Game: Pizza Possum
Genre: Arcade, Action
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows), PS4 & Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Cosy Computer | Raw Fury
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $6.99 | UK £5.79 | EU € 6,99
Release Date: September 28th, 2023
Review code provided with many thanks to Johnny Atom PR.
The Possum Life
Pizza Possum is a 3D arcade game where you play as a mischievous possum on a mission for the ultimate prize. A tasty pizza. With a simple control scheme and gameplay that is easy to pick up and play, Pizza Possum feels like a modern evolution of the arcade formula. If you’re looking for some instant satisfying gameplay that will have you returning for more, this is well worth picking up.
When the game begins, you are greeted with its simple premise. King Pup has cooked up a tasty pizza right at the top of the mountain. Playing as a naughty possum with an incredible sense of smell, you must work through town while avoiding the dog guards on patrol. Get caught once, and it’s game over, with your score tallied and back to the last checkpoint, should you want to continue. This title doesn’t waste your time with lore or a back story; just go after that pizza. It’s as simple as inserting a metaphorical arcade coin and instantly playing the game.
The presentation is good, with a warm, family-friendly feel and a toe-tapping jazz soundtrack. The town feels colourful and vibrant, giving its architecture and design a European flavour, such as a section where you wander through a vineyard. Your possum protagonist is instantly likeable in that naughty way. I liked his animations for eating the food and how he would react in sheer disappointment to being caught by the guards. Performance-wise, the game ran great in TV and handheld modes.
All You Can Eat
To my surprise, Pizza Possum doesn’t actually prompt you on the controls when you start. But it really doesn’t take long before you figure things out. Simply move with the analogue stick and press a button to use a power-up if you have one at your disposal. It reminds me a lot of the retro design, where you improve through playing rather than the game providing all the answers at the beginning.
On your quest for the pizza, there are multiple locked doors. To collect a key, you must do what a possum does best and chow down on as much food as possible. Food is literally scattered all over the map and collected automatically when you move over it. On tables, in baskets or just on the floor. You can even torment some NPCs like pigs and goats to scare them to drop more food. Hidden within each section is usually a massive food item, like a giant cake, which will give you massive points, although this is usually heavily guarded.
Food-munching Rage
During your food-munching rage, you must watch out for the various dog guards, adding a casual layer of stealth to the experience. A small meter will fill above their head if you cross their line of sight. This can be decreased by hiding in bushes or just moving further away. But make yourself too visible, and they will chase you, and if you’re caught, the run is over. You also need to be a bit careful of eating too much.
Collect too much food too quickly, and the possum grows fat, temporarily slowing you down and making you more vulnerable to capture. There are multiple types of dog guards, some faster than others, and their number greatly increases the closer you get to your goal. It’s hard but not impossible, and once you eat all that pizza, it’s a pretty good feeling, similar to when you finally beat Donkey Kong for the first time in the arcades.
Choose Your Route
Pizza Possum does throw you an extra lifeline. Between runs, you will gradually unlock new power-ups that can be collected in boxes. These include a speed boost, smoke bombs which confuse the guards and several more. It takes time for these to unlock, but it encourages replayability. Multiple checkpoints are dotted around the town, enabling you to pick up where you left off, but your score is reset to zero.
As you collect the food, your key meter gradually fills, and once complete, you can use it to unlock a door. The path is quite linear, but soon, you can choose your route through the level, once again encouraging the player to return for another playthrough to find a different route to the pizza.
Scratches That Itch of ‘Just one more go.’
Pizza Possum isn’t very long; a single playthrough is actually possible in under an hour. The real challenge is attempting to conquer the game three times in a row without getting caught. If that feat is a bit too tough, the incentive to return is unlocking new power-ups and just besting your high score, something I felt encouraged to do. It scratches that itch of ‘just one more go.’ If that isn’t enough, you can also play the game in co-op. A friend can jump in as a racoon, and you can enjoy the mischief together. With such simple controls, this is a great one to try with the little ones.
In terms of niggles the difficulty can spike in places inconsistently. You need to grind for food in some sections to get that key. Food respawns if you wait long enough, which kind of allows a sneaky way to eat a key if you’re super patient. I guess some players may find the game a bit too short and lacking variety. Although, for the price of entry, it feels fair.
Conclusion: The Best Possum Video Game
Pizza Possum is a great game to pick up. Especially if you’re looking for something short and simple, ideal for a gaming break or when you just want to switch your brain off after one of those days. Easy to pick up, pretty hard to put down, Pizza Possum ticks all the right boxes for an original arcade game that comes in at a nice low price. Alone or with a loved one, this comes highly recommended. This is also probably the best video game where you play a possum that I know of.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
