Peppino

Peppino
Information
Full name	Peppino Spaghetti
Relatives	Gustavo (friend) The Noise (rival)
Affiliation	Peppino Pizza / Peppino's Pizza

"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 (via Toppinbot)

Peppino Spaghetti (simply referred to as Peppino) is the main protagonist and the first playable character of Pizza Tower.

Description

Peppino is a portly, middle-aged Italian chef who wears a toque, a white tank top over a black t-shirt, black pants and boots. He has black short, messy hair and a small mustache under his long nose. He is often depicted with anger and fear, frequently shifting between the two. He often shows happiness when he feels accomplished, such as collecting a key or a Tower Secret Treasure. Despite his figure, he is shown to have immense physical strength. He can preform a finishing blow on enemies to instantly defeat most of them, run at intense speeds with the Mach Run, and is commonly depicted easily beating up various bosses.

He is the owner of Peppino's Pizza, named after himself. The restaurant is implied to be in rough shape, with buckets of water spilled on the floor, and pizza sliding off the counter. As shown in the game's intro, running the restaurant seems to be putting Peppino in a bit of debt, with little to no money shown in the shop. Additionally, in the game's ending, Mr. Stick can be seen running off with a bag of money, behind what is assumed to be Peppino's Pizza. This could be the reason behind Peppino's large amounts of debt. Despite their rivalry, Mr. Stick is still considered to be one of Peppino's friends.

Main Abilities

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

Jump

Jumping on top of enemies will stun them, making them vulnerable to attacks. Peppino can bounce higher off of an enemy by holding the jump button when landing on top of the enemy.

Body Slam

Pressing down while in the air makes Peppino perform a ground pound, damaging enemies from above. The fall can slightly be adjusted by pressing left and right. With enough height, this can be used to break metal boxes, indicated by the meteor-like effect.

Landing also stuns surrounding enemies for a brief period of time.

Mach Running

Mach Running is one of Peppino's most important abilities for blasting his way through the tower. 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 Mach Run, such as the appropriately named Dash Pad.

Mach States:

Mach 1:

• Peppino starts to dash at a slow pace, then increasing speed to run at a moderate pace.
• Peppino can stun enemies by bumping into them.
• Peppino can break breakable blocks by running into them.
• Upon impact with a wall, he temporarily stops.

Mach 2:

• Acts identically to Mach 1, but turning results in Peppino "drifting", in which he takes some time to change directions, but preserves his dash momentum.

Mach 3:

• 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.
• Enemies will be scared when close enough to Peppino, which will make them vulnerable for about 3 seconds before returning to normal.
• Peppino can kill any enemy upon contact if they are vulnerable/scared.
• Peppino can break metal blocks.
• Peppino can initiate a super jump by pressing up while dashing.
• Upon impact with a wall, he is knocked back.

Mach 4:

• Activated when the player is at Mach 3 and holds a movement key 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.
• Drifting at Mach 4 will bring him back to Mach 3.

Wallrun:

• If at any point Peppino runs up a slope connected to a wall or jumps into a wall, he will begin climbing the wall.
• If Peppino reaches the ceiling, he will crash into it.
• If Peppino runs out of wall, he will climb onto the ledge he just reached and go back to running normally.
• Jumping off the wall results in Peppino losing speed and going back to Mach 2.

Roll

Pressing down while dashing makes Peppino roll. If at Mach 2 or 3, he uncurls shortly after and slides on the ground.

Peppino retains his speed (even Mach 3) after he stops rolling.

Dive

Pressing down while dashing in the air while Mach Running will cause Peppino to dive downwards at a diagonal angle.

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. Peppino will lose speed upon landing.

Super Jump

Pressing up when the Dash reaches Mach 3 and releasing will cause Peppino to Super Jump. The player can move side-to-side slowly before releasing but cannot move horizontally once the Super Jump is initiated. During super jump, Peppino leaps straight upward quickly, busting through breakable blocks until he hits a ceiling. Hitting a ceiling briefly launches surrounding enemies upwards but does not stun them.

Shoulder Bash

Canceling a Super Jump before hitting a ceiling by pressing the grab or dash button will cause Peppino to stop Super Jumping mid-air, and instead he'll dash at Mach 2 in mid-air, slowly falling as he dashes.

Holding the jump button and colliding with an enemy while Shoulder Bashing will cause Peppino to bounce off of the enemy while still Shoulder Bashing.

Grab

Peppino dashes forwards, stopping when colliding with an enemy or object to grab them. 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.

Peppino also has extra moves he can perform while holding an enemy as seen below this section.

Holding the dash button after initiating a grab will cause Peppino to almost immediately start dashing at Mach 1 after the grab, letting him reach high speeds faster, you can also press the down button while grabbing to do a belly slide and then the dash button to gain even more speed than before.

Pressing the jump button before or during a grab initiates the "Long Jump", a jump with additional distance.

Pressing the grab button + the opposite direction while doing a Mach Run will cause Peppino to instantly stop Mach running, this is called the grab cancel/twirl which is useful in many ways.

Giant Swing

Grabbing an enemy while dashing into them will cause Peppino to spin forward with them until he loses speed, breaking blocks and killing other enemies.

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.

Holding up as Peppino is about to grab an enemy will cause him and the enemy to launch upwards before coming back down.

Uppercut

When holding up and pressing grab with an enemy in hand, Peppino performs an uppercut, sending the enemy flying upwards at a high speed.

Belly Slide

If the player crouches right after pressing grab, Peppino will slide forwards at the speed of Mach 3 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. Holding the dash button before Peppino is finished Belly Sliding causes him to immediately start dashing at Mach 2.

Rising Uppercut

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

Taunt

Pressing the taunt button will cause Peppino to strike a pose. If Peppino gets hurt while taunting, instead of taking damage, Peppino will block and parry the attack. This can kill most enemies and turn around projectiles.

If the player gets a combo of 10 or more and holds up while taunting or presses up immediately after doing a taunt, 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 defeated. The player will have to either get another combo of 10 or increase the current combo by 10 to be able to super taunt again. Taunting can also remove the "stunned" effect from an enemy.

Some taunts are references to popular culture, such as Daffy Duck, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Street Fighter.

Taunting 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. Taunting in front of one of the Patrollers in Don't Make A Sound will cause them to instantly sound the alarm and activate any Toppin Monsters. According to Pizza Granny, "taunting makes enemies react faster".

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. When used on a boss, it will instead prevent Peppino from being damaged.

Breakdance

If the taunt button is held, Peppino will start breakdancing in one place, and shortly after a purple boombox appears near him, which disappears after the player stops holding the button. The player can move Peppino while he is breakdancing, but will stop breakdancing when taking damage, jumping or falling. It does not serve any function at all.

Pistol

During some of the boss fights, Peppino's grab move is replaced with a pistol. The player can mash the button to shoot bullets as fast as possible or hold down the button to charge a big bullet, which will automatically be shot upon being charged.

Transformations

See also: Transformations

Along with his basic move set, Peppino has the ability to transform in a variety of ways for different purposes, mostly for getting rid of Stupid Rats that block progression. Peppino cannot enter doors while transformed unless it is removed by a Priest. The only exceptions are the Pepper Pizza and Shotgun transformations, which still allow him to enter doors. If the player builds up enough speed when touching a Priest, they will retain the speed into Mach 3.

Name	Method to Acquire	Effects	Controls	Debuting Level
Ball	Getting kicked by a Pepperoni Goblin, Goblinbot, Pepperoni Goblin Bat or thrown by a Big Cheese	Peppino inflates instantly and proceeds to roll in the direction he was thrown or kicked into until he hits a wall or is damaged. Any enemy or small destructible blocks run into will be defeated or destroyed respectively.	Pressing in the corresponding direction the player is rolling in will increase their speed. The player can still jump.	Pizzascape
Knight	Grabbing a sword from a Sword Stone	Any enemy will be defeated upon contact, rendering the player invincible. In a Charging state, Stupid Rats and Metal Blocks can be defeated and destroyed respectively.	Moving becomes much heavier and slower, and the player loses the ability to grab in exchange for a double jump. Body Slam is replaced with a Downward Thrust. Touching any slope sends the player down the slope into a Charging state until they hit a wall.
Fireass	Touching Boiling Sauce or a Peasanto's torch	The player is immediately launched upward, and slides on the ground for a brief moment upon landing. Touching any enemy or Stupid Rat in this state defeats them.	The player can only move left or right.	Bloodsauce Dungeon
Firemouth	Kentucky Kenny's spicy chicken wings	Running into any TNT Blocks will destroy them. Touching into an enemy or a Stupid Rat will defeat them. If the player is damaged, the transformation will end.	Grab is replaced with an Air Dash. Body Slam is replaced with descending faster.	Oregano Desert
Ghost	Touching a Mushroom Ghost	The player becomes incorporeal and may pass through Cheese Graters. The player is invincible. Collecting a Ghost Pepper will increase the player's base speed.	The player may float and fly around the air freely in any direction, however they lose the ability to Mach Run and grab.	Wasteyard
Mort	Grabbing Mort when he appears near a Well	The player may interact with Mort Hooks to cross large gaps. Getting damaged ends the transformation.	The player may double jump and their grab is replaced with an attack where Mort swats in front of him. The player can attack in three directions: left, right or upward. Standing still and attacking will push the player forward. Attacking a Mort Hook will launch the player up and forward.	Fun Farm
Weenie Mount	Grabbing a Weenie Mount	The player can build up speed quickly and move much faster. Any enemy approached will react as if being approached at Mach 3. Jumping exits the transformation.	The player may move left or right, but cannot grab. If they jump, the transformation ends.	Fastfood Saloon
Barrel	Falling into a barrel	Rolling allows the player to pass through small spaces and defeat Stupid Rats and any enemy. Rolling upward onto a slope will cause the player to change directions. Being damaged will end the transformation.	Grabbing is disabled. Jumping produces a shorter height and the Mach Run is replaced with rolling.	Crust Cove
Rocket	Grabbing a Rocket	The player becomes invincible and automatically moves forward. Colliding with enemies and Stupid Rats will defeat them, and Metal Blocks can be destroyed. The transformation ends upon colliding with a wall.	Grabbing is disabled. They may move up or down to adjust their position, and pressing in the corresponding direction will increase their speed. The player may change their direction by getting on the ground and pressing the opposite direction.	Deep-Dish 9
Cheeseball	Touching a Giant Slime's cheeseball projectile	The player gets stuck inside a cheeseball and moves forward until hitting a wall, ending the transformation. Colliding with a Super Side Spring will change the player's direction. Any enemy and Stupid Rat will be defeated upon collision.	None	Oh Shit!
Sticky Cheese	Exiting the Cheeseball transformation	The player is invincible and their movement becomes slow and heavy. Enemies and Stupid Rats will be defeated upon jumping into them. The player will stick to walls upon jumping into them.	Grabbing is exchanged for sticking onto walls. They can move left or right and jump.
Boxed	Getting stamped by a Box Stamper	The player is squished into a pizza box, allowing them to go through small gaps at a faster speed. Spinning into Stupid Rats and enemies will defeat them and launch the player up into the air slightly. Being damaged will end the transformation.	Grabbing is replaced with spinning, which launches the player forward. The player also has access to 10 jumps, each decreasing in height with each jump.	Peppibot Factory
Pepper Pizza	Eating a Pepper Pizza	The player's skin becomes red and they become invincible, destroying any enemy upon contact. Spinning/flying into a Stupid Rat will defeat them as well. The transformation only ends upon exiting the level or interacting with a Free Milk Stand. Other transformations can stack and will not end this transformation.	The player retains their normal controls, plus a double jump that allows the player to fly upon holding jump.	Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator
Shotgun	Grabbing a crate with the shotgun	The player gains a shotgun. Shooting it will stop all momentum unless shooting in midair, to which it will only decrease it drastically. Stupid Rats cannot be defeated, but other enemies can. Shooting at Target Blocks will destroy them as well. The transformation ends upon passing a Metal Detector. Other transformations can stack and will not end this transformation.	Grabbing is replaced with shooting the shotgun. Body Slamming will shoot below the player instead before rapidly descending, defeating any enemy below upon contact.	Don't Make A Sound
Animatronic / Peshino	Getting caught by a Toppin Monster	The player is put into an Animatronic as they lose 50 Pizza Points in increments of 10. If the player had a combo, it is instantly lost. Afterward, they lose the transformation.	The player may jump and move left or right, but the jump height is shorter and they move slowly. They also cannot grab.

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.

Pre-release

For early move sets and scrapped ideas, see the pre-release page here: Peppino/Pre-release

Trivia

• One of McPig'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 Pizzaboy, the protagonist of the game.
  • 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 main inspiration as a character, Wario, also acting as the villain, this is fitting.
• When first conceptualized as a character, Peppino originally had no ties or inspiration from the Wario Land series, and instead was going to be a comic about him facing various pizza-themed demons.
• Peppino's grab move was originally inspired by the Suplex Copy Ability from the Kirby series.
• Peppino's finishing blows on enemies were inspired by a similar mechanic from Battletoads.
• Peppino's Super Jump seems to share a similar animation to Super Mario Bros 2's Charge Jump.
• If the player waits around 40 seconds on the menu screen without pressing anything, Peppino will jumpscare the player, closing the game afterwards.
• Coincidentally, Peppino shares his name with Peppino Turco, the lyricist of Funiculi Funicula. This song is used as a leitmotif in the music of the game's tutorial levle (funiculi holiday), being royalty free.
• Peppino's body slam is based on the same move from Virtual Boy Wario Land.
• During one of McPig's live streams, it was revealed that Peppino was initially planned to share the name of his creator at the time, 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, but rather a white tank top over a black t-shirt. This is because Peppino cannot afford an actual apron.
• For some reason, the name of Peppino's Pizza is different depending on the setting, on the outside it's spelled "Peppino Pizza" (Seen in the opening and Pizzahead fight) and on the inside it's spelled "Peppino's Pizza" (seen at the end of the game)

Other Game Cameos

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

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Peppino appears in SRB2Kart alongside The Noise, Gustavo, and a few other characters in a mod called The Pizza Tower Pack. He has a Speed and Weight stat of 5. Instead of driving a kart, he rides his signature scooter.

Peppino also has a standalone mod that released almost 2 years before The Pizza Tower Pack. He has default stats, and a lot of his voice lines come from the Early Test Build. Again, he rides his scooter instead of a kart.

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 previously made by McPig, later being resized to fit with other characters, 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 a few other characters from Pizza Tower, 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's 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 melee'ing 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 an 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 move set.

Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch

A MM8BDM mod called Grand Classes adds both Peppino and The Vigilante as playable characters. Peppino's move set is very limited; however he has Slam Down, Mach Run & Taunt.

Alien Xenoblaster

Peppino appears as an unlockable character. The player can unlock him by completing a challenge level from world 3. His move set is the same as everyone else's, being an attack with limited uses, recharging after collecting a topping, which is in place of a weed leaf.

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 aggressively stretching a Cheeseslime.

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  Promotional art of Peppino dashing.

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  Peppino's idle stance.

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  Peppino's normal walk.

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  Peppino running at Mach 1.

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  Peppino running at Mach 2.

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  Peppino running at Mach 3.

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  Peppino running at Mach 4.

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