The world of indie games is one that is an assortment of ideas, be it unique ideas that never would make it past an elevator pitch, all the way up to tried and true tested gameplay ideas given a new life. These revamped ideas are commonly called spiritual successors, aiming to recapture a sort of game franchise that is either dead or has gone too far from its original roots. Bug Fables is the spiritual successor to Paper Mario, more specifically the first two games, being one of the more successful and celebrated spiritual successors. More commonly, these spiritual successors end up falling behind those they are trying to imitate, like Yooka-Laylee not matching the quality of Banjo-Kazooie games, or Mighty Number 9 being inferior to 90% of other games, let alone the Mega Man games. However, when a spiritual successor surpasses its inspiration, that’s a call for a celebration, and that lucky victor today is Pizza Tower, the spiritual successor of Wario Land. It was just released on January 26, 2023, from developer Tour De Pizza, led by McPig, and yet it’s already looking like it’ll be a strong game-of-the-year contender.
The game stars the long-lost Mario brother, Italian chef Peppino Spaghetti. His restaurant, Peppino’s Pizza, is on its last legs as he is swamped with bills and loans. More pressing however is that a flying pizza monster named Pizza Face has entered his establishment, saying that he has a laser poised to destroy Peppino Pizza on top of his tower. Not wanting yet another thing to possibly destroy his restaurant, Peppino races out after him toward the tower to destroy it.
Right away, the most unique thing about this game is the art style. You could tell someone that each frame of this game was animated on Microsoft Paint and they would believe you. Despite how it sounds, it’s actually a compliment. The game is fast-paced, frantic, goofy, and a riot to laugh at, be it through visual gags or at how chaotic everything can be. As such, the art style looks like it came right out of Ren and Stimpy by way of Courage The Cowardly Dog fits naturally. Peppino’s expressions of him being so woefully startled by everything happening around him with his in-game sprite are compounded thanks to the addition of a TV in the top right corner. These further amplify how scared and nervous Peppino is throughout the game, with each transformation or item he gets being reflected by him either interacting with it in some way, from him wanting to throw away a bomb as soon as possible, to grinning with sadistic glee as you start a combo of killing enemies.
The music is also a standout, with the tracks fitting the levels and worlds you’re in. We get some iconic tunes like the ominous and eerie sounds as Peppino first steps into the tower, the upbeat remix of Funiculì, Funiculà as you learn how to play in the tutorial, the mechanical March of instruments are you progress through a factory in Peppibot Factory, the heart-pounding songs that play during all the different bosses, this game nails songs down to a science. Nowhere is this more prominent than this game’s most iconic song, “It’s Pizza Time”, playing as you scramble back through the level to get back to the door to safety. You are able to feel like these songs were created specifically for these levels and parts of levels. The sound effects are just as satisfying to hear. From the whistling from impressing the combo meter by getting a high streak, to the impact of running into enemies at top speed as you skid across the ground, they all make this game world feel alive.
But yeah, this is a video game. It excelled in visuals and music, sure. But how good is the gameplay? Simply put; better than most of the triple-A stuff out on the market. Using Wario Land 4 as a baseplate, Pizza Tower has you traverse across levels that are within the tower, where you must find 5 Toppins trapped in cages on each level, knock down the pillar at the end of the level called John Pillar, and race back to the start. With each freed Toppin, you get $10 to use to pay for boss gates. Each boss challenges you on everything you learned in the game so far, and in the case of one boss, gives you a new gameplay mechanic to quickly learn and adapt to.
The name of the game here is speed…ok, it’s actually Pizza Tower, but speed is still very important. These levels were built for speed running through while collecting everything you can. Your first run is usually just trying to find out where everything is, grappling with the unique transformations Peppino has to go through, and so on. One level called Golf will just be a golf game you have to play by running into the ball at top speed, while another has you swapping to a character duo with their own unique gameplay style after getting stuck in jail in The Pig City. When you first walk through those doors to the next level, you’re not going to know just what’s going to happen. You’re adapting to the game with each level and growing and becoming more confident in your movements with each retry to get a higher ranking. Your moves also help you run through these levels for these ranks, with the game encouraging you to dash as much as you can, where if you reach higher speeds, you can literally run down most of your enemies, with them being too scared to fight. You’re rewarded for going fast and reaching crazy speeds, letting you see just where else you can get away with running like a lunatic.
Oh yeah, the rankings; they’re a big part of Pizza Tower’s identity. While other platforming games are ok with you just beating them and getting any secrets you find in their levels, Pizza Tower has a ranking system determined by score. If you manage to find enough secrets, kill enough enemies and get to the goal on time, you’ll get an A rank, which sounds nice, but it can be better. Points come from discovering secrets, getting Toppins, combo killing enemies, and two other ways; getting the secret ingredient of the level, and doing a lap 2. If you manage to find the janitor Gerome and lead him to the staff-only door, you’ll get that level’s hidden treasure, a secret ingredient. If you need even more points, you have the option of going through a pizza portal and rerunning the entire trek back to the start again, with respawned items and enemies to collect and kill for even more points. Doing all of this, alongside getting enough points to raise the score high enough, will net you an S rank. That’s good, but no P rank.
Now, this is where that combo meter comes in. If you kill an enemy, a timer will appear under the TV and start timing your combo. This combo increases every time an enemy gets beaten by you. You can extend the timer by collecting ingredients and clocks, getting any of the Toppins and secret ingredients, and of course, destroying enemies blocking your path. If it empties before you can refill it, the combo ends. This is usually just for aesthetic purposes, but if you want a P rank, you need to get all the Toppins, get Gerome, and lead him to the secret ingredient so he can unlock the door for you, find all three secret areas in the level, and go through the pizza portal and complete lap 2. This definitely sounds like a tall order, and there is one simple reason; it is. The game is asking for your perfect gameplay, where even getting hit once will cut your combo time in half. With all the intense movement options you have, and how speedy you can go, it can be fun trying to push this game as far as it can go to see how your skill has improved since starting.
That being said, do not, and this must be repeated for emphasis, do not go into this game and levels looking for the P ranks. The game discourages this by making it so that the second-lap pizza portals only pop in after beating a level one or proving you know what you’re doing by racing through the tutorial area. It wants you to actually go in and get a feel for each level first before trying to master it. These P ranks are no joke, and thankfully don’t count for any real progression; they’re just for showing off your mastery. If you can’t get them or don’t feel like they’re worth it, don’t feel too bad. That said, as someone who has fully completed the game and P ranked every stage and have the hours in Pizza Tower to prove it, it’s worth it to at least try your luck.
Some stages push the idea of perfection a bit too far, but most stages are pretty fun to try and P-rank. Try P-ranking any of the levels on the first floor to get a feel for it and see if you want to try it for the other levels. Outside of that, some of the most fun levels that were there to P-rank was Fastfood Saloon with it already being built around racing to the goal to get Toppins and to get through gates buttons opened up, and Crust Cove, with you having to manage rolling around in a barrel and jumping to get to the end on time. While some folks will love P-ranking everything after knowing this game inside out, it’s just as valid to just love this game for just how insane and crafty it can be with its visuals, level design, sound design, and gameplay.
Honestly, the reason why this review is mostly just talking about how fun it is to play in different ways is that there really isn’t much to criticize about it. The worst that can be said about it during a casual playthrough is that the World 2 boss with the gun mechanic wasn’t properly introduced at a level up to that point. Gameplay-wise, everything is tightly woven together…save for one mechanic; the throwing enemies up mechanic. It doesn’t throw enemies straight up from where Peppino is, but from where they are, that being right in front of Peppino. It’s a bit jarring at first, and it would be a lie to say that some throws weren’t messed up because of this, but it’s nothing you can’t adapt to.
Aside from that, P-ranking a couple of levels, like Gnome Forest where you must use a different character for the majority of the level while dealing with teleporting enemies that ignore your high speeds to spawn on top of you alongside long gaps between chances to refill your combo meter, and Pizza Scare, where you must keep certain ghosts alive to kill them during the return trip, can make it feel like the game is just messing with you.
Aside from them, that’s really it in terms of critiques and flaws. Really, this game pretty much is just a master of the 2D platforming genre rarely seen. It even makes veterans of the genre like Mario and Sonic blush with shame. It’s not perfect, as previously stated, and of course, if you are not a 2D platforming guy, this game just won’t be for you. However, if you’re in the mood for a zany and cartoonish platformer or a tough-as-nails game that will test your everything to perfect, compliments have to be given to the chef here. It was only just released in January, but it won’t be a surprise if this game was at least within the top 3 for Game of the Year.
