It's always neat to get a game that comes up with a neat movement mechanic and just devotes a whole game to it. In Pepper Grinder you play as a cyan haired girl named Pepper and you traverse various themed levels with a drill. It's similar to when you would go through the ground or hidden spaces in a level in Yoshi's Island but with a whole game built around it. Also the digging is the primary mechanic and it's very fluid, fast, and requires some precision. It actually take a bit to get good at moving around and can be an adjustment knowing how you'll arc through the air or when to boost your speed. It's a lot of fun.
The premise is pretty simple. Pepper washes ashore some island and some magenta hair lady and her monster minions like loot her and run away. You pursue them across four worlds that kinda felt generic-ish with an island, a volcanic region, and a snow area. The final area is a bit more unique though.
Also, despite some kinda bland theming, it's not really much to think about when actually playing the game. Nearly every level is designed to make use of the incredible digging mechanic and some of them can really flow well. Levels can be beat fairly quickly and even can be replayed in a time attack mode.
There's a slight misstep here though I feel like. With the core digging mechanic being the highlight of the game and some levels having really nice flow, I can't help but feel like they then spit in their own face by having each level have collectables. Each non-boss level has five big coins to collect and they're almost always hidden in plain sight and if you stop on each screen to look they're pretty easily identifiable hiding spots. That's the trick though. Stopping. When a game has such good flow to then make you STOP and check every inch of the screen before moving on totally broke up the vibe for me. It's like my whole issue with Sonic games as a premise. Gotta go fast doesn't mesh with stop and look around lol.
It's bad for me in particular having a compulsion to want to 100% a level before moving on. I got all the coins in the first couple worlds but found myself getting more frustrated because it just felt bad to keep stopping and double checking. After missing one coin at the end of a level toward the end of world 2 I just said "fuck it" and just played each level after to get tot the end. Lemme tell ya, for me, this is when it got real good. No more worrying about what I'm missing, just tearing through a level and enjoying the thrill of the core mechanic and how it flows with the level design.
That's not to say there's no reason to do collectables though. Contrary to some platformers, the big coins you collect through a level actually have a purpose. Each world has a hidden level you unlock by going to a shop and purchasing a key for it for 10 big coins. Pretty neat, I think.
In the shop, as well as the key, there are sticker pages to buy for coins and I'm just now realizing how to access them in the map screen. Neat thing for people who like that stuff. You can also use the big coins to buy different hairs or hats for Pepper but I never bothered because I like her default look. The shop also contains two gacha machines you use the miscellaneous treasure you pick up through levels to buy. One of them dispenses the stickers and the other gives you an additional temporary hit. You can add up to four to double your health which can help big time on troublesome levels or a tough boss.
Boss fights in this are pretty cool too. Most of them are a big spectacle monster you fight in a large space that makes use of the whole screen and has diggable environments so you can use the drill to attack and defeat the enemy. I found them all to be pretty unique and fun to go through. I think the difficulty spikes for the third boss but it's also my favorite one and the most interesting conceptually.
SO yeah. Pepper Grinder is a video game ass video game. It's short but knows what it's about and does it well. There were some choices with collectables that turned me off but I learned to ignore them and if anything it'll just add to replay value down the line. That and some minor bugs aside, this is a very solid action platformer. Short, cheap, and fun. Perfect thing to kill an afternoon with if you just casually play through it. Definitely recommend to platformer fans or anyone looking to play with a neat way to move around a game. Just keep that collectable stuff in mind if you're the same way I am.
The premise is pretty simple. Pepper washes ashore some island and some magenta hair lady and her monster minions like loot her and run away. You pursue them across four worlds that kinda felt generic-ish with an island, a volcanic region, and a snow area. The final area is a bit more unique though.
Also, despite some kinda bland theming, it's not really much to think about when actually playing the game. Nearly every level is designed to make use of the incredible digging mechanic and some of them can really flow well. Levels can be beat fairly quickly and even can be replayed in a time attack mode.
There's a slight misstep here though I feel like. With the core digging mechanic being the highlight of the game and some levels having really nice flow, I can't help but feel like they then spit in their own face by having each level have collectables. Each non-boss level has five big coins to collect and they're almost always hidden in plain sight and if you stop on each screen to look they're pretty easily identifiable hiding spots. That's the trick though. Stopping. When a game has such good flow to then make you STOP and check every inch of the screen before moving on totally broke up the vibe for me. It's like my whole issue with Sonic games as a premise. Gotta go fast doesn't mesh with stop and look around lol.
It's bad for me in particular having a compulsion to want to 100% a level before moving on. I got all the coins in the first couple worlds but found myself getting more frustrated because it just felt bad to keep stopping and double checking. After missing one coin at the end of a level toward the end of world 2 I just said "fuck it" and just played each level after to get tot the end. Lemme tell ya, for me, this is when it got real good. No more worrying about what I'm missing, just tearing through a level and enjoying the thrill of the core mechanic and how it flows with the level design.
That's not to say there's no reason to do collectables though. Contrary to some platformers, the big coins you collect through a level actually have a purpose. Each world has a hidden level you unlock by going to a shop and purchasing a key for it for 10 big coins. Pretty neat, I think.
In the shop, as well as the key, there are sticker pages to buy for coins and I'm just now realizing how to access them in the map screen. Neat thing for people who like that stuff. You can also use the big coins to buy different hairs or hats for Pepper but I never bothered because I like her default look. The shop also contains two gacha machines you use the miscellaneous treasure you pick up through levels to buy. One of them dispenses the stickers and the other gives you an additional temporary hit. You can add up to four to double your health which can help big time on troublesome levels or a tough boss.
Boss fights in this are pretty cool too. Most of them are a big spectacle monster you fight in a large space that makes use of the whole screen and has diggable environments so you can use the drill to attack and defeat the enemy. I found them all to be pretty unique and fun to go through. I think the difficulty spikes for the third boss but it's also my favorite one and the most interesting conceptually.
SO yeah. Pepper Grinder is a video game ass video game. It's short but knows what it's about and does it well. There were some choices with collectables that turned me off but I learned to ignore them and if anything it'll just add to replay value down the line. That and some minor bugs aside, this is a very solid action platformer. Short, cheap, and fun. Perfect thing to kill an afternoon with if you just casually play through it. Definitely recommend to platformer fans or anyone looking to play with a neat way to move around a game. Just keep that collectable stuff in mind if you're the same way I am.