Pepper Grinder is an indie darling that’s finally making its way to Xbox. It feels a lot like a lost arcade title. You take on the role of Pepper, a treasure hunter, who uses her grinder to dig through dirt, rock, snow, and more. You’ll collect gems, and turnips, murder bad guys, make daring escapes, and maybe she’ll just steal your heart.
PEPPER
The game begins with you washing ashore, unconscious. Everything in Pepper Grinder is spites and 2d planes and I think it looks great. You are the Pepper, of Pepper Grinder, and your main gameplay mechanic is your… Grinder! There are no twinks or bears to be found with this grinder though, instead, you’ll burrow your way through the environment as you platform through each play area. Things start in a sandy beach biome, then move to a rocky volcano filled with magma. You’ll hit snow and the other regions as you work your way through this roughly four-hour title. Don’t let that short runtime get you down as Pepper Grinder is a grind-fest, for the leaderboard!
Your initial run through a level is rarely going to be your fastest. Things get tough early and you’ll have four pips of health to start with, losing them all sends you back to your last checkpoint. Those checkpoints are decently generous and I didn’t struggle once I got a hold of the game’s movement. Pepper holds on to that Grindr for dear life, no matter how hard it penetrates. You’ll use the right trigger to rev up your mighty machine and A while in the ground to do a speed boost. This can lead to massive jumps when you push your way through the holes to a powerful climax.
You’re essentially surfing through material, which you then pop out of to either do normal jump platforming or acrobatically flying from grind to grind. The controls never get too complicated, giving you a grappling hook on X and a few other things to worry about. Where Pepper Grinder shines is in that feeling of constant flow as you penetrate every orifice in site on the way to your end-of-level goal. The only other thing you’ll do often is jump when you’re on the boring surface of an area. Pepper doesn’t have the greatest hops, her power comes in the form of mighty, meaty thrusts as she finishes a grind.
GRINDER
The game is 2D with a pixel-art style that would look at home on a Sega Saturn. Silkily animated, Pepper pops into the ground when she starts grinding hard. There’s a lot of random spectacle in the background at times too, like a giant walking around in the early stages and it ramps up throughout the game giving it a mystique the lack of a story wouldn’t normally allow. I played on a Series X and the game seemed to be running at 60fps, I do wish games of this style would push for a 120hz mode even if it doesn’t change the frame rate as an extra response in a tight platformer like this is king.
The music is nothing but solid bops. None of it was too memorable but it got me in the mood to grind some monster butts until their skeletons popped out. There’s not much story, no voice acting, and I think the game is better for it. A recent port on Xbox, Neon White, did its best to be a fun/zany anime romp and it made everything drag. Pepper Grinder is great for a quick hook-up, of fun! I played over a week without ever closing the title and Quick Resume worked like a champ. Zero bugs, and crashes, came my way which is always a bonus.
Wrapping Things up
Pepper Grinder is short, fun, and nails what it’s going for. It’s fun solo but if you can convince a few curious friends the leaderboard system could give you way more than four hours of a good time.
Pepper Grinder
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Looks good
- Plays well
- Solid Bops
- Grinding Monster Butts
CONS
- Bit short if you're not into leaderboards
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