What would you do if a load of pirates stole your hard-earned booty and the one software you might discover to get your stuff again was an outsized drill? Effectively, Pepper Grinder proffers a solution: you’d flip that drill right into a form of weapon-cum-vehicle and chase them down.
Over the course of a brief runtime, throughout 4 worlds that every supply up a handful of ranges, you may zip round, tunnelling by way of gentle earth to burst out into the gentle underbellies of enemies. As you go, you may be constructing your momentum to leap throughout gaps, boosting when you’ll be able to. In homage to a reasonably apparent inspiration, you finish every degree by drilling to spin a flag up its pole.
Like every conventional platformer, every world concludes with a boss stage, and these characteristic noticeable spikes in issue (fortunately mitigated by an outstanding issue possibility that permits you to actually flip the velocity of the sport down). Regular phases, although, are all about motion, as you snake round underground looking for the correct line to progress by way of the subsequent part of platforming.
This platforming feels nice, and as soon as grappling and boosts are within the combine you may have a pleasant mix of choices at your fingers to get by way of ranges. Every one additionally hides 5 cash that, when collected, will be put towards cosmetics and keys that unlock a bonus stage per world, that are properly price exploring.
Comparatively beneficiant checkpointing implies that you will not usually end up pressured to restart ranges, and Pepper Grinder additionally has some good twists on its central concepts, together with underwater sections and stomping controllable robots. Nonetheless, by the shut of its three-to-four-hour run, you may be repeating these concepts just a little, and Pepper Grinder finally ends up feeling prefer it in all probability did not have rather more to present, which implies you may solely be upset in the event you’re searching for a mammoth set of ranges.
Pepper Grinder’s look can be actually sprightly (pun meant): its pixel artwork is easy and well-executed, with sometimes characterful animations, and the entire thing’s backed by a cool soundtrack. This may not be essentially the most substantial of platformers, but it surely’s a spirited entry.