Devolver Digital
Look, it’s been a busy time for video game enthusiasts. Rather than easing out of a busy holiday season, the first three months of 2024 have been filled with enormous, high-profile RPGs that can eat up an upwards of 60 hours each. I’m tired. You’re tired. Don’t you just want to play something short and sweet at this point?
If the answer to that question is “yes,” then you’re in luck. Pepper Grinder, the latest release from publisher Devolver Digital, is out today and it’s the perfect change of pace for anyone exhausted from playing long RPGs for months. And it helps that it’s a fun little platformer with a unique hook, too. Actually, “hook” isn’t exactly the right word here. I should say “drill.”
Pepper Grinder is a 2D platformer with an easy to understand premise. Players control a character wielding a drill who can use it to burrow through patches of Earth. Each colorfully pixelated level is made up of a mix of platforms and dirt clods. Players need to jump and drill their way through levels, combining those basic techniques to snag hidden collectibles and avoid obstacles.
After months of breaking down complex RPG systems for readers, it’s refreshing that I could stop typing there and you’d know exactly what Pepper Grinder is.
Devolver Digital
The platformer nails the fundamentals of the genre while adding its own spin to it. Drilling into a patch of dirt and snaking around inside of it to grab jewels is as satisfying as it needs to be. Movement is smooth and mostly easy to control. Late game levels can get a bit more frustrating when players need to use momentum to launch between dirt clods or chain into swings off of grappling points, but developer Ahr Ech uses some smart restraint here so as not to push the idea too far and instead creates moments of punishing precision.
Rather than ratcheting up the challenge, Pepper Grinder instead focuses on creative ways it can twist its core gimmick. In one level, I jump down on a monster driving a car and shove my drill into the steering wheel to control it throughout a high-speed chase. Another standout has me using it to hack an enormous mecha that smashes through the levels. There’s just enough variety here to keep the sleek four-hour campaign surprising.
Devolver Digital
For those who want a little more out of it, each level can be played as a time attack — something that feels custom-made for speedrunners. There are lots of collectibles to grab too, including stickers that can be used in a scrapbook photo mode. Those are nice extras, but Pepper Grinder doesn’t really need them. The appeal here is that you’re getting a tight platformer that’s fun to play without overstaying its welcome. It’s no surprise that Devolver Digital decided to publish the project; it fits right in next to elegant oddities like Ape Out, Boomerang X, and Disk Room.
If you go into Pepper Grinder with the right expectations, it’ll be hard to come out disappointed. It’s the kind of small-scale delight that the video game industry was founded on. Grab it on Nintendo Switch (or Steam Deck), curl up on your couch with it one evening, and dig in.
Pepper Grinder is now available on Nintendo Switch and PC.
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Demon Throttle is an awesome retro shooter you’ll probably never play
Demon Throttle is an 8-bit retro throwback from Gato Robato developer Doinksoft and Devolver Digital that would feel right at home alongside other retro-inspired indie games on any digital game storefront. But Demon Throttle will never be available digitally. Like the NES games it’s inspired by, Demon Throttle is only available physically at launch. And right now, only 10,000 people are getting copies of the game after pre-ordering through Special Reserve Games last June.
Following the removal of lots of digital exclusives from HBO Max, it feels odd to play a game that’s only available physically. It’s the antithesis of the current state of digital media. Instead of letting anyone experience something digitally until it’s gone forever, a limited number of people can treasure a physical experience that won’t go away. I can take pride in having copy 1,651 of 10,000 alongside a well-produced instruction booklet and some stickers. That said, dealing with absolutes is not the best route for media preservation.
Having Demon Throttle’s Nintendo Switch cartridge physically does mean it will never disappear like An American Pickle or The Witches have, but it’s still limiting in its own way. Demon Throttle is an enjoyable retro throwback that I wish more people could play it. While this physical-only game technically circumvents one of the most significant issues facing all kinds of digital media but also negates the benefits of digital releases in the process.
Demon Throttle | Nintendo Switch | 2022 | Physical Exclusive
A retro romp that goes full throttle
It feels like Doinksoft and Devolver Digital ripped Demon Throttle straight out of an NES cartridge. Especially when playing with the in-game CRT filter and no dynamic backgrounds are on, you’d be forgiven for looking at Demon Throttle and thinking it is actually an NES game. As a result, its story is quite simple, with a Gunslinger and a Vampiress trying to take down a Dragon Lord after he kisses the Gunslinger’s wife and takes the chalices that can turn the Vampiress back into a human.
The little narrative here is irreverent, played for laughs, and vocalized through bitcrushed audio, so it’s quite charming. The soundtrack also features some of my favorite chiptunes of the year. Most importantly, Demon Throttle is also really fun to play, even if it is intentionally super hard. Demon Throttle is like King’s Knight as players continually walk forward through one of four upwards-moving autoscrolling levels, shooting the enemy and destroying the environment in front of them.
It’s part bullethell as players must dodge the barrage of enemy fire constantly coming toward them and part action RPG as the player can defeat enemies to level up and pick up upgrades for each character’s stats. Demon Throttle is a simple game once you learn how to fire, jump, and switch characters consistently, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Each character dies after just a few hits, and you have to start from the beginning after a game over like many games from the NES era. Even after hours of play, I still struggle to get far on most runs. Plus, it’s impossible to get the true ending if you don’t find the secret chalice in each level during a run.
Despite its intentional toughness, Demon Throttle is a really satisfying game to perform well in, and the repeated runs make it feel like a roguelike in the way most difficult retro games without save states do. I’d wholeheartedly recommend Demon Throttle to fans of retro games … if they can ever get their hands on it.
Physical foibles
Being a physical-only release is limiting in its own ways. I haven’t seen much discussion online about the game since it rolled out in July, outside of people being frustrated that Devolver Digital will eventually sell it in a non-limited fashion at places like Amazon and Best Buy. It doesn’t feel like it got a physical edition to ensure it never becomes lost media again, like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition. It feels more like a gimmick that limits its availability in a different way than a digital delisted, in turn increasing the game’s value.
There’s no denying that I’ve immensely devalued this game by opening my copy to write this article. But if you don’t play a game because it’s a rare physical release, that’s almost just as bad for interested fans as delisting something from a storefront forever? Being physical means Demon Throttle will never truly go away, but this King’s Knight-inspired experience might also never have the reach it potentially could have with a physical and digital release.
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Card Shark will get you kicked out of Las Vegas
Cheating in video games is usually frowned upon. If you enable aim bots or wall hacks in a game like Call of Duty: Warzone, you’re probably going to find yourself banned – or worse, thoroughly embarrassed. Winning a few games simply isn’t worth the mark of dishonor. In Card Shark, however, cheating isn’t just encouraged: It’s the entire game.
Developed by Nerial, the team behind the popular Reigns series, Card Shark is unlike anything I’ve ever played. It’s a narrative adventure game set in 18th-century France about a peasant who gets sucked into the world of petty criminals and cheats. It’s technically a card game, but not in the traditional sense. With its one-of-a-kind premise, Card Shark is a must-play curiosity that completely rethinks what gameplay can look like.
Read ’em and weep
In Card Shark, players control a young mute peasant in pre-Revolution France. His life takes a left turn when he meets Comte de Saint-Germain and is roped into a simple card cheat. In a plot that’s almost a little reminiscent of Nightmare Alley, players slowly rise through the ranks of society, swindling rich French aristocrats with a variety of tricks. That rags to riches story intersects with a wider political mystery that revolves around a conspiracy dubbed the “Twelve Bottles of Milk.”
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Sable has the best sound design you’ll hear in a game this year
I’m soaring across the desert on my glider. I don’t know where I am or how far I am from my destination — I’m not even sure I know what it’ll look like when I get there. All that matters, at this moment, is the whine of my hoverbike’s engine. With nothing to do but drive, I listen to its constant mechanical wheeze closely. I can’t decide if I’m sitting on an advanced piece of sci-fi tech or a total lemon. All I know is that it sounds like it’s putting all its efforts into getting me where I need to be.
Then I notice the music. It’s a minimalist track with steady percussion thumping like a heartbeat. Is it actually music at all? Or am I hearing my own body as it tries to put a beat to my bike’s engine, providing it a tempo to breathe along to? The barrier between human and machine melts away for the rest of my ride; my bike and I are one.
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