You ever marvel who the primary individual to put peanut butter and chocolate collectively was? Part of me seems like whoever it was should be loaded; I imply, you’ve mixed two already great flavors into one thing that Reese’s would more or much less build a entire model on. And then half of me thinks it plays out just like the hypothetical man who invented the Chicken McNugget in The Wire. A pat on the back from a large shot, and then it’s back to the basement to determine a solution to make the fries style higher. I don’t know the reply; I hope it's the previous. But each now and then, you come throughout an concept, a mixture of issues, that’s so good that you just marvel how no one’s ever executed it earlier than. And each time my squad and I sprinted back to our time-traveling dropship, stopping solely to deal with the Time Reapers that stood in our manner, I questioned how the hell no one had ever mentioned “Hey, what if we combined 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 back into the bounty game when he’s scammed out of his pizza store and his former crew wants his help to get out of a jam. Pizza Bandit’s writing is fairly foolish, however that’s half of the appeal. I can’t get mad when Albert, the android that upgrades your weapons, tells me he doesn’t know how to 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… set up Pizza Bandit’s wackiness.
See, you’re not simply any bounty-hunting crew. You’re a time-traveling bounty looking crew, and which means you’ll be going throughout space and time to get the job executed. 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 just’re not simply capturing stuff. You’re additionally, nicely, kinda taking part in Overcooked. After squading up, my first mission noticed my crew (you’ll be able to play with up to a few 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, making sure we had been getting their drink orders proper, and including some further bullets for when issues obtained spicy, cramming all of it into a pod, and doing it on time whereas preventing 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 business, and you’re not going to speak them out of some time reaping. That’s their entire bag. The solely resolution, fellow bandit, is unimaginable violence. I’ve performed a number of builds of Pizza Bandit at this level, and let me let you know, your arsenal is up to the duty. You begin together with your selection of assau lt rifle, minigun, and sniper rifle, however the enjoyable actually begins if 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-about utilizing a pizza slicer as large as a man? It’ll change your life.
And the Time Reapers will pressure you to make use of all the pieces in your arsenal. You obtained your normal guys who will simply run at you, however there are additionally Time Reapers that’ll crawl round on all fours, Terminator-looking ones that may leap at you, big ones with hammers, guys who throw fireballs (these can actually break your day), the works. You gotta prioritize.
Pizza Bandit is at its greatest if you’re with a good crew, calling out orders. match ought to be shouts of “We need a pepperoni pie!” and “I’m on the Coke!” and “I’m down!” interspersed with heaps and heaps of gunfire. Simple selections, like when to call down your own, once-a-mission rocket pod full of pizza and provides, and more complicated ones, like the place to put it (you’ll be able to block off a stairway, for occasion), spice issues up, too.
And right here’s the factor: to date, I’ve simply talked about Restaurant from Nowhere, which is barely the primary degree. Pizza Bandit isn’t a one-trick pony. One of my favourite ranges has you taking up a sushi joint and making sure you will have the appropriate stuff on the supply turntable for your clients. Sometimes which means working 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. Other occasions which means frying an egg, or making a cucumber roll. You gotta keep forward of the curve, as a result of new clients are prioritized over previous ones, and the Time Reapers aren’t gonna sit there and wait for you to plate your masterpiece.
Sometimes, you’re not even cooking meals in any respect. Another favourite degree, 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 reveal the way in which 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 back to your ship. It isn’t enough to get any given job executed; you gotta get home, too. Just one other day within the life of a pizza bandit.
There are more, of course: in a single, you’ll defend a cabin with Dr. Emmert Browne (Great Scott, Jofsoft, I see what you’re doing right here, and I prefer it!) whereas he invents the time journey machine that makes your entire business profitable. Winning all of it means maintaining him heat, satiating his starvation with rabbit or venison, and stopping all these nasty Time Reapers (and Wendigos?) who’re attempting to stop time journey from occurring. You’d assume that the Time Reapers would perceive time paradoxes, however I suppose not. Can’t reap time if there’s no time to reap, y’all.
Or perhaps you’ll break into an huge 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? But 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 all the time will get the job executed.
And there’s all the time time to do your greatest Breaking Bad impersonation and help a couple of guys cook dinner some “magic powder” and conceal it inside some hen. Oh, and it’s important to kill and cook dinner the chickens. Only contemporary, by no means frozen, child. Pizza Bandit is all the time ludicrous, and its inspirations are apparent, nevertheless it’s by no means much less than enjoyable.
Between missions, it’s back to Pizza Bandit (your restaurant), the place you’ll be able to purchase and improve your weapons, embellish Pizza Bandit itself, use the substances you discover during 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 selection, if I do say so myself, however I’m nonetheless saving up for one of the cat ones. The issues we do for trend, am I proper? Then it’s proper back to it. A bandit’s work isn’t executed.
Sometimes, you don’t know you need one thing till you get it. I didn’t know I wished 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, nevertheless it’s one of these ideas that doesn’t seem to be it’ll work till you get a controller in your palms and all the pieces is sensible. 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 wished more. 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.