Pepper Grinder Review – Drill-y Good

From the very first trailer, Pepper Grinder has made it clear that its focus was on nail-biting, speedy precision platforming centred around the use of a massive drill to carve through the ground like a spiky mole. Add in a puntastic name and gorgeous pixel art and I was like putty in Pepper Grinder’s sharp hands from the word go.

While Devolver’s last utility-weapon game (a genre I hope it continues to champion), 2023’s excellent Gunbrella, had a surprisingly engaging story that stood out as one of its highlights, Pepper Grinder goes in the opposite direction and almost entirely forgoes telling one. All you need to know is that you’re Pepper, your big multifunctional drill is Grinder, and a bunch of goblins with drill-shaped targets on their back have stolen your treasure.

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Pepper Grinder Preview – I Dig Dug It

An hour with Pepper Grinder had me begging for more fast-paced drill-based platforming.

The lack of narrative focus would bother me in any other game, but it’s clearly not where Pepper Grinder’s heart lies. Instead, it puts all of its eggs into one big, beautiful gameplay basket and comes out the other side with the most satisfying 2D platforming omelette I’ve eaten in some time.

For someone carrying a massive construction tool around wherever she goes, Pepper has some surprising platforming chops of her own and can jump around with the best of them, but things really get magic when Grinder gets involved. While digging into softer surfaces like dirt and sand, Pepper rockets around like a pointy missile, taking out anything in her path and darting forward whenever she drills out of the ground.

This unique mechanic turns Pepper Grinder’s platforming into a careful balance of guiding Pepper as she quickly dives in and out of platforms to collect treasure and make her way to the exit flag at the end of the level. It’s a little tough to master (and even tough to keep an eye on at times) with how fast Pepper moves around, but once you do, going at Mach-10 speeds feels like second nature and is incredibly satisfying to get right as you carve your way through some unnervingly tight challenges.

Pepper Grinder’s core drilling mechanics are so fast-paced and satisfying that I would have been happy if every level focused exclusively on that, but the biggest ace hiding up Pepper Grinder’s sleeve is how many different uses your new drill-shaped best friend has.

Remarkably, almost every single level in Pepper Grinder has a unique mechanic for you to mess around with, whether it’s using the drill to control a snowmobile and ram goblins off the icy road or jumping inside a massive mech that can run through buildings and shrugs off bullets like they’re wads of paper spat through a straw.

This unending inventiveness also applies to the levels themselves, which all have a unique gimmick or two that sets them apart from each other. Some will have you avoiding explosive mines that have to be carefully drilled around (a true challenge considering how fast the drill propels you forward), while others have you flipping switches and raising platforms with your drill to create a path forward.

Pepper Grinder even makes water levels fun by having you dive in and out of the waves like the lovechild of a dolphin and a unicorn. The constant deluge of new and inventive mechanics means that you’re always building upon the central drilling gameplay and, more importantly, never getting bored.

You simply never know what Pepper Grinder is going to throw at you next, but it’s almost always something inventive and engaging. While the main adventure is a little shorter than I was hoping at around four hours (with the only replay value being time trials, collectible-hoovering, and going back to specific levels that are just that good), those four hours are packed full of creative ideas wrapped around the excellent central mechanic.

Not every drill ability or unique environmental gimmick is something to get revved up about, however. While I cheered for joy when the grappling hook started showing up in more than one level, I let out a massive groan when the gatling gun attachment popped up in a level or when I was faced with massive cannons that usually led to some of Pepper Grinder’s most demanding precision platforming.

While Pepper Grinder is never a breezy ride, there are times when its difficulty spikes frustrate more than they entertain. I love it when a game tests how much I’ve mastered its mechanics, but some of the later missions, like an elevator ride that has you gunning down a seemingly endless number of enemies, can feel like they come out of nowhere. The last few levels are begging for a few more checkpoints in between these tough moments.

Even if some of the boss battles and tougher platforming sections made me want to cry and the relatively short run-time had me done with Pepper’s adventure quicker than I’d like, Pepper Grinder is one of the most entertaining 2D platformers in recent memory and one that pushes its unique selling point to the limit. Pepper Grinder is drill-y good.

Pepper Grinder

Reviewed on PC.

Pros

• Excellent central drilling mechanic
• Tons of variety in each level
• Fast-paced platforming never gets old

Cons

• Frustrating difficulty spikes
• Short run-time and little replay value

Score: 4/5. A PC code was provided by the publisher.

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