Nintendo's masterpieces are ripe for indie reimaginings. Series like Mario and Zelda have directly inspired classics like Shovel Knight and Tunic, and you can walk five feet and step into a new Metroidvania. But I've often wondered where the resurgence of "Wario Land" might have come from. With its mix of fast platforming, exploration, and anarchic, slapstick energy, it was one of the Game Boy's greatest treasures.

Well, it seems I wasn't the only one who thought so, as the past few years have seen a sudden spate of Wario-like games, including the breakout hit "Antonball Deluxe" and its sequel "Anton Blast," and the "Doom" mod "Treasure Tech. Pizza Tower was announced in 2018, at the start of this trend, and now it's finally here. It was worth the wait.

Peppino Spaghetti, an aging pizza maker, is at his pizza shop, fretting over making enough to keep the lights on. Suddenly, he gets a visit from the diabolical Pizza Face. He is, of course, a giant floating pizza with a face. Pizza Face tells him that his house, the eponymous pizza tower, will soon fire a giant laser at the pizzeria, destroying it instantly. And so begins Peppino's high-speed quest to climb the tower and stop his cheesy nemesis.

As you can probably tell, the game revels in absurdity. It blends inspiration from "Wario Land" with a nod to 90s cartoons like "Ren & Stimpy," making for a very quirky mix.

Peppino himself is fun to manipulate. He may be a timid, anxious little chef, but he plays like an army tank with a Ferrari engine. He has a dedicated taunt button that doubles as a grab attack, dash, super jump, and parry. And even when he's running at full speed, the game is remarkably tight and responsive. It's speedrunning at its best, reminiscent of the glory days of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Outside of boss battles, Peppino is invincible, and hits only reduce his overall score. Peppino is punished in a variety of ways: he can be doused in fire, turned into a cheese monster, or turned into a pizza box. He suffers for his delicious art, but it does not slow him down.

The Pizza Tower has 19 levels, each with its own secret areas and treasures. Throughout these levels, you must rescue captured, sentient pizza toppings (yes, sickos, pineapple is one of them). Each time you rescue a topping, you get a bounty, which you can use to unlock bosses in the game's five hub areas. Topping is usually hard to miss, but secret areas and treasures will test your search skills.

Each stage has its own wild gimmick, such as the flapping wings of the chicken sitting in Peppino's hat for added maneuverability, or the claws that grab Peppino and make him swing his overalls. And as a testament to the versatility of Peppino's moveset, Peppino fits seamlessly into so many different scenarios.

The game's bosses are equally inventive. You'll face challenges such as a gunfight with a sentient cheese cowboy and a brawl with Noise, Peppino's nemesis, a mischievous gremlin who may or may not be based on a 90's pizza mascot. I won't spoil it here, but both the game's final boss and the finale that follows are incredible, rivaling "Bayonetta" for sheer spectacle.

Throughout the game, vibrant pixel art gives every enemy, item, and background a spick-and-span crazy personality. Peppino himself does not speak, but he feels like a rich and full character through the power of the animation alone. Each level's title card takes its art style in a new direction, from a "Terminator" parody to an homage to "Castlevania". All of them are fun to look at, genuinely funny, and full of visual gags that made me laugh out loud more than any other piece I've played in the last few years.

Complementing this is a soundtrack reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, combining retro themes and clever sampling. My personal favorite song is "It's Pizza Time," which plays after the end of each level when you escape in a race against time.

Pizza Tower is unashamedly an ode to Wario Land, but in my eyes it outshines it. I used to eagerly await a new installment in Nintendo's series, but now I don't really care. This is because it is hard to imagine a series as original and exciting as this copycat. Because it is hard to imagine anything as original and exciting as this copycat. The result is one of the best and most satisfying platformers out there today. Simply put, it kneads to play.