Attack, i’m gonna have to raise it up to 8/10, it really made me appreciate the game a lot more. If you’re a fan of platformers, i recommend giving this game a shot!

I never had a bad time with this game, but I also feel like it never truly took off. I liked most of the gimmicks and the level design was solid, but it's a pretty short time and I never feel like it got as intense and fun as it could have. The last world was a bit of a letdown, it felt like instead of going in on platforming challenges it just kinda became a shoot em up for some reason. The first two bosses were kinda lame but I liked the last two a good bit at least, the final boss especially was pretty cool.

Charming art style, great music, and still really solid gameplay though, would recommend it for sure I guess I just expected a little bit more for whatever reason.

I thought this was a pretty good little platformer, even if I'm not a fan of pixel art graphics. It's based almost entirely around one single gimmick - the use of a drill - though there are some other gameplay mechanics.

World 4 brings in a mech and a gun and I felt like it was too much of a gameplay change, rather than focusing on what was good about the core gameplay. But that's when the game ends, as it's a fairly short game. I was having fun though, until the last world. If world 4 were reworked, I'd give this game 4 stars instead of 3.5.

No filler, all…not quite killer, but pretty good! The levels are well designed for a quick drilling and thankfully never get a chance to outstay their welcome. Although I can't help but feel as though Pepper Grinder is missing that last bit of oomph that could have taken it to the next level, like a better use for all the gold you’re collecting on your adventure. Even still this is a very cool debut and I’ll be interested to see how the dev learns from this experience. I’ll be there day one for whatever they do next! …also…damn I miss the Vita…

A deeply mid experience. The drilling is fun for a level or two but it becomes very clear that this core mechanic does not have the mechanical depth needed to even carry it through its 4 worlds and sub 2 hour run time. It's pretty satisfying to go into the dirt and pop out once or twice but the areas you can dig really hinder the level design. They are essentially just linear lines. You go in one end of dirt and navigate your way to the other end. This then gets combined with a grapple hook that feels truly awful to use and the cannons from Donkey Kong Country. These cannons felt like archaic game design in the 90s and here they are now in the year of our Lord 2024. I mean I love stickerbrush symphony as much as the next guy but the cannons in this game don't even require you to aim or time your shot like 90% of the time.

Then whatever momentum you can muster is stunted by the constant stop and start of looking for these dumb collectibles which I would love to ignore but they literally lock levels behind collecting them. So many of them are hidden behind walls or off screen that it forces you to crawl through levels scanning every wall for subtle cracks. Their inclusion is in complete opposition to the core appeal of the game.

Idk, the girl looks cute and I assume the fine folks worked hard on the game, but this game was just so frustrating to play. I feel a lot of love put into it but not a lot of thought.

Pepper grinder is short and sweet, but probably a little too short. The platforming itself is very solid unfortunately I was pretty underwhelmed by the brevity of the game after waiting numerous years for the release.
I have to give it to the developer, though, the art direction on this game is phenomenal. The animation is smooth as butter and it looks great.
At the end of the day I had a good time with this one, even though I was a little let down by a short runtime and a few underwhelming bosses after the long development cycle. Give the game a shot and give the developer a few bucks, the game is good.

Pepper Grinder does one thing very well, which is of course the drilling. I never quite got tired of it. It's so much fun flinging yourself out of the dirt!

I also like that the game supports multiple play styles. Like you can play it slow and explore to find the secret skull coins or you can play it fast and try to go for a low time. I feel the game could've also supported a score attack mode where you need to collect as many of the diamonds as possible, as they are fun to collect but are borderline useless in the game.

That said Pepper Grinder does try to do other things like make you drive vehicles and a few levels are basically shoot em ups. These other sections aren't bad, but they aren't amazing either. It kinda feels like they ran out of ways to make the drilling fun and just decided to add extra shit in to make it not as repetitive.

There is also a shop which unfortunately doesn't really sell anything interesting. You collect these diamonds throughout the game, but the only thing you can buy with them is stickers and temporary health. Stickers are especially bizarre as people interested in playing a fast paced platformer are probably not super interested in decorating with stickers. You can at least buy extra levels and different colors for your character with the skull coins, which ain't too bad.

That said, Pepper Grinder is never boring or frustrating to play. It's an overall a solid platformer with a fun drill mechanic and a great art style. I just think it could've been a bit more.

Fun enough as a very small, gimmicky platformer. The levels are quick and fun and the boss fights are unique, especially the last boss.

I wish there more here, overall, in terms of content. The hunt for coins for cosmetics was not really doing it for me.

Played fully on steam deck with no issues.

Pepper Grinder es un título de acción y plataformas con muy pocos defectos y muchísimas virtudes. Su frenética y original jugabilidad caracterizada por el uso de un taladro para sumergirte en la tierra, eliminar enemigos y surcar el aire o el agua es tremendamente divertida. Además, para no aburrirte hay muchas otras mecánicas que van desde el uso de una cuerda con gancho a una ametralladora de mano, pasando por vehículos que mejoran todavía más la experiencia. Es un título exigente, que empieza siendo asequible y termina siendo un desafío no apto para los grumetes de agua dulce.

Su historia no aporta nada nuevo, pero le da un sentido a la aventura, y su protagonista Pepper se deja querer rápido. Su apartado artístico es maravilloso, desde el pixel art a la música chiptune todo está hecho con mimo, cuidado del detalle y mucho amor por su trabajo. Para mi, como casi todo lo de Devolver, es un juego corto muy recomendable y que te dará unas horas de diversión. Y nunca olvides lo que dice la canción: "¡La vida pirata es la vida mejor!"

Leer análisis completo en Retro & Pixel Press: https://retropixelpress.blogspot.com/2024/04/analisis-de-pepper-grinder.html