Peppino: Pizza Tower's Secret Sauce -- Designing For Anxiety

Anxiety is my favorite pizza topping

Y'know, for as many Pizza Tower videos there are, I haven't seen any that put a big focus on how Peppino ties the whole thing together. Great to see this man get more appreciation here, 'cause after everything he went through to save his restaurant, he truly deserves it.

FUN FACT: ya know how when you stand still, youd hear peppino speak? but its like random gibberish
well he actually says the word "PARANOID" but at different tones (low tones or high tones, fast or slow)
so not only does he have anxiety, he is paranoid.

Upon learning Pizza Tower came out, I put a meme on the subreddit that said Peppino was Wario's upgrade. I'm glad to sush ideas return.

This video is cool, makes me wish Italians were real

Ok, one was bad enough, but TWO videos taking a wonderful cartoonishly fun game and using it to fill me with existential dread over the general state of our time is just mean Pyrr! Like holy shit I admire the writing chops it takes to pull that off and goddamn is this a good video, but also how dare you!

I think one of Peppino's best, understated moments, is when he reaches the top of the tower and sees his little pizza place.

Canonically, he's not a great chef. His pizza is just "OK" at best. He's always scraping by.

But dammit, it's his. That little place is his, and even with everything that's happened, he's willing to fight for it.

Can you do a video on dj Octavio please? Or just Splatoon in general.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Peppino Spaghetti is like if Wario in Smash Bros was completely based on his WarioLand/World series.. with none of the mediocre WarioWare bullshit to get in the way. He is a greasy, selfish, and hot-headed freight train of manic destruction, cooked to perfection.

I realized during watching this video - that's also the reason why you can't die. See at the end of the day, dying in a timed section is release of tension - it's over, take a breather and try again. But not in Pizza Tower. You fuck up during the escape sequence? You lose time and scramble to get back on track. The more you get hit, the worse it feels, but you cannot die to end it.
Except the bosses, which are exact opposite - for a P rank you need to not get hit AT ALL. Even once. Simplest attack of any boss becomes terrifying in this context.
All the mechanics are about making the player fell the same anxiety Peppino does.

Hell yeah

Note: The Peppino war vet thing isn't cut lore, McPig has said on his discord that it is canon, and the time he said it wasn't canon was just because he was shitfaced.

A detail that's Something I love with the combo system, and by proxy the final boss fight, is that Peppino's idle animation goes from Panic mode, to Angry mode, to "I'M SO ABSOLUTELY DONE WITH EVERYTHING AND WANT IT ALL DESTROYED" mode, selling the idea that the longer the chef lasts, the less everything around him stands a chance. Which makes said final boss SO DAMN EUPHORIC.

The Fake Peppino narration gave me an upset stomach, outstanding work

This video reminds me a lot of the way english teachers tell you to think about things. Not that that's a bad thing, it was definitely a unique perspective on Peppino compared to other videos.

This did not have to be 20 minutes.

pizza tower good, this video, also very good

wait there's themes in the game?

I got the dark cook clothes, which can only be earned by getting no damage for every boss fight

Good video, but only if it was play on 1.5 speed

This may sound silly but you have know idea how excited I was hearing the song in the credits/outro and getting a massive rush of nostalgia from the cars 2 game

"Pizza tower's good stuff"
And that's all i need to hear!

The sprites are made with aseprite

whenever i think of this game i think of this quote from Bumbles McFumbles:
"Well, let's see how this Italian man handles... actually, he can't handle any more!"

Ok well now you need to do the noise when he releases as a playable character

I just wanna say how well this video is edited for this topic, so many little quarter-second bits off a random utterance into the mic or like three frames of "what the hell was that I saw coming into frame"

Friendly reminder that Pepino's yell is the same one as the Orphan of Kos's have a nice day...do what you will with this information

When I first played through Pizza Tower the games final moments felt like an incredible climax, I enjoy achivement hunting and orginally didn't plan on doing all the S ranks until finding out they were required for it, going for them felt incredibly rewarding.
Thank you for the upload.

I've had a hard time getting invested in this game, but I couldn't figure out why. The more I think about it, the more I realize what was so off-putting about it. The game's art style and hyper animation reminds me of John K cartoons. I honestly find it off-putting because it reminds me of cartoons I never liked. I can't enjoy the gameplay if the entire thing reminds me of something I hate.

It's time for me, the one person who will defend Wario as a character!

I completely and utterly disagree with the sentiment that Wario is meant to be laughed "at," at least in the context of the Wario Land series. For one thing, the man faces more defeats than victories: the statue he rescues from the Syrup Pirates is shanghaied by some inverse Wario with an "M" on his hat; the events of Wario Land II, 2, and World are caused due to the actions of outside forces (the Syrup Pirates and Black Jewel directly destroy his home and valuables, and Wario would never have discovered the Music Box if his plane hadn't broken down, not to mention it sucking him in without warning); hell, in 4, the one time he finds someone who he could see as a romantic partner she vanishes into the ether along with any evidence of the Golden Pyramid.

For another, he actively embraces the transformations he has to undertake even if they distort him physically. Remember, in Land II and 3, Wario is incapable of dying save for one solitary attack by Rudy; he takes everything on the chin because he damn well knows it'll get him to his next treasure. Laughing at that is like laughing at Indiana Jones for triggering a booby trap; it's just part of the procedure.

And Wario, despite his immense wealth, is also an everyman to some extent! He watches too much TV, is quick to take opportunity of a good deal on steak dinners, and has everything taken away from him by people who abuse his abilities and desires. While he's far from a family man, per se, he is still someone the audience can see themselves in, albeit in a distorted perspective. If Wario is laughed at, the audience thus must be laughing at themselves as well.

No, Wario can't and won't hold a candle to Peppino in terms of embodying anxiety or feeling like a power fantasy in the sense he provides. But Wario still speaks to us at a base level, a man who will do anything and everything to get what he wants even when it's taken away from him after all of his hard work. Wario cannot and will not be replaced, and to even suggest that's a possibility is to discredit a little part of ourselves.

"The most dangerous person is one who has nothing left to lose"

When I saw Pizza Tower for myself I noticed the same details, from Pippino never being confident, and the pizza places strewn in the tower, but I could not put into words what I was picking up, they we're just at the tip of my tongue. This video managed to take those words and then some, and explained it in great execution.
Amazing content, I'll be sure to check out more of your channel!

YES YES I WAS HOPING YOUD MAKE ONE ABT HIM

I watched this video being edited lol

Dude, I must congratulate and thank you for sharing this sensible and thought-out interpretation that is not the usual subjectivist juice the internet is chock-full of. There is no overinterpretation either, there is no fan trying to make their taste look intelectually and culturally superior. I'm even more convinced that Peppino is indeed one of the best characters until now conceived for videogame media. As a comic book artist and art educator, I will surely take your words into account. I've subscribed to your channel now.

lol fuck off
-1 view

is this why people keep comparing pizza tower to celeste 🤢

I think there are two points one you glossed over a bit and another that mightve been overlocked. Wario is proactive and confident, even though hes a jerk he usually seems to help accidentally and isnt that hated. However because Warior always struts and smirks you dont feel bad for him because hes clearly walking it off. He is the architect of his own destiny and will willingly get bitten by a zombie if it gets him 50 bucks, so you dont feel bad for him because ya know, he doesnt feel bad either. Also Peppinos eternal panic gives a illusion of speed critical to the sortof speed run optimized style that not even sonic can mimic because hes cool. Its like how older cars can feel faster then newer ones even at slower speeds.

I dont think the war vet backstroy was cut, its just not mentioned in game.

TFW you want to play this game but only have a Mac

When i first got my p-rank for bloodsauce dungeon i was so anxious that it felt like my nerves were full of pop-rocks. In that moment i was like "ah, so this is what peppino feels"😂

I think one of the more interesting things about Peppino is that in the end he doesn’t really become successful at the end. He’s still working the 9-5 job, still worrying about the bills, and while all the bosses show up for a party, there’s no guarantee they’ll be regular costumers. There’s a very real chance that he’s gone back to the status quo at the begging of the game, albeit with a couple of new nuisances thrown into the mix.

…but it’s still a happy ending, because Peppino no longer has to throw himself through a death gauntlet to save his business. (For now.) He may have risked his life just to go back to misery, but that misery is nothing compared to the absolute PAIN that is video game platforming bullshit. Peppino may not like his status quo, but he’ll take it over the insanity of Pizzahead’s gauntlet.

In a world where every video game is a escapist fantasy, Pizaa Tower has the balls to be an escapist fantasy that points out that being a protagonist of a escapist fantasy won’t make you cool, won’t be much fun, and won’t give you the success you crave in life. The bad guys still lose, and in hilarious and humiliating ways to boot, but Peppino doesn’t so much win as survive. But that’s okay. Because the 9-5 grind might suck, but having to go through a video game in real life sucks worse, and making to the end of one deserves a celebration, even if it’s one where all you get is a free pizza, a slap on the back and a gift card with “a winner is you!” written on it.

Peppino may be the video game equivalent of Charlie Brown, but that doesn’t mean his “victory” isn’t a triumph.

This game deserved the attention it got and more. It's sad the gaming media let it fade from existence.

What happens if you sit at the title screen for 40 seconds is a perfect representation of how anxious Peppino is as a character, too.