Pizza Tower: A full course indie meal.

A rising topic of games in the past 15-ish years is the rise of independent studios making a name for themselves in the industry, and even going up against the best of the absolute best. Independent studios are studios that are not owned by any of the major companies like Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve that create quality titles for the fans as a whole, usually recreating game genres that major studios don't seem to do anymore. But the game I want to talk about here is a more recent game that came out only a year ago: Pizza Tower. Pizza Tower is a spiritual successor to the Wario Land games that Nintendo made many years ago that they just stopped making, but as far as spiritual successors go, Pizza Tower inherits it perfectly thanks to its developer studio Tour De Pizza.

The story for Pizza Tower is pretty simple. A restaurant owner named Peppino needs to pay off his bill before his restaurant gets destroyed by the deadly Pizza Tower. He must traverse the dangerous building and make sure to not destroy his restaurant while facing dangerous bosses along the way, like the bell pepper bully, Pepperman, a glob of cheese known as the Vigalantie, or even Peppino’s archenemy, The Noise (you can guess what he’s based off of). There are other powerful enemies found later in the game, but I want to keep that a secret as to not ruin the surprise.

The gameplay plays exactly what it’s based on, the old Wario Land games, down to the fact you spend half the level getting to the end, and the other half going back to the start with a timer. Run, Dash, sprint, and even destroy countless enemies in your way to collect the imprisoned pizza ingredients to earn money, which can be used to unlock the bosses and evidently, more levels for you to speed through. Speeding back to the start of the levels were usually the tough parts for me as some of the speed controls were weird, but it was learning curve i had to go through.

The level design in this game is superb with no two levels sharing the same theme. One of these themes could be a golf course, while another can be aliens in space, and another could even be a giant love letter to vampire media like Dracula and Castlevania. Each world has its fair share of powerups, like a sausage you can ride on like a horse, or even a swap off to fellow chef Gustavo and his rat buddy. There's so much gameplay variety within this game, it’s even amazing it came to fruition in the first place. There are some later worlds I did not enjoy, like War, but I didn’t let that distract me from the full experience of the game

The sound design with its OST is also top-shelf quality as well with each level having different themes that make it stand out from the others. But the thing that gets me most is the fact that the later half of the levels use the same soundtrack, and no matter how many times I hear it, it works perfectly with the rush of trying to get back to the start before a giant pizza eats you via Pizza Time.

The art here is pretty inspiring. Instead of using those hyper-realistic graphics alot of games have been known for, Pizza Tower takes its art style after 90’s cartoons and a dash of the Wario Land style to create something truly marvelous. It’s hyper, it’s expressive, and it’s goofy enough that you can have fun with the game, no matter your skill level. And it was very easy on the eyes, which made for an enjoyable experience.

Overall, Pizza Tower is a really great example of respecting the games of the past while creating it’s own take on the genre at hand. It’s quirky, its whimsical, and its fun in more ways then one. It’s very well worth the money on Steam and it’s coming soon for the Nintendo Switch next year, if you feel like playing it on the go without a steam deck. ​

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9/10