Pizza Tower

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Pizza Tower is a Platformer released on PC in 2023 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2024. This game puts players in the role of Peppino Spaghetti, a crazed chef hurtling through an odd tower filled with strange creatures and anthropomorphic foodstuffs, in order to stop it from destroying his neighboring restaurant. The story, such as it is, is told without any sort of dialogue or narration, and doesn’t make a lot of sense, which I’m sure is the point – it isn’t taking itself too seriously.

The one element of Pizza Tower that absolutely leaps off the screen is the game’s extremely expressive art style, with a very fluidly-animated 2D pixel art that seems to mix elements of the TV show Home Movies, Ren and Stimpy, and the Wario Land games, resulting in something wild and bizarre and wholly its own. This is backed by a fittingly manic soundtrack that suits the game’s fast-paced and crazed tone.

Speaking of Wario Land, I’ve seen others compare this game’s gameplay to Wario, but I feel like that comparison falls short. Yes, one of Peppino’s primary forms of attack is a shoulder charge just like Wario’s, and the game’s stages use a gimmick that after reaching the end you need to race your way back out, in a similar manner to Wario Land 5, but the comparison ends there. Suffice it to say, I don’t think Wario ever moved this fast, with Peppino’s high-speed, erratic movement, and wall-running ability seeming reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog more than Mario’s twisted alter-ego.

Unfortunately, Peppino always feels only just barely under your control, not only moving quickly, but often taking a moment to respond to your commands, sticking to walls when you might not want him to, or often blasting into the sky when the player even just slightly moved the analog stick up (you can opt to use the D-Pad instead, but this issue still persists there). It’s a shame that the control in this game is so unwieldy, because everything else is so great.

To be honest, I found Pizza Tower to be disappointing. While it’s a fun Platformer, the lack of control you feel over its protagonist makes for some really frustrating gameplay where you meant to do one thing but did another instead. With such a beautiful, unique presentation and high-energy fast-paced gameplay, it’s sad that the control issues are such an issue here, because otherwise I would be singing this game’s praises like so many others have. But as-is, while I still think it’s a good game, I don’t think it’s anywhere as good as many others have praised it for.

tl;dr – Pizza Tower is a Platformer where players take the role of a crazed chef racing his way through stages in an ominous and bizarre tower. The presentation here is absolutely phenomenal, with a truly unique and eye-catching art style. The fast-paced gameplay is appealing too… until you get your hands on it and find the controls to be pretty unwieldy. While still a good game, I feel like these control issues prevent Pizza Tower from being a great one.

Grade: B-

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