Pepper Grinder

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Pepper Grinder is a Platformer released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game puts players in the role of the titular Pepper, a woman who gets shipwrecked in a strange land, and soon after comes into possession of the titular Grinder, a powerful handheld drill device. Using this, she hunts for treasure and takes out enemies while speeding through the game’s levels.

The way you move through this game is probably the most interesting thing about it, with players easily drilling through soft dirt like a submarine being propelled through water, bursting above the surface like a dolphin jumping into the sky. It’s gameplay that is both highly visceral and also extremely unwieldy, giving the impression that you’re only just barely in control. And as the game’s levels increasingly start to fill up with hazards you need to avoid, wrangling precise control out of this chaos becomes a growing challenge that not everyone will appreciate.

As I played the game, I was reminded of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which featured one power-up ability that worked similarly to this game’s central mechanic, but didn’t feel quite so out-of-control. It seems a bit odd to me that a game that included this as one of its multiple features seemed in some ways to utilize it better than this game, which is built entirely around the mechanic.

That said, there is some creative puzzle design here, and the game endeavors to keep giving players enough variety to keep things interesting throughout the game’s 4-5 hour play time.

The presentation here is quite good, with some colorful, expressive 2D visuals with some good animation that helps to sell the game’s fluid controls. That said, I’m more mixed on the soundtrack, which often seems unusually laid-back and relaxed given the bombastic action of the gameplay.

Overall, I liked Pepper Grinder, but I didn’t love it. As I noted above, this game’s visceral gameplay feels great in the moment, but it’s not so great when you’re careening near danger and are struggling to keep yourself headed the direction you want to go. Because of this, I think this is a game that some players will love and others will hate. Still, it’s unique enough that it may be worth giving a try.

tl;dr – Pepper Grinder is a Platformer that puts players in the role of a woman with a powerful drill. This core mechanic makes for some delightfully visceral gameplay, but it’s also unfortunately pretty unwieldy in ways that can be frustrating. The result is a game that won’t be for everyone, but those who enjoy it will find its better qualities to be delightful.

Grade: B-

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