*This article contains spoilers for Pizza Tower, including core concepts, characters and levels, for floors one and two. *

What is the deal with Pizza Tower? Who is this goofy looking Italian man on all the thumbnails? Well, that is Peppino Spaghetti, the pluckiest pizza chef ever created. Pizza Tower certainly deserves the hype around it right now. With fast-paced platformer action, hectic combat and funky music, it is no surprise at all that it has an impressively high rating of 99% on Steam, one of the most popular online video game stores. So what makes Pizza Tower different from the thousands of other platformers out there?

For starters, the character design is brilliant. Drawn in a goofy, MS Paint-looking style, the characters and enemies of Pizza Tower are not easily forgettable. Take the protagonist, Peppino. He has dozens of unique animations, and his expressions are ridiculously goofy. He can even breakdance. This is one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen, and this great design style is shared with every character and enemy in the game. 

The music is also stunningly great for an indie game, which is a game made by a smaller development team. There are over 100 tracks in this game. The tracks are not little dinky 40 second loops either, these are full several minute long songs. They manage to combine techno, real instruments and goofy sound effects in order to create tracks that fit their respective levels perfectly. Some of my favorite pieces are “Hot Spaghetti,” “The Death That I Deservioli,” “Wednesdays,” and “Unexpectancy,” the final boss theme. These are a tiny selection of the total soundtrack. Search up Pizza Tower OST on YouTube to find a playlist of all 146 songs. Honestly, the soundtrack of this indie game is better than any soundtrack that has been released by Nintendo, a multibillion dollar corporation, in the last few years.

Now then, platformer games have to have good levels to make them playable, right? Well, Pizza Tower goes far past only having good levels. Each one varies in content, theme, and length, but they all have the same amount of pure, unadulterated adrenaline that comes with trying to speedrun any of them. Players will receive a ranking after completing a level based on a few factors, like points, secrets and their time. Along with the basic D, C, B, A and S ranks, there is the elusive P rank as well, which requires an absurd amount of skill to get. So basically, these levels are designed to be played at mach speeds, running through rocks or enemies and up walls. And then when players reach the end, they get to do the level in reverse, in the Pizza Time segment, going through new paths. And if players are really adventurous, they can take on the dangerous Lap Two, which is quite a tough challenge.

Any good – no – excellent platformer game has to have some cool bosses, right? Yep, and though there are only five in Pizza Tower, each one has two phases of the battle, and multiple different attacks and hazards to watch out for. Plus, they are difficult, so players will find themselves memorizing patterns and adapting their strategies. Pizza Tower rewards critical thinking and skill improvement, which are crucial for boss fights. The first boss alone, Pepper Man, had me trying for hours to receive the P-Rank, which requires taking no damage in the boss fight at all, which is harder than it would seem at first glance. There are these annoying statues that slide in from the sides at Peppino, which cannot be parried, and must be jumped over. These statues are more often than not the reason I end up losing my P-Rank. However, through these attempts, I have developed patterns to destroy his first phase in less than a minute, with good timing.

Secret collectibles make or break a game. Which is it for Pizza Tower? Well, in each level, there are five little Toppins that one needs to rescue and take to the exit. In addition, players can find Jerome the Janitor in every level, and he has the key to a locked room that contains a collectible food item. There are also three secret level segments in each level that contain tons of points. These are all required for the elusive P-Rank. In addition, there are 19 sets of clothes to unlock, each from completing different tasks. Overall, these collectables are gratifying to get, and collecting the Toppins is necessary to unlock the boss room. Even though there are a lot of things to collect, it really adds to the game overall.

Basically, Pizza Tower is an amazing game, and it is shockingly cheap for how high quality it is, costing only $20. It is highly replayable, and has a ton of content, so go check it out. Seriously, check it out, as it is one of the best games I have ever played and is well worth both the time and money spent.