Variety is the spice of life and whilst this game concentrates on one seasoning executed very well it never forgets that.
Pepper Grinder see’s you control the drill totting Pepper, burrowing through dirt, under the water, between lava and crumbling ice.
Many of the platforming level archetypes are here but due to the rapid drilling versus precision platforming Pepper Grinder finds a way for this classic imagery to feel original in many places.
Holding the trigger on your controller of choice has you bury deep into dirt with constant momentum, with movement and turning circles reminiscent of Ecco the Dolphin, one of the game’s many inspirations.
It is key that any game feels good in the hand and this genre can live or die on it, thankfully the feeling of flow you find yourself in drilling, flying through the air into other bits of ground, avoiding obstacles and using varying devices or gimmicks is exactly where you want it to be.
Occasionally the speed can feel frantic, the turning circles may not feel tight enough, the distance you jump may seem too much but rarely does it ever feel like it’s anything but a mistake of yours and the game is very forgiving with its checkpointing.
A small area where the fault does not feel like it is on the player is the questionable hitboxes of enemies. Nearly all of the Narlings, the small narwhal-goblin hybrid type enemies are splatted in a single hit, but they occasionally wield equipment to halt your progress. Expected and not unwanted but the consistency of who hits first and where the enemies are vulnerable doesn’t always seem to watch and that perfect flow state hitting a brick wall is an irritation this game would be better for without.
Speaking of enemies, the bosses of Pepper Grinder are fun and varied. A lot of pattern remembering as expected but diverse in style, looks and set up with the difficulty of them rising to a real peak for the final encounter.
The only disappointment is that there aren't many, an issue the game has as a whole.
I find it difficult to complain about a game being short, especially when it is so tight.
Each stage in Pepper Grinder brings new and interesting ideas, a strength of variety that the best Nintendo games have and something I loved about last year’s Pizza Tower.
Being left wanting more is a good thing, but I can’t help but feel like this game is one world and a handful of stages too short.
Pepper Grinder does however give you a reason to go back. Each level has five hidden skull coins, a staple of any platformer and with these you can unlock some palette swaps and a hidden level in each world which are typically some of the more fun and gimmick heavy driven stages in the game.
The treasure you collect, this game’s equivalent to Sonic’s rings and the like do not help you survive but allow you to buy stickers.
Stickers and sticker pages are Pepper Grinder’s fun take on a 2D photo mode but act like the sticker books you had as a kid, just with more variety, less permanence and glue-mark based mess.
The annoyance here though is you unlock stickers with coins using a gacha machine and trying to fill the pages feels too time consuming and at time of writing I don’t believe there’s a trick to stop getting repeats outside of trying again and again.
The stickers give you a reason to return to levels to grind treasure but as each stage is finished a time-attack is unlocked and for this podium of prizes additional special stickers and music tracks are obtained. The time-trials are where the game truly becomes “hardcore”, and this is one title I cannot wait to see in the hands of experienced speed-runners.
I mentioned music tracks and Pepper Grinder’s OST composed by XeeCee is one of its highlights. The tracks may not be as catchy as some classics but the variety from mad drum and bass to more lo-fi tracks depending on the stage are welcome and something I find myself wanting to go back to.
Pepper Grinder is a fun and sometimes furious, drilling platforming experience with interesting ideas and fun mechanics spread throughout. To spoil what the game brings in variety would spoil it but as well as stage variety Pepper gets to do a little more than you’d expect a drill normally would - at points making me grin from ear to ear as I realise what is happening.
A little too short with some minor annoyances in hitboxes and the curse of gacha but otherwise an early contender for GOTY and an easy recommendation.
One that may only slide down the mental list of good games this year because it is so brief and hasn’t quite changed the game or blown me away the way the previously mentioned Pizza Tower did. It comes close though, I’ll take a dash of pepper with my pizza - thank you very much!
Pepper Grinder see’s you control the drill totting Pepper, burrowing through dirt, under the water, between lava and crumbling ice.
Many of the platforming level archetypes are here but due to the rapid drilling versus precision platforming Pepper Grinder finds a way for this classic imagery to feel original in many places.
Holding the trigger on your controller of choice has you bury deep into dirt with constant momentum, with movement and turning circles reminiscent of Ecco the Dolphin, one of the game’s many inspirations.
It is key that any game feels good in the hand and this genre can live or die on it, thankfully the feeling of flow you find yourself in drilling, flying through the air into other bits of ground, avoiding obstacles and using varying devices or gimmicks is exactly where you want it to be.
Occasionally the speed can feel frantic, the turning circles may not feel tight enough, the distance you jump may seem too much but rarely does it ever feel like it’s anything but a mistake of yours and the game is very forgiving with its checkpointing.
A small area where the fault does not feel like it is on the player is the questionable hitboxes of enemies. Nearly all of the Narlings, the small narwhal-goblin hybrid type enemies are splatted in a single hit, but they occasionally wield equipment to halt your progress. Expected and not unwanted but the consistency of who hits first and where the enemies are vulnerable doesn’t always seem to watch and that perfect flow state hitting a brick wall is an irritation this game would be better for without.
Speaking of enemies, the bosses of Pepper Grinder are fun and varied. A lot of pattern remembering as expected but diverse in style, looks and set up with the difficulty of them rising to a real peak for the final encounter.
The only disappointment is that there aren't many, an issue the game has as a whole.
I find it difficult to complain about a game being short, especially when it is so tight.
Each stage in Pepper Grinder brings new and interesting ideas, a strength of variety that the best Nintendo games have and something I loved about last year’s Pizza Tower.
Being left wanting more is a good thing, but I can’t help but feel like this game is one world and a handful of stages too short.
Pepper Grinder does however give you a reason to go back. Each level has five hidden skull coins, a staple of any platformer and with these you can unlock some palette swaps and a hidden level in each world which are typically some of the more fun and gimmick heavy driven stages in the game.
The treasure you collect, this game’s equivalent to Sonic’s rings and the like do not help you survive but allow you to buy stickers.
Stickers and sticker pages are Pepper Grinder’s fun take on a 2D photo mode but act like the sticker books you had as a kid, just with more variety, less permanence and glue-mark based mess.
The annoyance here though is you unlock stickers with coins using a gacha machine and trying to fill the pages feels too time consuming and at time of writing I don’t believe there’s a trick to stop getting repeats outside of trying again and again.
The stickers give you a reason to return to levels to grind treasure but as each stage is finished a time-attack is unlocked and for this podium of prizes additional special stickers and music tracks are obtained. The time-trials are where the game truly becomes “hardcore”, and this is one title I cannot wait to see in the hands of experienced speed-runners.
I mentioned music tracks and Pepper Grinder’s OST composed by XeeCee is one of its highlights. The tracks may not be as catchy as some classics but the variety from mad drum and bass to more lo-fi tracks depending on the stage are welcome and something I find myself wanting to go back to.
Pepper Grinder is a fun and sometimes furious, drilling platforming experience with interesting ideas and fun mechanics spread throughout. To spoil what the game brings in variety would spoil it but as well as stage variety Pepper gets to do a little more than you’d expect a drill normally would - at points making me grin from ear to ear as I realise what is happening.
A little too short with some minor annoyances in hitboxes and the curse of gacha but otherwise an early contender for GOTY and an easy recommendation.
One that may only slide down the mental list of good games this year because it is so brief and hasn’t quite changed the game or blown me away the way the previously mentioned Pizza Tower did. It comes close though, I’ll take a dash of pepper with my pizza - thank you very much!