Pizza Tower / YMMV

Memetic Mutation has its own page.

Accidental Innuendo: The Noise's second judgement ("I'm Going To Kill You") reads "I'm Coming" on the file select screen. Before an update fixed it, it just so happened to always be associated with the "Psycho" Pizzaboy face, which has a Slasher Smile and is sweating profusely and looked a lot like an Immodest Orgasm. Yeah... Woe betide you if you got it on 69%.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Considering how bizarrely playful the Final Boss is towards Peppino, complete with an implied obsession given his development of both Peppino-like robots and clones in the Tower, Pizzahead's Fighting Clown boss fight, and how we never actually see the laser cannon he had threatened to blow up Peppino's Pizza with, the whole incident might have been a huge prank (that only Pizzahead would find funny, mind you).
- In the very final level, "The Crumbling Tower of Pizza", were the bosses following Peppino and the gang to save their own hides from the crumbling tower and knowing Peppino would lead them out to safety by simply following him, or was Peppino being merciful to them and saving them from the collapsing tower (despite having beaten the crap out of them just moments earlier)? After all, while they were antagonistic to him, they weren't the ones that were actively threatening to destroy his pizzeria like Pizzahead was.
- Quite a few pre-release comics involving the Noise show him in a much more serious and unhappy mood than the Noise we see in-game, which led to the theory that the Noise's wacky, energetic side is an act he puts on just to further annoy Peppino.
- Interpretations of Fake Peppino, as expected given his enigmatic nature, tend to go all over the place. Is he a savage skinwalker who wants to Kill and Replace Peppino? Is he a playful and jovial creature who idolizes Peppino and wants to be friends with him? Maybe both or something else entirely?
Alternative Joke Interpretation: Was The Noise's ability to scare off Fake Peppino scripted? Or was he just yelling at him for going off-script in regards to the movie his playthrough makes up?
Award Snub:
- Despite many expecting the game to win the "Best Debut Indie Game" award at The Game Awards 2023 for how popular it was at the start of the year, it ended up losing to Cocoon (2023) instead. To say people got mad is one hell of an understatement; many Pizza Tower fans started contesting that PT should have won due to Cocoon not having anywhere near the same level of acclaim, as it had just come out two months before the event. Others started accusing The Game Awards of being biased in favor of conventionally artsier games rather than something adventurous and different like PT. Many fans were also asserting that Cocoon didn't belong in the rankings for debut indie games because Jeppe Carlsen (the man behind Cocoon) had also worked on Limbo (2010) and INSIDE (2016), and Cocoon publisher Annapurna Interactive is worth millions of dollars and is headquartered in Los Angeles, as opposed to PT being self-published and made on Patreon funds with no more than 5 developers. This has led to Cocoon getting fiercely attacked by fans of the game (to the point of it even being review bombed on Steam).
- Happened again when Pizza Tower lost the 2023 Steam Award for Best Video Game Soundtrack to a port of The Last of Us Part 1, a remaster that didn't even release in 2023. This naturally caused the fandom to riot, especially due to the growing Hype Backlash towards The Last of Us franchise as a whole, and how the port itself was widely panned by many in general, with some even calling it a Porting Disaster.
Awesome Art: The 90s-style animation, mixed with the pixelated edutainment art style, makes for this unique flavor that few games ever replicated.
Awesome Bosses: The fight against Pizzaface is a cathartic streak of fights. On top of the Pizza Tower (with a far away shot of Peppino's restaurant), Pizzaface himself spawns many enemies for you to throw at him and knock life outta him, and in the second phase, Pizzahead, the true main antagonist of the game, comes out of the Pizzaface mech and starts fighting you, which massively changes the tone of the fight from an epic climax to a chaotic fight against a living cartoon. Once he's defeated, he summons back the previous bosses for you to fight again intending to Boss Rush you, but Peppino has none of it and starts beating them up so rapidly that it drains half of the health of all the bosses, which is especially cathartic if you didn't like the idea of a typical boss rush. Once you get to Pizzahead again, he makes many mocking moves to try and hit you, and once his last healthbar is drained, Peppino deals him the longest beatdown of them all, which climactically ends up in him crashing his head on top of the tower, and finally destroying it.
Awesome Levels:
- "Pizzascape" is where the game truly gets into the swing of things after John Gutter and does not disappoint. The level is well paced, moderately challenging, introduces transformations with the fun knight transformation, and has incredible music.
- "Oregano Desert", an introduction level of Western District, does an incredible job at that. Set in a desert with cheeseslime tribesmen with tomahawks and ritual dances that summon stormclouds, unique pizza stores that act as mini gauntlets you must pass to rescue Toppins and even a UFO in the middle of the level, it features many interesting mechanics from aforementioned storm clouds and cows that can either help or detriment you, Firemouth transformation that kills enemies on contact, allows air dash and destruction of TNT blocks to simply destructible blocks that require strategic approach if you want to collect most points, all set to incredible beats of "Oregano Mirage" and it's more sci-fi version when you're inside the UFO. Certainly puts many desert levels out there to shame.
- "Wasteyard" presents a tone shift to eerie and depressing in a wacky game yet is still an absolute blast to play. The level is short but makes excellent use of the ghost pepper transformation to speed through obstacles, has more complex level design, the track is uniquely soulful but incredibly fun to listen to, and features a unique Pizza Time where the Pillar John's ghost chases you.
- "Crust Cove" is a beach/cave/ship level that features groovy pineapple foes, water currents, captain enemy that bombards you and dash pads to boost your speed. Then you actually get inside the ship, where you make use of Barrel transformation that allows you to steamroll anything on your path at great speeds. In addition, there is a Chef Task sidequest of looking for red X's with treasure chests that give additional gold.
- "Deep Dish 9" takes you to truly exotic locations, since you first have to traverse a gigantic rocket ship, than a colourful planet of Olive aliens and even a cheese planet, boarding rockets to break asteroids or actually travel between planets, as well as anti gravitational olive bubbles that send you upwards, set to otherworldly tune that is "Extraterrestrial Wahwahs".
- "Golf" was initially created as an April Fools Day demo that was intentionally frustrating, and aside from the debut of Fake Peppino, was forgettable. Its final incarnation in the full game has reworked the golfing sections to work in tandem with dashing through it without a care in the world, the music is extremely catchy, and uses the golf ball transformation to full effect, culminating with a Pizza Time involving a mad dash through a golf course and two extended Ball sections, great for keeping up/creating a nice combo.
- "Don't Make a Sound" is a bizarre (and surprisingly legitimately scary) Stealth-Based Mission that plays homage to Five Nights at Freddy's, complete with the series' staple animatronic Jump Scares. What makes this level especially memorable is the climax where Peppino gets a shotgun and proceeds to massacre all the previously invincible animatronics and enemies while escaping.
- Despite also counting as That One Level as seen below, "WAR" is also beloved by many, often for the same reasons. It's a suitably difficult challenge for the penultimate level, it's built primarily around the devastating shotgun powerup, its unique timer gimmick is intense and engaging, and all of the gameplay is backed by the godly soundtrack that is Thousand March. Many people couldn't ask for a better leadup to the final boss.
- And lest us not forget "The Crumbling Tower Of Pizza", where you knock out the original Pillar John, starting the sequence where the entire tower collapses, putting you on Pizza Time for entirety of the level. During the level itself, you need to navigate the level hubs and intermissions between them to race to the entrance of the tower while rescuing bosses, Gustavo and Brick, Mr Stick and even Mort the chicken. Not only that, but a great majority of enemies from across and great deal of mechanics from across the whole game make their final appearance in an attempt to stop you, all set to an amazing send off theme that is "Bye Bye There! "
Awesome Music: Y'ALL READY TO GET FUNKY!?
Badass Decay: Pizzaface is much, much less of a threat during his boss fight than he is at any other point of the game; when he appears should your timer run out during Pizza Time, merely touching him is an instant game-over. As a boss, however, you can not only survive several direct hits from him (it's 6 at best) like you would against any other boss, you can also beat the toppings off him with relative ease. The boss fight remains sufficiently challenging and cathartic in spite of that.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Even in a game filled with Surreal Humor, there are still some incredibly random events that suddenly happen just because:
- The Bacon Room, a surprisingly spooky bacon-themed hidden room in The Pig City. The music switches to Meatophobia, the implications of a bacon room in Pig City begin to settle in, and there's a barely visible outline of a much more realistic-looking pig in the background… and then it gives you a thumbs up and goes away. The encounter isn't referenced anywhere else.
- In The Pig City, Pizzaface driving Peppino away from jail in a cab during Pizza Time. Why Pizzaface is "awake" and helping Peppino out is anyone's guess and frankly shouldn't matter.
- One of the Jump Scares you can get in the "Don't Make a Sound" level is an unexpectedly silly depiction of Peppino and the animatronics celebrating Oktoberfest. It's never referenced again and serves only to break the tension of the level.
- During "Unearthly Blues" (the soundtrack for John Gutter), the song abruptly shouts "MONKEY!" in response to one particular instrument, and carries on like it never happened. It's not quite a Non Sequitur, as there are monkeys in the level, but it still comes out of nowhere.
Breather Boss: If you play as the Noise when fighting the Vigilante, he becomes much easier, as The Noise’s bombs can knock away one of his health points when two are thrown at him, making it almost impossible for him to get off an attack. Even the final quick draw section becomes easy — in fact, the Noise cheats and shoots the Vigilante before the command to draw is even given, making it impossible to fail. That said, he's one of the harder bosses to beat without wasting a single bomb as his boss fight requires usage of bombs to beat him.
Catharsis Factor:
- The second half of "Don't Make A Sound". After a surprisingly tense first half forcing you to hide from invincible Toppin Monsters, you're given a shotgun capable of wrecking them with one shot. One particular section during Pizza Time allows you to take out four of them at once for extra catharsis.
- Anyone who finds the Boss Rush trope to be tiring will no doubt find it immensely satisfying when, in the final stretch of the game, Pizzahead trying to pull this stunt only leads Peppino to absolutely lose his shit and deliver each of the prior bosses a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
Cheese Strategy: During boss fights, wall climbing can be used in order to avoid some of their attacks without much effort, like Pepperman's shoulder bashing, The Noise's pogo stick and skateboard attacks, and the Fake Peppino clones' grabbing and head running.
Common Knowledge:
- "The Death That I Deservioli" is commonly thought to have once been considered as The Vigilante's escape theme, which is false. This rumor started from a fan mod using it as his theme.
- Contrary to popular belief, unlike other bosses, the fourth boss, Fake Peppino, was never once considered to be playable, and no such code exists in the files.
- Contrary to what some fans believe, collecting all 5 Toppins to get the P-Rank is not a requirement for it; while it's helpful that each one gives a thousand points, it isn't a necessity.
Crossover Ship: Pairing together Peppino and Anton from Antonblast is popular, due to both games being platformers inspired by the Wario Land series, and thus both characters can be seen as having branched off from Wario. Even the creator of Antonblast has drawn art of the two of them making out (intended as a joke making fun of Fandom Rivalry, but still).
Crosses the Line Twice: When you play as The Noise, you fight The Doise, who after his defeat, dies for real. You can then rematch him, and all that remains is his bloody corpse, lying lifelessly on the ground. Wait, that means he's already dead — hooray, a free P-Rank! Furthermore, The Doise and Peddito are fan characters. Imagine having your recolor OCs being canonized just for one to be a creepypasta monster that brutally kills the other. The Doise also stays dead during the Boss Rush, which means Pizzahead just grabs the corpse and tosses it in front of him. Naturally, this means you don't have to fight him here, either. You can even obtain his outfit by breakdancing on the corpse during that fight.
Delusion Conclusion: During the War level, the player encounters mass-produced Peppino clones. They pursue Peppino while mimicking his animations, melting into the ground instead of being blown outside of the screen when defeated. With Word of God confirming that Peppino has some kind of PTSD and those enemies being different enough from a similar boss to count as separate entities, theories emerged that Peppino was hallucinating them, or more broadly, that the War level in general is a stress-induced nightmare/flashback to Peppino's own days as a soldier because of how different it is to every other level in the game.
Demonic Spiders:
- Mini Johns are a bit of a wake-up call in terms of combat. They cannot be scared by Peppino running at Mach 2+, their slidey walking is somewhat hard to work around, and their punches almost always connect with you if you thoughtlessly run towards them too slowly.
- Many enemies will freak out and drop their guard if you're running at top speed and let you to plow through them without a second thought, and the ones that are completely unfazed have long telegraphs to attacks to make up for such. The two big exceptions are Snowmen (whose carrot noses hurt from the front like a Forknight) and Cardboard Tanks (who shoot homing missiles straight forward on sight), and since you're moving so fast, there's almost no chance you'll be able to react fast enough to dodge or parry them.
- Pickles appear in Deep-Dish 9 and Gnome Forest; in the former level, you play as Peppino and can generally scare them by running at Mach speed so they don't attack. However, when playing as Gustavo and Brick in the latter, the duo's heavier and less fluid moveset means that you often have to contend with the enemy's attack: If they notice you, they'll teleport directly to your location after a brief delay and then electrify themselves, forcing you to dodge and then quickly counterattack if you want to maintain your combo. While teleporting, they can't be interrupted, either — once they see you, you have no choice but to dodge or parry.
- The Tomato Toppin Monster from "Don't Make A Sound". Not only is it capable of flying and passing through walls, making it a much bigger nuisance than the rest of its animatronic brethren (especially in the area it is found, which is highly vertical and difficult to rush through), it may also trigger a Jump Scare without necessarily needing to make contact with Peppino, possibly due to a bug.
Diagnosed by the Audience: A substantial number of fans interpret Peppino as having generalized anxiety disorder and/or PTSD thanks to his jittery nature, his constant freakouts at the bizarre situations he finds himself in, and in the case of the latter interpretation, the incredibly stressful nature of "WAR" (the title card for which depicts Peppino on a battlefield). While McPig openly denied the theory of Peppino being a Shell-Shocked Veteran, characterizing him as a Phony Veteran at best, it hasn't stopped fans from interpreting him as being plagued by war trauma.
Difficulty Spike:
- Pizzascape comes after the tutorial and John Gutter, and is much more confusing to navigate than either of them, having lots of criss-crossing paths which make navigating to Pillar John and then back to the exit during Pizza Time harder, even with Gustavo and Mr. Stick pointing the way out. It also introduces transformations, which become a regular fixture of levels going forward, with the powerful but hard to control Knight transformation. Finally, it springs Pizza Time on the player suddenly ^note, stressing out the player as they scramble back to the exit under a time limit, whereas the levels before it clearly warned the player of Pillar John's presence and gave them time to psych up before breaking him.
- Bloodsauce Dungeon has a cramped, vertical design, with enemies and hazards placed in such a way as to easily end combos if one isn't careful. While not that much harder than the other first-floor levels if played normally, it's the first major roadblock for players attempting to P-Rank the levels in order. It's even more frustrating as The Noise, since it has a lot of high walls during the Escape sequence that requires the Super Jump to do since he can't climb up walls normally.
Discredited Meme:
- The "Pizza Tower Screaming" Meme has recieved some backlash due to overuse, including from LYON S.P.D., who created the animation the meme was based on and refused to reupload it once he got his channel back after it was deactivated.
- Jokes about Cocoon (2023) having snubbed Pizza Tower from the Best Debut Indie award have died down considerably, and are usually met with scorn as both fandoms are trying to move on from the incident.
Draco in Leather Pants:
- Fans are fond of portraying The Noise as a Punch-Clock Villain who is actually friendly to Peppino when not on the job. While The Noise is definitely the Sitcom Arch-Nemesis of the foes Peppino faces in the tower, he is still by no means amicable toward him.
- Likewise, fan consensus regarding Fake Peppino's nature generally tilts toward the positive, with him being often portrayed more as a weird but silly impostor trying to emulate Peppino rather than a Humanoid Abomination trying to Kill and Replace him. It helps that the credits show Peppino and his doppelganger on peaceful (if still apparently uneasy) terms.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Out of all the bosses on release, Fake Peppino stands out as the most popular. Likely due to the sheer Surreal Horror that is prevalent throughout his fight. Most infamously being the chase sequence in the end where he turns into a gigantic, bulbous head with a gaping maw and rapidly crawls towards our Peppino in a dark, cramped, purple hallway. It helps that the fight itself is generally considered to be one of the most enjoyable ones in the game, being well-balanced and just earnestly fun to fight and especially to speedrun or get the P-rank of. In addition, unlike all the other bosses, Peppino does not get to directly defeat them (at least until the Boss Rush), but just gets away to safety, leading to a lot of intrigue.
- Snick the Porcupine, introduced in the SAGE 2019 demo, is fairly popular, due to his silly premise (an imitation of Sonic the Hedgehog who seems to exist alongside him) and memorable design. There are some fans who wish that he remained playable in the final game, or at least had some themed levels.
- Despite appearing a whopping two times in-game (one of which is a hidden area), Noisette has proven to be surprisingly popular due to being The Smurfette of the game, her endearing Cloudcuckoolander mannerisms as seen in supplemental comics, as well as for being one of the nicer characters in Pizza Tower. Many fans are clamoring for her to play a larger role in a future update. As of The Noise update, she replaces Mr. Stick as the person you buy the boss gates from, and whenever the Noise pays her, she responds with giving him a big, sloppy kiss.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: The three levels in the fifth floor and before encountering the Final Boss are seen by some as the tower deliberately targeting Peppino's greatest fears: "Don't Make A Sound" depicts a decrepit bankrupt pizzeria, which Peppino's trying to prevent for his own going under, "WAR" is designed to target Peppino's PTSD (or delusions and/or thoughts about war), and "Pizzascare", a level that's deliberately reusing a lot of themes from a first floor level in "Pizzascape", represents the Pizza Tower itself.
Fandom Rivalry: Used to have a rivalry with Cocoon (2023), mostly due to Cocoon being seen by many Pizza Tower fans as having snubbed Pizza Tower's "Best Debut Indie Game" award, with many also trashing Cocoon for being too conventually artsy compared to Pizza Tower, which is more experimental. This is to the point where Cocoon got review-bombed on Steam by many Pizza Tower fans, simply due to this fact. However, this has since died down due to both fandoms getting sick of it.
Fanfic Fuel: There are people who wonder what a Pizza Tower cartoon would look like, and someone has come close to picturing what it would look like on Cartoon Network in the 90s.
Fan Nickname:
- The priest that removes your transformations is commonly called Pizza Pope.
- The Pepper Pizza from Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator is often called the "Satan's Choice Pizza" due to said pizza being on a pedestal which calls it as "Satan's Choice".
- Fake Peppino is often called "Peppinos Paghetti", since it sounds like a deliberately poor imitation of "Peppino Spaghetti". He's also called "Feppino" or "F Peppino" by some.
- Piece Of Towel, a humorous mangling of the game's title.
- Snick.exe is commonly nicknamed Snick.jpeg to differentiate him from Sonic.exe.
- The unnamed pumpkin ghost who chases you throughout Tricky Treat is commonly called Pumpkinface, due to him resembling Pizzaface, or Ghost Pumpkin.
Fanon:
- Fans often imagine Peppino being a war veteran (with PTSD or not), even if Word of God has already denied it. At the very least, it would somewhat explain how this seemingly average overweight cook is capable of athletic feats that would put olympic competitors to shame (besides Rule of Fun), as well as shed some light on why "WAR" is such a non-goofy and surprisingly stressful level.
- A very popular piece of fanon that is making the rounds is that the Final Boss was not interested in destroying Peppino's Pizzeria, but rather copying or taking it over, possibly using the Peppibots, Fake Peppino, or the Peppino clones from WAR to Kill and Replace the original one.
- Because of how he's presented in-game, fan works often portray Pepperman as Small Name, Big Ego, with him using overly complicated words and talking about obscure artists to make himself sound smarter. Based on this pre-release sketch comic◊ from McPig himself, which depicts Pepperman contemplating the "meaning" behind Noisette's outfit while using flowery artistic prose, it might not even be that far off base.
- In some fanart for the fourth boss, the knot on the waist ties on Fake Peppino's back acts like a tail, wagging when he's happy.
- It's common in fan works to imagine Fake Peppino as having a unique variation on Sdrawkcab Speech, where instead of actually speaking backward he replaces words with their antonyms, similar to Bizarro Superman or EarthBound's Moonsiders.
- It's common for fans to interpret Peppino's Italian gibberish that plays during his Idle Animations^noteLink to the sound effect here as him saying "Paranoid", as it would make sense for him to say.
- There are a good amount of people who think that the Vigilante is hunting Peppino down for an extra reason besides the pizza maker being accused of being a criminal thanks to Pizzaface and/or Peppino annihilating the Fun Farm on his way to the second boss fight, and it's related to the pizza chef mercilessly mauling down Cheeseslimes (or at least being accused of it) in his way and the gun-slinging cheese cowboy wanting to avenge his fallen brethren, given gameplay and the Vigilante being a really buffed up version of a Cheeseslime, it's fairly believable.
- It's very common in fan-works such as I Was a Middle-Aged Weretoon and Lyon SPD to have swear words get censored with the game's taunt sound effect.
Fanon Discontinuity: Word of God proclaiming that Peppino's a Phony Veteran at best hasn't stopped the fandom from depicting him as a genuine armed conflict veteran with PTSD.
Fanon Welding:
- Stemming from their Friendly Fandoms, a popular fanon cropped up that Peppino is the uncle of Madeline from Celeste.
- Another popular fanon based on a comic is that Kobeni from Chainsaw Man is the daughter of Peppino, and got her severe anxiety from him.
Fountain of Memes: Pizzahead himself is quite the popular character to meme fans, with memes such as "life unexpectancy" and some jokes related to his songs. His page on the Pizza Tower Wiki was among the most vandalized ones back when the wiki was on FANDOM. That's one of the reasons it has moved to Miraheze.
Friendly Fandoms:
- With Antonblast, as they are both 2D indie platformer games heavily inspired by Wario Land. It helps that the developers of both games are friends and actively promote each other's games (even making fun of people who think they are rivals), and Peppino was a playable character in Antonblast's predecessor, Antonball Deluxe.
- After the game's full release, due to the game's heavy emphasis on precision platforming and speedrunning, the fans of the game received a fairly large alliance with Celeste, with some fans even depicting Madeline and Peppino as a duo of unlikely friends due to both being anxiety-riddled superhumans who spend their games climbing a really tall structure. When not depicted as being close friends due to both being transgender,^note Peppino is depicted as either Madeline's uncle or at least friend that's like an uncle to her. It's also commonly joked that Peppino doesn't fully understand transgender subjects but tries his best for her and will not be happy if any transphobia is thrown her way.
- Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game's fanbase developed a friendship with Mort the Chicken since Mort outright appears in the game; in turn, a lot of people who played Pizza Tower ended up curious about just where Mort came from. It helps that the creator of Mort the Chicken is also a fan of Pizza Tower, and even allowed Mort to appear in the game royalty-free.
- Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog enjoy the game due to one of its demos being in the 2019 Sonic Amateur Games Expo, as well as having a focus on technical, high-speed platforming.
- A Hat in Time fans and Pizza Tower often overlap when it comes to the Collapsing Rift theme and stages. There's more than one remix where "It's Pizza Time", "Collapsing Rift", and "H-H-Hurry Up!" from Wario Land 4 have been remixed together.
- With Tribal Hunter of all things, with fans of both games drawing art of Munch getting involved in antics with Peppino.
- The game has some overlap with the The Amazing Digital Circus fandom, due to the latter also starring a protagonist whose typical emotional disposition ranges from "anxious dread" to "apocalyptic panic attack", and whom is also bedeviled by floating hellions of dubious morality. Also helping matters is that both are heavily inspired by cartoons and other media from The '90s.
- There's also some overlap with fans of Helluva Boss, mostly due to a semi-popular Game Mod replacing Peppino with Moxxie as the main character.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game has a sizeable following in Russia, with several prominent fan artists in the community hailing from the country. There was even an unofficial Russian play that recieved the Approval of God from Tour de Pizza!
Goddamned Bats:
- Forknights are well-known momentum killers thanks to being invulnerable from the front, and thus deal damage if Peppino attempts to rush them head on without scaring them. They are also the most common enemies in the first floor.
- While less common than the Forknights, Ranch Shooters are known to be a massive pain in the only level where they prominently appear in (Fast Food Saloon), as they can easily kill Peppino's momentum due to instantly firing a bullet the moment he enters their range of vision unless scared, requiring Peppino to parry them with very little margin for error. The fact they usually appear in tight corridors or areas where you can't jump without losing your progress definitely doesn't help.
Good Bad Bugs: It's possible to have Peppino unleash his rage on Gustavo by accident during the final boss fight, leaving the vulnerable boss frozen in place until Gustavo respawns.
- If a runaway bomb from The Noise is still in play during the high noon draw section of The Vigilante fight and it hits him, he'll be defeated during the close up, which absolutely fits The Noise's MO to a tee.
Heartwarming Moments:
- If the player gets all the Tower's Secret Treasures, during the ending, Peppino is able to resurrect Pillar John and restore him to his true form. After the non-pillar John gives Pizzahead a good what-for for what he did, he is reunited with his brother Gerome and smiles happily; his brother even breaks his usually unamused expression to celebrate in glee, and even Peppino smiles a little at this moment. It looks like he was also able to help someone else out, too!
- The Vigilante's old Western boss fight is a chaotic shoot-out, with the cowboy Cheeseslime donning multiple forms of weaponry to fight...But one might notice the farmer Cheeseslime ghost that comes in from time to time, being a slow but Super-Persistent Predator. According to Word of God, this is John E. Cheese, the former owner of the Fun Farm... as well as the Vigilante's grandfather. The fact he comes in randomly shows that he wasn't summoned, but came of his own accord to assist his grandson from beyond the grave!
- Gustavo's appearances show that despite Peppino being an anxious, nervous wreck about saving his restaurant, he's not alone. The friendly chef shows up during the levels, either to help Peppino out, save him, or guide him back to the entrance during Pizza Time. During the final boss fight, with Peppino flying into an Unstoppable Rage, Gustavo also willingly joins the fight and lets himself be thrown at the bosses to help his buddy out, with it being the only way you can make the Vigilante vulnerable.
- In the final level, Peppino escapes the now crumbling Pizza Tower. Not only does he help lead the way for Gustavo, Brick, Mr. Stick, Gerome, and Mort, but Pepperman, the Vigilante, the Noise, and Fake Peppino join him too to escape with their lives. Peppino allowing this shows that despite the stress and anger they caused him, he's not leaving them to die. Snotty will also join you if you didn't kill him.
Hilarious in Hindsight: It has not gone unnoticed that the Flying Patroller enemy in Don't Make A Sound resembles Caine's Head when sounding its alarm.
I Knew It!: A Troper on the WMG page impressively managed to guess that Pizzaface is really Pizza Boy in disguise two years before launch, thanks to oblique comments made by McPig during development.
Magnificent Bastard: Mr. Stick is a con artist dedicated to making as much money as possible off of Pizza Tower. Exploiting Peppino's desperation, he sets up numerous Boss Gates and forces him to pay the fees to proceed through the Tower, encouraging him to rescue the Toppins so they can pay him out of gratitude, while in exchange he helps him and Gustavo navigate the tower during Pizza Time. Conning Peppino out of his last bit of money via a charity guise, Mr. Stick ultimately escapes Pizza Tower alongside everyone else with a large sack of cash in tow, his scheme successful.
Memetic Badass:
- Since the game's mechanics, coupled with the level design not only allow, but encourage you to blaze through levels at top speed while barreling through enemies and obstacles, it's very common to portray Peppino as an unstoppable force that won't let anything get between him and his business. On top of that, his meltdown against a Boss Rush culminating in air-comboing Pizzahead before suplexing him into the tower shows that a truly furious Peppino is nothing to laugh at.
- Grandpa Pepper, that invulnerable old pepper NPC from the Pig City that just punches Peppino away if he approaches or attacks or whatever. It's telling that Peppino of all people is completely powerless against this guy.
- Thanks to concept art by McPig, fans agree that Noisette is one of the few characters that Peppino can't beat due to being a Cloudcuckoolander and Combat Pragmatist who can be deadlier than her already deadly boyfriend under the right circumstances.
- Despite being heavily implied to be a dead spirit, Peddito is this due to the fact that he permanently kills The Doise with little-to-no resistance whatsoever. His appearance in the official Bring Your Own Class Game Mod for Doom further lends credence to his reputation as an unstoppable force, as when used as a projectile he kills anything he touches in a single hit. Including The Doise, whom he relentlessly chases.
Memetic Loser:
- Snotty, simply for being the only named character in the game who’s able to be Killed Off for Real, before The Doise was added, at least. To the point where fans often joke about people who killed him in their first playthrough in a You Bastard! sort of way.
- This fate would also befall The Doise, the other named character who can be permanently killed. Just about every fan media of The Doise has him either getting killed or suffering some other unfortunate fate. Doesn't help that the game actively encourages mockery of his death, up to and including rewarding the player his outfit for breakdancing on his corpse during the third phase of the Final Boss.
Memetic Troll: Forknights, on account of their ability to potentially halt Peppino cold in his tracks thanks to the forks on their fronts.
Most Wonderful Sound:
- Ask anyone who's played the game how it feels to hear the perfect rank jingle after completing a level.
- The priest's blessing in Pizzascare is accompanied by a very satisfying jingle.
- The droning electric guitar that accompanies a mach run. A somewhat subtle, but beautiful way of saying "Get the hell outta my way!".
- The brief echoing funk beat that plays during the super taunt. Just like the mach run, a brief but beautiful way of saying how badass you are.
- The Item Get! jingle for the toppins and the treasures. Even the sound whenever you unlock a door (both normal and the one Gerome opens) is literally the audience cheering you on.
- Hearing a scared enemy scream. It furthers your ingenious reward for rushing through levels at breakneck speed.
- Peppino lets out a loud scream each time he fights a boss, but during the final boss fight's third phase, that scream is a war cry, because Peppino has had enough. Hearing it, and the sound of the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he delivers to each boss during the boss rush is glorious and cathartic to hear.
Narm Charm: The Final Boss can accurately be described as an overweight chef fighting a giant pizza and then a Fighting Clown to stop them from blowing up a Pizzeria. However the amazing atmosphere, excellent boss theme, and the Catharsis Factor in Peppino finally flying into an Unstoppable Rage and laying a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Boss Rush and then Pizza Head himself after being a Nervous Wreck the entire game makes the final battle genuinely grand and awesome despite the low stakes and absurd premise.
Nightmare Retardant: The last stretch of the fourth boss fight loses a lot of scare value on replays. When playing as Peppino, as intimidating as Fake Peppino's final form looks, he moves only a bit faster than Peppino's default walking speed, and with the post-launch patches removing his rubber-banding and the section being relatively straightforward to go through, it stops being tense and becomes a formality. The Noise's version of the fight restores the rubber-banding, but also completely neuters his attack - The Noise scares him away if he gets too close.
Quirky Work: The game's animation was inspired by a lot of 90s and 60s aesthetics, and it shows.
Recurring Fanon Character:
- Pizzelle, a Role Swap AU version of Peppino who is The Noise, but with Peppino's clothes, and originated from a popular fangame called Sugary Spire. She quickly became extremely popular among the fanbase, and is featured in a ton of fan works and memes.
- Pissino, a goofy and mangled version of Peppino similar to Fake Peppino who makes memetic sound effects with just about every single action he does, originated from a shitpost-themed mod. He quickly became popular among modders, shitposters, and lets players for his goofiness.
- Baba, a killable easter egg character from the popular Scoutdigo mod who appears in a secret area, and when killed, turns into a creepy-looking reskin of Pizzaface that follows your every move, and Jump Scares you upon killing you. He became popular for his Self-Imposed Challenge potential, and surprisingly genuine scariness.
- The Toppin Waifus (otherwise known as the Toppin Gals) are Moe Anthropomorphism versions of the Toppins, still comprising the same five Toppins but humanized with Mushroom, Cheese, Tomato, Sausage, and Pineapple, originating from a popular mod. Due to their designs, they appear in a lot of fanmade content and memes. Though they are somewhat Base Breaking Characters due to being yet another example of Moe Anthropomorphism in a time where that trope has been overused ad nauseam, as well as the fact that their creator, Minus8, an NSFW artist, isn't really helping anyone who like them. The resulting backlash led to the artist leaving social media to escape harassment.
- Peppina Ramen is a Rule 63 version of Peppino who originates from a fanart portraying Pizza Tower as a 90s anime which later inspired a mod that's currently in development. Her mod became popular upon its reveal, and she's often featured in fan works in which she's portrayed as Peppino's daughter or sister Depending on the Writer.
- Related to the above, a Rule 63 Moe Anthropomorphism mod of Pepperman known as Peppergirl was later implemented, with her version of the boss arena including a window in which Pepperman can be seen spectating the fight between her and Peppina during the second phase. Rule 63 Moe Anthropomorphism versions of The Vigilante (known simply as The Vigil), Noise (Noise-Chan) and Fake Peppino (Fake Peppina) were later implemented, with Noise-Chan and Vigil being planned on becoming playable in a future update.
Scrappy Weapon: The pistol has a Charged Attack that does tons of damage if it connects, which should in theory make it Difficult, but Awesome. Unfortunately, it's borderline useless due to the fact that the pistol is only used in the two most chaotic boss fights in the game (Vigilante and Pizzaface's second phase), giving it a huge opportunity cost and leaving the player vulnerable to damage. You're generally better off pelting your foe with smaller bullets instead.
Self-Fanservice:
- In-game Peppino is a Gonkish, noodle-limbed fat guy, yet fanart tends to beef him up into a Big Beautiful Man. The fact that some of the title cards and even one part of the intro stylistically depicts him as a tall, muscular guy certainly adds to that.
- The Toppins are short, stubby creatures based off of various pizza toppings, yet you can't walk 3 feet online without tripping over miles of fanart of the Toppins as busty women dressed as their respective Toppin. Most of these designs were created by NSFW artist Minus8.
Self-Imposed Challenge:
- One that quickly popped up soon after release was attempting to do a full run back to the exit while being chased down by Pizzaface (who chases Peppino after the timer goes up and will automatically kill him if he touches him). This is possible to do in every level except Wasteyard and Oh Shit!, but it requires nothing less than absolutely perfect movement and platforming with no room for error whatsoever to pull off due to Pizzaface's speed and aggressive Rubber-Band A.I., since Pizzaface was designed to only be escapable if you were near the exit when time ran out. This culminated into a mod that adds Lap 3 ^note where Pizzaface is chaing you during the entire Escape Sequence, followed by a myriad more mods that add even more laps to the point of absurdity.
- You can P-Rank Pepperman without having him knock away the Peppino painting seen at the start of the fight, as seen here.
- Although The Noise's third boss The Doise is extremely easy to P-rank or beat without wasting bombs on rematches, due to him being Killed Off for Real, some people have challenged themselves to do this in his first fight, when he's still alive.
- Fighting Fake Peppino with darker costumes can make his fight harder, as the only way to tell him apart from his clones is the clones' darker costumes. Special mention goes to the Dark Cook costume, which is pitch-black, making it outright impossible to tell them apart just by looking.
- During the Fake Peppino's chase sequence in The Noise's campaign, his aggressive Rubber-Band A.I. that was present in previous versions makes a comeback. However, if the player gets caught by him, The Noise simply scares Fake Peppino away with a demonic roar, turning him into a Zero-Effort Boss. Still, some players like to challenge themselves to not get caught by Fake Peppino, even if there are no consequences for doing so.
Signature Scene: The third phase of the final battle is the game's most memorable moment. In response to Pizzahead shrugging off all the damage Peppino did to him in the second phase like it's nothing, then trying to throw a Boss Rush at Peppino for his own amusement, Peppino finally hits his Rage Breaking Point at these antics and delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to each and every one of them of them before piledriving Pizzahead into the concrete, cementing him as a Memetic Badass in the eyes of many fans.
Spiritual Successor:
- To the Wario Land series, natch, but more specifically the transformation-based gameplay from games like Wario Land 3 and using design philosophy from Wario Land 4 and—of all games—Super Metroid; the latter being most apparent in regards to Peppino's super jump.
- In terms of artstyle, tone and humor, it's almost impossible to not see the Earthworm Jim influences, especially because of the often random, bizarre level themes and Peppino's access to guns.
- The game can be a video game adaptation of the What A Cartoon short Pizza Boy in "No Tip". Both are crazy 90s animations about a high-strong and insane pizza delivery guy who speeds through all kinds of chaos to deliver a pizza.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Not only does the game wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but the music also clearly takes inspiration from many sources and even taking samples from them:
- The music from the hub level is similar to the theme found in some areas of Super Metroid.
- The intro to "Pumpin' Hot Stuff" is very similar to a segment of Stardust Speedway's Bad Future theme in Sonic CD.
- Parts of "Tunnely Shimbers" include a backing melody very similar to that of the Recurring Riff from Clock Tower.
Tear Jerker: A handful in the final level:
- After knocking out the original Pillar John in the back rooms of the tower, the next room you enter is the Staff Only hub. If you pay attention to the background, you can see the "John mech" falling out of view, smiling and giving a thumbs up presumably because he can now finally rest after being cursed by Pizzahead.
- While collecting all the characters to escape from the tower with you, Gerome is the last one you collect, found in front of the pile of rubble where John Gutter's gate used to stand. Being that John Gutter was effectively a garbage dump for defective John clones, it's possible that Gerome was mourning his brother there during the tower's final moments. Since it's close to the entrance, too, it would give him as much time as possible before Peppino arrives to escort him out.
- Both of the above are made even more depressing if you didn't collect all Tower Secret Treasures; In the post-credits scene, John remains dead after the collapse of the tower, and Gerome can be seen holding his hat and solemnly mourning his brother's sacrifice.
- Even the soundtrack itself can elicit a few tears. It's a triumphant remix of "IT'S PIZZA TIME", yet some segments are slow-paced and even melancholic. Even the track itself is named "Bye Bye There!", as if it knows that it's the end. It hurts to say goodbye.
That One Achievement:
- Getting the "War Camo" outfit requires you to complete WAR on the first attempt you play it on ^note. It's already That One Level, but on your first attempt?
- "Face Off", earned by defeating the Final Boss without taking any damage. That means getting through all 4 phases without getting hurt once. Given the completely random nature of the boss's attacks during the second phase, it is very easy to take damage, meaning you'll have to be very good at dodging or else you'll be restarting the fight.
- Trying to get the P-Ranks sounds simple at first glance (do everything in a level (do both laps, find all the secrets, get enough points to earn an S-rank) without losing your combo), but they can be some of the most unforgiving and frustrating challenges in the game, as they require you to speed through and master the stages and bosses flawlessly with little-to-no leeway, and if you lose your combo before finishing the level (which is very easy to do), or if you get hit in the boss stages, well, you can say goodbye to that P-Rank, as your only option at that point would be to restart the stage or boss and try again.
That One Attack:
- The Noise's Pogo Stick is arguably his easiest attack to dodge... until he takes the bombs out. When combined with his more aggressive pogo jumping, this creates an attack that's surprisingly hard to dodge or even parry. If you're stuck in a corner, then good luck not getting hit. The worst part is that, due to The Noise's unpredictable nature, he can use this attack as soon as the fight starts. And then he brings the Noise Crusher out in his second phase...
- The attack where Pizzahead throws a Stupid Rat at Peppino like a baseball isn't super hard to dodge, but then the remains of the Pizzaface mech start dropping gears into the arena which move toward the direction that Peppino is currently standing. This means that sometimes the Stupid Rat projectile will synchronize up with the moving gear, guaranteeing that Peppino will get hit. This attack is the complete and utter bane of trying to no-hit Pizzahead because of this.
That One Boss:
- The Noise (fitting, given his rivalry with Peppino) is a major Wake-Up Call Boss. His attacks are almost entirely randomized, meaning his attacks are quite literally unpredictable, unlike the previous bosses. Combine that with the fact that several of his attacks (Such as the pogo-stick-bomb combo attack, and the jetpack attack) sweep a large amount of the arena, and the fact that after every single time he becomes vulnerable, he spins around, dealing damage if you reach him just too late, and you understand that this fight isn't easy in the slightest. And then combine all that with The Noise using fake-out duplicates, Noiseys and the Noise crusher in the final phase.
- Fake Peppino is the game's hardest boss prior to the Final Boss. Don't let their seemingly measly 6 HP (the lowest of any boss) fool you: they come at you with fast and erratic attacks, summon clones which use the same attacks which you have to dodge all at once to the point of resembling Bullet Hell, and unlike other bosses, they never leave themselves open to attack and have to be stunned twice to damage them. Their second phase is also highly chaotic, since you have to keep track of the real one while dodging the clones, a task made harder if you equip alternate, darker costumes since Fake Peppino and his clones copy your costume. Then you have to navigate a fast-paced and claustrophobic Escape Sequence, in which Fake Peppino catching up to you deals 2 damage, the only non-One-Hit Kill attack in the game which does more than one damage, at a point when you're not likely to have much health left if you're not P-Ranking the fight.
That One Level:
- WAR is easily the toughest level in the game. Other levels might be difficult to get high ranks on; this one is just hard to minimally complete. If you're not going for 100% Completion, it's best just to collect all the Toppins in the other levels and skip this one on your way to the Final Boss.
  - Once Peppino picks up a shotgun at the level start, it instantly triggers a countdown of a measly forty seconds. If it reaches zero, it's an instant game over. Shooting or destroying monitors around the level extends this time limit by an equally measly thirty seconds each^note. The tight time limit punishes players who still struggle with getting to the exit quickly during Pizza Time, and all but requires being proficient with Peppino's advanced abilities and controlling him at Mach 3+ if you expect to win.
  - The timer does not stop while Peppino is inside a secret area, meaning you have to go as fast as possible if you want a P rank. The second secret in particular has your speed slow down to a crawl as it puts you in a cluttered labyrinth where you have to escape guided missiles from the Cardboard Tanks. One single hit and your combo is over.
  - As devastating as the Shotgun is, firing it kills all of your momentum. It also overrides your default grab when equipped, which can and will screw with your muscle memory when you attempt to climb up a wall or try to squeeze a bit more distance from a jump. This isn't much of a problem in Don't Make A Sound, where the distance to the exit is shorter and the only real threat is Toppins Monsters which can only slow you down, but here it can be a killer due to the strict time limit.
  - Ironically, it's actually one of the easier P-Ranks, as your shotgun kills enemies quickly, there are many chances to keep your combo up, the path is straightforward (it's the only level with secrets out in the open along your main path), and if you're going for a P-Rank anyway, you're probably skilled enough that the time limit isn't much of a constraint.
- Aside from WAR, Pizzascare is another level that's particularly challenging. Largely due to its convoluted gimmicks such as the Ghost King, its large and confusing layout, and overall, just not being a very simple level to play through, much less P-Rank.
That One Sidequest: Getting a P-Rank is difficult no matter which level you're attempting it on. However, some P-Ranks take it to another level entirely:
- Bloodsauce Dungeon has a relatively thin vertical structure which is unintuitive to traverse, making it tricky to build up momentum and easy to fall into hot sauce. These factors make it easy to run out of time when climbing through two laps. On the Noise campaign, these problems become even worse as the level is early enough in the playthrough you're probably still adjusting to all of Noise's differences in how he controls and handles, and despite having an on-demand Super Jump, you may still flub your muscle memory compared to Peppino and find it extremely difficult to get through the vertical sections with your combos intact or with enough time left to make it on Lap 2 until you practice and learn more of The Noise's nuances.
- Gnome Forest has a notoriously difficult P-Rank, for many different reasons:
  - Gustavo and Brick handle much differently from Peppino, and possess overall slower and less flexible movement. They can't drift to maintain speed (meaning it's harder to barrel through dangerous enemies by scaring them), can't climb walls like Peppino, and it's generally much easier to make mistakes while playing as them. While the game gives you a tutorial area that doesn't break your combo to get used to the duo, the rest of the level isn't as merciful.
  - It's one of the longest levels in the game, and its cramped, maze-like structure makes it drag on even more. Yet, the game expects you to run full speed for most of the Toppins, since you have the deliver several Gnome Pizzas scattered throughout the level under relatively strict time limits to earn them.
  - The enemies in the level are very annoying. Special mention goes to the Pickle enemy, which, if it sees you, will teleport to your location and electrify itself after a brief delay. Not only does this mean that they will often teleport out of your way just before you can kill them (since the level design and Gustavo's heavier controls mean you often can't charge at them to scare them), it's very easy to get damaged by this attack, and if you take the hit you have a very narrow window in which to actually kill the thing to maintain your combo. Other enemies in the level include the Noise Goblin, which fires an arrow that can pass through walls, and the Pizzard, which will swiftly fire a lightning bolt straight ahead to damage you if you approach them slowly enough that they don't get scared.
  - The last secret is hidden very deviously^Spoiler, so you will likely miss it on your first playthrough and have to run through this Marathon Level again. Its positioning^Spoiler also means that, under pressure of trying to get a P-rank, you might make a mad dash for the level's exit and only remember that you need to grab the secret as you've already entered the door, forcing you to replay the entire level. And then the actual secret itself is a rather precise vertical climbing challenge that requires quick reflexes; if you make a mistake you'll plummet off the stage, which could leave you without enough time to recover your combo if it happens.
  - To top it all off, there is one specific room that gives you barely enough time to reach a score pickup that will maintain your combo. This wouldn't be so bad if the room were a straight run, but before you reach the pickup, you must purposefully stop just short of hitting a wall so that you can bounce up some mushrooms to the next floor, then immediately begin barrelling in the other direction. If you simply keep running into the stack of mushrooms, Brick will bonk into the wall and you'll lose enough time that your combo will drop before reaching the pickup. This room also appears relatively late into the level (only a few rooms before Pillar John), meaning that if you fall for this trap, you'll need to drag yourself through the whole thing all over again. Have fun! ^note
  - All of these frustrations (namely the precision room and the last secret) have persisted through a few updates that make minor tweaks to level design, meaning they're unlikely to ever be patched out.
- Peppibot Factory has a number of sections which must be played perfectly to maintain combo, where even the slightest mistake can end your run, and there are electric plugs everywhere. The Pizza Box transformation, unique to this level, has jumps that progressively lose height the longer you're in the air, and an attack which can easily bump you off a wall, which can launch you away from holes you're supposed to go into and into hazards like electric plugs. Pizza Time in particular has a number of aggravating elements, including reverse speed boosters, a short time limit, an easily missed & awkward to reach secret room just before a point of no return, and a Lap 2 room where you have to throw a bomb at a Stupid Rat from an awkward angle in order to access the portal.
- Oh, Shit! has numerous gimmicks which can complicate any P-Rank attempt. The Ninja Slices scattered amongst Pizza Boy cutouts are hard to fight with Peppino's main moves, the time it takes for Peppino's cheese ball form to crash can break your combo if you mess up with it, and the water streams and bananas can slip you up easily.
- Finally, Pizzascare, according to many guides, is the hardest level in the game to P-Rank, because it's absolutely crawling with Kung-Fu Proof Mooks in the form of the Ghostknights, very precise jumps which require running at high speeds to clear, and some seriously unforgiving secrets that can only be accessed during Pizza Time and are difficult to speed through without getting hit. A section just before the Lap 2 Portal/goal used to be particularly devilish, with a ramp (used to send you upwards earlier in the level) that can send you upwards, causing you to lose your combo time ^note . And keep in mind, you have to go fast, leaving very little room for error.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The game went through many different demos and tried a lot of different ideas that would eventually be added or scrapped in the final game, and with over 5 years worth of demos, teasers, dev blog updates, and backer previews, it's perhaps unsurprising that at least something changed would spark divisive reception. But to keep it brief:
- One of the builds removed the grab dash and wall jump, and nerfed the super jump, ironically putting the game more on the level of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3's more slower and meticulous design philosophy; player feedback brought it back not long after.
- The addition of hitstun was contentious among speedrunners who saw it as the game being dumbed down.
- One big update was very combat focused, giving Peppino new melee attacks, a buzzsaw that uses fuel, a parry, a pistol with ammo, and a heat meter that made enemies stronger; however, only the parry survived into the final game more-or-less unchanged, to the sadness of some players who felt those made the game's combat much more unique.
- On a few occasions, entire songs, levels, and even playable characters were scrapped, to the dismay of people who were excited for them.
- Fans were saddened by the loss of a few taunts that didn't make it into the final build of the game.
- The fourth boss' Advancing Boss of Doom phase originally had powerful rubberbanding, such that he would always be close to Peppino and this discouraged reckless play to keep from bouncing off straight into him. Updates made the boss crawl at a constant pace to alleviate the difficulty, but the drawback is that all the thrill of the chase is gone. You'll never see the creature on-screen if you're the slightest bit skilled in the game. As an in-joke, the rubberbanding is back and more agressive in The Noise's scenario, but The Noise will just angrily drive the boss away if he does get caught.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- As a result of The Doise being Killed Off for Real, he puts up no challenge during the Boss Rush. Even if you use the trick that revives him for his boss fight, he still remains dead for the boss rush.
- Some fans were also disappointed about the lack of a Hardoween palette for The Noise.
Trans Audience Interpretation: The game's frequent comparison to and Friendly Fandoms with Celeste (especially an infamous tweet calling it "Celeste for weirdos") has lead to internet users tongue-in-cheekly calling Peppino a trans man to Madeline's trans woman. The former's heavyset build stands out against typical portrayals of trans men as either effeminate-looking or rich with Testosterone Poisoning also factors into the popularity of this portrayal, giving many trans fans an unconventional yet still positive portrayal of a trans guy to enjoy.
Unexpected Character: Absolutely nobody had expected Mort the Chicken, a character from an extremely obscure PS1 game released in 2000, to appear in the game as a power up in Fun Farm.
Ugly Cute:
- The Stupid Rats may be... well, rats with Fish Eyes, but their cartoony designs, large pupils, and chubby, seemingly amorphous bodies make them just plain adorable. Brick, the playable Stupid Rat, is especially cute.
- The Noise is a small creep who's just as weird-looking as the rest of the cast, but thanks to his energetic animations, he comes off as rather charming.
- Fake Peppino, despite being a deformed doppelganger monstrosity, can look rather adorable◊ in his Idle Animation. Generally there are times where his smile is less "monstrosity out of the Uncanny Valley" and more "subpar but enthusiastic imitator trying his best".
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: It would be easy to assume that this game is kid friendly like the Wario Land series, but it's actually rated 14 for violence and language due to things like firearms, the Noise giving Peppino the middle finger, several instances of swearing (the resident sewer level is named "Oh, Shit!" for example), and one of the Toppin Monsters resembles a person whose head was replaced with a bleeding sausage.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Some have interpreted the game as somewhat of a commentary on shady business practices of large corporations when dealing with smaller competitors. Pizzaface has a massive corporate empire in the tower, spanning from various restaurants (Golf, Fastfood Saloon, Don't Make A Sound), production centers (Fun Farm, Peppibot Factory), and even a tropical vacation resort (the third hub). He threatens to shoot Peppino's Pizza with a giant laser, mirroring how larger businesses will throw money around, rather than using the actual quality of their product, to remove small businesses. And the real final boss Pizzahead seems to perfectly mirror Mascots from large chains like Ronald McDonald, a happy-go-lucky face hiding a darker corporate side. Peppino by contrast, while down on his luck, and not perfect, is genuinely passionate about his job. This passion allows him to defeat Pizzahead despite everything he throws at him, showing the true triumph of the small businessman.

YMMV / Pizza Tower

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