Pizza Tower was my favorite game of 2023. An extremely fun platformer that brilliantly combined the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog with transformations that constantly turned the gameplay on its head. I saw so little room for improvement that I assumed the developers would immediately move on to a new project.
Enter the Noise Update. The premise is identical to the Plague of Shadows expansion in Shovel Knight. You play as one of the game’s villains going through the same levels, but with a completely different moveset to provide a fresh experience. I did like this a lot more than Plague of Shadows, however, and that’s because the levels feel like they actually accomodate the moveset despite minimal changes from the base game, if at all. Rather than trying to completely change the controls, Tour de Pizza made subtle changes that often made these levels MORE fun.
The first of these changes is the wall bounce. When you grabbed a wall as Peppino, he would stick to it and start running upwards. He could jump off the wall, but his speed was reduced while in the air. With The Noise, it’s the opposite. He will bounce upwards when hitting a wall and can keep grabbing it to get some extra height, but doing so gradually slows him down. Therefore, it’s good to use his powerful slam and uppercut abilities just before losing all of his speed to maximize height. Mostly though, the bounce will be used for a quick turnaround to grab another wall or landing on a slightly-out-of-reach platform while preserving air momentum. The new tornado spin made downward movement much more fun than the standard ground-pound since you can also move horizontally to wipe out defenseless enemies and preserve even more speed. The super jump was also tweaked so that it can be activated from a standstill. All of these changes result in a loose control scheme that allows The Noise to hold onto his speed in more situations than the already-agile Peppino ever could.
That alone deserves tremendous praise, but Tour de Pizza also found time to remix most of the transformations, adding a neat spin to their respective levels. Some of them had me in hysterics like the Noise eating a rocket to fly, rolling up steep walls without stopping while in a barrel, and devouring a pepper pizza at the start of RRF to make the level easier. He should be in prison for his animal abuse though. Poor Mort. :(
If Peppino was learning how to control a car, then the Noise is learning how to control a skateboard. I suck at skateboarding. Getting most of the P-ranks with Peppino was hard enough, but you have to be a legend to P-rank everything with the Noise! I will not be doing that in the forseeable future due to a few levels that I disliked regardless of character choice, but what I will do is retroactively raise my score of Pizza Tower. The level secrets do not bother me anymore, and I can confidently say this is a GOAT platformer for me.
I have no idea if Tour de Pizza plans to add more content, but if so, I would love them to take the Shovel Knight approach and create new levels based around a different character. Yes, I am seriously suggesting Pizza Tower could be the next Shovel Knight. That’s for the devs to decide, however. If they are content to stop here, I will respect that. They have created a platforming masterpiece.
Enter the Noise Update. The premise is identical to the Plague of Shadows expansion in Shovel Knight. You play as one of the game’s villains going through the same levels, but with a completely different moveset to provide a fresh experience. I did like this a lot more than Plague of Shadows, however, and that’s because the levels feel like they actually accomodate the moveset despite minimal changes from the base game, if at all. Rather than trying to completely change the controls, Tour de Pizza made subtle changes that often made these levels MORE fun.
The first of these changes is the wall bounce. When you grabbed a wall as Peppino, he would stick to it and start running upwards. He could jump off the wall, but his speed was reduced while in the air. With The Noise, it’s the opposite. He will bounce upwards when hitting a wall and can keep grabbing it to get some extra height, but doing so gradually slows him down. Therefore, it’s good to use his powerful slam and uppercut abilities just before losing all of his speed to maximize height. Mostly though, the bounce will be used for a quick turnaround to grab another wall or landing on a slightly-out-of-reach platform while preserving air momentum. The new tornado spin made downward movement much more fun than the standard ground-pound since you can also move horizontally to wipe out defenseless enemies and preserve even more speed. The super jump was also tweaked so that it can be activated from a standstill. All of these changes result in a loose control scheme that allows The Noise to hold onto his speed in more situations than the already-agile Peppino ever could.
That alone deserves tremendous praise, but Tour de Pizza also found time to remix most of the transformations, adding a neat spin to their respective levels. Some of them had me in hysterics like the Noise eating a rocket to fly, rolling up steep walls without stopping while in a barrel, and devouring a pepper pizza at the start of RRF to make the level easier. He should be in prison for his animal abuse though. Poor Mort. :(
If Peppino was learning how to control a car, then the Noise is learning how to control a skateboard. I suck at skateboarding. Getting most of the P-ranks with Peppino was hard enough, but you have to be a legend to P-rank everything with the Noise! I will not be doing that in the forseeable future due to a few levels that I disliked regardless of character choice, but what I will do is retroactively raise my score of Pizza Tower. The level secrets do not bother me anymore, and I can confidently say this is a GOAT platformer for me.
I have no idea if Tour de Pizza plans to add more content, but if so, I would love them to take the Shovel Knight approach and create new levels based around a different character. Yes, I am seriously suggesting Pizza Tower could be the next Shovel Knight. That’s for the devs to decide, however. If they are content to stop here, I will respect that. They have created a platforming masterpiece.