Peppino

Peppino
Information
Affiliation	Peppino's Pizzeria

"Okay, you look-a right here! I baked that into a pizza ONCE and nobody can ever know. Not even the health inspector. Capeesh?"
— Peppino.

Peppino Spaghetti (who is simply referred to as Peppino) is the main protagonist of Pizza Tower.

Description

Peppino is a somewhat portly Italian chef wearing a black t-shirt, black pants, an apron, and a chef's hat. He also has black hair and a small mustache under his long nose.

He's the owner of his own restaurant (called Peppino's Pizza), and always shows signs of both anger and anxiety, frequently shifting between those two emotions.

Main Abilities

Peppino is the most balanced character included in the game due to the great quantity of abilities at his disposal.

Jump

Press the jump button while on the ground to initiate a jump. Holding the button longer results in a higher jump.

Jumping on top of enemies will stun them, allowing them to be grabbed. If you attempt to grab an enemy that isn't stunned, Peppino will get hit.

Peppino can bounce higher off of an enemy by holding the jump button when landing on top of the enemy.

Body Slam

Press down while in the air at low speed to belly flop, damaging enemies from above.

He hangs in the air for a moment before dropping and can slightly shift left or right as he drops.

With enough height, this can be used to break metal boxes, indicated by the meteor-like effect.

Jumping after this gives Peppino a little more height than a regular jump.

Dash

One of Peppino's most important abilities for blasting his way through the towers. He builds up speed for as long as the dash button is held, allowing him to transition to several successive stages of dashing. Jumping during the dash keeps his momentum at whatever stage he is currently at.

If Peppino runs up or down a slope, his speed gain can change accordingly, increasing when running down slopes and decreasing when going up. Some status effects and moves can also cause the player to be able to enter a Dash.

Dash Stages:

Mach 1:

• Peppino starts to run at a moderate pace.
• Peppino can stun enemies by bumping into them.
• After a moment, Peppino starts dashing madly, indicated by his red and green afterimages.
• Can damage enemies, but must be wary of those protected with weapons.
• Can initiate a roll by pressing down while dashing.
• Can initiate a Dive by pressing down in the air.
• Can run up vertical walls by jumping at them while dashing, or by running up a staircase connected to a wall.
• Can break through non-metal boxes.
• Upon impact with the wall, he temporarily stops.

Mach 2:

• Peppino starts dashing at an insane rate, accompanied with an equally insane expression.
• At this point, Peppino's velocity is high enough that he is competing with air friction, causing the air to emit sound and a shock layer to form in front of him.
• This speed has the same qualities as Mach 1, as well as the following:
  • Enemies freeze in shock when Peppino approaches them, letting him bust through defenses like Forknight's fork.
  • Can break metal boxes.
  • Can initiate a super jump by pressing up while dashing.
• Attempting to turn around in this stage will result in Peppino "drifting", in which he takes slightly longer to change directions, but preserves his dash momentum.
• Jumping off a wall results in Peppino moving back to Mach 1.
• Upon impact with the wall, he is knocked back.

Mach 3:

• Activated when the player is in Mach 2 and holds the directional pad/joystick in the direction Peppino is running for several seconds.
• Mechanics remain the same, with the only differences being a different animation and significantly increased velocity.
• Attempting to drift will bring him back to Mach 2.

Roll

Press down while dashing on the ground at Mach 2 or higher to roll in a bowling ball fashion. Damages enemies and breaks boxes to clear through crawlspaces.

Dive

Press down while dashing in the air at Mach 2 or higher to make Peppino dive downwards at a diagonal angle, can damage enemies and break non-metal boxes in the same fashion as the dash or roll.

Dive Drop

Pressing jump while diving will cause Peppino to do a fast ground pound move, similar to the Body Slam. It is much faster than the normal slam, but is very situational and mostly for speeding through levels.

Super Jump

Press up when the Dash reaches Mach 2 and release to super jump. The player can move side-to-side slowly before releasing, but cannot move horizontally once the super jump is initiated.

Leaps straight upward quickly, busting through weaker obstacles until he hits a ceiling.

The player can cancel the super jump before hitting a ceiling with a dash, transitioning back into Mach 3. Skillful players can control Peppino's movement very quickly and precisely by alternating between a Mach 3 dashing stage and a super jump.

There is also the Side Super Jump, which can only be enabled by hacking the game. As the name states, it is the super jump, but sideways. It will also break through metal boxes and kill enemies. The Noise's pogo moveset has a move similar to this, but he can steer it with little control.

Grab

Grabs an enemy or object in his clutches. He can carry them around before smashing them away, upwards, or behind him. Pressing down whilst on the ground can drop the grabbed enemy or object.

He also has extra moves he can perform while holding an enemy.

• Giant Swing: grabbing an enemy while dashing into them will cause you to spin forward with them, breaking blocks and killing enemies. Spinning into a hazard causes you to parry it. In previous builds, pressing the forward and backward directions quickly would allow you to spin and press the grab button to throw.
• Spinning Piledriver: When in the air, pressing down while holding an enemy will make Peppino do a piledriver into the ground, causing the enemy held to be sent forward upon contact with the ground, as well as killing any enemy he lands on. Holding jump when landing on an enemy makes him do a bounce, keeping him airborne and allowing for more combo potential.
• Uppercut: When pressing up and grab with an enemy in hand, Peppino performs an uppercut, sending the enemy flying upwards at a high speed. The enemy can be grabbed again if still in mid-air.

Hold the dash button after initiating a grab and he will immediately start dashing at Mach 2, letting him reach high speeds faster.

Quick Roll

In the Cheese Dragon Boss Patreon build and builds afterward, if the grab button is pressed while Peppino is lunging forward for a grab on the ground, Peppino will do a short roll forwards, which can be used to build up speed quickly and defeat enemies.

Belly Slide

If the player crouches right after pressing grab, Peppino will slide forwards while laying down on his stomach. This attack can be used to destroy blocks in one-block spaces, but it cannot be used to defeat enemies. There is also an option to jump out of a slide to activate a slide jump, which unlike the normal slide, can damage enemies. Peppino can jump repeatedly in succession if he jumps again right when he touches the ground.

Rising Uppercut

Pressing up and grab together will launch Peppino upwards with a rising uppercut. The uppercut will defeat enemies and destroy marble blocks. This can also be used a a pseudo double jump, as it will still send Peppino upwards a little if used in mid-air.

Taunt

Strike a pose. Hold the button down to breakdance. Taunt when near an enemy or projectile to parry it.

If the player gets a combo counter of 10 or more and hold up while taunting, a Super Taunt will occur, where the taunts pop-out, with one of four unique taunts being selected (different taunts are purely cosmetic and don't affect gameplay), and all enemies on-screen are hurt and defeated.

His many taunt poses reference the likes of Peter Griffin, Akuma, Daffy Duck, Dr. Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more.

As of the Patreon Western Build, taunting now causes any projectile-based enemies to fire their projectiles, making waiting for them to attack to get the transformation their projectile gives take less time.

Parry

If the player makes Peppino taunt right before he gets hit by an enemy or projectile, he will parry it and attack back. This can be used to make it easier to defeat enemies that often attack the player and can also be used to reflect projectiles thrown at them.

Breakdance

If taunt button is held, Peppino will start breakdancing in one place, and after a while boombox appears near him, which dissappears after the player stops holding the button. It does not serve any function.

Unused and Cut Abilities

Slap

Peppino will close his eyes and nervously swing his hand around, hitting anything in his path. It usually takes a few slaps to get an enemy fully stunned.

This move only appeared in some early demos before being cut, and some of the animations would later be used for when breaking big boxes with a grab.

Shoulder Bash

Rushes forwards using his shoulder. It is similar to a Dash, but somewhat nerfed as it's not as fast as Mach 4, doesn't stay out permanently and cannot break stronger blocks - albeit much quicker to pull off overall due to being faster than getting from Mach 1 to 4. It was stated by PTG that this attack would be used during boss fights, but this never came to fruition.

Tackle

In Peppino's Xmas Break and builds afterward, holding dash while holding an enemy will cause Peppino to tackle forward while still holding the enemy. The tackle won't break anything but small blocks, and releasing the dash button will drop the enemy and slow Peppino down. Pressing the grab button again while tackling will throw the enemy forward. Peppino can jump in this form as well as turn around, but the latter will cause him to drop the enemy. Any enemy hit while Peppino is using this move will be defeated. This move was replaced by a spin move in the April 2021 Build.

The tackle was also in GOLF and onwards, but was scrapped in the SAGE 2019 Demo.

Team Dash

While in Co-op mode, if both players attack each other at the same time, they will start rolling, which has most of the same effects as a Mach 3 dashing stage. The direction of the team dash depends on who attacked first and will go in the direction the first attacker was facing. Neither player can turn around, roll through one-block gaps, or end the dash until they hit a wall, but whoever attacked first can control the speed of the ball as well as jump.

Some time after this feature was implemented, it was removed, likely for the sake of simplifying co-op.

Weapons

Buzzsaw

Peppino charges forward with a large pizza cutter-esque buzzsaw, instantly killing enemies in his path. The buzzsaw needs ammo, represented by fuel cans, to function, and the player can only hold three at a time. Enemies will sometimes drop fuel cans to compensate.

Pistol

If the shoot button is pressed without a shotgun or Mort, Peppino will fire a bullet from his pistol, hurting enemies from afar. The pistol, however, has very limited ammo, only being able to hold three bullets at a time. Enemies will sometimes drop bullets to compensate.

This pistol is reused for The Vigilante’s boss fight, Peppino able to shoot without a need for ammunition. The pistol can also be charged, firing a large bullet. This replaces the grab, as the shoot button was removed.

Transformations

Along with his basic moveset, Peppino has the abillity to transform in a variety of ways for different purposes.

See also: Transformations

Ball Peppino

(Gained from: Getting kicked by a Pepperoni Goblin or (possessed) Goblin-Bot)

Peppino inflates himself just like a balloon and quickly rolls until he hits a wall. He is invincible in this form and will bowl over enemies. He can also break small blocks instantly without losing momentum.

Knight Peppino

(Gained from: Grabbing a sword)

Peppino will be heavy and slow, but he will be invulnerable and can still take out enemies by walking into them or jumping on them. He also gains fast momentum from sliding down on stairs and slopes and can jump while doing so. If he touches a Pizza Pope or level hazard, the armor will break and return him to normal form.

Bomb Peppino

(Gained from: Picking up a bomb or The Noise's interference)

Originally, the player couldn't get rid of a bomb Prior to the April 2021 Build, however just like in Demo 2, if the player presses 'Grab' (formerly known in Demo 2 as 'Slap'), they are able to throw the bomb away. However sometimes the path can be blocked by purple metal boxes marked with bomb symbols that can ONLY be destroyed by an explosion, forcing the player to grab a bomb. During the transformation Peppino will run around without input of the player themselves (However, he can turn around if the left and right keys are pressed as of the Sage 2019 Demo.) and will be stunned temporarily upon the bomb explodes but won't be hurt.

Firebutt Peppino

(Gained from: Touching a pool of boiling sauce, burning haystack, Cheese Dragon's fireballs, or Peasanto (setting haystack on fire)

Peppino will jump up high and after landing his bottom will be briefly exposed. He can defeat any enemies that touch him at any point in the animation. In demos after Peppino's Xmas Break, the cheek-exposed recovery animation is now absent so that the player can regain control of Peppino more quickly.

Firemouth Peppino

(Gained from: Kentucky Kenny's spicy chicken wings)

When Peppino eats a spicy wing tossed by a Kentucky Kenny, he gains the firemouth form. His mouth is caught on fire, and he can destroy TNT blocks and kill enemies by touching them. He'll also run nonstop just like his bomb transformation. Free Milk booths will set him back to normal.

Ghost Peppino

(Gained from: Mushroom Ghost running in to you in the Wasteyard)

Peppino turns into a ghost, allowing him to fly freely and pass through cheese graters while being invincible, but he can't dash or attack. However, touching enemies will instantly defeat them and collecting ghost peppers will increase Ghost Peppino’s speed, eventually letting him destroy ghost blocks. To end the transformation, simply make contact with a Priest.

Originally, there were tombstones around levels featuring this transformation that can be grabbed and tossed around to different areas by Peppino without a transformation, which can then be used to turn back to normal when touched by Ghost Peppino.

Mort

(Gained from: Picking up Mort)

Upon touching Mort, Mort will mount on top of Peppino's head and give him several new abilties like having Mort smack his head around and ascending slowly in mid-air, as well as being able to break Mort Cubes by using the previously mentioned head smacking attack.

Barrel

(Gained from: Jumping into a barrel)

Peppino gets stuck in a barrel and rolls around in it quickly. This can defeat enemies and break blocks. Hitting a wall while rolling in the barrel will cause the barrel to turn into the opposite direction. However, if there is a slope next to the wall, the barrel will jump and change directions once landing. The barrel itself can be grabbed and tossed around to different locations before using the transformation.

Cheeseball Peppino

(Gained from: Touching cheeseballs)

If Peppino touches a cheeseball tossed by a Giant Spit Cheese, he gets stuck in it and will be stuck rolling in the direction of the cheeseball until hitting a wall. The only action that can be done while in this form is jumping, but the jumps are very small.

Sticky Cheese Peppino

(Gained from: Getting hit by a Cheese Peppino Robot (scrapped), a Cheese-inator (scrapped), or the aftermath of the Cheeseball transformation)

In Demo 2, Peppino could get covered in sticky cheese from the causes above. He is lot slower in this form, walking similarly to a zombie, but can cling on vertical conveyor belts and jump off of them. To get out of this form, the player has to touch an outlet.

Pizza Box Peppino

(Gained from: Getting crushed by a Box Stamper or the scrapped Noise boss)

Peppino will be crushed in a pizza box, making him be able to crawl on smaller places more easily without having to do a roll. He also has a near-infinite amount of jumps and can only exit this form by either getting hurt or touching Priest.

Weapons

In some versions and under certain circumstances, Peppino can afford a few weapons that help him endure the enemies he has to pass through during his quest:

Shotgun

In the SAGE 2019 Demo

Shotguns can be purchased for 4 pizza coins from Pizzamart (with a maximum of two guns). The gun will break from taking damage, but the player can carry one backup shotgun. The shotgun fires three projectiles at once by pressing up and the grab button at the same time. When performing the body slam, Peppino instead fires downwards while getting a slight vertical boost first, then stomps towards the ground. Pressing the grab button without the upward direction performs a shoulder tackle.

In the Western Build and onwards

The shotgun currently functions slightly differently than it did in the SAGE Demo, with shotguns now being obtained for free instead of bought from Pizzamarts and is now used more like a transformation and less as a powerup. The shotgun can now be gotten rid of by a metal detector. Since the projectiles fired by the shotgun go through walls, it is also now used in puzzles. Peppino can still perform the downward-fire & stomp combo, and the stomp can now briefly stun onscreen enemies when he hits the ground. There is also now a unique "shoot" button for firing the shotgun instead of pressing the up and grab buttons.

Pizza Cutter Buzzsaw

The Pizza Cutter Buzzsaw is a weapon that is in the files for the 2019 April Fools GOLF demo and Demo 2. Currently, there is no code for the weapon itself, but it's definitely not a scrapped idea. In current builds, the Cutter Buzzsaw can be seen stuck in the background of some rooms in The Wasteyard level. In some Pre-EarlyTestBuild footage, Peppino would've had it at his disposal. It would be used to ram into enemies. He could have carried up to three canisters of fuel for it.

Pizza Revolver

The Pizza Revolver is a gun Peppino wields in the GOLF demo and April 2021 build. In GOLF, it shoots out toppings when the trigger is pulled, but in the April 2021 build, it fires a bullet that damages enemies. Peppino can carry up to three bullets.

Final Release

The Revolver acts now as a power-up granted before the boss fights against the Vigilante and the second face against Pizzaface. This time the weapon has unlimited ammo and each shot can be charged into a Super Bullet that deals more damage.

In the comics

Peppino appears in the Peppino and Noise Comics, starring as one of the titular characters of the comics and is often seen being annoyed and/or tortured by The Noise, to his dismay.

He is also planned to appear in a currently unfinished comic featuring him and Gustavo in the desert, where the two would be antagonized by Mr. Incognito.

Trivia

• One of Pizza Tower Guy's Twitter posts jokingly described the background of Peppino as the main antagonist of a fictional 1996 video game called Pizza Boy Tower. There he would be known as "Chef Raider" as an antagonist and would be the nemesis of a character known as Totino the Pizza Boy, the protagonist of the game. However, Peppino's current backstory hasn't been defined yet.
  • This is a reference to the predecessor of the Wario Land series, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. As this game marked the first appearance of Peppino's Mario counterpart, Wario, also acting as the villain, this is fitting.
• While it's not confirmed by PTG, Peppino's anxiety could originate from a war he experienced before the main events of the game. The only proof for this is a sketch drawn by PTG showing Peppino with an army helmet. If this is true, Peppino might suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (This and other sketches can be seen in Peppino's Gallery)
• Peppino's Grab move was originally inspired by the Suplex Copy Ability from the Kirby series. The inspiration is most obvious on demos or builds like GOLF.

• If you wait long enough on the menu screen without pressing anything, Peppino will jump at the screen and a loud noise will play, closing the game.
• Breakdance originally worked completely different. If the shoot button is pressed without a shotgun, Peppino would do a breakdance kick to attack enemies. This attack has a bigger hitbox than grabbing and can be cancelled into either a rolling attack where Peppino curls up into the fetal position, which can bounce off of walls unlike the normal rolling, or a butt-first dashing attack. The rolling attack could also be used instantly by pressing the shoot button while rolling during a dash.

• In the real game lore, Peppino's Pizza place wasn't doing so well, so Peppino started to read about towers and eventually, he found a page that contained information about towers with ingredients to make perfect Pizzas. He then got a call from someone that was somewhere near the towers and for now that would explain how Peppino became involved in the world of Pizza Tower.

• As of March 2020, the super jump was reworked and it only would go a set distance instead of endlessly going upwards. Because of the height nerf, it could be used at any mach. The only way to extend the distance it goes is to hit an enemy or a block while super jumping. Also, it no longer had the mach effect, meaning it would impossible to cancel the super jump into a dash or another super jump. It could only be cancelled into a grab.

However, these changes were reverted in Western Build V2 and instead it was given a different, more minor change, that being the inability to super jump in midair, meaning it is no longer possible to chain super jumps in midair by cancelling the move into a dash.

As of the April 2021 build, Peppino moves much slower while in the pre-super jump position.

• In earlier builds of the game grab had a lunging form which could break through blocks and be used for precise platforming.

• Coincidentally, Peppino shares his name with Peppino Turco, the lyricist of Funiculi Funicula, that's also a song included in the game's soundtrack.

• Modding Noise's Hardoween to play as Peppino makes the stage harder to complete, as the stage was initially designed around The Noise's altered moveset (The Noise with his skateboard could reach Mach 3 at much shorter distance than Peppino, and jumps higher).
• Peppino's body slam is based on the same move from Virtual Boy Wario Land (without the bull power-up.)
• In the game's lore, Peppino is mute but has a screaming voice when in his firebutt form, and the cheerful-sounding voice clips heard from getting a combo come from the TV counting points, not Peppino.
  • However, he is shown speaking on the rank screens (Except the S-Rank Screen) and in some of the comics. That might mean that he is only selectively mute.(Side note: In the second Demo there are audio files of Peppino saying "Oh my goodness!" "Ohohohoho!" a grunting noise "most likely for when he got hurt" and "That's-a good!")
• When picking up the shotgun, the quote "it's time to chew ass" will appear on screen alongside a special TV sprite. This is a reference to a popular Duke Nukem meme called "Dick Kickem" in which the popular catchphrase "it's time to kick ass and chew gum" is swapped by two words.
• During one of PTG's live streams, it was revealed that Peppino was initially planned to share the name of his creator, Pizza Tower Guy, akin to Doomguy from the Doom series. However, this didn't stick for very long.
  • As the name suggests, this idea didn't come to light until the start of Pizza Tower's development, his final name sticking around before then.
  • McPig has claimed that Peppino isn't actually wearing an apron, instead he is wearing a white tank top over a black t-shirt because he cannot afford an actual apron.

Other Game Cameos

Although Peppino's main appearance is in Pizza Tower, there have been many official mods made by Pizza Tower Guy for various games that add him as a playable character, as well as officially approved cameos.

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Peppino appears in this Sonic racing fan-game as a downloadable character mod. Peppino has default stats, and a lot of his voice-lines came from Demo 0. Instead of driving a kart, he rides his signature scooter.

Rivals of Aether

Peppino is available as a custom playable character in this platform fighting game through the game's Workshop function. The sprites were made by Pizza Tower Guy a while back, later being resized to fit with other charcters, and coded by different person. His moves include throwing a Cheeseslime, slamming into the ground, superjumping, etc.

DOOM 2

Peppino appears inside of a class mod for this game named "Bring Your Own Class" along with The Noise, available on a few well-known DOOM mod sites, like All Fear the Sentinel. Many of his attacks and weapons reference Pizza Tower objects and moves, like where Peppino uses outlets, junk from Dragon Lair, and other items/attacks as melee weaponry, or using a Revolver/Shotgun. Other Pizza Tower characters also cameo in certain attacks, like The Noise being in a melee attack, The Vigilante throwing dynamite, a Pizzard using its magic, and Pizzaface acting as one of the most powerful weapons.

His only method of healing and (around the start of the game before getting any other weapons) ranged attacks is through his Pizza Slice weapon, which replaces the Pistol. Ammunition for it is gotten by meleeing enemies, and it can be thrown to hurt enemies or eaten to recover health.

Treasure Tech

Peppino appears in one of the pages of the manual as an advert for Pizza Tower, and some 3 panel comics with Treasure Tech's protagonist: Armin Chesterfield. A second in-gameplay cameo is in one of the treasures (That being a action-figure) that can randomly pop-out in the Pizza Tower themed Treasure Chest.

Fraymakers

Peppino appears as an assist character. In game, he will run up to the opponent for a lunging grab, and follow with a giant punch if successful.

Antonball Deluxe

Peppino appears as an unlockable guest character. He has a chance to be unlocked by spending points (50,000 to be exact) in a Lottery Machine.

Indie Rumble

Peppino would've appeared in the game as a playable character, until the cancellation of the game happened, all we know about his appearance in the game is the Kickstarter promotional art, the Rhythm Knight and Yolk reveal trailer, the idle as seen in the April Fools update post on the Steam page that no longer exists, and planned moveset.

Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch

A MM8BDM mod called Grand Classes, both add Peppino and Vigilante are playable characters. His moveset is very limited however, he has Slam Down, Mach Run & Taunt.

Gallery

For more images, see the gallery here: Peppino/Gallery

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  Promotional art of Peppino.

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  More promotional art of Peppino.

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  Promotional art of Peppino grabbing a Cheeseslime.

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  Promotional art of Peppino dashing.

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  Peppino's idle stance.

• Peppino's normal walk.

  Peppino's normal walk.

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  Peppino dashing at Mach 1.

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  Peppino dashing at Mach 2.

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  Peppino dashing at Mach 3.

Comics

These comics got posted on Pizza Tower Guy's twitter.

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