Some things never change. The world is at war. Piracy is rife. Narlings roam the lands on the hunt for treasure.
Well, maybe that last one is a bit off. Still, in Pepper Grinder that’s exactly the setup, the titular character Pepper has her booty stolen by the pesky creatures, and sets off across the mysterious island to get it back.
Luckily she is armed with Grinder (no not the app) which is a very useful all round tool for exploring, attacking and generally causing mayhem. This is the central mechanic in which the game is built around, Grinder is a drill which can be used in all sorts of ways.
You control its direction with the left thumbstick, but be warned after a couple of hours or so you might start to feel some twinges in your wrist (or at least I did). A is used to jump, as well as drill boost to launch higher and further. X will allow Pepper to grapple onto certain hooks dotted throughout the stages. Simple.
You can’t drill into everything however. Soft rock, sand and even water can be traversed with Grinder as you snake your way through each level. There are plenty of hazards which echo the varying settings as you adventure through each biome. Spiky brambles, fire traps and even sharks will all be out to get you.
Blasting around with Grinder is great fun, and smashing through enemies at the same time even more so. You’ll run into all sorts of foes, from the simple grunts to more advanced Narlings who are armed with anything and everything from flamethrowers to mortars. Most only take one or a few hits from your drill to dispatch of.
At certain points drill bits will appear, such as the machine gun attachment that can be used in conjunction with Grinder. These segments are where there’s an opportunity to cause mass damage, and they are a hoot to play through. There’s even a Metal Gear Solid walker you can commandeer which is a lot of fun.
There are four biomes in Pepper Grinder, each with a handful of levels to blast through. They are well designed, and feel unique enough to prevent that repetitive niggle creeping in which befouls many platforming games. Sometimes less is more, and this is certainly the case here. You can see certain influences at times too, such as floating cannons similar to Donkey Kong Country, but Pepper Grinder is very much its own game.Â
Each area ends with a boss fight, and these encounters are by far the most challenging moments in the game. Each opponent has a movement pattern which can be studied, but as you would expect as you chip away at their health bar things get a little more complicated.
The regular levels come with a generous amount of checkpoints, opportunities to replenish your health and you’re not bogged down with a finite number of lives. So death isn’t problematic, however the boss fights are a different kettle of fish.
The first couple aren’t too bad, but later on things get frantic. For the most part, I found the Grinder controls pretty comfortable, if not a little exhausting on the thumbs. However, as well as at certain points in the game where complex movement chains were needed to advance, during the tougher boss battles I felt hard done by as Pepper’s direction of travel seemed to wildly fluctuate, invert or just drill down to a grisly death at the most inopportune time. I only cleared the final boss in the end after many, many swear words and a stroke of luck.
The island is littered with your treasured booty, as your precious wealth is scattered across each level. Smashing as much as you can in sight, as well as looking for weak points in the rocks, will usually see you reap the rewards. You’ll also beat some of your stolen treasure out of the Narlings themselves, however that’s not all that’s up for grabs.
Five skull coins are hidden in each level, and these can be used to unlock rewards at the on site curiosity shop. Each area contains a secret level which skull coins are needed to reveal, but you can also purchase sticker backgrounds too. Your treasure can then be spent at the gatcha machine to dispense stickers at random, with which you can unleash your creativity.
Even rarer stickers, as well as background music, can be unlocked by replaying the levels in the time attack mode. The usual three tiers of medals are up for grabs, as you try to figure out the most efficient way of racing to the finish flag.
I normally start reviews of games similar to Pepper Grinder bemoaning the visual choice, that being the retro pixel art style. It’s been done to death, but I have to say, here it has a flair and style that prevents it from feeling like a straight up clone. The environments are diverse, even within each biome, and the weird and wonderful cast are bursting with character. It’s a little more expensive than you would perhaps expect considering you can beat it in around three hours, but there’s enough individuality here to warrant it.
Pepper Grinder successfully combines traditional platforming with a refreshingly original gameplay mechanic that breathes new life into a very tired genre.
