Looking at this game as an iteration of Wario Land, it's fascinating to see not only what's borrowed and repurposed, but how many fresh ideas keep coming to the table. At their cores, Wario Land and Pizza Tower are one in the same - 2D platformers with tight controls that encourage a keen eye. Clever players who are able to read the level's design cues on enemy placements and power up abilities will be rewarded with all of the secrets and high scores. Peppino can also transform in grotesque and hysterical ways just like Wario, and he's also got a charging grab, a dash, a ground pound and the works.

Where Pizza Tower departs from Wario Land however, is how it keeps players engaged with it's core gameplay and how it uses its powerup transformations. Wario's design strengths were in re-contextualizing his base transformations into different scenarios based on the level design. For instance, the designers will teach us in the early levels that Zombie Wario is paper thin and can slip through floors, whereas in later levels we discover the zombie's usefulness as a tool to get through walls that would otherwise shock you. Pizza Tower doesn't do this. Peppino has several transformations that are extremely similar, like Zombie Wario and Snowball Wario, but the difference is, these transformations rarely last longer than one stage. Every single level has some kind of unique design that brings with it a unique gameplay twist. It's not just the levels that change, Peppino changes too, and it's this variety that makes the 7 hours of Pizza Tower so effortless to play through. You're always playing something fresh, and that's before you even discuss the 90's throwback art style or Wario-type soundtrack.

The other major distinction Pizza Tower has from Wario Land is it's focus on going fast and maintaining a flow. Peppino would destroy not just Wario, but also Sonic the Hedgehog in a footrace if it meant his pizzeria depended on it. Hold the dash button and watch him crash through enemies and walls at mach 9. It's great fun, and unlike Sonic the Hedgehog which forces you to a halt to tackle it's trickier platforming sections, Pizza Tower doesn't care in the slightest if you're going for a quick trot or a dead-on sprint. The levels are designed in such a way to keep your speed up at all times if you can utilize Peppino's moveset to the fullest. In classic Wario fashion, however, there's no punishment for taking your own pace and searching out all the secrets if you choose to do that instead. It's incredible fun to try and balance the two play styles to where you move very fast, but not so fast that you end up crashing head-first into every wall.

Pizza Tower is ingenious, and it really is a wonder why nobody else has tried to copy the Wario formula in 25 years. It's a goldmine of untapped potential, and Pizza Tower proves the point with excellent craftsmanship. It's fun, clever, exhilarating, hysterical, unhinged, and AGGRESSIVELY weird. Wario himself would be proud, and I really do hope this marks the beginning of taking Wario's design philosophies and expanding them to other fresh ideas and genres.

Final Time: 6:49:22
Damage Taken: 176
Total Score: 252986
Enemies Killed: 2141
Tower : 77%