Platformer Pepper Grinder Rewards Players for Grinding All the Way to the End!

Platformer Pepper Grinder is a simple yet beautifully curated game that is loud, kinetic, and volatile and rewards players for grinding all the way to the end of each stage.

Players take control of a girl named Pepper who becomes equipped with a large drill and goes on a rampage to escape the jaws of various monsters. The game largely lives up to its promise of high-octane platforming, digging, and managed disorder but is relatively short-lived for how amazing it is.

Grinding to the End!

Platformer Pepper Grinder Rewards Players for Grinding All the Way to the End! — Pepper Grinder is a platformer game that lets players take control of a young girl equipped with a drill to lay waste to monsters as she makes her way through patches after patches of earth.
(Photo : Ahr Ech, Devolver Digital / Screenshot taken from Steam)

The story of the game starts out when Pepper finds herself washed up on the shore of a goblin-infested land. On her way to escaping the monster-filled region, she will learn to dig, pick up a grappling hook, and gain various attachments for her drill that will drastically alter her abilities.

These would include a machine gun and later on even a mech. Pepper Grinder starts out fairly humble before it explodes into a loud and unhinged journey for players to enjoy. However, at its core, the game is a platformer that is built around one really great mechanic, which it fortunately got right, according to Kotaku.

Movement within the world of Pepper Grinder is the key to success and why it works as well as it does. Allowing players to burrow into certain surfaces and then spring themselves out on the other end never feels like it gets old over the title's roughly four-hour runtime.

There is also a bonus level in the third world that urges players to keep their momentum as they fly between falling blocks of ice down one long corridor. Many players would most likely find that it is easily one of the most thrilling levels that they have played in a long time.

The main issue that some players found with Pepper Grinder is brevity. Some of the game's first few stages and worlds start out slow as they lay out the foundation thoroughly enough that players can feel experienced enough in the latter stages.

Creative Use of Mechanics

The game spends a lot of time guiding players through the motions of the gameplay and it introduces new mechanics as quickly as you get used to the previous one. This means that players would most likely miss out on spending a lot of time tinkering with new aspects of the game before being forced to move on with the story.

Everything within the game benefits from a smartly streamlined control setup that is built around a couple of face buttons and the right trigger. These would feel intuitive for players as they seamlessly shift between boring holes through the earth and blasting bullets through the multitude of enemies that they encounter, said IGN.

Despite Pepper Grinder's pixel art and cheery disposition, it can sometimes get extremely difficult to get through levels, particularly among the platforming challenges. Players will sometimes have to boost jumps at the right time in order to make it to the other side.

Some also consider the game's boss battles to be the hardest levels that they encounter. These are thrilling battles that make creative use of the mechanics that have been introduced so far. And because the bosses have a lot of health, the stages are mostly a test of endurance for the players, according to GameInformer.