There have been countless games in the 2D platformer genre, but the very best share a specific commonality, that the act of movement is fun. Recently I played through Pepper Grinder, by developer Ahr Ech and published by Devolver Digital. Pepper Grinder is a retro-inspired 2D platformer that revolves around using a drill to burrow underground and leap through the air while filling your pockets with treasure. While the setup seems simple, the game shakes things up in interesting ways and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
As it is a retro-inspired game, the story is fairly minimal but there is enough there to get you hooked. You play as Pepper, a woman washed ashore whose treasure has been stolen by some monsters called Narlings. With the help of your trusty drill Grinder, you set out to regain your wealth and exact some revenge on those pesky Narlings. And that’s the long and short of it when it comes to the story. There is no dialogue in the game, all the cutscenes are brief and are conveyed entirely through character animation and small sound effects, as well as the design of the world itself. While the story’s presence is minimal, there’s just enough there for you to get behind Pepper and tag along on her journey.
Visually speaking, Pepper Grinder utilizes beautiful pixel art that is reminiscent of a Gameboy Advance game. The stages you drill through are varied while still feeling unified under their respective worlds from the opening islands to the frozen tundra and swampy ruins found later in the game. Each stage has loads of background details and little visual gags that are a treat to pick out. The colors are vibrant, the animations are lively and smooth, and the UI and menus are stylish and fit the loose pirate theming. It’s a style that finds its own identity and looks remarkably clean in action.
The same can be said for the satisfying sound design. Funnily enough, the drill resembles the sound of a chainsaw more than an actual drill but that allows for a more loud and crunchy soundscape during gameplay. Picking up treasure crackles and rings with the same delight one would hear digging through a treasure chest full of doubloons. Everything from the grinding dirt to the collapsing ice and snow sounds incredible. And I have to give praise to the music by Xeecee. The soundtrack is an interesting blend of atmospheric synthesizer and high-energy jazz tracks that really lends itself well to the higher speed of an action platformer.
Let’s switch on over to the gameplay, similar to the visuals and the sound, Pepper Grinder is just as satisfying to play. Like with many platformers, you can walk and jump, but what really sets it apart is the drill. This drill is multipurpose, it can dig underground, propel you underwater, act as a grappling hook, and even be slotted into other tools and equipment to increase its capabilities, like controlling a snowmobile or firing a cartoonish minigun. Each level has its own unique element, whether it’s a new tool to use or some environmental component that is rarely ever reused. You might find yourself grappling around thorny vines on one level and then blasting away Narlings in the next. It’s because of this variety in the gameplay that each stage feels unique from the last, and provides a feeling of anticipation, wondering what crazy thing you might be doing next.
I mentioned above that you collect a lot of treasure throughout your journey, and what good is treasure with nothing to spend it on? During each stage, you will find general treasure as well as 5 gold coins that are hidden throughout the level. Each world has a shop you can visit that offers a few different things for you to purchase. Gold coins allow you to buy sticker sheets, cosmetic items to change Pepper’s looks, and a key that will open a bonus stage in the world, while general treasure will allow you to buy stickers for the above-mentioned sticker sheets, as well as items to give a temporary increase to your health bar. The stickers come out of a capsule machine, so the ones you receive are random, while some are used as rewards for achieving different ranks in the game’s Time Attack mode. As long as you take your time to thoroughly explore each stage, you will always have enough to purchase whatever you desire. It would have been nice to see some more permanent upgrade options be available in these shops, but it’s not a major detractor from the game overall.
Pepper Grinder has two main modes of play, Casual and Time Attack. Casual is how you normally play through each stage, jump around, find treasure, get to the end, simple stuff. Time Attack mode tasks you with completing a given level as fast as possible. There are bronze, silver, and gold ranks depending on how fast you can complete the stage. Your reward for achieving these different ranks is additional stickers to use on the sticker sheets purchased from shops. The sticker sheet is a fun little novelty addition but I didn’t spend much time interacting with it outside of decorating a sheet or two.
While the gameplay is satisfying and fun, I do have a couple of nitpicks in a few areas I would like to highlight, the first of which has to do with the controls. Most of the time the controls work perfectly fine but in instances where you are swinging from floating grapple points, the control feels less intuitive than in other areas. I found myself having a hard time honing in on when I should release from the grapple point in order to give myself a good launch versus flying straight into a hazard. This is compounded by how you need to be revving the drill in order to use the grapple hook, but it can’t just be held down as you need to use the drill button in order to launch yourself from a swing point. It just ends up feeling a bit clunky in practice.
The other area I had some nitpicks with came from the game’s boss fights. For the most part, the platforming in the game is balanced well, there are some tricky parts here and there that will give you a couple of restarts, but nothing that is super challenging. The boss fights on the other hand are a pretty significant step up in terms of difficulty. Part of this comes from the limited amount of hits you can take, which you are able to increase by spending treasure in the shop, but it’s a bit of a hassle to leave, visit the shop, buy more health, and restart the fight while you are still learning the boss’s attack patterns. Essentially the thing I noticed about the boss fights is that while the general gameplay pushes you to keep your momentum going and keep moving, the boss fights are more successfully overcome by patiently waiting for openings to attack safely. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but it just seems a bit at odds with what the gameplay leading up to these fights has been reinforcing. The final boss in particular was a tricky fight to overcome, involving juggling tracking projectiles, attacks that section off parts of the arena, as well as using the drill to maneuver around environmental hazards. Overall, the boss fights are by no means “bad”, they just feel a bit at odds with the rest of the game in terms of difficulty and implementation.
After taking my time to explore the stages and purchase all the unlockables, Pepper Grinder took me about 5 hours to finish. It’s a bit on the shorter side but as I mentioned at the top of the review, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It introduces enough to keep the game fresh while leaving you wanting just a bit more at the end. There is some replayability in going back to the Time Attack mode which is a fun challenge if you are looking to play with the mechanics of the game more once the credits roll. So while it may be brief, the game is of a high enough quality that it more than justifies its $15 USD price point.
In summary, Pepper Grinder is a well-made and satisfyingly fun 2D action platformer and yet another great game under the Devolver label. It’s unique and colorful, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are some areas that could be refined a bit further but by and large, if you are looking for a bit of retro-flavored platforming fun, look no further. Pepper Grinder is available on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store.
