Pizza Tower: A High Octane Wario Land Masterpiece
| Author: | Brian Powell Jr |
| Date: | April 23, 2023 6:04:00 pm EDT |
| Last Updated: | June 1, 2024 9:01:59 pm EDT |
| Read Time: | 2 min read |
| Tags: |
Game Details
| Genre | Developer | Publisher | Release Date | Reviewer's Sentiments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platformer | Tour De Pizza | Tour De Pizza | 2023-01-26 | Recommended |
Intro
Many years ago in the early 2000s, my teenage self was enjoying playing the newest Wario Land game in the GameBoy Advance. Wario Land 4 was a significant change over Wario Land 3. Instead of the levels being designed as a “Metroid-vania” style of game where you completed the level to progress the story and ended up backtracking levels once you unlocked new abilities or special items, Wario Land 4 had missions with a clear goal: Collect the gem fragments and escape the level. There were numerous collectibles to gather throughout the level and the ending you got depended on how much loot you ended up saving from the final boss.
Pizza tower uses much of the same formula as Wario Land 4, but adds a twist. You can complete the level at your leisure, but if you want to earn the level mastery “P” rank you have to: complete the entire level in a single enemy kill combo, find the secret item, complete “lap 2”, and complete all three secret challenges.
Pizza Tower
To describe the plot of Pizza Tower in a sentence: Peppino Spaghetti saves his struggling pizzeria from a rival pizzeria (a tower, really) by destroying the competition after being threatened that his pizzeria was going to be vaporized. Peppino goes through the various worlds to accrue money to unlock the boss fights where he fights food and pizza icon-based enemies. After defeating the rival pizzeria owner, Peppino escapes Pizza Tower where his pizzeria flourishes (or at least survives).
Much like the Wario Land games, Pizza Tower is full of wacky abilities and character altering effects ranging from: transforming into a ghost eating ghost peppers to go faster to becoming a fireball after eating hot wings. My favorite ability is when the game hands you a shotgun in the level where murderous animatronics hunt you down if you trip an alarm. After spending the whole level sneaking around and running away, you essentially blast your way out during the escape sequence.
A Focus on Speed
To obtain the highest rank of “P” in the levels you have to complete the level in a continuous combo while also finding all of the secrets and running the escape sequence in “Lap 2”. If your combo times out, you can achieve the rank of “S”. In general playing, you can achieve the rank of “A” without having to try too hard.
An Impressive Soundtrack
One of the biggest things that stood out to me is the soundtrack. They really help bring the levels to life and some are super catchy. From the first floor levels, my personal favorite is the music for “Pizzascape”. You can listen to the soundtrack in the video clip below.
Final Thoughts
As someone who loved playing Wario Land 4, Pizza Tower definitely scratched the itch I was having to play a new Wario Land game. The movements are well thought out and the soundtrack was a good compliment to the art aesthetic. Some of the boss fight situations can be irritating where you can get in a bad position easy, but overall the game was fun to play.