Pepper Grinder Review – Burrowing into New Ground

Pepper Grinder Review

Standout titles in the platform genre often take a unique idea and use it as a core gameplay mechanic. In Mario Odyssey, for instance, you can sling Cappy to inhabit all manner of bizarre items and beings, while Yoku’s Island Express seamlessly blends pinball segments into the adventure. Pepper Grinder adopts a similar ethos with its unique approach to traversal. With the ability to delve into the earth and leap out in one fluid motion, can this innovative platformer soar above its peers and burrow deep into the hearts of gamers?

After a violent storm leaves you shipwrecked, you awaken on an unfamiliar island with all of your precious treasures taken by the nasty Narlings. As a passionate excavator, you and your trusty drill head out to recover your lost items on a quest for booty. The narrative is secondary and Ahr Ech merely uses this to give context to your journey so that you can quickly jump into the innovative gameplay.

Drilling Down to the Point

Pepper Grinder’s main concept is embedded into the DNA of the experience. With your drill, you must dig and use the momentum you build to launch yourself across the world. The intuitive implementation allows you to cut through the ground with ease and leap between areas to speed through stages. Due to the superb level design, you will collect treasure on your path to the goal. Optional routes house collectibles that are hidden within each level. Not only does this add an incentive to replay levels, but it also gives you the opportunity to purchase items from the Curiosity Shop. From here, you can grab some armor so that you can absorb more damage and even unlock extra levels.

While drilling into the dirt is at the forefront of the experience, you can also use the device in other ways too. New ideas regularly expand the experience and add variety to the relatively short adventure. For example, you will also be able to skim across the sea and grapple onto objects adding further options for traversal. The tool also helps solve the puzzles encountered on your journey for jewels. Although these tend to be quite simple tasks, they add another layer to the gameplay which continues to innovate and suprise throughout.

Critters attempt to block you on your trek to the finish line. Due to this, you will need to avoid their weapons and use your drill to defeat them. Some have protective outer shells while others attack from a particular side meaning you will need to steer through the ground and strike from a specific location. While none are particularly tough, they vary to offer new challenges for you to overcome.

It’s Boss Time

Bosses on the other hand truly do put your skills to the test. You will need to be adept at digging to avoid damage and counterattacks. While they’re a strong conclusion to the world, the difficulty spike in these segments can add frustration. It’s at these points when precision is key, however, due to the arching turn, it is easy to misjudge your movement resulting in repeatedly failing segments.

After completing levels, you can replay these in a time attack mode. As levels have a lovely flow, the momentum-based traversal shines when trying to speed through to the end. You will begin to look for shortcuts and how to evade enemies in order to shave valuable milliseconds quickly. With this mode, the array of collectibles and bonus levels, there’s enough content to make up for the short campaign.

The 16-bit graphic style whisks you back to SNES-era platformers which clearly influenced the game. The sprite work and animation are fantastic, helping give character to each personality on screen. There’s a lovely array of colours that creates a lively atmosphere which is also echoed in the score.

Pepper Grinder is an innovative platformer that doubles down on its unique gameplay mechanic. Rather than just sticking with the premise, it evolves and adds new ideas to make levels distinct. Although there’s a difficulty spike with bosses and the controls take a little to get used to, the short adventure is a thrill. For fans of platformers looking for something that pushes the genre in a novel direction, Pepper Grinder is a treasure worth unearthing.

***A PlayStation 5 code provided by the publisher for review***