Mar 5, 20193 min read

Game Review #175: Awesome Pea (Nintendo Switch)

Reviewer: Chad M.

Developer: PigeonDev

Publisher: Sometimes You

Category: Platformer

Release Date: 03.01.2019

Price (at time of review): $5.99

Buy Awesome Pea from the Nintendo eShop here.

It’s Best To Be Greedy As You Can Be

It’s safe to say that platformers are a staple genre in the history of Nintendo. As Nintendo has evolved over the years, it’s a genre that’s always stood tall. So it made sense when I saw Awesome Pea by English developer PigeonDev, as it’s a throwback to classic platformers on the Nintendo Game Boy. I remember getting my very own Nintendo Game Boy, along with Super Mario Land, as a gift from my parents. I loved that game and spent hours playing taking it everywhere I could. In Awesome Pea, you play as Greedy Pea, where your main objective is to platform your way through 30 levels, in which you will need to collect all the coins and diamonds. They don’t put any backstory as to why Greedy Pea needs the money, only that he needs to collect it all.

Finish Your Peas Or No Dessert

Awesome Pea is a platformer at its core, with very simple controls: you use the left stick to move, and A or Y to jump and double jump. But the placement of the other two buttons was a tad odd to me, as B is pause, rather than just leaving it to the actual pause button. The oddest placement was X, which is a reset button you can hit if you’re speed running and you missed coins or didn’t hit a preferred time; but I ended up hitting the button a few times while deep into a level, and it just felt out of place—but this may just be a personal preference. The controls felt responsive and always did what I wanted them to do as I jumped over spikes and saw blades, and tried to outrun frog fireballs.

Watch Your Peas and Q’s

I had fun while playing through Awesome Pea, though it was short-lived as I was able to run through it in little over an hour. The map layout is similar to a Super Mario title where there are multiple worlds with a number of levels in each, except Awesome Pea only has 1 world with 30 levels, which makes it sometimes feel like only part of a full experience. Saying that, my playthrough, though short, was fun and challenging at times.

The soundtrack is a throwback as well, and feels as if it was plucked straight out of the 90s. The thing most people will notice right away is the look of Awesome Pea. It looks like direct port of a classic Game Boy game with the green, grey, and black color palette. Call me nostalgic, but I just love how this game looks, and Greedy Pea is pretty darn cute with the funny face he makes while jumping.

It’s A Wrap!!!

Awesome Pea was an awesome game for a brief moment. It has a short play time and not much bringing you back besides running through it again and gazing at the throwback visuals. I would highly recommend grabbing this if you see it on sale, but until then, if you want to know if it’s your thing or not, luckily, there is a demo available on the eShop.