Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower is a high-energy, fast-paced 2D platformer that serves as a spiritual successor to Nintendo’s Wario Land series. Released in early 2023 and later ported to Nintendo Switch in August 2024, this indie gem has quickly garnered acclaim for its unique art style, frenetic gameplay, and creative level design.

🔥 What is Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower puts you in the flour-dusted shoes of Peppino Spaghetti, a middle-aged Italian chef whose struggling pizzeria is threatened by Pizzaface, a sentient floating pizza who plans to destroy Peppino’s restaurant with a nuclear laser atop a nearby tower. With his business and livelihood at stake, our unlikely hero embarks on a wild journey to ascend the tower and defeat the evil pizza menace.

The game features a cartoonish, high-resolution pixel art style inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants and French comics. Its visual presentation is complemented by an energetic soundtrack that perfectly matches the game’s frantic pace and zany atmosphere.

👉 Features of Pizza Tower

Unique Movement System

Peppino may look like an ordinary chef, but he possesses extraordinary agility and power. His movement arsenal includes walking, running, jumping, rolling, sliding, body slamming, grabbing and throwing enemies, and even a parry that doubles as a taunt. When Peppino runs long enough, he enters a dash state that allows him to run up walls and plow through enemies and obstacles.

Creative Level Design

The tower serves as the game’s hub world, featuring five floors with four levels and a boss each. Every level introduces unique themes and game mechanics – from a cemetery with surfable corpses to a Five Nights at Freddy’s homage complete with jump scares. Power-ups throughout levels transform Peppino’s abilities, such as knight armor or guns, adding variety to gameplay.

Pizza Time Mechanic

Drawing inspiration from Wario Land 4, each level culminates with the destruction of a pillar (named John), triggering “Pizza Time” – a frantic countdown where players must race back to the level entrance before Pizzaface catches them. This mechanic adds tension and excitement, especially with its anxiety-inducing siren-like music that intensifies as the timer nears zero.

Gameplay

Pizza Tower’s gameplay revolves around exploration, movement mastery, and score attack. While simply completing levels is accessible to most players, the game offers deeper challenges for those seeking mastery.

Each level contains various collectibles and secrets: pizza topping creatures (toppins) that unlock boss fights, hidden treasures locked behind doors requiring you to find a janitor, and three secret rooms that provide additional points. Performance is graded with letters, with the coveted P-rank requiring exceptional skill – finding all secrets, collecting the treasure, completing a second lap, and maintaining an uninterrupted combo.

The combo system rewards continuous action, as defeating enemies initiates a seven-second combo timer that must be maintained by defeating more enemies and collecting items. This encourages speed and efficiency, making Pizza Tower feel like a high-octane speedrunning experience when played at its highest level.

Pros and Cons

✔️ Pros

• Incredibly satisfying, creative, and addictive platforming gameplay
• Distinctive and expressive animation style with fluid character movements
• Varied level design with unique themes and mechanics for each stage
• Deep movement system that rewards skill and mastery
• Excellent soundtrack that perfectly complements the frantic gameplay
• Challenging boss fights that test your abilities in creative ways

❌ Cons

• Punishing difficulty in some sections, particularly during Pizza Time sequences
• No traditional difficulty settings for less experienced players
• Some power-ups and mechanics appear only briefly in specific levels
• The frantic pace might be overwhelming for players who prefer more methodical platformers

Pizza Tower stands as a testament to what passionate indie developers can achieve, delivering a platforming experience that rivals and sometimes surpasses the games that inspired it. Whether you’re a casual player looking for a unique adventure or a hardcore completionist aiming for P-ranks, Pizza Tower offers a deliciously chaotic experience that’s hard to put down.