These are my thoughts on the game at around Stage 5 before I ran out of a Game Pass trial and decided not to resub.

Part of this experience was kind of poisoned from having played a lot of DMC games prior to this, but after a while I was able to accept that this game was trying to do different things and really began to enjoy it.

I think systems like the rhythm timings and parrying add a lot of flair to the game, both mechanically and stylistically, and being able to use 'assists' in a quasi-Marvel vs. Capcom way to extend combos and rack up points is really interesting and helps distinguish itself from the DMC sized elephant in the room, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy this anywhere near as much as other character action-style games.

I think the biggest gripe I have with it isn't the humor being somewhat hit-or-miss at points, but rather that despite each level's distinct visual identity, almost every fight I enter feels the same because of how devoid of nuance or interesting design the combat arenas tend to be. At least Stage 5 has a really annoying room with electrical grids on the floor that will zap you if you stand in them, and there's an earlier stage where volcanoes can interrupt you if you dont get clear of the blast radius of the lava they spew, but really dynamic arenas where the environment plays into how you approach combat are few and far between from what I've seen. Most combat rooms are either flat circles or squares, so you'd better hope that when combat interrupts you, the enemy placements better be REALLy interesting, although they usually aren't.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for May 2024, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before June 4th, 2024, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

A rhythm game where every department understood the assignment.

Hi-Fi Rush is a visual pleasure, even without the sound you should be able to follow along, and that’s because everything in this game works off the beat. The art, the music, the design, the combat. Even the enemy attacks are all timed well. Yet while that means it’s a rhythm game, you don’t need a great sense of rhythm to play through it. Easy and Normal won’t require it, but if people are fans of rhythm games, they can go far deeper, with scoring systems like Devil May Cry, or Bayonetta.

What’s not as good. Hmmm, that’s a hard one. I guess the graphical style might not be to everyone's taste. The music is pre-selected, so you can’t choose your tracks. The humor, which is well done, might upset people who don’t like to laugh. Honestly, not much, this was an excellent game.

Pick this up… No qualifiers, people should check this game out. It was my favorite game of last year. This is that fresh new game with a real budget behind it that everyone is looking for but no one can find. It’s right here.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/jybN_eME28o

I've got just under 2 hours in, and I can at least say I like the direction that this game is going. Street building reminds me of Frostpunk, there's Civ-style diplomatic discussions with other lords, music never became repetitive, the game is optimized enough for me to at times hit 100fps while playing on "ultra settings". I haven't gotten around to combat yet since I flubbed up and barely have a population, but with the bandit camp set to attack in less than a year, I'll definitely have to change that if I want my silly little village to survive. Game is good enough in preview form for me to consider going on Steam to purchase the Early Access while on sale, to support development...Hard to argue with day one access with PC Gamepass though lmao

Edit: The bandits ended up burning my village down.

Variety is the spice of life and whilst this game concentrates on one seasoning executed very well it never forgets that.

Pepper Grinder see’s you control the drill totting Pepper, burrowing through dirt, under the water, between lava and crumbling ice.
Many of the platforming level archetypes are here but due to the rapid drilling versus precision platforming Pepper Grinder finds a way for this classic imagery to feel original in many places.

Holding the trigger on your controller of choice has you bury deep into dirt with constant momentum, with movement and turning circles reminiscent of Ecco the Dolphin, one of the game’s many inspirations.
It is key that any game feels good in the hand and this genre can live or die on it, thankfully the feeling of flow you find yourself in drilling, flying through the air into other bits of ground, avoiding obstacles and using varying devices or gimmicks is exactly where you want it to be.
Occasionally the speed can feel frantic, the turning circles may not feel tight enough, the distance you jump may seem too much but rarely does it ever feel like it’s anything but a mistake of yours and the game is very forgiving with its checkpointing.

A small area where the fault does not feel like it is on the player is the questionable hitboxes of enemies. Nearly all of the Narlings, the small narwhal-goblin hybrid type enemies are splatted in a single hit, but they occasionally wield equipment to halt your progress. Expected and not unwanted but the consistency of who hits first and where the enemies are vulnerable doesn’t always seem to watch and that perfect flow state hitting a brick wall is an irritation this game would be better for without.

Speaking of enemies, the bosses of Pepper Grinder are fun and varied. A lot of pattern remembering as expected but diverse in style, looks and set up with the difficulty of them rising to a real peak for the final encounter.
The only disappointment is that there aren't many, an issue the game has as a whole.

I find it difficult to complain about a game being short, especially when it is so tight.
Each stage in Pepper Grinder brings new and interesting ideas, a strength of variety that the best Nintendo games have and something I loved about last year’s Pizza Tower.
Being left wanting more is a good thing, but I can’t help but feel like this game is one world and a handful of stages too short.

Pepper Grinder does however give you a reason to go back. Each level has five hidden skull coins, a staple of any platformer and with these you can unlock some palette swaps and a hidden level in each world which are typically some of the more fun and gimmick heavy driven stages in the game.
The treasure you collect, this game’s equivalent to Sonic’s rings and the like do not help you survive but allow you to buy stickers.
Stickers and sticker pages are Pepper Grinder’s fun take on a 2D photo mode but act like the sticker books you had as a kid, just with more variety, less permanence and glue-mark based mess.
The annoyance here though is you unlock stickers with coins using a gacha machine and trying to fill the pages feels too time consuming and at time of writing I don’t believe there’s a trick to stop getting repeats outside of trying again and again.

The stickers give you a reason to return to levels to grind treasure but as each stage is finished a time-attack is unlocked and for this podium of prizes additional special stickers and music tracks are obtained. The time-trials are where the game truly becomes “hardcore”, and this is one title I cannot wait to see in the hands of experienced speed-runners.

I mentioned music tracks and Pepper Grinder’s OST composed by XeeCee is one of its highlights. The tracks may not be as catchy as some classics but the variety from mad drum and bass to more lo-fi tracks depending on the stage are welcome and something I find myself wanting to go back to.

Pepper Grinder is a fun and sometimes furious, drilling platforming experience with interesting ideas and fun mechanics spread throughout. To spoil what the game brings in variety would spoil it but as well as stage variety Pepper gets to do a little more than you’d expect a drill normally would - at points making me grin from ear to ear as I realise what is happening.
A little too short with some minor annoyances in hitboxes and the curse of gacha but otherwise an early contender for GOTY and an easy recommendation.
One that may only slide down the mental list of good games this year because it is so brief and hasn’t quite changed the game or blown me away the way the previously mentioned Pizza Tower did. It comes close though, I’ll take a dash of pepper with my pizza - thank you very much!

This game brought me back to the old days of flash games, though the polish here is obviously at a much higher level. This game has great 'flow' occasionally broken up by alternate mechanics that are fun but a little less so than the core, but help each level feel unique.

The bosses are unfortunately the lowlight, being difficult and repetitive is not a good combination.

I gotta mention the soundtrack, it really stood out to me and brought the energy of the whole game up.

After playing the demo I was incredibly psyched to see how "Pepper Grinder's" core mechanic would be explored. But after a few hours, every collectible and outfit nabbed, I can say that, although very exciting at first, "Pepper Grinder" did not live up to its potential by the end. Based on the constant gimmicky levels focusing on not drilling, I could tell the devs didn't know where to take the core mechanic. It just kinda ended before it truly got going. But hey, the stuff that was here was solid, just lacking.

8 years after I first heard about Pepper Grinder it finally, finally releases. And thus, I can now report that the game is... fine.

Using the drill feels incredible. It's fluid and responsive and lends itself really well to great level design. Everything else however, is not up to this standard. There is way too much in this game that is not the fun drill-based platforming.

The combat in particular is pretty grim. Your shockingly small offensive range is coupled with overtly aggressive enemies that leverage questionable hitboxes against you. There is way too much of this, and it just isn’t fun. The enemies feel like padding to make the levels take longer, rather than actual substance in the levels. There are 2 90% combat levels that are completely miserable. If I made Pepper Grinder I would not have included them. The bosses are sick though they ruled.

There are also quite a few sections of platforming where the drill is not used at all, or is only used as an interface with another mechanic. Few of these are fun; most feel stiff and over-simplified, assumingly so that attention could be placed upon the parts of the game where you’re actually using the drill. This is a questionable decision considering how many of these segments there are. Especially in the last 40% of the game these segments are absolutely too frequent. Couple this with a frustratingly limited standard jump and you do not exactly have the recipe for greatness.

This game does inarguably have its highs, but they are not exceptional enough to counter it’s lows. Music is nice and has a really cohesive sound throughout the game, which is also nice. Every level has a decently unique mechanic that makes it different, which is inarguably impressive. But this means the quality of every level leans strongly upon how good this mechanic is, creating an almost binary system for each level. If the mechanic is fun or not fun, the same thing can be said of the entire level.

I did have some fun but my socks remained firmly not knocked-off for the entire game. I would wait for a sale on this one.

I don't think I have ever had my opinion of a game change so drastically while playing it. After finishing the first Xenoblade with middling opinions, the technical and gameplay improvements in the second were refreshing and fun. For the first 25-30 hours of this, I did genuinely love it.

Once I reached a certain point (probably around chapter 6 or 7), everything really started to fall apart for me. The repercussions of so many glaring design flaws really started to shine through (field skills nearly saw me quitting the game at least 4 times) and I realized the story wasn't going in any direction that I really cared for. The tone and pacing of the first Xenoblade was dark, serious, and thoughtful. The second devolved into a sort of low-quality immature anime that used its half-baked plot purely to prop up flashy action sequences and tit shots.

Speaking of tits... the level of fan service in this game is borderline pathetic. Male characters and blades are given cool, sometimes monstrous designs, and yet nearly every single female character is reduced to cleavage and scraps of fabric concealing maybe a half-inch of their skin, as if all of their designs were thought of by a 13 year old hentai addict. Coupled with the fact that some of these characters look like genuine children, it's unsettling to say the least. My favorite character "truly finds herself" or whatever later in the game and that entails... a magical girl transformation which pumps her boobs like 2 sizes and leaves her in fancy panties.

Such a massive disappointment, going from a game that I genuinely loved in the beginning to a game I absolutely hate. I initially planned to play the entire trilogy, but as of now this entry has really soured my attitude on the entire franchise.

A friend I talked to called this "Babies First VN" and that absolutely is what this game is. Sonic should try to be a little more engaging with the "mystery" part of the game next time.

Despite that, I loved getting to see these characters do something for once (the heist section was great) and the gameplay sections are fun. Better than most special stages in real Sonic games. Maybe this series should just be itself and not try to be other things?

Unbelievable that this is the best game the series has put out in half a decade.