LifeisXbox’s Hell Pie review | I am very, very bad at platforming games, but oh boy, do I enjoy playing them! And I’m pretty sure I found one of my all-time favourite platformers. Allow me to introduce you to Hell Pie, a 3D platformer developed by Sluggerfly and published by Headup. On his journey to gather ingredients for Satan’s birthday pie, Nate travels many overworld and faces even more obstacles. The idea sounds silly, and trust me, the overall game is even sillier. In the best way, of course. Without further ado, let’s talk about Hell Pie!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Nate and Nugget | The hero in Hell Pie is called Nate. And maybe hero isn’t the best word to use here because Nate is actually a demon. He’s in charge of ‘bad taste’, which is deadly sin number eight. Little Nate doesn’t have a lot going for him, until one day Satan himself asks him for help. You see, it’s almost Satan’s birthday and Nate is put in charge of the cake! And a cake needs ingredients. A lot of ingredients in this case. In order to get his hands on all the disgusting ingredients, Nate must travel to the overworld and do whatever he can to gather all the needed ingredients. To help him out, he gets a sort of pet angel called Nugget. He comes in quite handy, not only as a funny sidekick but also as a weapon and grappling hook because Nugget is chained to our little demon Nate!
- Amazing gameplay | As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it’s your job to gather various ingredients, including… a tampon and other things you usually don’t want in a pie. All these ingredients can be found in four overworlds. Each overworld has its own theme and plenty of things to do and collect. Within each world, there are sublevels that offer a platform-like experience. But there is so much more exploring in all these worlds, it’s amazing! I’ll talk about the many collectibles in a bit, no worries! Anyway, your companion is used as a weapon throughout your journey, and I absolutely loved this. Whether I was swinging Nugget around to defeat giant lizards, or I was making that (what seemed like an) impossible jump and using him as a grabbling hook, he came in handy so often! Nugget and Nate’s skillset can also be upgraded along the way, if you find enough meat candy, of course! Enemies were never too difficult to defeat either, even when it came to bosses. Sure, you may need a few tries, but it remained fun the entire time, and that’s a win for sure.
- Devilish graphics and soundtrack | The way these overworlds were designed is simply wonderful. Whether you’re running through tropical islands or making your way through the jungle, each world look vibrant and lively and hides many secrets. I had a blast not only exploring the various worlds, but also meeting the many enemies and NPCs. I have yet to finish the entire game, but I just know I’m going to love everything that is yet to come. The soundtrack also does a decent job complementing the game. The only thing I would’ve loved to see was voice-acting, but hey, I’m not complaining.
- Fashion devil | Nate is the demon of bad taste, so he should dress the part too, right? The developers thought about this too, fortunately. You can dress up both Nate and Nugget by buying clothes with the gems you collect. Why not put Nate in a Hawaiian shirt? Or some BDSM-like harness? And maybe give Nugget a makeover and turn him into a Furry? There are many possibilities, and all are equally silly. And, most importantly, Hell Pie has a collab with this German band called Electric Callboy. I absolutely love them and I was happy to see that four outfits from their music clips were put in the game, so that’s pretty neat! I kind of hoped some of their music would be in the game as well, but unfortunately, this was not the case.
- Collectibles | Since Hell Pie has quite a lot of exploring possibilities, there are many collectibles to be found. First of all, we have tiny unicorn-goat creatures. Find these and you can sacrifice them in order to give little demon Nate special types of horns. These include glow-in-the-dark and speed horns. Second, you can find golden cats hidden in every world. It took me a while to figure out, but these can be used to open various chambers in another sin’s room, namely Greed’s. Makes sense really, because he is greedy and wants more and more golden cats. A nice touch to the game! A third collectible, are your basic purple gems. As I mentioned before, these can be used to purchase clothing for either Nate or Nugget.
- Easy-going | The last thing that I personally really liked about Hell Pie was that it wasn’t hella difficult. I mean, I suck at platforming so I was still struggling quite often, but overall I really recommend Hell Pie for people who are also not the best at platform games! There are plenty of checkpoints in sublevels, there are portals allowing you to fast travel to the other side of a world, and there are plenty of hearts scattered around when you’re in battle. I really enjoyed this, as a lack of saving points or health refills often frustrate me and make me rage quit. Oops.
Mixed Feelings
- Funny, for the most part | Hell Pie has that funny, over the top humor that can be fun for a little while but can also get tiring after a while. I do believe that Hell Pie uses humor that won’t be for everyone, and that’s fine. It has some funny moments, including both character design and conversations, but it wasn’t the hightlight of the game. And it doesn’t need to be honestly, because the strength of this game lies in basically everything else it’s offering.
What we Disliked
- I got nothing!
How long to beat the story | 8 to 15 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 20+ hours
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Head of PC team. PC, Switch, and Xbox game reviewer. Also a marketeer, concert and animal lover, and photographer in training 🙂
Steam: Mauitje
Xbox: Mauitjexo
