Hell Pie [Xbox]
Sluggerfly’s Hell Pie is a hilariously absurd action-adventure platformer where you play as Nate, the ‘Demon of Bad Taste’. Satan’s birthday is coming up and the Chef has promised him a pie… only, he has forgotten to source the ingredients, so he needs you to help him out. He’ll give you an Ingredient List with items to collect in each unlocked world; collect enough and you’ll be able to move onto the next, with new ingredients added each time, from Fruit Vomit to Tampons and the corpse of a Delivery Boy. You’ll quickly gain a companion, Nugget, who is an ugly lil’ cherub that will be permanently chained to you, and can help you get around by swinging to reach higher areas or tossing yourself up on to ledges.
Right from when you first press New Game, you’ll be treated to an entertaining visual as the camera pans through a hole in the floor, right the way down to hell - before eventually ending up at Sin Inc to witness Nate seemingly doing something that would be more than bad taste to do at your desk at work. Absolutely stuffed with humour, and plenty of interactions with NPCs that’ll have you rollicking with laughter. It’s got a whiff of Conker’s Bad Fur Day to it, but still feels plenty original. There’s a Streamer Mode within the options that allows you to censor some of the gorier bits, and there are also some accessibility options within the menu for Colour Blindness, both in terms of which colour weakness you have and the severity. You can also toggle Points of Interest, to have these highlighted in the world for ease of viewing.
Hell Pie’s art style can best be described as an obscene cartoon, with grotesque character designs ranging from various tame bugs to nazi-shites and a variety of dick-dudes and fannies (in both connotations of the word). The worlds are well varied, with areas spanning the many offices of Hell; the bright, lush beaches of Sashimi Bay; and the vertically sprawling, neon-lit buildings of Flavor Peaks, as well as the cock-plant filled Jungle to name but a few. The sound design is really well suited to each of the locations, too, with themed music to match the worlds you’ll find yourself exploring, and a fitting dry-heave sound anytime a new ingredient is collected - the only thing missing really is voice acting, as this would probably have added a whole new layer to some of the characters. We did run into a couple of visual issues whilst playing, with the bottom of the screen having slight screen-tearing-style problems, though thankfully this issue mainly only seemed to occur within Sashimi Bay.
Teleport Stones that serve as checkpoints can be activated as you pass over them, and the Pause Screen is extremely useful for figuring out what’s left to be done in each area. You’ll have a Map, with markers for the Teleporters as well as other points of interest, and it also records the number of Sub-Levels, Teleporters and Horn Shrines unlocked in the current area. Similarly, Candy Meat cans, Unilambs, Ingredients and Lucky Cats that are available to collect in each level will be shown here, which is extremely useful for if you’re trying to make sure there’s nothing you’ve missed before you move on.
With a radar built into your horns, you can scan the world for ingredients and points of interest. As you progress, alternate horns can be unlocked which will give you access to other abilities such as a boost, and these can be switched between with the LB and used with RB. Making full use of these alternate horn types, along with the various upgrades you’ll unlock to gain additional swings, as well as to knock back projectiles and elbow-drop enemies, will help you to succeed not only against bosses, but within the levels too - allowing you to move through the multi-layered worlds with ease, and take alternate routes through. Swinging around the world feels great, and as you gain the upgrades to allow for additional swings you’ll feel totally in control of Nate and Nugget as they power through the world.
The collectibles all have their own purposes, which is a nice addition - giving more of an incentive to collect than simply being part of a collect-athon. There are crystals to collect, which serve as currency to purchase alternative sexy outfits from Asmodei; as well as tins of Candymeat for Nugget that can be used to unlock various upgrades, such as extra swings and jumps. Uni-lambs are hidden around the worlds for you to locate, and these adorable little creatures are further upgrade-fodder, being literal sacrificial lambs that have their horns ripped out of their skulls at the altars spread out across the world to unlock new horns for Nate. And Lucky Cats can be spent to unlock rooms within Greed’s chamber, giving you access to slot machines to win crystals (though the odds definitely don’t appear to be in your favour), with further rooms being accessible the more Lucky Cats you have. These are pretty cool to explore, especially as you get into the later rooms and get to see some concept art of the world and character designs, as well as a music video.
Hell Pie is a game for people who love crude humour, and every definition of the word obscene. It’s definitely not one to play with the kids - and this review has certainly turned the air blue, too. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time with the game, and found it to be one of the best platformers we’ve played in a while. There’s loads of little details and fun references that add another layer to things, including a group of Demons watching the DVD screensaver and cheering when it hits the corner perfectly that had me absolutely howling with laughter (and joining in the wait for the satisfying corner-hit to happen). Priced at £19.99 on the Xbox Store, Hell Pie is an absolutely brilliant game, with plenty of stuff to keep you busy, and we’d highly recommend it.
In the end, we decided to give Hell Pie the Collecting Asylum rating of 10/10.
Are you interested in Hell Pie? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Plan of Attack for the Hell Pie Xbox review code!
