When I played Pepper Grinder’s demo in February, it had me so excited. I was dumbfounded at how this team made the drilling mechanic feel this damn good. Everything from the visuals, controls, rumble, and every ounce of “game feel” combine to make the drilling just incredible. There was an unreal level of satisfaction I got from chaining together these runs of drilling through dirt, bursting out of the surface, flying through the air to another surface, and plunging into dirt once again. It was just so brilliant. “Yes”, I said. “This thing has THE JUICE.”

I felt much of these feelings as I played through the first 4 levels again from the demo but now in the full game. I was charging head first into the boss of world 1, full of glee and excitement. The boss was pretty meh but I just chalked it up to platformers not knowing how to make fun bosses. As usual, right? Oh well, I was sure that was just a speedbump, a pothole perhaps.

Then I got into World 2. Oh gosh! What happened to my drilling game? My sweet sweet child of the dirt. What happened to THE JUICE? Why is this now a running and jumping and fighting game where you sometimes are drilling? The level design just took a big flip for some reason to focus on basically any other gimmick than primarily drilling. Also the checkpoints got extremely stingy forcing me to replay substantial segments of a level multiple times. It was at this point where I started to understand some of the middling reviews I had seen for Pepper Grinder before release. I kept assuming and gaslighting myself that “huh must have just been a weird level”. Nope! This is every level after that first blissful world going into the end of the game. For a game with only 4 worlds, you go through a surprising amount of water levels and vehicle gimmick levels. It’s just not what I signed up for! And then the boss for world 3 is honestly more punishing than any From Software boss I’ve ever fought for some reason? Literally was ripping my hair out because the difficulty was so off the charts.

Pepper Grinder’s demo was a strong 9/10 with potential to be an all-time indie platformer classic. I was thinking it could have been a Celeste or a Meat Boy but its structure is just off. I really think this thing would have fit better with quick, difficult, trial-and-error level segments like the two games mentioned above. Instead it’s these 5-10 minute levels that chain small encounters together that all engage with a single mechanic, basically longer Mario levels. And for some reason this game has a shop? The only thing worthwhile from the shop is the bonus level key that unlocks a challenging optional stage in each world. The only other gameplay-altering item in the shop are these miniscule health powerups that last for only your next life. I honestly found them to be worth less than the time it took to buy them since you have to spin this gacha machine every time you want another segment of temporary extra health. Also, I thought the point of a gacha machine was that it gave you a random thing every time: the lootbox thing. Why is this gacha machine ONLY filled with these tiny stupid health things. It’s a fixed outcome. It’s just not compatible with the whole gacha machine concept! And then the fun colored cosmetics you’d think would be a natural fit in a gacha machine are unlocked by simply buying the ones you want. This is extremely lame in a setting where the currency isn’t tied to real money! You have the perfect excuse to gamify your shop and you actively avoid it? I just don’t get it! At that point you might as well have a more objective way to unlock the outfits like maybe gating them behind mastery of each level. The game already has a Time Trial mode so why not give the coolest colors of hair and cape for completely devilishly hard challenges. The whole shop truly feels like a relic of a past project iteration.

I really expected to love Pepper Grinder. I love indie pixel platformers so so stinking much. I also love games that just feel incredible to play. AND I love games about finding the flow state in a perfectly tuned world. Unfortunately, Pepper Grinder didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Maybe this is a lesson in expectations but gosh my mind can’t stop wondering how incredible this game could have been in another life. What kills me most of all is there are occasional glimpses of that idealized version of Pepper Grinder and it hits! Maybe someday we’ll get a Pepper Grinder 2 and if we do, I’ll be first in line to play that demo.