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| “ | Okay you look-a-right here! I baked that into a pizza ONCE and nobody can ever know. Not even the health inspector. Capeesh? | „ |
| ~ Peppino |
| “ | Peppino Spaghetti, a surprisingly agile and powerful fat balding Italian, is on a mission to destroy the titular Pizza Tower in order to save his restaurant from annihilation. Follow him through his rampage across the many wacky floors of the tower, collecting toppings and beating up monsters! | „ |
| ~ Steam Page Description of Peppino Spaghetti. |
| “ | YEEOOOOOOW! | „ |
| ~ Peppino, on multiple occasions |
Peppino Spaghetti is the main protagonist and main playable character of the 2023 indie video game Pizza Tower. He is a paranoid and anxious chef that seeks to protect his struggling pizza restaurant from the hands of Pizzaface.
Appearance[]
Peppino is a balding and portly Italian pizza chef with a thin moustache who wears a black shirt and pants, which are underneath a tank top and chef hat. These are white by default, but can be changed to several different colors and/or patterns in-game. In his casual outfit in the sketches, Peppino wears a hoodie, a cap, shorts, and sneakers.
Personality[]
Peppino is extremely anxious and nervous, constantly twitching and looking around, as well as screaming in a mixture of surprise and fear at the beginning of every boss battle. This fright can quickly turn into anger as he gets faster and stronger. After acquiring a high enough combo by defeating enemies, Peppino's stance becomes filled with rage. He smiles very rarely, but he does so when unlocking doors, achieving an A or S rank, finding the level's secret treasure, or obtaining a boss key.
Biography[]
Peppino, after seen struggling with much debt, is pushed to the Pizza Tower when his pizzeria is threatened to be blown up by a comically-sized laser created by Pizzaface. Once he hears this, he springs into action and quickly rushes to the Pizza Tower to stop it.
After battling all four bosses of the Pizza Tower and reaching the top, he has a grand final fight with Pizzaface, then Pizzahead, who was revealed to be using Pizzaface as a vehicle. Once Pizzahead grabs all the prior bosses challenging them to a rematch, Peppino becomes so filled with impatience and rage that he rushes the bosses with flurries of punches, now dealing 4 hits of damage instead of the normal 1 and plowing through everyone.
After beating Pizzahead, he rushes him with so many punches he floats into the sky, and piledrives him back down. Once it's all finally dealt with, Peppino breaks the final Pillar John of the Pizza Tower, causing the tower to crumble apart while he sprints out of it as fast as he can. The game ends with his friend Gustavo patting him on the back, as he's completely out of breath. With his pizzeria saved and now having the money to pay his debt, Peppino makes amends (somewhat) with the Tower's bosses and continues running his pizzeria. If Peppino collects all the treasures locked away behind Gerome's doors, he also uses them before the end credits to revive John and break his curse, allowing him to happily reunite with his brother and take revenge on Pizzahead.
Powers and Abilities[]
Peppino (in normal levels) is nearly invincible. He can only be defeated by running out of time and being caught by Pizzaface during Pizza Time, by exploding (in the level WAR), or by running out of hitpoints during boss fights.
He is able to take extreme levels of heat as he can touch boiling pizza sauce unharmed, as well as extreme levels of spice, eating Kentucky Kenny's Chicken wings and Satan's Choice Pizza without issue. He is touched by several large weapons, like large forks and pizza cutters, without being harmed.
He is shown to possess extreme speed; he is capable of running straight up walls. He can focus his speed into a super jump that goes up until he hits a ceiling, or shoulder bashes out of it.
He can parry any attack thrown at him with a taunt, which destroys most common enemies. He can also destroy enemies from far away with a super taunt, which wipes the whole screen.
He is seen to have proficiency with a revolver as well as a shotgun, having no problem wielding the latter against bosses or wielding the former during the level WAR.
Relationships[]
Mr. Stick[]
Mr. Stick's relationship with Peppino is up to interpretation. Although he blocks off Peppino's way to the boss and steals his money, he also points Peppino to the right direction during Pizza Time.
Gustavo[]
Like Mr. Stick, Gustavo helps Peppino by pointing the way out of the level. With the assistance of Brick The Rat, they also help Peppino out during levels by being a secondary playable character. Gustavo also assists Peppino in the final phase of the Pizzaface battle by allowing Peppino to throw him at the enemy to stun them.
The Noise[]
The Noise is a persistent rival and nuisance to Peppino. In most other media of Pizza Tower The Noise is seen to annoy Peppino heavily and comically, before the events of Pizza Tower take place. However, when not fighting they seem on relatively good terms, even going out for meals together.
Peppino's Mother[]
While she's never seen and her name's never mentioned, Peppino seems to have a good relationship with his mother as when he falls off edges during platforming sequences, one of the respawn screens depicts him sitting on a wheelchair with a cast, with a heart-shaped package labelled "mom" near him, implying she cares for him (although this could just be a one-off gag).
Anton[]
Anton, from Antonball and the upcoming Antonblast, is confirmed by both the developers of Pizza Tower and the Anton series to be, at the least, friends with Peppino, with a sketch depicting them playing billiards together.
Trivia[]
- Peppino is inspired by Wario, as the gameplay is based off of the Wario Land games.
- "Peppino" is short for the Italian name "Giuseppe", meaning his full name might be "Giuseppe Spaghetti". His name may also be a reference to the Italian composer of the song “Funiculì, Funiculà”, Peppino Turco.
- A common meme in the Pizza Tower community is that Peppino's joking theorized to be the relative of many somewhat related characters, with some stating he's the uncle of Celeste's main heroine Madeline (due to the two starring in indie platformers and having anxiety) while a popular piece of meme art depicts Peppino as the father of Chainsaw Man's Kobeni (due to their nervous and anxious personalities).
- Moreover, Madeline is frequently paired with Peppino in several pieces of meme art in which she attempts to advise him on ways to deal with his anxiety, only for him to comically mess them up or complete them incorrectly (e.g she advises climbing Mount Celeste to discover himself, only for Peppino to simply Super Jump all the way up).
- If one leaves the lights in the title screen off for more than 40 seconds without any input, Peppino will jumpscare the player and cause the game to close on PC. The jumpscare will also happen on the Nintendo Switch version of the game but it won’t force it to close.
- Due to Peppino's cautious expression upon picking up a pistol and the how all the enemies in the WAR stage are clones of him, it's been theorised Peppino might be a traumatised war veteran, with the developers even saying that he's unable to play Team Fortress 2 as it "hits a little too close to home." However, they later retracted the statement and have stated that the war themes are just from Peppino's nightmares.
- According to some sources, one of the devs McPig later reconfirmed Peppino's status as a war veteran (as he was drunk when he retconned it), leaving Peppino's status as a war veteran uncertain for now.
- Regarding the fact of the WAR level being a recreation of Peppino's nightmares, it is also theorised that the whole floor 5 is made after Peppino's worst fears, with Pizzascare being the fear gained from the experience he has gone through since he first stepped on the tower, Don't Make A Sound being his fear to animatronics gained from a possible childhood trauma, and WAR, as mentioned above, being Peppino's fear of war.
- Floor 5 is also theorized to chronicle Pizzahead's past, with Don't Make A Sound alluding to his past as a pizza mascot, WAR showcasing how he created the Pillar Johns and Pizzascare possibly symbolizing the monster he's become in his quest to save his restaurant, unlike Peppino who remains heroic.
- In the Noise update, the player is able to visit Peppino’s house. What appear to be war medals are on the wall, meaning Peppino’s status as a war veteran might be re-confirmed.
- Peppino's scream before every boss fight is stock audio recorded by legendary voice actor Mel Blanc that has been used in various cartoons.