Pizza Tower

Pizza Tower is one of the most kinetically joyful platformers in years, a love letter to Wario Land's momentum-driven movement cranked past the redline. Peppino's dashes, wall-runs, grabs, and slams create a speedrunner's toolkit that most players won't fully master on a first pass, and the escape sequences at the end of each level, where the whole stage collapses into a frantic timed sprint, are some of the best set-piece design in the genre. The hand-drawn animation is a marvel: hundreds of expressive frames convey Peppino's mounting panic with cartoon elasticity that few studios this small could pull off. The soundtrack matches the manic energy beat for beat, hopping genres as freely as the levels hop gimmicks. Story is essentially nonexistent, a thin excuse to keep moving, which is fine given the game's priorities but means it offers little beyond pure mechanical thrill. The S-rank chase adds real longevity for completionists, though casual players may bounce off the demanding execution required for full mastery. A tiny team delivered one of 2023's most purely fun indie triumphs.