Peppino

> *"*
>  Okay you look-a right here! I baked that into a pizza ONCE and nobody can ever know. Not even the health inspector. Capeesh?" ***— Peppino (via Toppinbot)***
>
>

**Peppino Spaghetti** (referred to as just **Peppino**) is a playable character and the main protagonist of Pizza Tower.

## Description

Peppino is a portly Italian chef wearing a black T-shirt, black pants, a white tank top, and a chef's hat. He also has black hair and a small mustache under his long nose. He shows signs of both anger and fear, frequently shifting between the two. He is only shown to be happy when he accomplishes something, for example, when Peppino collects a key or treasure, getting an A-Rank or higher, and during the True Ending. Despite his rough emotional state and portly figure, he is shown to be rather strong, as he can pick up and throw large objects with ease, run extremely quickly, tear through enemies with Mach abilities, among many other powerful attacks.

He is the owner of Peppino Pizza, named after himself. The restaurant is implied to be in rough shape, with buckets of water spilled on the floor (with a stray bucket), and pizza sliding off the counter. As shown in the game's intro, running the restaurant seems to be putting Peppino in a bit of debt, with little to no money shown in the shop. Additionally, in the game's ending, Mr. Stick can be seen running off with a bag of money, behind what is assumed to be Peppino Pizza. This could be the reason behind Peppino's large amounts of debt. Despite their rivalry, Mr. Stick is still considered to be one of Peppino’s friends.

## Main Abilities

Peppino is the most balanced character included in the game due to the great quantity of abilities at his disposal.

### Jump

Jumping on top of enemies will stun them. making them vulnerable to attacks. Peppino can bounce higher off of an enemy by holding the jump button when landing on top of the enemy.

### Body Slam

Pressing down while in the air makes Peppino perform a ground pound, damaging enemies from above. The fall can slightly be adjusted by pressing left and right. With enough height, this can be used to break metal boxes, indicated by the meteor-like effect.

Landing also stuns surrounding enemies for a brief period of time.

### Mach Running

Mach Running is one of Peppino’s most important abilities for blasting his way through the tower. He builds up speed for as long as the dash button is held, allowing him to transition to several successive stages of dashing. Jumping during the dash keeps his momentum at whatever stage he is currently at.

If Peppino runs up or down a slope, his speed gain can change accordingly, increasing when running down slopes and decreasing when going up. Some status effects and moves can also cause the player to be able to enter a Mach Run, such as the appropriately named Dash Pad.

#### Mach Stages:

*Mach 1/2:*

* Peppino starts to dash at a slow pace, then increasing speed to run at a moderate pace.
* Peppino can stun enemies by bumping into them.
* Peppino can run up walls by jumping at them while dashing, or by running up a slope connected to a wall.
* Upon impact with a wall, he temporarily stops.
* Peppino can break breakable blocks by running into them.
* After Peppino stops building up speed, attempting to turn around in this stage and above will result in Peppino "drifting", in which he takes some time to change directions, but preserves his dash momentum.

*Mach 2/3:*

* Peppino starts dashing at an insane rate, accompanied with an equally insane expression.
* At this point, Peppino‘s velocity is high enough that he is competing with air friction, causing the air to emit sound and a shock layer to form in front of him.
* Enemies will be scared when close enough to Peppino, which will make them vulnerable for about 3 seconds until returning to normal.
* Peppino can kill any enemy upon contact if they are vulnerable/scared.
* Peppino can break metal blocks.
* Peppino can initiate a super jump by pressing up while dashing.
* Jumping off a wall results in Peppino losing speed back to Mach 1 but will quickly gain speed back to Mach 2.
* Upon impact with a wall, he is painfully knocked back as he hurts his head.

*Mach 3/4:*

* Activated when the player is at Mach 2 and holds a movement key in the direction Peppino is running for several seconds.
* Mechanics remain the same, with the only differences being a different animation (seemingly running on all fours with a psychotic face) and significantly increased velocity.
* Drifting at Mach 3 will bring him back to Mach 2.

### Roll

Pressing down while dashing makes Peppino roll. If at Mach 2 or 3, he uncurls shortly after and slides on the ground.

Peppino retains his speed (even Mach 3) after he stops rolling.

### Dive

Pressing down while dashing in the air while Mach Running will cause Peppino to dive downwards at a diagonal angle.

### Drop Dive

Pressing jump while diving will cause Peppino to do a fast ground pound move, similar to the Body Slam. It is much faster than the normal slam, but is very situational and mostly for speeding through levels. Peppino will lose speed upon landing.

### Super Jump

Pressing up when the Dash reaches Mach 2 and releasing will cause Peppino to Super Jump. The player can move side-to-side slowly before releasing but cannot move horizontally once the Super Jump is initiated. During super jump, Peppino leaps straight upward quickly, busting through breakable blocks until he hits a ceiling. Hitting a ceiling briefly launches surrounding enemies upwards but does not stun them.

### Shoulder Bash

Canceling a Super Jump by pressing the grab or dash button will cause Peppino to stop Super Jumping mid-air, and instead he'll dash at Mach 2 in mid-air, slowly falling as he dashes.

Holding the jump button and colliding with an enemy while Shoulder Bashing will cause Peppino to bounce off of the enemy while still Shoulder Bashing.

### Grab

Peppino dashes forwards, stopping when colliding with an enemy or object to grab them. He can carry them around before smashing them away, upwards, or behind him. Pressing down whilst on the ground can drop the grabbed enemy or object.

Peppino also has extra moves he can perform while holding an enemy.

Holding the dash button after initiating a grab will cause Peppino to almost immediately start dashing at Mach 1 after the grab, letting him reach high speeds faster.

Pressing the jump button before or during a grab initiates the "Long Jump", a jump with additional distance.

Pressing the grab button while doing a Mach Run will cause Peppino to instantly stop Mach running.

If Peppino tries to grab an enemy after eating the Pepper Pizza, he would attack and kill them instead.

### Giant Swing

Grabbing an enemy while dashing into them will cause Peppino to spin forward with them until he loses speed, breaking blocks and killing other enemies.

### Spinning Piledriver

When in the air, pressing down while holding an enemy will make Peppino do a piledriver into the ground, causing the enemy held to be sent forward upon contact with the ground, as well as killing any enemy he lands on.

Holding up as Peppino is about to grab an enemy will cause him and the enemy to launch upwards before coming back down.

### Uppercut

When holding up and pressing grab with an enemy in hand, Peppino performs an uppercut, sending the enemy flying upwards at a high speed.

### Belly Slide

If the player crouches right after pressing grab, Peppino will slide forwards at the speed of Mach 2 while laying down on his stomach. This attack can be used to destroy blocks in one-block spaces, but it cannot be used to defeat enemies. Holding the dash button before Peppino is finished Belly Sliding causes him to immediately start dashing at Mach 2, making this one of the quickest ways of gaining lethal speed.

### Rising Uppercut

Holding up and pressing grab together will launch Peppino upwards with a rising uppercut. The uppercut will defeat enemies and destroy marble blocks. This can also be used as a pseudo double jump, as it will still send Peppino upwards a little if used in mid-air. This is most useful for the Pepperman boss fight while Pepperman is in the air while vulnerable.

### Taunt

Pressing the up button will cause Peppino to strike a pose. If Peppino gets hurt while taunting, instead of taking damage, Peppino will block and parry the attack. This can kill most enemies and turn around projectiles.

If the player gets a combo of 10 or more and holds up while taunting or presses up immediately after doing a taunt, a "Super Taunt" will occur, where the taunts pop-out, with one of four unique taunts being selected (different taunts are purely cosmetic and don't affect gameplay), and all enemies on-screen are defeated. The player will have to either get another combo of 10 or increase the current combo by 10 to be able to super taunt again.

Some taunts are references to popular culture, such as Daffy Duck, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Street Fighter.

Taunting causes any projectile-based enemies to fire their projectiles, making waiting for them to attack to get the transformation their projectile gives take less time. Taunting in front of one of the Patrollers in Don't Make A Sound will cause them to instantly sound the alarm and activate any Toppin Monsters. According to Pizza Granny, "taunting makes enemies react faster".

### Parry

If the player makes Peppino taunt right before he gets hit by an enemy or projectile, he will parry it and attack back. This can be used to make it easier to defeat enemies that often attack the player and can also be used to reflect projectiles thrown at them. When used on a boss, it will instead prevent Peppino from being damaged.

### Breakdance

If the taunt button is held, Peppino will start breakdancing in one place, and shortly after a purple boombox appears near him, which disappears after the player stops holding the button. The player can move Peppino while he is breakdancing, but will stop breakdancing when taking damage, jumping or falling. It does not serve any function at all.

### Gun

During some of the boss fights, Peppino's grab move is replaced with a gun. The player can mash the button to shoot bullets as fast as possible or hold down the button to charge a big bullet, which will automatically be shot upon being charged.

## Transformations

*See also: Transformations*

Along with his basic move set, Peppino has the ability to transform in a variety of ways for different purposes, mostly for getting rid of Stupid Rats that block progression until they're hit by a transformed Peppino. Peppino cannot enter new rooms with a transformation except through hallways unless it is removed by a Priest. The Shotgun and Pepper Pizza transformations are the only 2 exceptions. Interestingly, if the player builds up enough speed with a transformation, removing it via a priest whilst maintaining that speed can send them into instant Mach 2/3.

### Ball Peppino

(Gained from: Getting kicked by a Pepperoni Goblin, Goblinbot, Pepperoni Goblin Bat or thrown by a Big Cheese)

Peppino becomes a perfect sphere (akin to a real ball) and continuously rolls forwards. He is invincible in this form and will bowl over enemies. He can also break small blocks instantly without losing momentum.

### Knight Peppino

(Gained from: Pulling out the sword from the Sword Stone)

Peppino will be heavy and slow, but he will be invulnerable and can still take out enemies by walking into them or jumping on them. He also gains fast momentum from sliding down on stairs and slopes and can jump while doing so. If he touches a Priest, the armor will break and return him to normal.

### Firebutt Peppino

(Gained from: Touching a pool of boiling sauce or Peasanto's torch)

Peppino will jump up high and after landing his bottom will be briefly exposed. He can defeat any enemies that touch him at any point in the animation.

### Firemouth Peppino

(Gained from: Kentucky Kenny's spicy chicken wings)

When Peppino eats a spicy chicken wing tossed by a Kentucky Kenny, he gains the firemouth form. His mouth is caught on fire, and he can destroy TNT blocks and kill enemies by touching them. Pressing the grab button while in the air in this state will cause Peppino to dash foward.

### Ghost Peppino

(Gained from: Coming into contact with a Mushroom Ghost)

Peppino becomes a ghost and can fly away . The player is unable go through Cheese Graters while also being invincible. In this form, Peppino moves quite slowly, but he can collect Ghost Peppers in order to increase his speed. After collecting 3 ghost peppers, Peppino is able to destroy Ghost Blocks.

### Mort on Peppino

(Gained from: Picking up Mort)

Mort the Chicken perches on top of Peppino's head. With Mort on his head, the player gains the ability to double jump, and can have him smack his head in 3 different directions, and also can use him to hook onto Mort Hooks for extra height.

### Weenie Mount

(Gained from: Mounting a Weenie Mount)

Peppino mounts a giant sausage that runs around at high speeds, defeating enemies in their way. In this state, Peppino and the Weenie Mount can't get hurt. Jumping in this state will cause the player to enter a somersaulting jump but will also make them dismount the Weenie. Building up enough speed and dismounting a Weenie Mount will send the player into instant Mach 3.

### Barrel Peppino

(Gained from: Jumping into a barrel)

Peppino gets stuck in a barrel. Pressing and holding the dash button will cause Peppino to start rolling. This can defeat enemies and break blocks. However, if there is a slope next to the wall while rolling, the barrel will launch upwards and change directions when it lands.

### Rocket Peppino

(Gained from: Grabbing a rocket)

Peppino gets himself stuck to a rocket and is stuck rocketing forwards until he crashes into a wall or jumps off of the rocket, after which the rocket explodes and Peppino tumbles down. In this form, he can slightly redirect the rocket up or down by pressing the respective buttons, and if he's touching the ground, he can drift to change his direction. The rocket is treated as Mach 3 as well and can break metal blocks and destroy enemies. Peppino can jump off of the rocket at any time.

### Cheeseball Peppino

(Gained from: Getting stuck in a cheeseball)

Peppino gets stuck in a cheeseball and will roll forwards until hitting a wall, which ends the transformation. In this form, the player has absolutely no control, and will be launched upwards if they touch a slope.

### Sticky Cheese Peppino

(Gained from: Hitting a wall while in cheeseball)

Peppino gets covered in sticky cheese with pepperoni/tomatoes covering his eyes and green peppers covering his eyebrows and mustache. In this form, he is incredibly slow, but can stick onto walls, and jump off of them to perform wall jumps.

### Pizza Box Peppino

(Gained from: Getting stamped by a Box Stamper)

Peppino gets trapped in a pizza box. In this state, he is able to go through small gaps at a faster speed than crawling. It also grants him ability to flap ten times in the air with one flap being weaker than the last before dropping to the ground. The grab attack is replaced by a spin attack. If he touches a Dash Pad, he moves faster and will glide when jumping.

### Pepper Pizza

(Gained from: Eating Pepper Pizza)

Once picked up, Peppino will consume the pizza and his skin will turn red. The player becomes invincible to all enemies and their attacks, able to defeat them merely by touching them. Pressing the jump button in midair will let the player spin and continuously fly upwards. This transformation cannot be removed by a Priest, but can be removed by a Free Milk Stand that could be seen near the Lap 2 portal in Refrigerator-Refrigerator-Freezerator.

### Shotgun

(Gained from: Interacting with a gun crate)

Once picked up, this grants the player the ability to destroy Target Blocks and kill most of the enemies during a level, including those that'd normally pass unaffected by the rest of Peppino's move set. The shotgun is unable to kill Stupid Rats. This transformation cannot be removed by a Priest, but can be removed by a Metal Detector.

## In the comics

Peppino appears in the *Peppino and Noise* Comics, starring as one of the titular characters of the comics and is often seen being annoyed and/or tortured by The Noise, to his dismay.

He is also planned to appear in a currently unfinished comic featuring him and Gustavo in the desert, where the two would be antagonized by Mr. Incognito.

## Pre-release

*For early move sets and scrapped ideas, see the pre-release page here: Peppino/Pre-release*

## Trivia

* One of Pizza Tower Guy's Twitter posts jokingly described the background of Peppino as the main antagonist of a fictional 1996 video game called *Pizza Boy Tower.* There he would be known as "Chef Raider" as an antagonist and would be the nemesis of a character known as *Totino the Pizza Boy*, the protagonist of the game.
	+ This is a reference to the predecessor of the *Wario Land* series, *Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins*. As this game marked the first appearance of Peppino's main inspiration as a character, Wario, also acting as the villain, this is fitting.
* Peppino's grab move was originally inspired by the Suplex Copy Ability from the *Kirby* series.
* Peppino's Super Jump used to be originally called the "Shinespark".
* Peppino's Super Jump seems to share a similar animation to Super Mario Bros 2's Charge Jump.
* If the player waits around 40 seconds on the menu screen without pressing anything, Peppino will jump scare the player, closing the game afterwards.
* Coincidentally, Peppino shares his name with *Peppino Turco*, the lyricist of Funiculi Funicula. This song is used as a leitmotif in the game's tutorial level’s music (funiculi holiday), being royalty free.
* Peppino's body slam is based on the same move from Virtual Boy Wario Land.
* During one of PTG's live streams, it was revealed that Peppino was initially planned to share the name of his creator, Pizza Tower Guy (akin to Doomguy from the *Doom* series). However, this didn't stick for very long.
	+ As the name suggests, this idea didn't come to light until the start of Pizza Tower's development, his final name sticking around before then.
* McPig has claimed that Peppino isn't actually wearing an apron, but rather a white tank top over a black t-shirt. This is because Peppino cannot afford an actual apron.
* Originally, there were four Mach speeds. The first speed was the slowest, preventing the player from stunning enemies, destroying breakable blocks, or climbing walls. This was later changed, with the previous Mach 1 animation merely acting as a visual to indicate Peppino building up speed in the final release.
* Peppino means cucumber in spanish and portuguese, but with two Ps instead of one, it is also a nickname for Giuseppe.
* Peppino's First Debut Wasn't in the preearlytestbuild. It was Pizza Massacre.
* According to early Pizzahead Phase 3 concepts, Peppino would’ve gone red (literally) and stripped naked, acting even more livid than he would currently be. In the current builds, he just dances with rage.

## Other Game/Video Cameos

Although Peppino's main appearance is in Pizza Tower, there have been many official mods made by Pizza Tower Guy for various games that add him as a playable character, as well as officially approved cameos.

### Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Peppino appears in SRB2Kart alongside The Noise, Gustavo, and a few other characters in a mod called The Pizza Tower Pack. He has a Speed and Weight stat of 5. Instead of driving a kart, he rides his signature scooter.

Peppino also has a standalone mod that released almost 2 years before The Pizza Tower Pack. He has default stats, and a lot of his voice lines come from Demo 0. Again, he rides his scooter instead of a kart.

### Rivals of Aether

Peppino is available as a custom playable character in this platform fighting game through the game's Workshop function. The sprites were made by Pizza Tower Guy a while back, later being resized to fit with other characters, and coded by different person. His moves include throwing a Cheeseslime, slamming into the ground, superjumping, etc. His voice lines come from Demo 0, however.

### DOOM 2

Peppino appears inside of a class mod for this game named "Bring Your Own Class" along with a few other characters from Pizza Tower, available on a few well-known DOOM mod sites, like All Fear the Sentinel. Many of his attacks and weapons reference Pizza Tower objects and moves, like where Peppino uses outlets, junk from Dragon's Lair, and other items/attacks as melee weaponry, or using a Revolver/Shotgun. Other Pizza Tower characters also cameo in certain attacks, like The Noise being swung by Peppino in a melee attack, The Vigilante throwing dynamite, a Pizzard using its magic, and Pizzaface acting as one of the most powerful weapons, chasing enemies down and damaging them.

His only method of healing and (around the start of the game before getting any other weapons) ranged attacks is through his Pizza Slice weapon, which replaces the Pistol. Ammunition for it is gotten by melee'ing enemies, and it can be thrown to hurt enemies or eaten to recover health.

### Treasure Tech

Peppino appears in one of the pages of the manual as an advert for Pizza Tower, and some 3 panel comics (similar to Peppino & Noise Comics) with Treasure Tech's protagonist: Armin Chesterfield. A second in-gameplay cameo is in one of the treasures (That being an action-figure) that can randomly pop-out in the Pizza Tower themed Treasure Chest.

### Fraymakers

Peppino appears as an assist character. In game, he will run up to the opponent for a lunging grab, and follow with a giant uppercut if successful. He can fall off the stage.

### Antonball Deluxe

Peppino appears as an unlockable guest character. He has a chance to be unlocked by spending points (50,000 to be exact) in a Lottery Machine. He appears on both the Steam and Nintendo Switch version.

### Indie Rumble

Peppino would've appeared in the game as a playable character, until the cancellation of the game happened, all we know about his appearance in the game is the Kickstarter promotional art, the Rhythm Knight and Yolk reveal trailer, the idle as seen in the April Fools update post on the Steam page that no longer exists, and planned move set.

### Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch

A MM8BDM mod called Grand Classes adds both Peppino and The Vigilante as playable characters. Peppino's move set is very limited; however he has Slam Down, Mach Run & Taunt.

### Alien Xenoblaster

Peppino appears as an unlockable character, you unlock him by completing a challenge level from World 3. His move set is the same as everyone else's, being an attack with limited uses, recharging after collecting a topping, which is in place of a weed leaf.

### Spooky Month 3 - Unwanted Guest

In *Unwanted Guest*, there is a Peppino plush that can be seen at the far right when Skid and Pump buy a Happy Fella.

### Cross Impact

Peppino appears as a cameo in the Pizzascape stage, where he appears every so often at the door doing one of three different poses.

## Gallery

*For more images, see the gallery here: Peppino/Gallery*

Promotional art of Peppino.More promotional art of Peppino.Promotional art of Peppino aggressively stretching a Cheeseslime.Promotional art of Peppino dashing.Peppino's idle animation.Peppino's walking animation.Peppino building up speed (known as Mach 1 in the dev builds.)Peppino running at Mach 1 (Mach 2 in dev builds.)Peppino running at Mach 2 (Mach 3 in dev builds.)Peppino running at Mach 3 (Mach 4 in dev builds.)
## Audio

*To check out Peppino's sounds, see the audio page: Peppino/Audio*.