Pizza Tower has come out to be a surprise smash hit, whileit didn’t get the usual AAA spotlight, word of mouth for it has spread like wildfire and the game may as well act like a massive billboard with its artstyle. With incredibly expressive and cartoony animation and visuals combined with fine-tuned speedy platforming with too many twists to count, it’s wormed its way into people’s hearts fast.
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And one massive part of that success comes from the game’s levels. Each is not only perfectly designed for the speed-focused gameplay and heart-pounding Pizza Time escapes, but each one also brings in unique mechanics and gimmicks to call its own. No two levels in Pizza Tower feel the same, and it makes all of them a blast to play through. But out of such a fine collection, which are the best?
10Crust Cove
As was already said, no two levels in Pizza Tower feel the same due to the unique mechanics that are sprinkled throughout the entire playtime and Crust Cove is a perfect example of this. Crust Cove is a dive through a tropical sea-side with everything you would expect: Rushing water everywhere, pineapples strolling, and plenty of pirates!
On top of just some really solid level design, the mechanics are what really make this one stand out as it carefully uses them to pace out the level and action as you’ll first deal with water you dash across and will sometimes sweep you away for hilarious slapstick. Then you’ll be forced to play more carefully as cannons bombard you before finally, you go back to the crazy rush with the barrel transformation that can’t stop rolling, and lastly, Pizza Time throws them all together for an amazing climax. By the time you finish the level, it feels like it’s been an absolute journey.
9Deep-Dish 9
But while some levels are delicately crafted with how their mechanics fit together and how the pacing of the level goes, some are far crazier such as with the wild ride of Deep-Dish 9. Deep-Dish 9 is a level that never keeps you bored as it throws you all around space from a space station to a strange alien world as you get tossed around by rockets, portals, and strange olives.
Deep-Dish 9 is the definition of a wild ride as just when you think it can’t get crazier than riding around and barely guiding around rockets, it tosses you out into an alien world to float around in olives still at the same mach speeds. It’s a level that doesn’t feel like a rush so much as it feels like an absolute journey, and with every step of it being designed to be fun to mess around in, that definitely comes out in its favor.
8Pizzascape
Most levels in Pizza Tower are a lot more restrained, keeping things more mellow and making the level a blast to learn and explore, such as with one of the first levels in the game: Pizzascape. Pizzascape is the first level after the tutorial and intro level, being a dive into a strange castle that truly introduces players to the usual transformations and exploration the game is known for.
Despite still being linear for the sake of Pizza Time, Pizzascape offers lots of twists and turns to get lost within, keeping its Toppins off the beaten path and its secrets really well hidden. It asks the player to fully explore everything within, being just the right size to be fun to do so without collecting everything being a nightmare. The level also offers one of the best transformations in the game with Knight Peppino giving blasts of speed with utterly no control most of the time. Overall an excellent introduction to the real game.
7Fast Food Saloon
One of Pizza Tower’s main appeals is the speedy gameplay almost akin to a Sonic game at times with constantly blasting through the level with player skill, only shown more in things like Pizza Time and Fast Food Saloon. Fast Food Saloon is a level that starts cranked to 11 and never stops, being an old western saloon with every mechanic pushing you to keep a speedy flow till the very end.
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The level both demands speed through buttons that will only stay pressed for mere seconds and racing segments against an occasionally cheating wooden horse for Toppins, and gives you better ways to get speed with dash pads and the weenie dog that is all gas and no breaks. Combined with the level’s music, the stage feels like it never lets off the speed and never lets the player get bored for a moment.
6The Crumbling Tower of Pizza
Pizza Tower may have one of the single best finales in gaming history between its set of final levels providing a great crescendo into a climactic and hype final boss that leads right into the victory lap that is The Crumbling Tower of Pizza. The Crumbling Tower is the very last level of the game and is one big sprint to the end through the tower, dealing with everything you’ve dealt with the entire game.
The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is one big victory lap that basically is saying goodbye to every level in the game, all of their mechanics showing up one last time in this last hurrah with you picking up the bosses you’ve beaten, now as allies till the end. While the level isn’t very hard to beat, it certainly does make the player feel accomplished as they can tear through every challenge the game had before, now to a more triumphant rendition of It’s Pizza Time.
5The Pig City
While most of Pizza Tower’s transformations are short-lived bursts of new mechanics and different movement, what if you had an entire level that shifted your entire moveset for nearly the whole thing? Well, you’d have The Pig City. The Pig City may be one of the strangest levels in terms of structure, seeing you taking various taxis around the city to subareas before getting arrested and turning the level over to Gustavo and Brick.
As was just said, most of the level is completely different as you’ll be playing as Gustavo and Brick, Peppino’s friends who have a similar yet also wildly different moveset to call their own. These two are a blast to play as from their cannonball jumps to kicking Brick like a wrecking ball. And the Pig City adds onto this with fun mechanics like the balloons that give a big burst jump with Brick, or the pig officers who try to tie down Peppino and take away Brick, so Gustavo has to get him back himself. The entire level is an utter blast to explore every inch of.
While most levels of Pizza Tower still keep the same structure while throwing in their mechanics, there are other levels that act as total curveballs such as Golf. Golf is exactly what the name implies, it’s a level where the main mechanic is playing golf by smacking around a greaseball in order to open up sections of the level and Toppin’s.
Golf is hilarious just for the sheer whiplash of it, entering the level and realizing it really is just playing golf, even managing to get you again when you realize it still expects you to play golf during Pizza Time. But beyond that, the golf mechanics end up creating really fascinating puzzles to solve with pitchers that turn you into a ball and take the greaseball as well, other golfers who will steal your ball, and plenty of tricky terrain to make this a perfect mix of platforming and puzzle.
3John Gutter
While some of the best levels are the ones with the most out there gimmicks and ways to shake up the formula, there is one level that stands tall without any to its name: The first level, John Gutter. As the first level, John Gutter is a bit basic, just a straight set of basic platforming challenges to get used to the speed mechanics and rush back through.
But that simplicity is what makes it both perfect as a tutorial and to master. John Gutter gives you a lot of space to get used to the various mechanics without being too punishing even in its Pizza Time, it lets you get used to what you’ll be doing going forward. But when you return with more skill, it becomes a blast to blaze through and serves as the first spot most players will truly start to master the game by taking on bigger challenges with second laps and P-Ranks. All through just being nice and simple.
2Don’t Make a Sound
But while some levels are more basic, other games turn the game completely on its head and make it feel like a totally different genre both in tone and gameplay such as with one of the final levels: Don’t Make a Sound. Don’t Make a Sound sees you having to sneak around an old abandoned pizzeria with security systems everywhere that will activate killer animatronics ready to scare the heck out of you.
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While other levels encourage a fun breakneck rush through them, Don’t Make a Sound forces you to stop dead in your tracks both with its harsh oppressive atmosphere and stealth mechanics, the only times it gets hectic are the moments when you’re chased, and you certainly won’t be having fun during those. Don’t Make a Sound is just such a shock to the senses, somehow putting the player on the edge of their seat before managing to get them, even if the horror quickly grows silly.
The thing that really makes Pizza Tower stand out is obviously the escape sequences, the way they really push the speed mechanics of the game and add such a sense of panic and urgency is like nothing else… So, what if a level was nothing but an escape? Well, you’d have the best level in the game with War. War is exactly what it sounds like as you’re given a shotgun and tasked with braving a battlefield full of gunfire and explosions, all with a ticking time bomb strapped to your chest.
The main gimmick of war is that the whole level is on a timer, with you having bombs you have to find and destroy to get just a little more time, making you constantly on the edge of peril. And the level itself is finely designed to increase this anxiety with excellent combinations of speedy rushes and more tight platforming sections where you’ll be swarmed by enemies. With how the gun works, it makes for an excellent gameplay mix of deciding when to fight and when to get the heck out of dodge. The level gives so many fun moments and mechanics such as guided missiles, the return of the rockets, fake Peppinos near the end to throw you off, and one of the best and most heart-pounding songs in the game to top off the best challenge it has to offer.
