This takes a lot of inspiration from The Noise Update, and good god does it really work here. Pepperman's animations are fantastic, feeling incredibly on model and just as ridiculous as they should be. One of his parry animations is literally just him yelling, it's so great.

Playing as Pepperman also feels surprisingly natural and great?? Some things feel a bit clunky, like his super jump, but otherwise it's fantastic and I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to see more of this pretentious pepper. I really enjoy M.J. Pepper, and I hope as the mod develops, we find out a bit more about the guy.

It's actually criminal how good this fan game is. I remember seeing Bo Noise around when I first got into Pizza Tower and just shrugged, but I never knew it would to lead to something so fantastic. The worst part is that it has only TWO LEVELS. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. That's all you get. But those two levels are just fantastic.

A lot of the art and animation is very reminiscent of Hanna Barbera cartoons, oddly enough! It's an amazing contrast compared to Pizza Tower's Nicktoons art style, but it really helps create its own identity. It's also really funny, because despite the style, Bo Noise's design constantly changes. In some instances, he's a plump, big red-nosed buffoon, and in other instances he's some really weird creature that can just shapeshift into a tree cutout. It's so ridiculous and I want more of it.

The level design is also really solid!! I love the Fish transformation. It's a transformation that genuinely feels really fluid and natural, and I keep thinking about it over and over. The intro animation for entering the level that has the Fish transformation, too, is just... really funny?? Bo Noise literally covers themselves in oil. Fantastic. Thank you.

I think the most surprising part of this fangame, outside of the amazing music, art, animation and levels, is that Bo Noise is literally his own character. They're a British, nonbinary Noise look-alike that really likes TUC crackers. He's his own brand of crazy, often feeling more like an entity than a person, and it's great. They're great. Love that thing.

I initially didn't care very much for Sugary Spire. It started off as a simple swap AU, and it's changed radically over the years. I loved the effort and passion from its developers, but its cast of characters never stuck with me. The most I actively liked was Pizzelle and Pizzano's relationship being frenemies more than anything. However, this opinion changed upon the release of the Exhibition Night demo.

Its levels are VERY charming and fun to play through! I think my favorite level was Molasses Swamp. The inspirations for that level in particular made it really stand out for me. Indiana Jones in a swamp?? That's awesome! I also didn't expect myself to like Sugarshack Mines very much, but I do! I love the worms in that level. They're very goofy.

I think the main reason why I changed my opinion is that the characters are now no longer overwhelmingly sweet. Pizzelle has an animation where they try to hide themselves as they take a smoke, and it's really goofy. A lot of their animations also make them more gremlin-like, similar to Noise, and it's GREAT. Woo!!! My only wish is Pizzelle had a Mexican name instead of being named after an Italian cookie, but I can forgive it, since the AU was created far before Pizza Tower's lore and characters was ever finished.

This is REALLY fun!! I love the abundance of new animations and I think the dialogue's really cute. Yes, there's dialogue. It's great. The levels get a lot of new art, layouts, and some levels have where Peppino has a shadow cast onto it. It's a great detail! There's also some unique music too, which is really good. The new animations for Peppino are also fantastic and I love how goofy he is. The dialogue portraits are adorable. The mod acts a lot like a remix of the original game. It's impressive how even though it's a SAGE 2019 mod, it managed to port a lot of modern mechanics over seamlessly as well as re-introducing a lot of old ones, like the TV text! Admittedly, I did think at first the speech bubble for the text implied Peppino was talking, but the dialogue never matched up with that. Wish that was a bit more clear.

As much as this mod is fun to play, there's a lot of minor things that stack up that ruin my experience. Something that somewhat plagues this mod is the fan-obsession with bringing back old concepts, one of which being the heat meter. I do not like it, and it is not because I'm bad at the game. Personally, it's really annoying as it ruins the flow of gameplay. When I'm getting the hang of the stage, the heat meter kicks in and removes the fear from ALL enemies upon approaching them at Mach 3. It becomes less about knowing how to play the game and more about stopping in your tracks to defeat them and then continue. I also really do not like the bricks in the Cheese Dragon level. There's also a huge issue with the sound effects and being obnoxious, like the long jump sound, the increased liklihood of enemy screams, the way Peppino's voiceblips for dialogue don't flow into each other... it's just annoying. I can't give this mod an in good faith because of that.

Made by the same team behind SAGE 2019 Plus, here comes Noise's Halloween Bash! This game is heavily inspired by Crash Bandicoot with a hint of Rayman. Started development and took priority as a project in 2024 after Halloween, this game carries on that odd but fun association between The Noise and Halloween.

I'll be honest... this game is genuinely hard to get into, especially if you have never played Crash Bandicoot before. Don't get me wrong, because once you get a hang of it, it is VERY fun! The music is fun and it really fits the game, too! However, it's got a lot of issues. A LOT of issues.

It doesn't do a very good job of introducing the player to its mechanics. The manual overloads the player with all of the advanced moves instead of the basic actions, and barely explains other mechanics. The empty baskets a new player will find throughout the giant level are actually the Death Route platforms, which isn't explained very well. You only see them as shown in the manual if you haven't died once. It also doesn't tell the player at all how to open the map. I had to find that out through someone else telling me, which was frustrating. There's apparently a room that tells the player this, but I've never gotten that pop-up even once. The only other hint at it is through the keybind menu, which I never needed to open. The game also doesn't tell you that you can change your palette on the main menu by pressing up and down, which?? Sure, world's most minor problem, but it's kind of annoying how many important features are just not talked about, while the things the player should be able to discover on their own is front and center.

The level design is VERY hit and miss. Thankfully, most of it hits, and a lot of the pieces of the map flow together VERY well! However, there's good chunk of sections in the level that feel very bullshit, to put it plainly. It's exaserbated on the Death Route, where it just expects the player to be skilled enough to understand the incredibly precise platforming it's throwing at you. On top of hitbox issues, it makes for a frustrating experience. In the main level, it's hard to remember where you are since there isn't a lot of distinctive set pieces. It all utilizes the same tileset. Combine that with not realizing you can open the map, and... well, I wanted to stop playing at some point. If you wanna explore everything this game has to offer like I did, don't bother with the secret route you can access after playing the Death Route. It's very frustrating, unfair, and unforgiving. Genuinely not worth it.

The art and animation is VERY fantastic, which was a huge highlight of SAGE 2019 Plus. However, I can't help but feel Noise is a little too... "marketable." There's little variety in his expressions, as they all have him doing that goofy big smile he always does. There's no hints to his ego like in Pizza Tower, where he acts like he's hot shit. There's little craziness in him, and instead it's mostly him being goofy. This is a nitpick, but, it would just be nice to see him be more... varied, in how he caries himself, like in Pizza Tower.

Overall, I feel like this game needed more time in the oven. It's not very great for new players to Crash Bandicoot (me), but if you stick through it, you'll probably enjoy it! Or if you religiously play Crash you'll really like this game.

While I'm not huge into Friday Night Funkin' anymore these days, this mod is one of the few exceptions. The spritework is mostly on model and the music is a genuine joy to listen to. At the time of writing this, they're currently in the middle of creating an update that polishes the first week, which I'm excited for. Currently listening to their preview of week 2's first song as I write this.

I think my only criticism is that in the first week, while getting angry for the second song is definitely a Peppino thing to do, it doesn't feel like there's a genuine reason for him to be angry. Could benefit from like, the world's smallest cutscene of Boyfriend tormenting him Noise style. I'unno.