Pizza Tower is a work of genius, both in terms of gameplay and presentation, because it recognizes four core concepts and internalizes them brilliantly:
1) Gameplay should allow exploration but reward speed and competence, keeping the progression floor low but encouraging the player to develop their skills with repeat play.
2) The artstyle should be simplistic while also being full of personality, making it instantly recognizable.
3) The game's audience is nostalgic for the joys of childhood, which the aesthetic and gameplay should both tap into.
With these in mind, Tour De Pizza has managed to put together a fun, darkly comedic, and surprisingly addictive game that hits a lot of high notes. You play as Peppino Spaghetti, struggling pizzeria owner and unabashed Italian stereotype, whose establishment is threatened with nuclear laser annihilation by a talking pizza. You have to ascend a dangerous tower while searching for pizza toppings via your speed-platforming skills, in order to fight the talking pizza at the top and save your restaurant. It's a gloriously silly Excuse Plot and the game embraces it for pure comedy.
Taking pages from the cartoons of The '90s, the style of Pizza Tower is simplistic, almost primitive with its prominent pixelization and constant Off-Model moments, but these are Played for Laughs and are part of the game's charm. It could be said to be 'ugly' in the same way that something like Courage the Cowardly Dog is ugly, with exaggerated and grotesque Deranged Animation made for laughs yet done with obvious love and care.
The game's brilliance lies in how its level design reinforces the high-speed gameplay; while you are free to explore levels there are very few outright stopping points, and many levels allow you to maintain a reckless breakneck pace once you understand the layouts. This both makes it fun to traverse the levels and makes the game highly appealing to fans of speedrunning.
Pizza Tower also manages to hit on a certain audience zeitgeist, a growing general disdain for abusive corporations and bullies who pick on the less fortunate. Making their hero not a noble, cheerful platforming mascot but a put-upon Nervous Wreck and career loser instantly made Pizza Tower into a much more relatable, approachable, and memeable game. People sympathize with Peppino's plight even while laughing at his comical suffering.
All in all Pizza Tower is a game that calls out to people who want to be rewarded for getting better and who need to have a good laugh at something in the process. For anyone who fondly remembers the days of Wario Land and Nickelodeon and wants to play a game that rewards that nostalgia with comedy and challenge, this game should be on your radar.
VideoGame It's Pizza Time!
Pizza Tower is a work of genius, both in terms of gameplay and presentation, because it recognizes four core concepts and internalizes them brilliantly:
1) Gameplay should allow exploration but reward speed and competence, keeping the progression floor low but encouraging the player to develop their skills with repeat play.
2) The artstyle should be simplistic while also being full of personality, making it instantly recognizable.
3) The game's audience is nostalgic for the joys of childhood, which the aesthetic and gameplay should both tap into.
4) There are a lot of anxious people out there who just want to beat the shit out of someone who wronged them.
With these in mind, Tour De Pizza has managed to put together a fun, darkly comedic, and surprisingly addictive game that hits a lot of high notes. You play as Peppino Spaghetti, struggling pizzeria owner and unabashed Italian stereotype, whose establishment is threatened with nuclear laser annihilation by a talking pizza. You have to ascend a dangerous tower while searching for pizza toppings via your speed-platforming skills, in order to fight the talking pizza at the top and save your restaurant. It's a gloriously silly Excuse Plot and the game embraces it for pure comedy.
Taking pages from the cartoons of The '90s, the style of Pizza Tower is simplistic, almost primitive with its prominent pixelization and constant Off-Model moments, but these are Played for Laughs and are part of the game's charm. It could be said to be 'ugly' in the same way that something like Courage the Cowardly Dog is ugly, with exaggerated and grotesque Deranged Animation made for laughs yet done with obvious love and care.
The game's brilliance lies in how its level design reinforces the high-speed gameplay; while you are free to explore levels there are very few outright stopping points, and many levels allow you to maintain a reckless breakneck pace once you understand the layouts. This both makes it fun to traverse the levels and makes the game highly appealing to fans of speedrunning.
Pizza Tower also manages to hit on a certain audience zeitgeist, a growing general disdain for abusive corporations and bullies who pick on the less fortunate. Making their hero not a noble, cheerful platforming mascot but a put-upon Nervous Wreck and career loser instantly made Pizza Tower into a much more relatable, approachable, and memeable game. People sympathize with Peppino's plight even while laughing at his comical suffering.
All in all Pizza Tower is a game that calls out to people who want to be rewarded for getting better and who need to have a good laugh at something in the process. For anyone who fondly remembers the days of Wario Land and Nickelodeon and wants to play a game that rewards that nostalgia with comedy and challenge, this game should be on your radar.