"Pepper Grinder" is a colourful grab bag full of surprises

In "Pepper Grinder", I take on the role of the eponymous pirate Pepper. She is stranded on an island and has been attacked by other pirates. Armed with a giant drill, the "grinder", I fight, jump and drill my way through the island world and get my stolen pirate booty back.

It's amazing how many creative ideas and beautiful game environments the solo developer Ahr Ech has packed into just four hours of gameplay. "Pepper Grinder" is a colourful grab bag that surprises and delights me every second.

Show, don't tell

I love the way "Pepper Grinder" explains its gameplay mechanics to me - it hardly ever does. Instead, the game gives me all the information I need with visual clues and a clever level design. True to the motto: "show, don't tell". I am handed a drill and test what works and what doesn't. No long tutorials, no unnecessary explanations. Just do it.

I use the oversized grinder to drill through the earth - and I do it pretty quickly. Once I start drilling, I don't stop until I'm back on the surface. The game thrives on the momentum that is created when I dig through the earth. I constantly have to adjust my drilling direction to avoid deadly obstacles or to collect gems. With a temporary speed boost, I jump elegantly from one piece of earth to the next.

Drilling is fun and incredibly satisfying. The movements of my game character remind me of a dolphin gliding through the water at top speed. No wonder - the developer cites the Sega classic "Ecco the Dolphin" as a major inspiration for his game.

The level of difficulty increases rapidly. With every level I tackle, I perform more daring manoeuvres. While I'm still comfortably drilling my way through sand in the first world, I'm already dashing through sections of ground surrounded by deadly lava in the second world. Dying is part of everyday drilling. The checkpoints in the levels could be placed a little more generously. I often have to repeat large sections of the level until I reach a certain, extremely difficult point. If the game is too fast or too difficult for me, I can reduce the game speed by up to 50 per cent at any time in the options and play in slow motion.

Aside from the dangers in the game environment, enemy narwhal monsters and various creepy-crawlies also make my life difficult. So it's all the more satisfying when I can wipe out several of the nasties with an acrobatic drilling manoeuvre. I often surprise myself with the superhuman drilling skills I display.

Where have you been hiding?

Countless gems and five gold coins are hidden in each level. I'm constantly rewarded for exploring the game environment in detail. I let my intuition guide me and find the collectable items behind crumbled walls, on hard-to-reach platforms and in narrow corridors. Here, too, the game dispenses with explicit explanations and instead guides me to the hidden secrets with subtle hints.

I exchange the stones and coins I find in a shop for extra lives, keys to hidden levels, new outfits and collectible stickers. I can place the latter in a sticker booklet and use them to create cool screenshots. A nice gimmick, but nothing more. It doesn't matter, because I'm motivated to find as many coins as possible even without special rewards.

And suddenly the game is a shooter

In addition to the regular levels, "Pepper Grinder" also offers leisurely levels in which puzzles take centre stage. In these, I solve damn clever switch puzzles with my drill. In other levels, I connect my drill to various gadgets. A weapon upgrade turns my grinder into a fully automatic gun. In some sections, the game plays like an old 2D shooter à la "Metal Slug".

But that's not all. With the drill, I also take control of a snowmobile. I use it to speed through a level in the style of an endless runner and avoid obstacles. My favourite, however, is a giant mech, which I pilot through several levels with the grinder and crush enemies and the game environment. It's just great how many gameplay ideas are incorporated here.

Annoying bugs and boss fights

The bosses that await me at the end of each world are less fun. The skirmishes drag on unnecessarily and destroy the otherwise wonderfully fast pacing of the game. It's also particularly annoying that I can't skip some cutscenes and have to watch them over and over again after my virtual death.

Also annoying are some bugs that I noticed while playing. For example, my drill no longer works in one level and I can't deal any damage to the enemy in the final boss fight. However, considering the fact that the game was developed by a one-man studio, I can get over these minor teething troubles.

Conclusion: Short game with lots of fun

"Pepper Grinder" is a colourful grab bag that surprises me with new, crazy ideas every second. Moving around with the drill is fast, challenging and satisfying. The intuitive level design guides me through the game with subtle hints and teaches me new gameplay mechanics without much explanation. The only thing that drags down the extremely fast pace of the game unnecessarily are the boss battles, which are a little too long.

After around four hours of drilling and jumping, I saw the end credits of the game. If I wanted to collect all the remaining items and unlock everything, I would add a few more hours. Despite the short playing time, I recommend the game to all platform game fans who are looking for a proper challenge. For around 20 francs or euros, it's a fair deal and a perfect gaming snack for a rainy weekend.

"Pepper Grinder" will be released on 28 March for the Switch and PC. The Switch version was provided to me by Devolver for testing purposes. A demo is available for both platforms.