Well I'll be the first to admit it, I couldn't have been more wrong about Pizza Tower, and in this video I'll explain why! Buy Pizza Tower here! - store.steampow... FOLLOW THE SOCIALS! Discord: - / discord Twitter: - / astral_kat_
Thanks so much for watching everyone! You can access the new discord server here! discord.gg/NCD44sMRD8 Also this might be a moot point because no one reads these comments but please remember, despite what my voice may sound like, I am a GIRL, please do not use male pronouns, as I am not a boy and you will just look dumb :)
TbF, I actually thought you were a girl at first (something about your inflection, maybe?), then questioned myself after a few seconds and thought you might be a guy, so I guess some people can't comprehend that androgyny exists if they only hear it as male.
@@neztech. Excactly. Using the wrong prounons for someone you don't know is not a personal attack or malicous, it is just a simple mistake and accepting that people make these and not get angry at them can really only help everyone.
This proves, that major game companies can spend billions of dollars on producing a game, yet miserably fail, simply cuz the produce for profit only. Games aren’t some buy cuz must have thing, they are a passion.
Nah bro. If a game is produced simply for profit, then it’s not going to have billions of dollars thrown into it. It’s most likely that it would be made with the least amount of money possible
The best part of this game is objectively when you hit that insane speed and the enemies hit the cartoon poses of AAAAAA and let you just plow through them. THAT is the biggest fix that sonic soooooo desperately needs. Plus it is just flat-out funny.
That's taken from metroid, look up the Speed Booster, try searching "Super Metroid speed booster" and it should show you the initial showcase of the ability in said game, it should be a let's play video at the first result, skip to 6:20 there to see it in action, like in Pizza Tower it lets you plow through enemies like a bullet train. Peppino being able to store speed into a massive upwards jump is also lifted from the metroid series, there it's called a Shinespark, and you can even launch yourself in multiple directions instead of just up.
@@bradleydevron imagine your the owner of a struggling pizzaria, and suddenly a *fricking* GIANT pizza *with a f-[YEOW!]-king face* just walks in and threatens to annihilate your pizzaria with a giant freaking laser.
Pizza tower in one sentence: Hard-working Italian man has the worst day of his life, succumbs to his madness, and murders everything that breathes with his bare hands.
I love Gustavo. I don't know why but something about subverting the Mario-Wario relationship by making the crazy unhinged one the protagonist and the silly friendly one his foil is so endearing lol
3:01 You know, if this guy thinks the FINISHED PRODUCT is player unfriendly, then he hasn’t seen the game during development. I mean there was a time when Mcpig jr decided to remove the timer during Pizza Time, and the HEAT METER. I wonder how he would’ve reacted to them.
This game is super fuckig fun once you get the hang of it though. I thought Gustavo and Brick were clunky but when going for p rank on their respective stages and actually prcticing with them, theyre very fun to control. I just wish they were used more or were at least a togglable option to play as because they can definitely mess with your muscle memory from the default controls
i don't know about you, but i LOVE how you're forced to play golf during the escape sequence on two separate occasions, if only for the comedy of the owner presumably saying something like "I don't care if the whole place is coming down, you still gotta play by the rules"
Something really cool about pizza tower is that you technically don’t have to beat EVERY level to fight the final boss, you can actually skip one level of your choice and still be able to get enough cash from the toppins to afford every boss door
11:02 fun fact, Vigilante (you called him outlaw i think) will stare at the screen with an annoyed face if you don't pick up the gun after a few hot seconds or if you hit him before you pick up the gun until you do so. that little touch made me audibly wheeze at my pc screen
The Vigilante isn't actually an outlaw. I can confirm it since 1: in the boss introduction you can see "beware outlaws" written on top of him. 2: I'm italian and i know that Vigilante or Vigile means "cop" basically
The animations are what made me research about this game. Not from an artistic view, but rather just me absolutely resonating with the humour. Peppino slipping on a banana peel will simply never cease to make me laugh!
There's a bit more to the story, but it's all contextual stuff and isn't thrown in your face. Which is a good kind of storytelling. The kind you put together on your own
@@Local_Intruder not really a fan game its more of its own thing sure the wario lands vibe is there but like instead of forcing you to be slow it lets you speed through levels for p ranks Also i'd rather they not make a sequel to this because its already good as is after probably a decade in the making
@@Local_Intruder there was a video on nintendo's iron fist, and from what they explained I think Nintendo is specifically trying to protect their trademarks. In other words gameplay clones have a way easier time compared to, say, Pokémon Uranium
god forbid this game reaches consoles lest the triple A advocates say it's bad for the sake of being different or to stay loyal I mean I DO want it on consoles badly but still-
I literally tried pizza tower because it was popular in the demos. I only saw some gameplay of the demos and thought it was just two brothers running a pizza parlor and making pizzas as fast as one can. But it was completely different and 10x better.
I remember buying and trying out the game after seeing stuff about it because I thought it looked kinda cool, and I liked the animation and music. Then again, I didn’t have much hope because it didn’t look like a game I’d enjoy playing too much or too often. Only for that doubt to be washed away as soon as I played the game myself. The replayability and flow of (and pretty much everything about) the game made me feel a rare, childlike joy that I hadn’t felt in a long while. Most definitely going to be Game of the Year for me.
4:08 - It's kind of funny you brought up A Hat in Time, I've been following Pizza Tower's development for a while, the main dev has been really open about what he goes through and what ideas he had for the game, so seeing it finally release was akin to seeing A Hat in Time release, after how long it also took for the game to be finished.
I remember really not liking the game at first because of the artstyle and pretty much i only got to play it because of Snick in the SAGE 2019 demo. But then... The fluidity of Peppino himself and how the art and animation feels once you're playing it kicked in and like... Dear freaking gods, i fell completely for the game.
@@MarkiplierMeatMuncher8 It just didn't "click" with me at the time, seeing only a few trailers of it and a few animations, especially "Still working on it?" Feeling pretty off-putting initially
@@MarkiplierMeatMuncher8 a lot of people don't vibe with gross-out/bombastic 90s-style animation. I love it, but I can see why some people get overloaded by everything going on
@@Hawkent Especially since a lot of indie games tend to embrace cleaner, and dare I say, "cuter" styles of animation. Just take a look at Omori or Hollow Knight and then take a look at Pizza Tower. The difference is like night and day. It can definitley be a bit jarring transitioning from those games to something super crazy and wacky like Pizza Tower. As for myself? I always liked the look of the game. The rough edges and the crude lines around the characters just made it seem a bit more personal and handcrafted. And even in game, everytime I looked at the level intro cards, I couldn't help but think "Someone had a ton of fun drawing this."
@@thesnatcher3616most indie devs have probably done alot of extra research on every department while mcpig just sits down in his home after graduating art school one day and thinks to himself "what if i made a game about this pizza guy?" and made one of the best platformer ever conceived
9:56 While I agree that the golf level can be tedious, I also have to say that this is a level made for replaying. You don't have to stop to hit the ball if you just run into it, so if your skilled with maneuverability, I could see this level becoming a lot more fun.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours! honestly I think the best way to approach a game is one where you *don't* expect to love it. I don't know if you felt the same way, but from an outside perspective pizza tower looks like a game trying too hard to be whimsical and weird, and that was a turn-off to me. It takes playing through it expecting weirdness for the sake of it to see that it's really because pizza tower is a game that unapolagetically does whatever the hell it wants for the sake of fun and chaos. I didn't really think about it until you brought it up, but pizza time would be an exciting escape sequence and highlight of another game, yknow, as a one-off set piece. the fact that it happens EVERY LEVEL is AMAZING your analysis went beyond just discussing this as a competent game and went into what I love about this game most, for reminding us that games are ultimately an art form, not just a product! when indie developers really pour their love into a game and go forth with something unapolagetically bold, full of informal charm and perhaps a touch of well-meaning madness that's what gets us the next Everhood or Omori or Hi-fi or Celeste as a designer myself, I want to thank you for celebrating the love, sweat, whimsy, tears, and chaos that goes into creating something truly heartfelt! Thanks for another amazing video, and see you next week Astralkat!
I admit I also wasn't super sure about the game (mainly with it's Ren & Stimpy/Spumco aesthetic) when I initially saw it during SAGE 2019. Though, I'm really glad to see how incredible it's turned out! Really makes me happy that everyone is enjoying it (including myself) and I'm honestly really excited to see it come to other platforms so more people can experience this Masterpizz-a of a game!
@@MarkiplierMeatMuncher8 Maybe because while it doesn't take much, this art style is quite hard to pull off nowadays, especially as good as this game does it? No idea either.
@@AlfurAldric2211 The art is why I caught attention of this game in the first place. There's just not enough platformers with cartoon-grade animations. In fact I can only think of Cuphead and Earthworm Jim, are there any other examples?
@@AlfurAldric2211 Yeah, talking about platformers. I mean you might as well include games like Dragon's Lair but that's not what I mean, I mean action-oriented with direct character control. 3D games with great animation certainly do exist as well but I'm specifically thinking 2D cartoon.
What I love most about the game is its animation. The main character's animations of him being angry as he fights his way through really makes you empathize with how he feels--Angry at the sentient Pizza and really wanting to beat the crap out of it for wanting to destroy your Pizza place for god knows what.
Ive been following Pizza Tower on and off since about the 2019 SAGE demo the game had. I had always been interested in it, but I had this underlying worry about 2 things with this game. The controls, and the level design. I was worried that the game would be too nonsensical, and that the controls would be weird and awkward to control. However, once the game came out, I played through it, and I could not have been more dead wrong about my both of those statements. My initial fear of the game having weird or janky controls or level design actually became my biggest praise of it. The games levels are MASTERFULLY crafted IMO, and Peppino has probably my favorite, most satisfying, most well controlling moveset of any platformer I've ever played. It was enough to convince me to go back and P rank the entire game. Its really amazing in just about every way and its probably my favorite 2D platformer of all time.
This game and Celeste are my two favorite games. They are kind of similar in the fact that they are extremely fun platforms with extremely godly soundtracks and they both have their charm. The difference is that Celeste has very few movement mechanics that are extremely fleshed out with you being able to do things such as hyper and wavedashes while pizza tower has a ton if really fun mechanics that give you a god complex when you are able to combo them in order to go very fast. Both have completely different styles of movement and both are so much fun.
I love having at least a little story in many of the games I play, but Pizza Tower seems like one of those odd exceptions where less is more. You sum it up perfectly. “This game sets three very simple things in front of you. You run a Pizza Shop. A sentient pizza is going to fire a giant laser beam at your pizza shop and destroy it. *GO KILL HIM!!!* That’s it. There’s nothing more to it.”
i remember seeing some stuff about pizza tower but I wasn't really super into it until I saw the "still working on it?" video and that flat out sold me on it.
I think you're probably overthinking the golf sections. They're very much designed to be done in one fluid motion, especially the pizza time ones. You're not supposed to be grabbing it every time.
Really great vid! Very rare to see games like this that have so much love put into every aspect of them these days. When I first saw the game I also kinda wrote it off, since it really did just seem like, "Oh, another 2d indie platformer" but the more I see and hear about this game the more I realize how much of a truly special game it is. And I think you make a really good point about the story, or lack thereof. Honestly if this game tried to have some deep, complex story it most likely would have done more to detract from the game rather than add to it. Sometimes all you really need is "This guy is mean, go kill him". Also glad to see this vid popping off, hope your other vids start getting a similar amount of attention, you deserve it!
Great video! Unfortunately I'm going to have to take some points off because you have neglected to mention the best character in Pizza tower, our lord and savior, The Noise. 0/10 literally unwatchable. Keep up the great work :)
Heh, thanks. Glad you liked the video, I didnt talk about him because I didnt want to spoil some of the later parts of the game for people who havent played it heh
@@AstralKat That's fair. He certainly wasn't kept a secret to the same degree as [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], and anyone who followed the development/demos would know he'd show up, it is still funny seeing someone get surprised by him.
It's only really effective to use the power attack to nuke them the second it comes out from I frames. After that, I believe it's 3 regular shots to get them to the next phase
Damn dude, Sonic Mania was the worst example you could've used about animation "being boring". I think Forces would've been a more apt comparison and I actually like Forces despite it being a low point for the series.
I would have 100% used forces but I was playing Sonic Mania at the time and frankly just wanted to play that game again lol, no disrespect to mania at all, it was just a matter of circumstance
I feel that it really isn’t sonic should stop being a plat-former but have levels built for the speed like pizza tower beautifully does and side note pizza tower has one of the best OST’s I’ve heard in a while
People never talk about the secrets. I personaly dont know why anyone would skip through a bunch of the game and even entire levels like they are playing a blind any % speedrun. The secrets make me appreciate a level more and learn the layout quickly rather then running at max speed everywhere bumping into everything only to have to backtrack and get all the secrets again. You really dont need to run at max speed all the time not even while going for the P rank I honestly dont understand why people choose to blindly run through every level not going for any secrets only to then have to go back after beating the game and look for the secrets wouldnt it be smarter to do them before and know where they are so you can speedrun the levels after beating the game while having a much better understanding of each level??
Golf is peak what you on about. Once you try for P ranking that level you and see how the Old Cheese Ball Man meshes with your movement options you will understand how well designed it is, I ain't seen something like that tried since Fancy Pants Adventures and the golf in that was still finnicky at times.
great review, except for one thing. outside of pizza time, you didn't mention the soundtrack! it is genuinely one of the best soundtracks I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, possibly my favorite platformer soundtrack of all time.
I tend to not talk about the soundtracks in games any more, mostly because when I used to I'd always end up saying similar sorts of things and it really felt like filler/fluff in the video that I didn't want, but yeah I agree the soundtrack is amazing!
why don't you feed it by getting a P rank? all ya gotta do is grab every toppin, secret, and generally grab as many points as possible, AND go for a second lap all without dropping your combo a single time from start to finish. easy peasy!
Sounds like a déjà vu from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish! Where many didn't even consider going to watch it, thinking it just a cheap cash grub of the Shrek franchise, only to be surprise by the big amount of praising reviews!
"Forget everything you know about platformers because Pizza Tower throws her all out of the window." Summarized my experience with the game. It's the Fun and soundtrack from Mega Man, gimmick variety of Mario, difficulty of Metroid, bosses and gameplay of Wario Land, plot of... uh... but all BETTER.
you dont have to stopand swing the golfball actually, if you run at it max speed it'll just bounce off you, so theoreticly if you keep up your speed, you can just bulldoze the ball through the whole level
which do you consider "best" of the sonic series because its nothing like the classic games and its sorta like the 2d boost segments in generations and unleashed
@@AlfurAldric2211 In retrospect, I wonder where I got that from because looking back the art and music are quite different. Maybe it's because they're both super cool.
Pizza Time. Calling Vigilante “Outlaw” was kinda ironic considering he’s the only non-asshole boss. Fun Fact: You can still play as the Noise, just follow these steps: Go to steam and Manage startup options by right clicking Pizza Tower in your Library Type -debug in startup options Open the game and during the opening cutscene press F5 and type “player_room characterselect A” (caps sensitive) Close the console and launch a save Open the console and press Enter to execute the code before Peppino enters the tower Go to The Noise and select him. Disclaimer: You need to have your keybinds as default, otherwise you cannot move the character selector. Just a neat little tidbit. Most clothes have incorrect pallets, most of them acting weirdly with Shitty Cook and Garish Cook Turing you invisible. Unfunny Cook turns you into The Noise behind the Slaughter.
There is a story but its actually subtly hidden and well crafted without being in your face, mainly the last level reveal alot about the context and story.
I just beat pizza tower today and never realized second laps were a thing. I remember seeing weird little secret rooms at the starts of levels that seemingly had nothing in them and was always confused, I guess that's what they were for
Bro when I first saw pizza tower (I didn’t see any gameplay or anything) I thought it was a pizza making game Then I played it *Hot diggity damn it is good*
@@AstralKat How can you say; “Sonic has relatively boring animations,” and “running is the only thing Sonic is good at.” That Judy’s sounds like to me a non-Sonic fan who doesn’t actually play any of the games and just disses the series.
Pizza Tower is THAT type of games, when you say "Bro, this game sucks ass!" and continue playing. Or when "Holy crab, what the hell is!?" and still enjoy whatever chaos is on the screen.
It's also interesting to note back in developement this game was going to be a full horror game at some point, then it eventually became the platformer we now know and love
glad you changed your opinion of the game! the first time i heard about pizza tower i didn't even know it was called pizza tower. i continued watching other youtube videos until i found the games name. i then bought and played it then i was absolutely addicted to the funny Italian pizza chef game.
10:28 Have ya tried cuphead? I felt like the pizza tower bosses and a similar flow and energy to cuphead bosses if not for cuphead being quite a bit harder.
10:23 these bosses give me the thing I love about videogames, and that's an adrenaline rush as I am trying to beat it. They are *just* long enough and *just* challenging enough it feels like if I just really focus ill beat it. And that gets my heart pumping. It takes a lot for me to get that invested, and for whatever reason videogame bosses do it for me, and I havnt completed pizza tower yet, but the bosses consistently do that for me from what ive played so far.
i find it great how we all non-verbally agreed to call boss 4, well boss 4, just to not spoil who it is to the players, seriously tho, if you can, buy the game, play it, profit
