pizza tower

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---
title: "Pizza Tower: Cathartic Wario Crazyness"
date: 2023-02-28
score: 5
game_release_year: 2023
howlongtobeat_id: 118236
howlongtobeat_hrs: 5.9
game_name: "Pizza Tower"
game_developer: 'Tour de Pizza'
game_genre: '2D Platformer'
tags:
- 'Wario Land 4'
- '2D platformer'
---
Nintendo's big-butted antihero character Wario was one of the greatest things ever to grace on the Game Boy handhelds, as discussed in the [Wario Land retrospective](/articles/wario-land). The series gradually evolved from a conventional Mario platformer spin-off to a crazy take on... craziness? Sadly, after Wario Land 4 on the GBA, Nintendo stopped caring about platformers and instead turned towards plucking nose hair and other (even more crazy) minigames in the WarioWare series.
It took a long time for indie devs to step up and do what Nintendon't. With the recent announcement of _Anton Blast_ and _Pizza Tower_, Wario Land (4) fans finally had a reason to rejoice. If we are to believe the trailers, they both wear their influence on their sleeve, and after seven hours of Pizza craziness, I can safely say that the game exceeded my wildest expectations. It's the [best rated Steam release of 2023](https://steamdb.info/stats/gameratings/2023/), and with good reason: _Pizza Tower_ is among the best games I've played in years!
![](onfire.jpg "Help, I'm on fire! After eating a spicy chicken drumstick, no less. ")
The premise of _Pizza Tower_ is simple: you are Peppino Spaghetti (the irony!), a hard-working fat and balding Italian baker that owns a local pizza shack. Business is fine, until a giant corporation owned by a pizza face (??) builds a gigantic tower next door that threatens to take over and destroy your place. You do what any Italian baker would do: get angry, run towards the tower, fight your way to the top, and beat that face to a doughy pulp.
At least that's the plan: you first have to make it past five floors of platforming craziness---you'll encounter that term a few more times---with crazy (sorry) levels and crazier (okay I'll stop) names such as Pizzascape, Ancient Cheese, Oregano Desert, Crust Cove, and Bloodsauce Dungeon. Each level is designed exactly like the Wario Land 4 (WL4) levels: you first explore the levels, enemies, and theme mostly from left to right, but after triggering "the bomb"---in this game by kicking a moai-like statue---you're given a few minutes to sprint back to where you came from, otherwise the pizza face will come to haunt you. As in WL4, the music changes dramatically and slight level alterations make it easier or more difficult to pick up secrets on the way.
It is clear that the levels are designed to be replayed. Each level takes about 15 minutes in a first attempt. While slogging through the tomato and dough mess, you're supposed to rescue your own pizza ingredients, which net cash if you manage to escape. That cash in turn can be handed in to a shady looking character called Mr. Stick who, if payed enough, will make the boss room appear in the Pizza Tower. I have no idea who made this up, but it's brilliant.
![](thepigcity.jpg "The big Pig City, with smoking and coughing pizza slices and taxis as teleports.")
The level design is spot-on and every level is stuffed with secrets: there are three hidden puzzle rooms to discover, just like WL4's purple pipes leading to a diamond. Even the diagonally scrolling purple/pink background is the same as in WL4! Apart from that, collecting sausages, cheese, and other pizza condiments nets bonus points which increase Peppino's score, from a D to the excellent A. And then there's an optional treasure piece to steal by rescuing a locksmith and finding the locked door---again, just like in the Wario Land games, where in each level there's a treasure item to discover.
Earlier Wario Land games are more slow-paced and focus on puzzling or Wario's transformations. In _Pizza Tower_, these transformations are present as well, but are only scarcely sprinkled here and there, which is a bit of a shame. Tour de Pizza put in a lot of effort to even create other playable characters that are only used in two levels. Peppino can change into a mud ball, ghost, pizza box (reminiscent of flat Wario to crawl through small spaces), a slow-crawling gunk-covered person (reminiscent of Wario's zombie state, although Peppino can't fall through ledges but can stick to walls here), a mouth-on-fire sate of panic, ... I loved these silly state changes, but they're all very ephemeral: the focus clearly is on the ultra fast-paced 2D platforming action.
In that sense, even though _Pizza Tower_ blatantly rips off almost every WL4 gimmick or mechanic, when playing it, it felt more like a Jazz Jackrabbit game, as you'll be speeding through these stages almost quicker than your eyes are able to follow. Some reviewers compared it to Sonic, but the structure of the stages don't remind me of SEGA's hedgehog.
![](golf.jpg "A golf stage? Because why not (and because Wario Land has them).")
In Most games---for instance, the aforementioned Sonic and Jazz---the gameplay is consistent throughout most stages, bar the odd boss fight that brings the speed to a halt, which is also true for _Pizza Tower_. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this seven hour long pizza rush is the sheer variety of the levels and the gameplay. One level, you're golfing. The next, you're zipping on rails in a city environment, taking the odd cab here and there. In another, you're in a farm, and a chicken on your head suddenly allows you to grab on hooks and jump higher. And then your buddy Gustavo comes along and yet again radically changes the way the game is played. Or how about grabbing a shotgun and transforming the game into a vegetable war simulator?
_Pizza Tower_ is that crazy, in a superbly good way. Not a single concept is re-used. Perhaps that's its biggest shortcoming: that we don't get to properly enjoy a particular mechanic because the next level introduces yet another one. I would have liked more of the same, but I respect the tight timeline. It's almost as if the devs were climbing their own Tower during development and wanted to end in a bang instead of serving us a game that overstays its welcome---although as the game was in development for five years, it can hardly be called being in a rush.
![](hiddenroom.jpg "A hidden room in one of the floor's lobbies.")
_Pizza Tower_'s unique vibe is hard to describe or frame using a few screenshots, even though I tried. Imagine a layer of fluid animations added on top. Where WL4 employs pristine pixel art with contrast and shading to great effect, _Pizza Tower_ radically opts for a cartoonesque style that seems to completely lack any shadowing. The result looks like a nineties cartoon show where crude MS-Paint drawings come to life. Some players might be put off by its flat style but I think it's a bold statement.
Tour de Pizza shared [original drawings of Peppino](https://twitter.com/PizzaTowergame/status/1164791843218837504) on Twitter. Peppino's exaggerated facial expressions and the long nose remind me of Pierre Gilhodes's art style as seen in Coktel Vision's [Gobliiins series](/games/pc/gobliins-2). Take a quick peek at [Gilhodes's blog](https://bouzoukblog.blogspot.com/) and you'll know what I mean. The art style stays sharp and consistent, reappearing in the full-screen stills in-between levels such as the one below.
![](ending.jpg "Peppino's victory after dealing with the Tower scum.")
1200 words in, and I haven't even mentioned the banger soundtrack. Produced by Ronan De Castel and [available at Bandcamp](https://ronandecastel.bandcamp.com/releases), every single track is simply amazing. I can't think of a single one that's mediocre or just okay! Just like the unique level design, all tracks have their own unique vibe to them and nothing is recycled in any way, from the nerve-wrecking _It's Pizza Time!_ when you're racing back to the entrance to the laid-back _Tropical Crust_ or funky _Good Eatin'_. This is one of those rare instances where I bought the soundtrack without thinking twice, even before finishing the game. The last time this happened was [TNMNT: Shredder's Revenge](/games/switch/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shredders-revenge).
Please buy and play this game. Clearly, endless hours of love was carefully put into _Pizza Tower_, mostly by a single person. I'm sad that I finished it, but the future is bright: if this gets ported to the Nintendo Switch, where it truly belongs, millions of new players will discover Pizza Craziness, soothing the pain of anticipating Wario Land 5.
During and after crashing through Pizzaman's Tower, I kind of forgot about Wario. Peppino can do this to you.
![](score.jpg "My meager end score: plenty of secrets left to discover!")

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