A wise, concentrated blast of drill platforming glory.
Pepper Grinder is a recreation that matches into that particular class of Nintendo console indie the place it closely evokes an outdated Nintendo recreation, aside from as soon as it isn’t simply Metroid or Mario. This time it’s Drill Dozer, a Recreation Freak-developed Recreation Boy Advance recreation, however whereas that serves as an excellent shorthand for Pepper Grinder’s setup, the video games themselves largely simply share drills and a 2D perspective in frequent. Pepper Grinder is a level-based side-scroller the place you dance throughout the display screen driving your drill by way of the bottom in enemies in a borderline balletic trend.
Pepper Grinder makes it simple to sink into, as you dig your drill into the bottom and wipe out enemies, acquire cash, and search out particular pirate cash nestled in each degree. Whereas the general expertise solely lasts a couple of hours, the sport is persistently ingenious, tossing out new twists and additions to the drilling gameplay, normally within the type of attaching your drill to a automobile or merchandise. Romping by way of the primary path throughout 4 worlds is comparatively easy, however much more enjoyable will be had participating in some speedrunning or scouring for the pirate cash in ranges. These particular cash can unlock different ranges which might be normally a bit more durable than the norm.
The particular sauce of Pepper Grinder is the model. Visuals and music mix into a particular look that gels with the gameplay completely. The pixel artwork is a bit grungy and squiggly in a method that makes the drill motion look nearly as good because it feels. Motion is joyful, particularly as you begin to make use of boosts and grapples and all types of mechanical elaborations.
Whereas no issue setting exists, there’s sufficient problem in right here to not be a breeze, however sufficient assist in case you’re having hassle. A few of the bosses are fairly difficult, however in case you get caught, you need to use in-game foreign money to purchase extra well being factors. Even nonetheless, the bosses usually fall into the model of it’s important to keep away from them for some time and look ahead to a really small opening to assault them. Typically that opening isn’t clear at first and also you might need to attend for lots of the identical assault patterns to occur earlier than what to do. It’s simply personally not my favourite sort of boss battle model. Moreover, I ran right into a bothersome glitch that made the ultimate boss a bear, however to the developer’s credit score, a repair is on the way in which (out on Steam however as a result of patch pipeline on Change, it isn’t reside as of writing although it must be reside round launch).
For those who’re into distinctive and inventive takes on platforming, Pepper Grinder is effectively price leaping (or relatively, drilling) into. I’m not the most important fan of the boss fights (particularly the one which at the moment glitches out), however general, this can be a good grind from begin to end. I’d like to see extra takes on drill-based platforming alongside these strains, although the tight bundle developer Ahr Ech has put collectively is a concentrated blast of enjoyable.