Well, a new Nintendo Direct arrived today, and with it came a whole slew of release window and release date announcements. Among them was the release date for one of Devolver Digital’s much-anticipated games coming this year, that being developer Aur Ech’s unique drill-based platformer, Pepper Grinder. Accompanied by a new trailer which you can check out below, a March release date was revealed for the game, meaning players will finally get to check out the game’s fast-paced burrowing action in full in less than a month from now. For those of you who can’t wait, though, it was also announced that the game’s demo is now available on Switch, alongside the already-released Steam version.
Massive Drill vs. Narwhals
Pepper Grinder follows the story of Pepper, a treasure hunter who finds themselves washed up upon a mysterious island after their ship was ripped apart in a storm. As if that wasn’t bad enough on its own, they then quickly find all of their treasure stolen by the Narlings, a group of vicious land-dwelling narwhal-like pirates. But a silver lining arrives for Pepper in the form of the Grinder, a massive drill that gives them the power to take on the Narlings by allowing Pepper to dig through dirt, ice, rocks, water, balloons and more to find their treasures, be they in plain sight or hidden, and it even allows them to operate machinery such as cannons and snowmobiles, as seen in the clip below. Oh, and she can always just use the Grinder as a weapon against the Narlings, if the massive bosses and that it’s a massive drill didn’t already make that clear.
Pepper Grinder’s Fondness for Movement Makes it One of Precision-Platforming’s Most Promising New Faces
A calculative yet delightful repurposing of movement as its main draw, makes Pepper Grinder’s introduction a fascinating one.
Pepper Grinder has been in the works since at least 2017, so hopefully it ends up being worth the wait. Luckily, it’s been wowing more than a few people with its demos over the past half a year or so, with our own James Cunningham saying that the game has"…absolutely nailed its gameplay feel in every new outing since its initial debut"and fellow HG writer Jordan Helm praised the game’s drill-based traversal heavily as well, saying that"…focus on making movement feel like a needle to thread is why Pepper Grinder feels as satisfying to conquer.“And having played the demo during the recent Steam Next Fest as well, this writer can also confidently say that the game’s unique method of movement, combined with what feels like superb level design so far, makes for one potentially stellar platformer. And we’ll see if Pepper Grinder can indeed emerge victorious with a ton of deserved treasure when it arrives on March 28 for the Nintendo Switch and PC.
