Pepper Grinder Assessment (PS5) | Push Sq.

What would you do if a load of pirates stole your hard-earned booty and the one instrument you can 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 provide up a handful of ranges, you will zip round, tunnelling via comfortable earth to burst out into the comfortable underbellies of enemies. As you go, you will be constructing your momentum to leap throughout gaps, boosting when you may. In homage to a reasonably apparent inspiration, you finish every stage by drilling to spin a flag up its pole.

Like every conventional platformer, every world concludes with a boss stage, and these function noticeable spikes in issue (fortunately mitigated by an excellent issue choice that allows you to actually flip the pace of the sport down). Regular phases, although, are all about motion, as you snake round underground looking for the suitable line to progress via the following part of platforming.

This platforming feels nice, and as soon as grappling and boosts are within the combine you will have a pleasant mix of choices at your arms to get via ranges. Each additionally hides 5 cash that, when collected, might be put towards cosmetics and keys that unlock a bonus stage per world, that are effectively price exploring.

Comparatively beneficiant checkpointing signifies 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 will be repeating these concepts a bit, and Pepper Grinder finally ends up feeling prefer it in all probability did not have way more to provide, which suggests you will solely be upset in the event you’re on the lookout for a mammoth set of ranges.

Pepper Grinder’s look can also be actually sprightly (pun meant): its pixel artwork is straightforward and well-executed, with sometimes characterful animations, and the entire thing’s backed by a cool soundtrack. This may not be probably the most substantial of platformers, nevertheless it’s a spirited entry.