Peppino body slams hordes of other "5/5 games", pushing them down the rating ladder.

the speed and fluidity of the controls in this game are unmatched. Pizza Tower is as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog and as tight as Super Mario World.

the game design is a total peak. the genetics of the entire platforming genre are sequenced into Pizza Tower. Donkey Kong Country is here. Celeste is here. Shovel Knight is here (those boss fights are awesome).

every level was unique and, i really mean this, surprising. the game doesn't give you the chance to say "i knew it". you get one or two new, fun mechanics in every single level. the places you go are hilarious and colorful. the game switches "feel" at will, forcing players to use brains, brawns, or pure agility situation to situation.

the art is so good. it perfectly captures the spirit of classic western cartoons without feeling like homage. it is as punk rock as 1999 Cartoon Network ever was. the animation is amazing. would love to study every frame of Peppino's character art alone.

the soundtrack is HUGE. it's scrappy and gnarly; i found myself stopping the game just to listen to songs on loop on youtube. this is what "garage bands" of the 2020's are made of – people smashing soundfonts and synthesizers and vocal samples together in their DAWs and banging on it with a hammer until the mix is hot.

and you know, i'm talking a lot about classic games and art, 90s and 00s stuff that's not much younger than me. but you know what? this game is modern.

yes it has a level designed after a really famous, memey zoomer game (no hate), but i mean something bigger than that...

i was starting to feel a bit at a loss of inspiration in this year of 2023. i felt unconnected to any fresh aesthetic, like i was getting old, or worse, like there was no stylistic zeitgeist at all out there.

Pizza Tower is a reminder to me that you can just do shit the way you wanna do it. i believe now that if you put your back into it, it may come out a masterpiece.

i've been playing a Pokémon Sun nuzlocke lately to spice up my first playthru of it and one thing Emerald Rogue has been able to replicate perfectly is the creeping dread that occurs when you're surround by tall grass in the middle of a new route with a banged up team where the smallest misstep can make you lose one of your precious party members. Emerald Rogue bundles up a lot of what I like from pokémon gameplay wise and ties it with roguelike elements that only become frustrating due to the genre's need to be difficult, (I was planning to review this when I finished a run but hours in I still can't get past badge 8) which can become a taxing ordeal considering how much of an RNG mess pokémon becomes and battles having insta weather+terrain can sometimes feel like ass. Still I gotta say this is my new favorite way to experience pokémon lately and even if the word "rogue" has become something of a red flag in videogames lately I encourage those who like playing on Showdown to give this a spin. A great fresh way to experience pokémon in a timeframe where a lot of pokémon mods are aiming to be more than your classic romhack