It takes a few goes to get used to the runaway-train feeling of controlling the arm-mounted drill in this game, but when you feel like you’ve gained some control and are cutting perfect lines through rock it feels oh so good. It never feels like you fully gain mastery of the drill, but that is to the game’s strength; it feels like you’re clinging onto the drill by the seat of your pants and it’s only when your feet are back on solid ground that you’re able to breath again.
The other mechanics introduced throughout the game are a mixed bag: the gun and mech sections are a (literal) blast and are used sparingly enough that they remain a fun novelty. On the other hand, the grappling hook swinging never felt precise enough and contributed to about half my deaths in the game. The other half came at the hands of each of the world’s bosses. Whilst the unwieldy drill traversal made the platforming sections tense but exciting, they made the boss battles frustrating; the final boss in particular is a specific breed of bastard. The one thing I didn’t engage with was the shop: during each level you’ll amass a healthy supply of gems and gold coins that you can use to buy stickers, alternate clothing/hair colours, and keys to unlock bonus levels (one per world). I may go back in future and try and collect ‘em all, but felt no motivation to do so during my time playing Pepper Grinder.

Overall, I found it to be a bit of a messy game with a really interesting traversal mechanism that was let down with some finicky controls and uneven difficult spikes across its boss battles.

I really wanted to love this game. It had an interesting premise, beautiful visuals, and some really enjoyable platforming sections that reminded me of the latest Prince of Persia game. Unfortunately, the combat arenas become tedious; it's very easy to get soft locked into an unavoidable series of attacks until you die over and over again. Along with the frustrating combat, there were far too many instant kill environmental hazards with terribly vague hit boxes and a reliance on lengthy autoscrolling sections around the boss battles that just became a chore. I felt I had to see it through to the end to see how the story concluded, which – despite having some touching moments throughout – led to quite a weak conclusion.