Pizza Tower: A Feat in Game Design

gustavo

In 2018, an indie game studio called Tour de Pizza began construction on a little game where an Italian man named Peppino Spaghetti saves his pizza restaurant from a pizza guy named Pizzaface who wants to shoot it with a giant laser on the top of a giant tower. This game was Pizza Tower. It was originally inspired by the Wario Land Series, but is so much more unique. It was released in January of 2023 and has been gaining popularity ever since.

Pizza tower uses speed and momentum to its fullest, designing levels in such a way that you just want to tackle it in one big run. At the end of every level is a giant pillar named John Pillar that you destroy to activate Pizza Time. During pizza time, a countdown appears on the bottom of the screen and you have to get to the door you entered before the countdown reaches zero. When the countdown reaches zero, Pizzaface will chase you until you are caught by him. You would think that going back though a level that you have previously traversed would be boring, but Pizza Tower has some blocks called John Blocks that reverse their solid or transparent state to the other state when John Pillar is killed. Even with John Blocks, levels are so well designed that it feels like the level was meant for Pizza Time.

Sure, the movement and level design is cool, but the icing on the cake is the art. Pizza Tower has such a goofy, devious design that bears a striking resemblance to old 90s cartoons. Peppino has wacky, extreme movements with personality in each sprite. Each level has 2-3 amazing songs made specifically for it, and its own gimmick or feature that makes it distinct. When getting close to John Pillar, an eerie music starts playing, warning you of the impending Pizza Time. Every level feels totally different from each other. With such levels as Fast Food Saloon, Deep Dish 9 and Don’t Make a Sound, Pizza Tower never gets boring.

There are so many things that Pizza Tower has to offer, Bosses, 3 secret areas in every level, Jerome treats, S ranks, P ranks, achievements and the secret endings never make the game without a second of fun. Though Pizza Tower is only available on Steam, it will soon be open to other consoles. Perhaps the greatest part of Pizza Tower is Mort the Chicken. Mort the Chicken from the PS1 game is in Pizza Tower. What a great feature.