Devolver Digital have helped to bring some of my favourite games to market over the past few years and they seem to have no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Pepper Grinder was announced sometime ago, 2017 in fact, but it was in 2022 when Devolver team up with the developer to bring it to players. Now that Steam Next Fest is here, a new demo for the game has been released, does it offer up a good but brief time, or is it one for the grinder?

The story set up is one of revenge/recovery as the titular Pepper washes up on shore, her treasure is taken from her by her now former crew. Armed with her Grinder, see the name there, she sets out to recover her stolen loot and track the crew down, though it isn’t as simple as just running to the right. The games major influences are pretty clear to see, Dig Dug and Echo the Dolphin, and I feel a smattering of Donkey Kong Country for good measure. Pepper can jump and that is about it, the rest of her abilities, attacking, diving and of course digging are done via Grinder. The build that was provided had 3 levels and while the first was very much a tutorial level, but the third, there was a lot more required of me. Leaping from a dirt mound over thorns, while ensuring that I managed to dig into the next, it took a bit to get used to.

Hidden across the stages are a series of hidden coins, sometimes they are easy to spot hiding just off screen, other times they were quite tricky to locate. With that in mind, replaying courses seems like something that is a must do, unless of course you happen to get everything on the first run through. As I did not get them all on the first run through, I did jump back in, but it was in playing through the courses a second time that I felt the game click with me. There was something soothing about running, jumping, swimming through the dirt and then popping out into a new place, it is something that I can see being enjoyable for all. Of course, there is the caveat that after 40 or 50 stages, that might not be as fun, but as these stages started to grow in their complexity, I suspect that the more stages you playthrough, the more challenging some others will become.

I would love to say more about Pepper Grinder, but as the demo was quite short, there isn’t much more I can say. From what was presented, the game offers up fun and helps scratch that classic 2d adventure itch, will that same feeling last over a dozen hours? Who is to say, but I can’t wait to find out more when the full release does take place.

The full game is set to release sometime in 2024, but there is no date for it yet beyond the year. Once it does release it will hit both PC and Switch.