A possum thief lives on the bottom of a sprawling Mediterranean town filled with all sorts of animal villagers.  At the top of the town is the Dog King and a giant pizza.  The possum wants to steal this pizza, so you’ll have to help him sneak past guards, grab food, unlock doors, and cause mischief and mayhem in general in this top down viewed arcade action game for one or two players.  Pizza Possum is available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

When you start the game, the possum is at the bottom of the town near the docks.  You can use the control stick to move in all directions.  As you run around, you’ll have to avoid dog guards.  If they see you, they’ll chase you down and if they catch you, you’ll have to start over at the beginning or the last checkpoint you reached.  You can do things like hide behind bushes to avoid detection sometimes.  Food is scattered all around the town and you’ll want to grab every bit of it.  Getting it will fill up a meter on the bottom of the screen and when it’s full, you can unlock a door in the town to reach new areas.  And when you get caught, the food will also fill up a meter that’ll help you level up so you can use more items.  You can also get boxes that have items inside, and you can use the button to use them.  Some include energy drinks to make you go faster or fences you can use to block off guards.  A second player can join in as well.

I had a few problems with this game.  They really don’t tell you how to play, so you’ll die a lot trying to figure everything out.  There’s only one level, and granted the village is huge, but it’s still only one level.  And when you get caught, you have to start over at the beginning or at the last checkpoint, and they’re few and far between so it can be a bit frustrating.  But the last problem is more personal and that’s just that I’m not a big fan of stealth games.  So I had a hard time staying interested in this one.  Although I did like all the crazy screams of panic the possum makes when he is being chased!

Kid Factor:

Pizza Possum is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief.  You steal food and make messes and when you get caught, you end up in one of those cartoony clouds of smoke with fists coming out and such.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text but not necessary just to play, but younger gamers may still find this one a bit difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews