A fantastic game, a wonderful time despite me taking forever to finish it.
I love how silly this game is. Peppino is funny, the levels are funny, the other characters are funny, and doing things like shooting animatronics in the face with a shotgun is hilarious. I had such joy and whimsy going through each level in this game.
Speaking of the levels, the gameplay in this game is so fun. It's basically Sonic meets Wario Land and it's a blast. It was a bit hard learning (and remembering) all the moves you could do in the game, but after getting a feel for all of them traversing the "Pizza Tower" was a blast. I like all the levels having unique gimmicks and the bosses were fun and challenging. I still haven't gotten every treasure, but I definitely plan on doing so (maybe even the secrets as well).
The music is also fantastic. I especially love the final boss theme(s). Although, really my one main complaint is that I really really wish that final boss that checkpoints. It made playing through it all over again a pain.
What else is there to say? Wonderful game. That's it.

A game that's easy to admire, but (imo) not very fun to play. I dig the madcap 1990s-style energy of it all. The influence of Earthworm Jim and cartoon shows from that era is clearly on display and it's nothing if not distinctive.

But I'm just not enjoying my time with it. There's something about the core platforming that doesn't jive with me. It's a blisteringly fast-paced game and meant to be played as such, but I'm not particularly skilled at it, and so the start-stop nature of Pizza Tower's traversal and the constant slamming into walls quickly became irritating. The other thing that bugs me is that every level climaxes with an escape run, where you're required to hightail it all the way back to where you started while a timer counts down to zero. If you don't reach that beginning portal in time, you have to do the level all over again. It's meant to be exhilarating, but just comes off as stressful and annoying more than anything. I often found myself dreading going through a level because I knew the worst part was waiting for me at the end.

So yeah, I hate hating on this game, because it's mechanically tight, and the level design is always inventive and introducing level-specific gimmicks, and the soundtrack has some REAL bangers. This could very well be one of those 'It's not you, it's me' situations, where the game isn't at fault and it's just my own personal preference that's preventing me from having a good time. But life's too short to play something you aren't enjoying and I've got a big ass backlog.

Pizza Tower was dropped after beating the second boss and unlocking the third floor. I will not be returning to it.