Pizza Tower seems to follow in the footsteps of a very popular Nintendo series. Even though it doesn’t want to, it is reminiscent of Wario Land. But not without being innovative for itself. This mixture already makes it a real insider tip on Steam for many players.
Maybe you remember the old Wario Land games? This Nintendo series about Mario’s greedy cousin was a hit on the Gameboy. The last title, Wario Land: Shake It! was released on the Nintendo Wii 15 years ago. Now, the developers of Tour De Pizza launched a game that revives the spirit of this series at its core.
The Pizza Tower game doesn’t want to be Wario Land but feels like it
With their debut game Pizza Tower, the developers get off to a really good start and score double points: Not only do they deliver a well-rounded game, but they also satisfy the need of many fans to play a new game in the style of Wario Land. The 2D pizza platformer does indeed have the fast pace and madness that we know from the Nintendo series. And the protagonist is also very reminiscent of Mario’s cousin Wario in his appearance, attacks, and dynamic movement. Impressive and nostalgic at the same time is also the hand-drawn graphics, including the animations. This implementation was also very inspired by games like Earthworm Jim from the 90s.
Even the protagonist is a true Italian
In the Pizza Tower game, you’ll take on the role of Peppino Spaghetti, a crazy pizza maker. You have many abilities, such as dashing, charging, and super jumping. Your task is to fight your way up from floor to floor in a tower, save Toppins, find keys, and try to get as many points as possible. One look at the trailer below, and you’ll immediately feel the old Wario Land vibes again:
Climb the Pizza Tower even faster with these 6 tips & tricks
The game teaches you the basic mechanics at a tutorial level. However, we would like to go into more detail about some aspects that, in our opinion, could need some more clarity.
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Health
Peppino does not have a health bar. He does take damage and can also fall into an abyss. However, he does not die as a result but is merely reset to the position and receives a score penalty. This game mechanic, which focuses on scoring, also existed in Wario Land 3, for example.
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Effective Scoring & Combo
Besides the fairly relaxed option of simply completing levels, the real attraction of the game is, of course, to achieve the highest possible score. Speedrunning and scoring determine at the end which rank you have achieved. This rank is shown in the upper left corner to the right of the score. It is best to never stop moving and stay in the swing. Defeat enemies, pick up items, and break stuff. In doing so, it will keep increasing your combo meter and give you considerable points.
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Transformations
When you pick up certain objects, touch dangers or interact with certain enemies, you trigger various transformations in Peppino. These temporarily affect the abilities and also controls of your protagonist. For example, your character will turn into a ball when kicked by a goblin or into a knight after picking up a knight’s sword. Keep that in mind, and you’ll be able to keep increasing your high score with more momentum.
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Find secrets, Toppins and Geromes
Just as a pizza can be richly topped with numerous ingredients, Pizza Tower is filled to the brim with different courses and hidden lucrative secrets. Search and find hidden paths or fake walls that you can break into to get to secret places and earn bonus points. On the floors, you have to find several small food types and free them from cages. For each rescued Toppin, you get money at the end of the level. You have to pay Mr. Stick to open the door to the boss on each respective floor. Also, try to find Gerome the janitor, in the levels. He will follow you just like the Toppins, and you have to let him unlock the Tower Secret Treasure door to get to the tower loot of the level.
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It’s Pizza Time!
After destroying the big dreary Pillar John, you have to try to run back to the level entrance as fast as possible. Pizza Time has begun! On your way back, the level structures will change, making it more difficult for you. Some previously greyed-out blocks are now solid, and all enemies did respawn. In this phase, you slowly lose points, but meanwhile, you can collect bell and clock objects to get new points. Each second will cost you 5 points, so hurry up! After the time is up, Pizzaface will chase you, slowly getting faster and faster. If he touches you, you will immediately get a Time Over.
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Taunts
What looks like a funny gimmick at first glance can actually prove extremely useful in battle. If you press the “Z” key (or “Y”, depending on where you’re from) on the keyboard at the right moment when attacking an enemy, you’ll push them away from you and even inflict damage. Besides, this will let you move foes out of the way in time and keep your momentum going.
On which platforms is Pizza Tower available?
Even though Pizza Tower carries the soul of Wario Land in its look & feel, and this combination would be predestined for the Nintendo Switch, the game is unfortunately only available for PC so far. You can find it on Steam.
If the title, which the indie team financed via Patreon, is commercially successful, we can probably assume that a port to other consoles will follow. However, there is no official statement on this yet.
Discover even more top-notch platformer games
While we’d love to see Pizza Tower on the Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox, rest assured that there’s already plenty of 2D or 2.5D platformer fun on consoles. To get a glimpse of particularly trendy titles, we can recommend our favorite Platformer Games. Maybe you’ll also find some Fun Apps for Android & iOS interesting.
For extra wacky fun on PC and consoles, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is getting released tomorrow. Should you be a fan of anticipation, feel free to check out our article about Sims 5.
What excites you most about Pizza Tower? We’re looking forward to it in the comments below.
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