Pepper Grinder is a high-speed, high-octane take on cult classic Drill Dozer
Can you dig it?
Tony Wilson 
Image via Ahr Ech
The latest Nintendo Indie World showcase was full of indie games as usual, but for fans of the cult classic platform game Drill Dozer, one particular action-packed title really stood out. It’s called Pepper Grinder, and it’s coming next year.
Developed by Ahr Ech and published by renowned indie house Devolver Digital, Pepper Grinder stars a treasure hunter named Pepper who wields a power drill named Grinder. That explains the name, but what about the gameplay? Getting through each stage in Pepper Grinder is about building up speed and maintaining momentum: drill down into the earth, burst up to the surface, and launch yourself up cliffs and over gaps like a dolphin of the dirt. Pepper can also upgrade Grinder with new bits that open up new possibilities for puzzle-solving and item collecting. If you want to see more of it in action beyond the Indie World showcase, good news: Ahr Ech has a full playthrough of the game’s first stage on YouTube.
Pepper Grinder has been in development for a few years now, having first come to some folks’ attention as an entrant in the 2019 Independent Games Festival. It’s nice to see it gearing up for a final release, although we don’t have a specific launch date yet. As of now, Ahr Ech has simply said that the game is coming sometime in 2023. Whenever it arrives, it will be playable on both Nintendo Switch and PC.
It’s been six years since we’ve seen a Drill Dozer release, and even then that was just a Wii U eShop port. The ’05/’06 Game Boy Advance Game is still considered one of the best titles for the handheld, and it’s one of only two that utilized rumble features to simulate the feeling of drilling down into the dirt. Given the often-forgotten HD rumble feature supported by the Switch Joy-Cons, Pepper Grinder could do something similar.
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