Peppino

Peppino

Peppino (Full name: Peppino Spaghetti) is the protagonist of Pizza Tower. Peppino's main abilities consist of grabbing and tossing enemies as well as a speed dash and a powerful super jump. He shows signs of both anger and anxiety and will shift through both emotions frequently. He fights enemies using different forms such as a knight and a cheese zombie as well as some weapons including a shotgun.

Main Abilities

Jump

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

Jumping on top of enemies will stun them, allowing them to be grabbed if they normally hurt Peppino when attempting to grab them.

As expected of a platforming Italian, Peppino can bounce higher off of an enemy by holding the jump button when landing on top of the enemy.

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.

Dash Stages:

Mach 1:

• Peppino starts to run at a moderate pace. The Speed bar in the upper left corner of the screen is filled 2 blocks.
• Peppino can stun enemies by bumping into them.

Mach 2:

• Peppino starts dashing madly, indicated by his red and green afterimages. The Speed bar is filled 3-4 blocks in the upper left corner.
• 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.

Mach 3:

• Peppino starts dashing at an insane rate, indicated by his extremely angry sprite animation. The Speed bar is full, at 5 blocks, and has a flashing effect.
• Distinct in its added sounds, force-field effect, and Peppino's "crazy eyes."
• Has the same abilities as Mach 2, as well as the following:
  • Enemies freeze in shock when Peppino reaches them, letting him bust through defenses like Forknight's fork.
  • Can initiate a Super Jump.
  • Can break metal boxes.
• 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 2.
• If the player continues pressing forward whilst running, he goes supersonic which gives him a bit more speed and alters the animation and sounds.

Mach 4:

• Activated when the player is in Mach 3 and continues holding forward in the direction Peppino is running.
• It is almost identical, the main differences being sprite changes and him going significantly faster.

• (Note: This stage will automatically activate when dashing while Peppino has the Pepper Pizza power-up.)

Roll

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

Dive

Press down while dashing in the air at Mach 2 or higher, can damage enemies and break non-metal boxes in the same fashion as the dash or roll.

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.

Super Jump

(a.k.a. Shinespark)

Press upward when the Dash reaches Mach 3 and release to super jump. You can move side-to-side slowly before releasing, but cannot move horizontally once the super jump is initiated.

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

You 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.

Grab

Quickly lunges forward to grab an enemy in his clutches. He can carry caught enemies around before smashing them away, upwards, or behind him. Pressing down whilst on the ground releases a stunned enemy.

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

• Giant Swing: Press the forward and backward directions quickly to spin and press the grab button to throw.
• Spinning Piledriver: Jump with a held enemy and press down while in the air.

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

In addition to being an important method of defeating enemies in tight spaces, it can also break through small boxes without stopping and larger non-metal boxes (where he stops and does a very quick box-breaking animation).

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.

Roll Slide: Press down after you start a grab. This was executed differently in other demos.

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.

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.

Taunt-attack

Strike a pose. If the player gets a combo counter of 3x or more, taunt-attacking will defeat any enemies on-screen until the combo ends.

As of recent demos, when the player gets a 3x combo or more, sparks will surround the player, and when the taunt key is pressed anytime during this state, a taunt-attack will happen. In addition, the taunts pop-out, with one of four unique taunts being selected (different taunts are purely cosmetic, and different ones don't affect gameplay). These were shown in "Thing of the Week 1: Entrance" on the official Pizza Tower YouTube channel.

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

Slap

Peppino will close his eyes and nervously swing his palm. It takes a few hits to stun an enemy before grabbing them.

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.

Transformations

See also: Transformations

Knight Peppino

(Gained from: Grabbing a sword or getting hit by a Pizzard's projectile)

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. If he slides into a wall or touches a 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)

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb, but it helps when your path is blocked by purple metal boxes marked with bomb symbols that need to be destroyed. Peppino can only run and jump frantically, and "transforms" back to normal upon exploding but is not hurt.

Ball Peppino

(Gained from: Getting kicked by a Pepperoni Goblin or pressing down while on stairs)

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.

Firebutt Peppino

(Gained from: Touching a pool of lava, burning haystack, fireball or Smoked Weenie's Cigar.)

Peppino will jump up high and after landing his bottom will be briefly exposed. He can actually defeat any enemies that touch him at any point in the animation. In demos after Peppino’s X-mas Break, the cheek-exposed recovery animation is now absent.

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 can only get out of this form by getting hurt.

Sticky Cheese Peppino

(Gained from: Getting hit by a Cheese Peppino Robot or Cheese-inator)

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.

Cheeseball Peppino

(Gained from: Trash Pan's cheeseballs)

If Peppino touches a cheeseball tossed by a Trash Pan, 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. There are also specific blocks labelled with a cheeseball on them that can only be broken with this transformation.

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 by pressing the dash button, he can shoot fireballs that ignite TNT blocks and also kill enemies. He'll also run nonstop just like his bomb transformation. Free Milk booths will set him back to normal.

Ghost Peppino

(Gained from: Ranch Shooter's bullets)

Peppino turns into a ghost, allowing him to jump as many times as he wants and pass through electrified blocks and certain walls while being invincible, but he can't dash or attack. To end the transformation, there are 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.

Weapons

Shotgun

In the SAGE 2019 Demo:

You can purchase a shotgun for 4 pizza coins from Pizzamart (with a maximum of two guns). The gun will break from taking damage, but you can carry one backup 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 later demos featuring the Cowboy level:

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. Now only the grab button has to be pressed to shoot with it and 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.

Pizza Cutter Buzzsaw

The Pizza Cutter Buzzsaw is a weapon that is in the files for the GOLF demo and Demo 2. It is currently not added and is possibly an unused idea.

Pizza Gun

The Pizza Gun is a weapon Peppino wields in the GOLF demo, it will shoot out toppings when the trigger is pulled.

Trivia

• In the game's lore, Peppino originally had his "debut" as the main antagonist in the fictional 1996 video game, Pizza Boy Tower, starring his nemesis, Totino the Pizza Boy, the protagonist of the game. However, this info is false, as admitted by PTG himself.
  • In this game, his original name was "Chef Raider".
  • 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.
• Modding/Playing as Peppino in Hardoween 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).
• In the real game lore, Peppino's Pizza place wasn't doing so well, so he was reading a book about towers and noticed something surprising, he found a page that said about towers with ingredients to make perfect Pizzas, he then got a call from someone that was somewhere near the towers.
• Peppino's body slam is based on the same move from Virtual Boy Wario Land (without the bull power-up.)
• One of Peppino's most popular poses is BEP, a circular Peppino that appears for a few frames when Peppino dies.
• 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.

Gallery

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

• 

  Peppino's Idle Stance.

• 

  Peppino givin' a cute lil' smirk.

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  Co-op offscreen icon.

• Peppino's normal walk

  Peppino's normal walk

• One of Peppino's taunts. Can be lined up with one of Noise's namely the Noisette one.

  One of Peppino's taunts. Can be lined up with one of Noise's namely the Noisette one.

• 

  Peppino running like crazy his "Bomb" transformation

• 

  Peppino tiredly talking, probably used when Peppino is talking to Mr. Stick, as he also has a talking animation.

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  Knocked Out Peppino.

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  Peppino angrily yelling at someone.

• Peppino doing the Club Penguin Dance.

  Peppino doing the Club Penguin Dance.

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  Peppino saying you suck from a twitter post.

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  Peppino answering the phone.

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  Peppino being MAD.

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  The New, Modern, Hud.

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  Peppino FIRMLY GRASPING.

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  Peppino's Rivals of Aether custom fighter portrait.

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  All the frames for the Peppino mod of Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart.

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  Some of Peppino's SUPER TAUNTS! These, when used, screen clear.

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  Peppino's death animation. The third pose he makes is known as BEP.

• 

  BEP, the third pose Peppino makes during his death animation.

• Peppino and The Noise in a fightball, seen when wither one runs into the other. This is the Co-Op version of "Mach 3."

  Peppino and The Noise in a fightball, seen when wither one runs into the other. This is the Co-Op version of "Mach 3."

Comics

so apparently this awesome game of pizza has comics

g a y .