Pepper Grinder Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Pepper Grinder (Xbox Series X)

Tuesday, December 17, 2024.
by Adam Dileva

If you’ve ever tried pepper from a box or shaker versus pepper from a grinder, it’s no contest, the pepper grinder creates a much more flavorful pepper. This is because the peppercorns pass through burrs and when ground up, releases the oils and aromas, so it’s fresher overall. What that has to do with Pepper Grinder the game, nothing, but I found that interesting and tried to see if it somehow related to the premise. I guess the title ties in since you’re playing a character named Pepper and have a drill, which is your grinder for digging through terrain and enemies. A stretch, I know.

Developed Ahr Ech and published by Devolver Digital, Pepper Grinder is primarily a 2D platformer, but your grinder allows you to tunnel and drill through certain terrain with ease. Washing up on shore after a shipwreck, Pepper uses her grinder she finds to track down those who stole her treasure. There’s not much more narrative than that, and the strength of the game is in its drilling gameplay and light puzzle elements. Pepper won’t have an easy time though, as mysterious enemies will appear to try and stop her.

Stages will have you trying to get to the end of each, and you’ll need to make use of your grinder to drill through terrain, as there’s not a simple path to get to where you need. Pepper can’t jump very high, so she will need to rely on her digging and launching from terrain. Your drill is not only used for digging and drilling through the ground, but to defeat enemies and even solve puzzles. This multipurpose tool is the only way Pepper will survive. Only specific terrain can be digged into, like soft rock and sand, while nearly everything else till be too tough, and you’ll always need to be wary to traps and other things that can hurt Pepper if you drill into them.

Maneuvering through the terrain is simple enough, aiming the direction you want to do with the Left Stick while holding Right Trigger to spin Grinder. You can boost to launch yourself out of the terrain, acting like a double jump of sorts, allowing you to reach higher or further digging points. There will also be grapple hook points later that allows Pepper to swing at certain points, launching off at the right time to make your next dig.

The best parts of Pepper Grinder is when she propels herself through the air with a burst of speed as she launches from one terrain and digs into another block of land to burrow forward. These jumps almost make you feel like a dolphin leaping out of the water before digging back into the terrain as you twist and turn.

There are a bosses at the end of each biome, each of which I found actually decently challenging. You’ll need to be clever with how best to take them down. For example, the first boss, a giant beetle, can only be damaged on its underside, so you’ll need to wait for it to crawl on the ceiling as you dig through the terrain and hit it in its weak spot. Another boss will require you to time your leaps out of digging to reach its weak spot to damage it. There’s only a few bosses but they were memorable enough, probably because of the retries it took. Dying on a boss when it’s about dead only to have to redo the whole fight from the beginning does get a bit frustrating after a dozen tries.

Until my double digit death on the first boss, I didn’t realize there were some interesting accessibility options buried away. While the game isn’t overly quick in is gameplay, there are times where you need to land specific leaps and time your grinding. There’s an option to slow the game speed down if you find it too quick and need a little more time to help with your reaction times, which definitely helped on the tricky bosses. You begin with only four health bars, but can unlock more as you progress to make things easier.

There are some light puzzle elements where Pepper will need to use her grinder in some different ways. Platforms can be raised and lowered if she uses her grinder on its special point. There’s also some walls that can be knocked certain ways by digging into them from a specific side. Flipping one latch might make another move as well, so you’ll need to figure out the order to do so to continue onwards. Sometimes she’ll even have access to a gatling gun, changing the gameplay for a brief time.

You’ll collect gems and coins throughout the levels, and on the world map you’ll be able to enter a shop where you can spend your collection. One of the coolest things to spend your gems on is stickers. Yes, stickers. These can be then placed in your sticker book, creating a scene however you like with your unlocked stickers. It’s a cute way to add something a little extra. There are even hidden collectables for those wanting to spend the time and find everything Pepper Grinder has to offer, as well as Time Attack option when replaying levels for something different.

The world of Pepper Grinder is based in pixel art, but the animations are quite smooth and the environments quite colorful. Each biome looks unique from the last and it simply has a warm feeling to its aesthetic. Music matched the tone of the game but was completely forgettable, as I couldn’t hum any tunes afterwards while writing this.

A mix of combat, platforming and puzzle solving, Pepper Grinder is a cute indie game that will last a few hours, more if you want to collect everything. Once you get a feel for the controls, when levels flow, is when Pepper Grinder is at its best as you leap from one dig to the next.

**Pepper Grinder was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 7.5 / 10
Gameplay: 7.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 7.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Pepper Grinder (Xbox Series X)

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