Should you save the world or sell your soul?

An existential platformer where Doomsday is just around the corner. Save the world or become an eternal corporate slave for the God of Death. Choices matter. Or do they? Goof around and find out.

Peppered: An Existential Platformer is definitely one of the strangest games I’ve played this year. It’s a 2D platformer but the choices you make will impact the ending, of which there are plenty of. You can essentially end the game within minutes with one choice, while the others will take a lot more work and one is particularly obscure to achieve.

It almost reminds me of Undertale with its dialogue and overall randomness, but in the guise of a fairly straightforward platformer. The story is pretty good with your character either trying to save the world, become a slave for the God of Death or simply evil, trying to make a profit off immortality. The writing is clever and there are a few puzzles thrown in that will test your sanity, especially since one has a time limit and you can’t pause the game to stop the countdown.

One path will lead you to a weird change in gameplay where you are playing 2D golf and you travel where your ball lands, the ball also gets some upgrades towards the latter stages which are both brilliant and bizarre in equal measure. Luckily, you can take all the time in the world with this section, though the very end part of that playthrough has some difficult moments to overcome.

My major gripe with the game is that despite having all these different choices and endings, there is one story path that isn’t explored that I thought they would go down. A lot of the endings are quite bleak and will possibly make you question your own mortality and may even give you an existential crisis of your own. It’s well written, that’s for sure.

The platforming itself handles well, though some sections will require practice and patience. You will need to be careful on some playthroughs depending on the choices you make as your ability to respawn becomes limited as a result. It would have been nice to have Cross-buy for the PS5/PS4 versions for the chance of a double Platinum here, but it’s not the end of the world.

The visuals are a nice throwback to 2D platformers with its pixel design. The framerate is solid and the soundtrack is amazing with some brilliant tracks throughout.

The Verdict

Multiple paths, multiple endings await you in Peppered: An Existential Platformer. It has some clever ideas and they work well while providing a classic platforming experience. I hope we get a sequel or spiritual successor down the road.

Score: 8.0