Ah. That’s more like it.

As the one person I know who likes Donkey Kong Country, Drill Dozer, and that one burrowing escape sequence from Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I knew Pepper Grinder was going to be right up my alley. What impressed me though, was just how precisely the game melded its influences into something that felt simultaneously fresh yet familiar. The level design is classic obstacle escalation (introduce a concept, scale it up, throw in a twist, and then run the player through a final exam into their victory lap) with DKC inspired secrets with skull coin collectibles for unlocking secret levels. Many of the usual formula beats are present as well to force execution tests, from the usual moving parts in the forms of cannons, rope swings, and grappling points, to constantly present sources of danger like the freezing ocean or the temporary dirt patches created from cooling lava. What sets Pepper Grinder apart however, is that the terrain itself is the main obstacle. It feels like such a natural pairing to seamlessly mesh environmental navigation with the course’s very foundation, and the best moments of the game lean into funneling the player through various layers of shifting and isolated terrain while tearing through all that may stand in their way.

That said, I think to really understand the nuances of Pepper Grinder, one has to readily commit to its time attack mode. I could have been sold on the game-feel alone as an amalgam of Donkey Kong Country’s momentum physics and Drill Dozer’s force feedback, but playing under circumstances that force you to squeeze every possible second out of the timer gives the player a better appreciation of its movement mechanics. Pepper is not very fast on foot, nor can she naturally jump very far. Therefore, you’d think that most speed comes from tunneling through terrain, but it’s not quite that either. Rather, the player has to maintain momentum through the interplay of drilling and jumping by exiting terrain via the drill run (boosting right as you’re about to leave a patch of dirt), which commits the player to the projected arc leaving the terrain but with the reward of significantly more speed. The result is some of the weightiest and most satisfying movement I have ever experienced in any platformer. I was constantly figuring out new ways to save seconds by timing by boosts both within terrain and right before exiting terrain (since you can’t just spam boost and using it too early can lock you out from getting the necessary boost jump out of terrain), skipping certain obstacles entirely with well-placed drill runs, and figuring out how to manage my health to bypass unfavorable cycles and damage boost past mines and thorns. Some of those gold time attack medals were tight ordeals, but I absolutely savored every moment of the grind.

Bosses as a whole are a significant improvement from the usual quality of those in Donkey Kong Country. You’re not safe just waiting above ground, and burrowing to dodge attacks forces you to at least dash-dance underground since drilling means you can’t stay in one place. As a result, the player is constantly on the move, and you’re incentivized to do so anyways given that most of the bosses require multiple hits to defeat and aren’t the usual “invincible until they’re done attacking” crop from DKC. The biggest complaint I can levy here is that boss hit/hurtboxes can feel imprecise; I’ve heard that many players have had difficulty figuring out how to correctly drill into the beetle boss’s underbelly, and while I had no issues there, I did die a few times from the skeleton king’s heel hitbox where there was no visible attack in its vicinity. Still, I much prefer these boss fights over many of its peers, and figuring out when and how to best aim drill runs from the ground to speedrun bosses was just as much of a pleasure as speedrunning the courses themselves.

There are a few questionable design choices that could be touched upon here. Firstly, there’s a shop system present where you can purchase optional stickers from a gacha machine as well as temporary health boosts. The former is mostly forgivable given that they don’t impact the gameplay otherwise and can be cleared in about three minutes of purchasing and opening capsules. That said, I feel as if the latter could be removed entirely given that I never felt pressured to purchase insurance for courses and bosses, especially because I was often taking hits anyways to skip past obstacles and because you’re not going to regain the extra health capacity in-level once it’s gone. Secondly, bosses in time-attack mode force you to watch their opening unskippable cutscenes before getting to the action, and this gets extremely irritating when you’re constantly restarting fights to get better times. Finally, Pepper Grinder has a few gimmick areas in the forms of a couple of robot platforming segments, two snowmobile sections where you just hold forward on the control stick, and a couple of run-and-gun levels with little drilling involved. I can look past most of these given that they don’t take up much time and that I enjoyed all the minecart levels from DKC as is, though I do wish that they spaced the gimmicks apart a bit more given that levels 4-3 and 4-4 both have significant run and gun segments sending each course off.

If I did have any lasting complaints, it would be that I just want more of this game. Most players will finish adventure mode in under four hours. That said, even despite a lack of polish here and there, I absolutely adore Pepper Grinder. At this time of writing, I’ve 100%ed the game and even gone back to a few time trials after snagging all the gold medals just to further polish my records. It’s often difficult for me to pin down what makes a game feel good to play, but in this case, I just know. Pepper Grinder feels like an adrenaline rush made just for me, and though its execution barriers and short length will likely make this a tough sell for many, it is undoubtably some of the most fun I have had with a game this year. If you’re curious or enjoy anything that I’ve discussed in this write-up, please give the demo a shot. They don’t make 2D platformers like this anymore, and Pepper Grinder’s existence leaves me wondering why when they absolutely killed it on their first try.

Everything I wanted and more. Whitehead and his team continue to be masters at their craft at making great platformers.

It's not perfect, by all means, but the issues are so minor to the point where it doesn't detract from what's easily gonna be a 2024 GOTY contender for me. Easily the best 3D platformer I've played since Mario Odyssey.

I think a lot of the division I've seen seems to come from those who expected it to be more of a Sonic game, hence it sharing a lot of the staff from Mania. There's some of that here, by all means, but It felt more of momentum-based 3D Mario game (Odyssey came to mind with all the powerups). There's a bit of a learning curve, but I think that's exactly why the first world is as slow as it is pacingwise, to ease people into the controls, and I don't think that's an issue at all.

The two biggest critiques I've heard regard bugs and controls, and honestly barring a few minor instances early on I didn't have much of an issue with either. I only had one flat-out crash on PC total, and the worst I had with bugs was with World 2's boss fight (although I feel most of that was due to me still trying to get the hang of the roll controls), as I either would get knocked off course for seemingly no reason or in one specific case completely lock up and have no input on Penny's movements. And as I said prior, while I do think there is a learning curve to it, it's exceptionally satisfying to master, and the game does a great job of pushing you to play faster and thinking out of the box with your entire moveset to either skip whole areas or get into areas with special collectables/objectives.

Everything else is top notch. Tee Lopes' compositions here are admittedly a bit more low energy compared to what we heard in Mania (and even a bit recently with his Superstars tracks), but as someone who loved Mania's more slow tracks like Press garden I have no issue. Legit can't wait for the soundtrack to release.

My only real issue would probably be the currency you pick up in levels not mattering much in the long run. You have the stuff you can use for bonus levels, and that's all well and good, but the one-use items felt kinda pointless aside from it being a crutch for worse players or those who maybe want to explore the levels with more freedom. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather find things legit instead of relying on the items, so I felt no desire to spend them. Even something as simple as costumes would've given the normal currency more worth imho.

That, and probably the biggest thing for me (and I'd imagine some others), the price point. This game has around the same completion+100% timing as Sonic Mania (8-9 Hours) yet is 30 bucks, compared to Mania being just 20 when it came out. I have no issue spending 30 here since I'll support the devs no matter what here, but I do feel 20 is a more appropriate price point for this game and I feel like considering the teams background they wanted to do that, only for it to not happen due to Private Division or T2 meddling. Not a big issue at the end of the day and doesn't lessen my enjoyment, but if you ARE on the edge I don't think it'd hurt at all if you waited for a 10 buck price drop. Either way, highly recommended. Give these guys more projects, please.

This game absolutely rules, when you can play it. Looking past the abysmal server issues at launch, likely attributable to an unpredictably enormous debut, this game delivers. It is bombastic and has a polished gameplay loop. It is hilarious in its incessant parody of militaristic expendability and feverous patriotism. Most critically, it delivers emergent gameplay moments in spades.

Although fun in solo play, it is much better to engage with an outstandingly cooperative community of strangers or your friends when delivering managed democracy in Helldivers II. The game's dynamism is amplified by the presence of other players. Team kills, coordinated airstrikes, team reloads and a hug on the battlefield all color the cooperative experience.

There is a shocking amount of gameplay diversity that derives from a robust ordinance ("strategem") system and a good spread of mission designs. Whether it be the hectic nests of a Terminid planet or hordes of Automatons marching towards you out of a jungle's tree-line, there is a filmic nature to nearly every encounter. In my 35+ hours in game (with other hours of my 46 total in servers queues), there were some hysterical exploits of the physics-system and harrowing escapes from certain doom that had us laughing or cheering for hours on end. There is irresistible charm in the parody at play here, whether it be a rag dolling player flying through the sky yelling "LIBERTYYYY" or the cheeky combat tips you get between missions. There are many such examples. Add in some crisp shooting, both 1st and 3rd person, and you have a hell of an experience here. Truly, taking out alien and robotic hordes with your pals has never been so damned cool.