Here on YouTube, I have been classified as
many… *Peppino screams* What the… *Peppino screams again* What, you don’t want me to do my long-winded
YouTuber intro about how indie games aren’t always as popular as AAA titles? *Peppino taunts* Ok, I’ll make it quick… Here on YouTube, I have been classified as
many “guys” - once upon a time I was the League of Legends guy, then the gacha games
guy, the Sonic guy, and even the “Nintendo-tainted individual,” but one of my favorites has
to be the indie games guy. But after making one - two - three videos
on increasingly obscure titles, I was beginning to struggle with what defines an “underrated”
game, because while a snarky comment or two may lead me to believe that everyone has heard
of Lethal League or Sayonara Wild Hearts, the reality is quite the opposite. Just the other day, I was in the car with
my friend and I said “so I was playing Pizza Tower” and he said “what’s that” and
my brain went “oh shit, yeah, just because a game has 20,000 reviews on Steam doesn’t
mean all 7.8 billion people in the world have heard of it…” So, uh… y’all ready to get funky? Yes, I'll admit it, I'm jumping on the hype
train a little bit. At first, I really wasn't sure if I had anything
to say about it other than "game good," but I'm not about to let this pizza leave the
table without taking a slice for myself. I’m the indie games guy, and Pizza Tower
is the kind of game that gets me excited to talk about video games. Pizza Tower is a 2D platformer with one of
the most strikingly insane aesthetics I’ve ever seen in a video game. If most games carefully measure out a tablespoon
of style sauce, Pizza Tower pours the entire fuckin’ bowl into the mix on purpose. Like an MS Paint cartoon from the depths of
hell, Pizza Tower’s entire personality is fueled with adrenaline and oozing with creativity. Looking at Pizza Tower is like staring directly
at the sun - it’s almost painful - and yet it uses this aggressive design to loop back
into something you just can’t look away from, something you can’t help but fall
in love with mere seconds after seeing the opening cutscene. It ignores the fact that in some alternate
universe, it could scare people away with its art style, instead using it as the main
draw. In Pizza Tower, you play as Peppino Spaghetti,
otherwise known as VERY FAST ITALIAN RUNNING AT INCREDIBLE HIHG SPEED When this motherfucker finds out his restaurant
is at stake, he will stop at nothing to protect it. Except, uh, pay his debts, I don’t think
business is doin’ too hot- As you scale the tower to confront the dreaded
Pizzaface before he fires a laser at the pizzeria, you’ll encounter unique mechanics
in every level to shake things up - you’ll eat spicy chicken wings, get arrested, run
through a forest as a giant rat, play Five Nights at Freddy’s, fight the man responsible
for holding up a Domino’s in Chamblee, Georgia in 1989, and war. War. This level changes a man. Anyway, wanna play golf with a big ball of
cheese? After you’re done exploring a level, whether
that be gunning it for the end or carefully searching for every secret, you’ll run into
BIG JOHN. I’m not gonna explain what that means- Destroy him and Pizza Time begins, during
which you must run all the way back through the level before the previously-mentioned
Pizzaface wakes up to catch you. Pizza Time is such a chaotic and fun mechanic,
giving the player time to internalize the layout of the level before shoving them back
through it in a brand-new way, as different doors and pathways open up on the dash back
to the entrance. This is all apparently very Wario Land inspired,
but I never played those games so I’m just gonna move on. You don’t have to spend much time with Pizza
Tower to notice just how much passion was poured into this game - there are tons of
tiny references and easter eggs littered throughout each beautifully unique level, and Peppino
has an absolutely insane amount of sprites, some of which won’t even be noticed by a
lot of players. He has unique animations for different attacks,
running speeds, bumping into walls, using every single level mechanic, and even unique
idles like freezing in the Refrigerator level, intense anger while holding a high combo or
accepting his inevitable demise when the escape timer hits zero. this man does not speak a single word and
yet he is portrayed on the constant verge of an emotional breakdown with more artistry
than a fucking expressionist painting So if it wasn’t clear by simply looking
at this game, it’s about time I mention that Pizza Tower can often feel like anxiety
incarnate. With its wacky-ass art style, fast-paced precision
platforming, bangin’ tunes, and the many screams of terror… This is not a chill game. My only real "critique" of Pizza Tower is
more of a warning - this is a complex, high-speed platformer that doesn’t ease you into things. The tutorial throws all of Peppino’s mechanics
at you right out of the gate, and it can feel pretty overwhelming - he can jump, grab, throw,
uppercut, body slam, sprint, dive, slide, super jump, wall climb, and like twelve other things
I’m probably forgetting. I had to go back to the tutorial several times
during my playthrough because while trans people can double jump, Italians can quick
sprint with a grab roll cancel and exit it mid-air with a backwards grab input. Peppino’s movement can feel quite clunky
and slippery until you get used to things, and I spent the first few hours awkwardly
slamming my head into every wall and enemy. Playing Pizza Tower once, casually, is like
indulging in a painfully greasy pizza. You’ll still have a great time, but you
gotta take your time with it, lest you choke on the stuffed crust. At first, I could only play a level or two
at a time before feeling a strange sense of exhaustion. I just couldn’t understand what everyone
saw in this game… I was too weak for the tower. But then, slowly but surely, I felt it. To truly appreciate all the ingredients, to
understand why that specific pepperoni was placed 26 millimeters away from the sausage... You gotta get in the kitchen with Peppino
himself. You gotta be the chef. You gotta go for the P-ranks. I consider myself a reasonable level of gamer
- I beat Celeste Farewell, I thought the Path of Pain wasn't that bad, AND I was really
good at Rumbleverse. My friend can vouch. - “Yakko is extremely good at Rumbleverse…”
dude I’m not reading this- So believe me when I say that P-ranking levels
in Pizza Tower is not for the faint of heart. To earn these illustrious scores, you have
to finish a level without dropping combo while simultaneously clearing all three secret rooms,
grabbing the treasure AND running a second lap during Pizza Time. It took me over an hour to get a P-Rank on
the FIRST LEVEL... and it doesn’t get any easier from there. Even Pizza Granny will tell you “It’s
a tough challenge, so don’t feel bad if you don’t want to do it!”, and this is
coming from an NPC that normally just says shit like “Kiss my ass!” If you’re a completionist, this game is
a trip through the seven circles of hell and back. You will see, hear, taste, smell and feel
the grease as it seeps into your veins. You gotta merge the rat brain with the rat
game. You gotta become the rat. You see this rat? That’s me, I’m him. I’m that rat. I beat the whole game casually in around six
hours, and it took me seven to get a P-rank for every level on the first floor. I don’t have ADHD but I feel like I might
develop it by the time I’m done here- These levels are some of the most intense
platforming challenges I’ve ever played. Pizza Tower takes the route-designing and
fast-reaction finesse of speed games to the extreme - while a game like Neon White has
levels that average well under a minute, Pizza Tower forces you to perfect 5-10 minute mazes
of chaos. Dropping combo by missing a single jump several
minutes in or getting killed by some dumb fuck snowman during the second
lap reveals the true meaning of despair... But within each failure lies the game’s
greatest secret: with each and every attempt, the level slowly transforms from a wacky little
platformer into a precision racetrack where every room becomes internalized and chained
together. Taking a leisurely stroll through the tower
is one thing, but as you open your third eye, slam on the gas and start plowing through
innocent pedestrians, the game feels brand new all over again, and every wall, enemy
placement, and secret makes perfect sense exactly where it is. If I was a lesser man, I would’ve said something
like “I wish I could prove my gamer street-cred, but with over 20 hours clocked in… I'm only halfway done!” - but I’m no lesser man. Did you really think I was gonna talk this
highly of Pizza Tower and not procrastinate working on this video for several days in
order to P-rank every level and earn every single achievement in the game? Can anyone explain how I’m still single? I can't say this type of pizza is for everyone,
but if you like that beautiful build of tension, where sweat beads up on your forehead as you
carefully pour the tomato sauce, your hands almost slip as you reach over to sprinkle
just the right amount of cheese, arms shaking as you place every ingredient, and as your
legs prepare to buckle, you desperately leap to put the pizza in the oven at the last goddamn
second... and the tension releases. An infernal scream echoes from your soul,
and you revel in the beauty of your piping hot pizza pie. *various P-rank screams* I did it! AAAUGH! The search for online multiplayer games that don’t make me want to put a bullet through my skull
can often feel like a Sisyphean task. After the death of Rumbleverse, I desperately
searched for something to play with my friends - something fun and replayable, and not a
game where I get head-shot after looting silently for ten minutes. So after a few days, Fortnite was out of the
picture. Then I played exactly two matches of Deceive,
Inc, a few hours of Divine Knockout, and unfortunately relapsed into League of Legends. Is it bad that I’m admitting that on record? Anyway, all this lead-up is simply to say
that I’m really glad Omega Strikers is back. IT’S LEAGUE OF LEGENDS AIR HOCKEY! Wait no don’t go, oh shit- This analogy is not a joke - Omega Strikers
is 3v3 MOBA-inspired air hockey. Everyone uses a basic hit to knock a core
around the field, and each character has three unique abilities to attack opponents, outplay
the enemy team or defend their own goal. And you can also do the bunt from Lethal League
where you go dink and then you fuckin’ BOOM- While Omega Strikers may be trying its damndest
to weasel into eSports territory - especially since the game is designed by former League
and Teamfight Tactics developers - it’s all done with a certain “wow i’m actually
having fun” factor, as opposed to the usual “I’d rather chop my nuts off with a rusty
kitchen knife” factor… also known as Valorant- It’s kinda like a party game, but it’s
also competitive… like Lethal League! What do you mean, only three people understand
that comparison? Each character in Omega Strikers often specializes
in a certain role. Estelle and Ai.Mi can use their long-range
projectiles to pressure the goal, X is an oppressive piece-of-shit who makes the lives
of other players a nightmare by attacking them directly, and Dubu - the best character
- is great at playing goalie thanks to his crowd control abilities and giant tofu wall. and he’s very funny- There’s a great sense of comradery that
makes this game a joy to play with friends - you really have to communicate and work
as a team to outsmart the enemy, carefully aiming your passes to teammates and chaining
your abilities to stun opponents or score a goal. I was lucky enough to get invited to multiple
playtests of Omega Strikers over the last year and a half, and it’s been really cool
to watch the game progress over time. As someone who only plays and reviews video
games, it’s always really exciting when I get the opportunity to play with and talk
to developers to learn more about how these wacky things actually get made. Plus, in one of the playtests, me and the
boys were the top team on the leaderboards, and I will carry that incredibly miniscule
amount of pride with me to the grave. - I will say this: the game is fun enough
that I told my mom I’d be skipping dinner tonight, so that’s huge. That’s a pretty big deal. - Woah, that’s the high praise, man! Even during the first alpha playtest back
in 2021, when the map wasn’t finished, character animations were still being blocked out, and
you could barely see Dubu’s stupid little head on the character select screen, this
game was fun as hell. It didn’t need any bells and whistles - I
could’ve spent three hours running around as a placeholder model and it still would’ve
been a blast - and I say this because I did! one of the characters was just the deadge
emote- - Can we not all just play as Among Us characters,
what the hell? - I don’t wanna be Among Us! - Yeah, let’s fucking go! Work in progress! - Yeah, an assist, baby! I’ll take it! Ok, I really wanna play a character I understand… AMONG US! Now, this is the part where things get a bit
complicated. For the thirty-or-so hours I spent with the
game in testing and beta, matches were first-to-five goals, win by two. This resulted in an average of five-to-ten
minute matches, which really fit the simple and frantic format of the game. Everyone would also equip passive buffs
before each match, which had the potential to offer build variety but often resulted
in rigid best-in-slot selections. In the full release of the game, Normal and
Ranked are now a much longer Best-of-5 rounds, with each round being first to three goals. In between each round, you also spend thirty
seconds drafting buffs from a random pool instead of equipping them beforehand. What all this leads to is matches that are
three to four times longer. While these changes have proven to be somewhat
controversial, I don’t feel like I land on either side of being for or against them
- instead, I kinda realized that I can’t see serious longevity in Omega Strikers - at
least for me. The old format ended up making matches too
“samey,” as I only played about five to ten hours of the public beta, but my gut reaction
after spending time with the full release is that the new format feels like a mismatch
too - an attempt to tap into the eSports crowd and match complexity of other live service
titles, despite the game’s inherent simplicity. The ability draft feels awkward since there’s
no real banning or counter picking, and it’s often hard to feel these passive buffs while
you’re still focused on the same two things - defend or score a goal. The best of five format also feels way too
long for how intense each round is. In a game like League, you have crazy teamfights,
but there’s also farming, respawn timers, buying items, and walking around the map - features
that pace out the energy so you don’t have to operate at 100% the whole time. But in Omega Strikers, there is no down-time
outside of the few seconds after a goal, and 15-25 minutes of near constant action and
tension ends up feeling exhausting. While there’s plenty of room for improvement
and skill expression, and I do think there’s a subset of players that will really love
sinking their teeth into this game, I honestly don’t know if I see myself dumping hundreds
and hundreds of hours into it. I know that’s basically an insult to a competitive
live service game, but I do wanna say that I’ve enjoyed just about every minute I’ve
spent playing Omega Strikers, and I can tell the team behind it is super passionate. It’s just that evaluating it on the merit
of replayability gives it a much higher bar to clear than a funny little melee baseball
game you spend twenty bucks on. Is it gonna replace your favorite live service
game for the next five years? Probably not, but anime pong with the boys
is still pretty damn fun. - That’s my boys! *laughing* - Oh no, I shot on myself! - OH! That was epic style! - This is the one. Oh my god, what a fuckin’ play! Nice! You can also use a funny emote of my face
in the game, so that makes it pretty good. If you walked up to me on the street and said
the words “heavy metal rhythm game FPS with dynamic music,” I’d probably start foaming
at the mouth. I mean, to be fair, I’d go feral for just
about any game with adaptive music, but killing demons to the beat is pretty awesome. Metal Hellsinger is all about building up
excitement and maintaining it at its peak. I am choosing my words carefully and this
still sounds like a sex thing. Oh, maybe it is- The idea is simple - kill every demon that
gets in your way with an arsenal of pistols, shotguns, and more. But the catch? Both firing and reloading weapons need to
be performed to the beat of the music. Each gun fires at a different pace in a way
that can be melded into the music - the dual pistols and crossbow can shoot on every beat,
the daggers toss on two beats and take one to fly back, and the shotgun is slowed to
every other, which changes the feel of combat based on where you fall in the rhythm. As you internalize the momentum of each weapon,
Metal Hellsinger becomes a hypnotic experience, where you feel your body and soul blend into
the increasing energy of each metal track as you slice and blast through hordes of enemies. Levels start out with a slow, thumping bass
drum to get you acquainted with the song’s tempo before carefully adding more instruments
and energy with every increase of the combo meter. At 2x - the drums and backing instruments
kick in for real. At 4 and 8, bass and electric guitars get
thrown into the mix. And when you hit that sweet, sweet 16, your
birthday present is an incredible vocal performance from a cast of talented metal performers from
bands like Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy and System of a Down. Every time that shit kicks in, Metal Hellsinger
becomes the coolest game I’ve ever played, even if for just a few fleeting moments. The combo system is simple yet works perfectly,
forcing you to use fast aerial movement to jump and dash around enemies to avoid getting
hit - which will lower the combo - while simultaneously requiring a constant level of precision and
aggression to keep it alive. Reaching max combo isn’t just for points,
either. The longer you hold it, the more temporary
perks you’ll earn that can benefit you in combat, alongside boons you equip from beating
the challenges in-between main levels. Even walking down hallways feels intense,
since you have to keep firing shots to maintain combo outside of combat. The rhythm game never stops! My only complaint is that the difficulty settings
felt kinda frustrating during my initial playthrough. Even when first starting out, the Beast or
“Hard” difficulty felt like a perfect level of challenge for fighting regular enemies,
but I quickly started getting one-shotted by the bullet-hell-esque bosses. This wouldn’t be a problem if I could, y’know,
respawn, but Hard difficulty has the additional caveat of no retries, forcing me to play the
whole game on Normal to learn and clear the boss fights. Problem was, after getting used to the combat
on hard for the first level or two, the rest of the game on Normal ended up making most
encounters feel too easy. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but just something
that kinda irked me, considering there’s an unlockable difficulty above Beast where the permadeath
makes a bit more sense. That’s about all I’ve got for Metal Hellsinger,
though! The first time I felt the sheer adrenaline
of hitting max combo right as the chorus came around... I was sold. Oh, and if the heavy metal isn't heavy or
metal enough for your tastes, you could always waste an hour modding in something
like, I don't know, Sega Bass Fishing. - Don’t crash… yes! *laughs* While most of the games on this list came
out fairly recently, Return of the Obra Dinn released back in 2018, but ever since I played
it last year, I’ve been itching to feature it in a video. This is one of those beautiful knowledge-based
“you can only play it once” games, where you feel fantastically hollow on the inside
after finishing it and can only rekindle the joy by forcing everyone you know to play it
and experiencing the discovery again vicariously through them. In Obra Dinn, you have to assess the damages
of a ship that has mysteriously returned after vanishing for insurance purposes. I know this sounds incredibly boring, but
it’s actually a mystery deduction game where you have to piece together a comprehensive
log of every passenger, detailing their name and current status or cause of death. To do this, you use a magical pocket watch
that allows you to view the final moments of various corpses around the ship. You’re given the sounds and dialogue of
each moment before being dropped into a frozen scene where you can walk around and investigate
every detail. And these flashbacks aren’t just like: Oh heavens! I, Bungus Bonson, the ship’s artist, have
been shot with a pistol by Jimmy Jumbles! Uh, ok, Bungus… The fateful events of the Obra Dinn play out
in a nonlinear fashion, forcing you to carefully search surrounding areas, cross-reference
previously-viewed events, and pick out details like the language someone is speaking or the
people they spend time around to narrow down their ethnicity or occupation. That, or you just say the captain killed everyone
and get an achievement! I can’t say or show much else without potentially
spoiling Obra Dinn’s magic, but everything about this game, from the enthralling scene
design to the immersive audio and unique two-color aesthetic has made it one of my new favorite
indie games. Actually, no, what makes one of my new favorites
is when you get three fates correct, and it locks ‘em in and it goes bum! bum bum! buh da bum bum! buh da bum bum. doo doo doot doo! Y-you get me? You know what I’m saying? Tunic is a game about the joy of discovery
in its purest form, and in a similar fashion to Outer Wilds and Obra Dinn, it’s a game
I can’t talk all that much about without spoiling its magic. Forget what you think you know about Tunic
- it’s not just a little isometric Zelda-lookin’ game with a cute fox… it’s much more than
that. I know “just go and play it” isn’t exactly
the hardest sell, but Tunic was one of my favorite games of 2022 for a reason, and I
think anyone with an interest in puzzles, mysteries or cool indie games should drop
the 30 bucks and give this one a try. Oh, you still haven’t bought it yet? What if I told you Tunic is so good I bought
the plushie? C’mon, look, he’s really cute. That’s still not enough? Ok, fine… On paper, Tunic is an adventure game, but
there are quite a few major twists, the main one being that the game’s language is completely
foreign, save for a few intentionally translated words and phrases. There’s also no tutorial - instead, as you
explore, you’ll find individual pages of the game’s “instruction manual,” slowly
revealing secrets about the world, mechanics and controls. “everything hurts way more when I’m tired” Is this about the stamina bar or my mental health? All of this evokes the feeling of wonder that
comes with learning to play games as a kid. Instead of instantly revealing everything
it has to offer, the game plays its hand very carefully, opting to withhold vital information
to make its world feel delightfully mysterious. Yet at the same time, you’re never meant
to feel truly helpless. Every page of the instruction manual hides
its own secrets, and while the pen markings scattered throughout could simply be a reference
to the pre-looking-up-a-walkthrough days of old, I think they’re also meant to serve
as a reminder that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to make this journey. Maybe in an alternate world, you picked up
a copy of Tunic at GameStop after the dude before you sold it back for like a dollar,
and their successes and failures now exist to assist you on your own adventures. The way each piece slowly falls into place
is just wonderful, a tightly-chained series of intense combat, mind-blowing discoveries,
and genius “a-ha!” moments that repeatedly challenge everything
you think you know about the game you’re playing. As you immerse yourself in Tunic’s rich
atmosphere - the gorgeous sights, detailed sounds and ethereal music… the world will
whisper its secrets… and if you listen carefully, it may just help light the path ahead. Welp, those really were five indie games you
should check out! Hopefully they’re enough to satiate your
interests until I inevitably do another one of these compilations in the future! Subscribe if you enjoyed the video, and feel
free to leave any recommendations for cool indie games in the comments. I’m always looking for new stuff to play. Uhhh… that’s it! No ending joke. I can’t think of one.
