You ever marvel who the primary individual to place peanut butter and chocolate collectively was? Half of me seems like whoever it was should be loaded; I imply, you’ve mixed two already nice flavors into one thing that Reese’s would roughly construct a entire model on. After which half of me thinks it performs out just like the hypothetical man who invented the Hen McNugget in The Wire. A pat on the again from a large shot, and then it’s again to the basement to determine a option to make the fries style higher. I don’t know the reply; I hope it is the previous. However each now and then, you come throughout an thought, a mixture of issues, that’s so good that you simply marvel how no person’s ever completed it earlier than. And each time my squad and I sprinted again to our time-traveling dropship, stopping solely to cope with the Time Reapers that stood in our method, I puzzled how the hell no person had ever mentioned “Hey, what if we mixed Overcooked and Gears of War?” pre-Pizza Bandit.
Pizza Bandit’s setup is fairly easy. You’re Malik, a former bounty hunter with goals of being a chef who’s pulled again into the bounty sport when he’s scammed out of his pizza store and his former crew wants his assist to get out of a jam. Pizza Bandit’s writing is fairly foolish, however that’s half of the allure. I can’t get mad when Albert, the android that upgrades your weapons, tells me he doesn’t know how one can apologize for what occurred to my pizza store as a result of he’s simply an android, or when my pilot waxes nostalgic about how he misses the fog, or when somebody utters the odd nonsensical line. It’s too foolish, and the entire setup is simply there to, nicely… arrange Pizza Bandit’s wackiness.
See, you’re not simply any bounty-hunting crew. You’re a time-traveling bounty looking crew, and meaning you’ll be going throughout house and time to get the job completed. Don’t ask me how any of this works. All I do know is that pizza heals and bullets kill, and that the Time Reapers — nasty little buggers that appear to be invading each timeline — don’t need this pizza store proprietor to make any dough. And that’s not gonna fly.
What makes Pizza Bandit distinctive is that you simply’re not simply taking pictures stuff. You’re additionally, nicely, kinda enjoying Overcooked. After squading up, my first mission noticed my crew (you may play with as much as three pals) heading to the Restaurant from N owhere, a hidden outpost run by one other bandit crew. Our job: fulfill the pizza orders for different bounty looking groups, and ship them off in time-traveling rocket pods. That meant placing collectively the appropriate kind of pizza, getting it to the oven, ensuring we had been getting their drink orders proper, and including some additional bullets for when issues received spicy, cramming all of it into a pod, and doing it on time whereas combating off the Time Reapers, who actually, actually don’t like supporting small companies.
And that’s the place the opposite half of the Overcooked/Gears of War marriage comes into play. See, the Time Reapers imply enterprise, and you’re not going to speak them out of a while reaping. That’s their entire bag. The one answer, fellow bandit, is unimaginable violence. I’ve performed a number of builds of Pizza Bandit at this level, and let me inform you, your arsenal is as much as the duty. You begin along with your alternative of assau lt rifle, minigun, and sniper rifle, however the enjoyable actually begins while you begin unlocking your secondary weapons by finishing jobs. They begin easy: landmines, grenades, that kind of factor, however when you unlock the disco ball that pulls enemies and will get them dancing earlier than it explodes? Whew, buddy. And the sentry turret? Perfection. You may slice and cube them Time Reapers with a katana, however have you ever ever thought of utilizing a pizza slicer as large as a man? It’ll change your life.
And the Time Reapers will drive you to make use of all the things in your arsenal. You bought your customary guys who will simply run at you, however there are additionally Time Reapers that’ll crawl round on all fours, Terminator-looking ones that can leap at you, big ones with hammers, guys who throw fireballs (these can actually smash your day), the works. You gotta prioritize.
Pizza Bandit is at its finest while you’re with a good crew, calling out orders. An excellent match must be shouts of “We’d like a pepperoni pie!” and “I’m on the Coke!” and “I’m down!” interspersed with tons and tons of gunfire. Easy selections, like when to name down your personal, once-a-mission rocket pod full of pizza and provides, and extra advanced ones, like the place to place it (you may block off a stairway, for occasion), spice issues up, too.
And right here’s the factor: thus far, I’ve simply talked about Restaurant from Nowhere, which is just the primary stage. Pizza Bandit isn’t a one-trick pony. One of my favourite ranges has you taking on a sushi joint and ensuring you might have the appropriate stuff on the supply turntable for your clients. Generally meaning operating downstairs and grabbing a large ol’ tuna, taking that dangerous boy upstairs, and chopping him up earlier than the Time Reapers whack you and you drop him. Different instances meaning frying an egg, or making a cucumber roll. You gotta keep forward of the curve, as a result of new clients are prioritized over outdated ones, and the Time Reapers aren’t gonna sit there and wait for you to plate your masterpiece.
Generally, you’re not even cooking meals in any respect. One other favourite stage, Wizard’s Tomb, has you exploring a magically booby-trapped tomb in search of a sarcophagus. You’ll should navigate the tomb’s traps, remedy primary puzzles to disclose the best way ahead, and take out the arcane coronary heart powering the entire enterprise earlier than attending to the sarcophagus itself, which you’ll naturally transport with jetpacks earlier than reserving it again to your ship. It isn’t sufficient to get any given job completed; you gotta get residence, too. Simply one other day within the life of a pizza bandit.
There are extra, of course: in a single, you’ll defend a cabin with Dr. Emmert Browne (Nice Scott, Jofsoft, I see what you’re doing right here, and I prefer it!) whereas he invents the time journey system that makes your entire enterprise worthwhile. Successful all of it means holding him heat, satiating his starvation with rabbit or venison, and stopping all these nasty Time Reapers (and Wendigos?) who’re making an attempt to cease time journey from occurring. You’d assume that the Time Reapers would perceive time paradoxes, however I assume not. Can’t reap time if there’s no time to reap, y’all.
Or possibly you’ll break into an unlimited protected with a laser drill, such as you’re roleplaying the opening scene of Michael Mann’s Thief with a drill that’s continually exploding. That appears protected, proper? However hey, apparently there’s a magical cookbook in that vault whose recipes can alter actuality, and we’re being paid to get it, exploding drill or not. A Pizza Bandit at all times will get the job completed.
And there’s at all times time to do your finest Breaking Unhealthy impersonation and assist a couple of guys prepare dinner some “magic powder” and cover it inside some rooster. Oh, and it’s important to kill and prepare dinner the chickens. Solely contemporary, by no means frozen, child. Pizza Bandit is at all times ludicrous, and its inspirations are apparent, but it surely’s by no means lower than enjoyable.
Between missions, it’s again to Pizza Bandit (your restaurant), the place you may purchase and improve your weapons, enhance Pizza Bandit itself, use the elements you discover throughout missions to bake and share a pie for some stat boosts in your subsequent run, or get some spiffy new duds for your bounty hunter. The milk carton backpack is a basic alternative, if I do say so myself, however I’m nonetheless saving up for one of the cat ones. The issues we do for vogue, am I proper? Then it’s proper again to it. A bandit’s work is rarely completed.
Generally, you don’t know you need one thing till you get it. I didn’t know I needed Pizza Bandit till the primary time I performed it at PAX two years in the past. It was one of these video games that generated a lot of phrase of mouth, but it surely’s one of these ideas that doesn’t seem to be it’ll work till you get a controller in your arms and all the things is smart. I don’t know why we’ve by no means gotten one thing like Pizza Bandit earlier than, however as soon as I performed it, I knew I needed extra. Pizza heals, bullets kill, and Pizza Bandit rocks. If Jofsoft can stick the touchdown, we’re in for a tasty slice of New York pie.