Antonblast Doesn't Deserve This

[@TopicArlo]

Sorry comments were off for the first few hours, absolutely no idea why KZbin decided to randomly set that as the default on JUST THIS VIDEO.

[@nota_ffs]

Hey Arlo, being completely transparent here. I’m a Pizza Tower KZbinr who’s been covering the game ever since early 2023. I’m well versed in both Pizza Tower and AntonBlast communities. To address some of my knowledge on the discourse between these two games, sadly a lot of these comparisons aren’t jokes. A lot of Pizza Tower’s fanbase consist of impressionable kids/teens/people who jump to conclusions without doing their research, which is probably where a lot of the AB hate is sourced from. Sure, some of these comments are petty jokes but a lot of them aren’t, which really sucks as AntonBlast has so much merit in its gameplay and art direction that set it apart from Pizza Tower and Warioland. I’m hoping this is just a side effect of AntonBlast’s well deserved rise in publicity and won’t continue with the game’s release. Not only is this a horrible look for the PT community but it’s also tainting what’s otherwise a fantastic indie game Summitsphere’s producing. Genuinely hoping this situation blows over soon. 🙏

[@Aether_Athea]

@@Gishiki3 at some point there was a period of time that the comments were locked

[@canalso5806]

i thought you intensionaly did that

[@adriantimber4188]

Lol

[@PhanTum926]

I initially thought you were hiding the comments to avoid a debate. But if it was the case, I understand. Pretty weird on KZbin's end.

[@jgswweet]

The Antonblast and Pizza Tower devs are both friends! They were literally sitting next to each other during The Game Awards! I talked with them in December and they find the whole discourse really, really weird!

[@thebluehero7319]

that's really wholesome!

[@Aapiplayz]

Explains why Peppino is in Antonball

[@AmbrosiaPoly-yolkEgg]

​@@Aapiplayzthat's actually just Peppino and Anton being husbands (ask the devs ;p)

[@Aapiplayz]

@@AmbrosiaPoly-yolkEgg Tony Grayson has said a few times on the Summitsphere Discord that "Anton × Peppino" isn't canon but he finds the ship funny and doesn't mind the joke. Antonblast and Pizza Tower aren't even in the same universe.

[@AmbrosiaPoly-yolkEgg]

@@Aapiplayz ;p ;p ;p

[@jameskelly9473]

We need to stop comparing Antonblast to Pizza Tower, and go back to the time-honored tradition of comparing it to Dark Souls.

[@codenamexelda]

Ayo jameskelly a real one.

[@ohmygodmateitbearinnitkid9251]

hold up let him cook

[@KrimsonKattYT]

At least Dark Souls and it's clones like Nioh or Code Vein have things that make them different. Aka Code Vein is anime and has partners and Nioh has more RPG mechanics and magic is absolutely busted. Antonblast is LITERALLY just Pizza Tower it's 1-to-1. They're the same game just with the characters and levels switched out. Code Vein and Dark Souls don't have the exact same graphics and artstyle, they're just part of the same sub-gnere like Danganronpa and Zero Escape are both death game visual novels. Pizza Tower and Antonblast are LITERALLY the same game.

[@Pepeutra]

@@KrimsonKattYT politely, you're a dumbass ❤

[@ThatAccountLol]

​@@KrimsonKattYTNo? I get your points but they definitely aren't the same game with different levels and characters, the art styles are very different, the plots are vastly different, the gameplay of both games are different, Pizza Tower being about speed while ANTONBLAST being more about power, not to mention the fact both games were being worked on at the same time being heavily inspired by the Warioland series. Sure, they both have escape sequences and combo meters, but Warioland also had those. Both games are Wario-likes, taking aspects from the series but not entirely taking the entire thing and making what they want their game to be, sure they are similar, but they aren't the same game copy paste with a different style and different characters. Just saying ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[@mikeandmax750]

More Warioland 4 is a good thing.

[@andrewoliver1330]

:/

[@virsonyx]

THE WARENAISSANCE IS UPON US BABYYY

[@asrieldreemurr8059]

“Look guys look, it’s my greatest achievement: Wario Land 4 on the GameBoyAdvance, Wahahahaha”

[@deebzscrub]

hear hear

[@cosmicspacething3474]

More Wario land in general

[@RByers404]

This whole situation reminds me of how for a good few years after hollow knight released, every indie metroidvania was called a "hollow knight rip-off"

[@BlaizeTheDragon]

I'm not looking forward to the response when Bo: path of the teal lotus drops. That game genuinely looks fantastic but will only be seen as a Hollow knight rip-off

[@ohno5559]

Especially when Hollow Knight and Pizza Tower are both games that borrow heavily from things that came before them.

[@SketchSpooks]

I hate the whole idea of calling something a "rip-off" just because it takes similar cues from a previously established idea. Nothing is original, and just because something is in the same league does not mean it's the same idea. Does that mean we should call Shovel Knight a Mega Man clone or Undertale an Earthbound clone? No, because we've already established they have their own stories to tell. Same EXACT stance should be applied here

[@RByers404]

@@SketchSpooks Yes! Its so easy to spot a true rip-off because they are low-effort and are made specifically to profit off the og's back. I think the internet as a whole needs to remeber the words "inspired by". We're at a point where indie games could get their OWN indie games bc of how long its been, so saying that just one person can make an indie based on an old game is irrelevant.

[@conspicuous.8163]

oh god, I hope the same thing doesn't happen for Earthblade

[@confuzedduk1008]

And you know if Antonblast came out first, Pizza Tower would probably be called an Antonblast ripoff

[@user-GreenGrapeGamer227]

YA for real wtf is worng with ppl

[@Misty_-yt5xd]

It started development before Pizza Tower did so yea

[@Domenic1407]

I actually don't ... Think so necessarily? The big big big thing is ... Pizza tower is just by nature more shit posty. Just look at it's logo alone and the whole Microsoft paint vibe. All the memes and jokes, pizza tower embraces the shit post vibe. While Antonblast tries to be more... Professional, it wants to openly show that it's competently made and give a competent vibe. While pizza tower is completely made but wants to feel like a shit post. People usually gravitate to the pizza tower approach more, which is why it's so memeable. I also assume pizza tower will definitely have a stronger and more active community in the long run. All what I want to say is, no I don't think people would have said that pizza tower is an Antonblast ripoff. They would have seen it as it's own thing. I rather think people would just focus way harder on comparing Antonblast to wario land 4

[@DynamiteDodger64]

@@Domenic1407 from what i can understand is that Pizza Tower was more into a Wario Land 4 for the collectibles and speed side while Antonblast was more focused on the graphic, vibe and destroying part of Wario land 4

[@confuzedduk1008]

@@Domenic1407 Yeah, I guess that’s fair.

[@CactusCompanion]

the developers are friends and enjoy eachother's games. play them both and enjoy them both because they're awesome

[@Xcess532]

This bothered me about some of the comments in the last vid :/. They're both just wario land inspired games with their own unique flair - two cakes - no need to compare and degrade, even ironically. Thanks for talking about this.

[@buttermati0ns649]

antonblast oddly reminds me of crash bandicoot in aspects with abbundance of crates and the green boxes and stuff,it really got me nostalgic

[@BlaizeTheDragon]

Bo-path of the teal lotus is going to get it as well for being a hollow knight "rip-off" which it is not.

[@Calamity25]

​@@buttermati0ns649Many people have made the perfect comparison of "Pizza Tower = Wario + Sonic, Antonblast = Wario + Crash" :P

[@cjaawesome616]

i think ever since a certain video about plagerism came out it ruined video game discourse on twitter. If something is inspired it is automatically considered "bad" because it is not wholey original which is not true.

[@ssg-eggunner]

​​@@Calamity25pizza tower is more like Wario + Jazz Jackrabbit than Sonic PT showing up in SAGE demo is just because speed

[@jonaspledge]

I have been a fan of Arlo content for a long time. This new format for this alternate channel just might be my favorite version of Arlo content. Off the cuff Arlo is best Arlo!

[@amateraceon5202]

So if Pizza Tower takes after Wario Land 4, and Antonblast takes after Wario Land VB, will the next Wario-like indie have incredible hand drawn graphics like Wario Land: Shake It?

[@jclkaytwo]

antonblast also strongly takes after WL4 tho. the part where you have to rush back through the level under a time limit was a WL4 thing.

[@supercamborg4218]

I’d kill for a game inspired by Wario Land 3 specifically.

[@spongyoshi]

Well, honestly, both AntonBlast & Pizza Tower have wonderfully animated animations so... I do feel like Pizza Tower takes quite a bit from Shake It as well, especially since you run a LOT in this one

[@FelineJay]

We need another semi-metroidvania puzzle platformer like 3, aka the best Wario Land

[@supercamborg4218]

@@FelineJay i consider that one second best, but that’s still incredibly high praise considering how the whole series is great

[@kiricappuchin]

They're both Wario-likes, how are people not getting that???

[@foushe977]

As another game dev working on a platformer with a fun art style my own game has been claimed to be a pizza tower ripoff for so long now, when its not even inspired by warioland (its by shantae and rayman), so i hugely thank you for this video. I get its cuz pizza tower is popular, however the amount of comparisons really effected my mental state in the worst of ways. Tony G, the lead dev of antonblast, and juniper, antonblast artist and lead dev of another game that gets compared to pizza tower, came to me and comforted me during those dark times. For real I love you and thank you for this video and I hope folks will listen to your vid

[@jurtheorc8117]

Shantae and Rayman? Now THERE's a combination!

[@foushe977]

Yeah! Rayman is mostly down to finding teensie type characters in cages and the games moveset, with shantae influencing the metroidvania type of world

[@Pyrodiac]

I'm starting to think that the people who are calling Antonblast a PT ripoff have never actually played PT.

[@supercamborg4218]

I’ve actually been really looking forward to your game, it looks incredibly fun

[@ssg-eggunner]

Let me guess, paintvale?

[@Smoothplatypus]

I actually like that we are getting more games like Warioland. We haven't gotten an actual one in a hot minute so it's great to see it getting the love it deserves through other games

[@ralsei3157]

StarFox needs to be next, no question about it

[@ssg-eggunner]

​@@ralsei3157after that, F Zero GX

[@redtygr14]

I waited for over a year to see Arlo's first impressions playing Pizza Tower. And the fanbase crushed it. Crushed it into little itty bitty bite sized pieces.

[@ivoneo2806]

He still play when he feels like it so nah

[@mr.snappyeagle]

I mean it just goes to show that when the release date trailer dropped in the Nintendo Indie World Direct for the video game ANTONBLAST... Pizza Tower was the one trending on twitter, despite not even being in the direct. It really is unfortunate.

[@yourehereforthatarentyou]

that sucks, i feel bad for the antonblast devs

[@mr.snappyeagle]

Being on the team, Its a little annoying but not the end of the world

[@PhanTum926]

I mean, Nintendo fans being Nintendo fans. I bet none of these people who say that while the showcase was live played Pizza Tower before.

[@yazanyazon2530]

No sympathy enjoyable

[@FarmFamGaming]

@@PhanTum926I’m a Nintendo fan, yet I don’t act like one lol

[@Life4Nintendo]

Two legends can coexist

[@Phant0m76]

I am a simple man i see something that looks like warioland i buy

[@Rubberman202]

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@Wario_B]

As a big Wario Land fan, pizza tower was basically a dream come true. We’ve been starving for ages and now we’re getting ANOTHER WARIO INSPIRED GAME! I’M OVERJOYED ABOUT ANTONBLAST!!! The demo is also very fun! However, comparing the two is kinda dumb; Pizza Tower takes inspiration mainly from Wario Land 4 and even though Antonblast also has Wario Land 4 elements, it mainly plays like the Virtual Boy Wario Land. My point is, they both have similar inspirations but they’re very different games.

[@Mike14264]

The best way I've seen folks talk about it is: Pizza Tower is about speed, while Antonblast is about power. While Peppino is an anxious but endearing mess of a pizza chef that speeds through levels as fast as possible, Anton is a drunk but lovable single dad with anger issues that blasts through levels as destructively as possible! Both take different aspects from Wario's main aspects in Wario Land!

[@ConsarnitTokkori]

the two share one big thing in common that i believe is just impossible to deny or ignore they're both really good :flooshed:

[@spacem80]

Antonblast has a pseudo-prequel in Antonball Deluxe (a small game taking elements from Arkanoid and its ilk and Mario Bros) and Peppino is an unlockable character in it, well before Pizza Tower was even released. Both factions of devs have clearly embraced being sister games, so the idea of there being discourse or whatever about this is hardto wrap my head around.

[@josiahtheawkward6008]

The people who say this looks like a Pizza Tower ripoff has no idea how game development works. You’re telling me the creators of AntonBlast saw Pizza Tower, that was released LAST YEAR by the way, and made a game this vast and visually stunning in ONE YEAR? No. Nah

[@deadrift886]

I bet half the people defending pizza towers' original ideas never even heard of wario land 4

[@somethingsomething9006]

Honestly I believe this is the case. Wario Land in my experience is infinitely less known than other more mainstream Nintendo games across normal gaming spaces, in fact most people I've known in my 29 years of life only know Wario so far as Mario Party/Smash Bros and MAYBE Wario Ware. It's unfair to Antonblast but I can absolutely see why someone thinks it's a Pizza Tower clone if they only have Pizza Tower as reference. That said, it's sad that the Wario games don't have the mainstream recognition they deserve.

[@ssg-eggunner]

​@@somethingsomething9006only if Nintendo released a new WL game...

[@FrahdChikun]

Yeah, because that half was born over a decade after Wario Land 4. Gen Alpha may have access to all of this information, yet they refuse to do ANY research because it's too much for their goofy ahh brains to handle lol

[@Rubberman202]

I know that comparisons from similar-looking games are inevitable, but it still is annoying to see so many people's immediate reaction to ANTONBLAST at the Indie World Showcase be "Pizza Tower rip-off" or "Pizza Tower at home". Even some of the defenders of ANTONBLAST go a bit too far in the other direction, saying Pizza Tower is overrated and ANTONBLAST is so much better. This is the Internet, where nuance dies and the loudest voices are the ones that get heard no matter how dumb they are, so like the comparison thing, this feels inevitable, but it still sucks to see people "joke" about ANTONBLAST "copying Pizza Tower's homework" (if they even are joking, it can be incredibly hard to tell on the Internet). Look, the fact of the matter is two separate developers took a game that was near and dear to their hearts and decided to make their own game inspired by that old one, but they both went about their games in different ways that, while admittedly heart to tell just by looking at gameplay, become quite evident once you actually play them. Anton dashing through levels might be similar to Peppino's mach running, but they both involve different control inputs, not to mention Pizza Tower's controls and level design are more about dashing, crawling, and climbing up, down and all around a given level, all while bashing any baddies and collecting toppings you find along the way, while ANTONBLAST, at least from the demo, seems to focus more on destroying obstacles and creating new pathways to areas by blowing up anything in the way. Basically, while you CAN go fast in ANTONBLAST, it's not always the ideal way to go about things (at least until Happy Hour), whereas Pizza Tower subtly encourages you to go fast and rack up combos, something that only gets amplified when it's Pizza Time. But really, the thing that pisses me off the most is that people are trying to pick fights here, and trying to act like one game is the superior game, and it's all pointless. The people at Summitsphere are all friends with Pizza Tower's developers (of which there are two, McPig and Sertif, not including the three composers the game also has), so much so that Peppino appeared in Summitsphere's previous game Antonball Deluxe as a playable character. But even if they weren't on friendly terms... I don't know, isn't the fact that we have two games inspired by Wario Land, a series Nintendo hasn't touched in 16 years, inherently a good thing? I like to bring up the rising subgenre of "Wario-Like" platformers as much as possible since these two games aren't the first games to have a Wario Land influence, but since they're the two most popular games in that genre and are being released within relatively close proximity of each other, people are having a hard time wrapping their brains around the concept that two different developers can, independently of one-another, have the same inspiration and make similar games that focus on different aspects. I want, more than anything, for people to actually sit and thing about the implications of what they're saying when they look at ANTONBLAST and say "it's just Pizza Tower", and at least make an effort to try and see the differences between the two games and what makes each of them unique. They are both excellent games and should be celebrated rather than getting into pointless squabbles about which is better or which started development first or whatever. TL;DR, ANTONBLAST and Pizza Tower are both awesome, stop fighting about which is better or what's a rip-off, just play them and have fun.

[@PhanTum926]

EXCELLENT COMMENT! These types of people actually don't appreciate the fact that game developers can be inspired by something that's already been done before. They'll take one thing similar to the other, then call it a full-on "rip-off," which is simply far from the truth. Even Summit's team in the comment section of this video and their tweets are fed up with this mindset. Now that this whole trend is been very clear when the Indie World showcase dropped, I'm not surprised if most of them never played PT while still wanting that game on their console. This is kind of what happens if you let Nintendo fans discover something new, I guess. I also agree that the Antonblast community is in the wrong, too. Making it very clear, you are allowed to prefer Antonblast over Pizza Tower (in which so far, I'm on that very same boat). Making your opinion a superiority contest is the issue here. Very pointless argument in this case since, as you stated, both games are actually close friends. I'm hoping that the community from a game we're all excited for doesn't end up doing that to TTYD as well, since they're both the most anticipated of the year. It's quite an unfortunate situation we're having to deal with as of now, but in the end, it's the vocal minority saying all of this crap and not mature adults like us. I think both of us have shared a positive light towards these communities. We should pat ourselves in the back for that!

[@ssg-eggunner]

I honestly see both as equal quality But I'm guessing the "antonblast is better" is a defense mechanism to PT fans calling it a cheap ripoff

[@zeldadonkey1]

It's like when in art class they make everyone paint the same subject. Everyones piece is going to look similar, but they won't be the same because they interpret it differently and use different techniques. When both games are based on Wario Land, they're gonna have similarities

[@ros9764]

I was very happy when Pizza Tower finally released. The community already was relatively big but i didn't expect it to blow up as much as it did. I am obviously happy that these games are getting the recognitions they deserver but at the same time this is also the consequence on when an indie game becomes a big hit. This never really happens with AAA games, only with indie games, and it's kind of bizzare

[@wubbt]

Pizza Tower’s community to AntonBLAST’s community: You’re a fraud! Pizza Tower’s devs to AntonBLAST’s devs: 😘

[@Mr._Maniac]

Not only are the devs of both Pizza Tower and AntonBlast are good friends, they’ve actually worked together in a sense. Peppino appears in AntonBall Deluxe (the first Anton game) as a guest character. Alls to say, there’s no true hate with them, people shouldn’t be throwing real hate, and both of course have their right to exist in their own ways.

[@dacudo91]

This shows the importance of getting to market first. The exact same thing would have happened to Pizza Tower if Anton Blast released first and was popular.

[@nuclear_atoms7186]

this reminds me of people calling terraria "2d minecraft" like bro they have their similarities but they're also wildly different from each other not to mention both relogic and mojang are friendly with each other like the devs of antonblast and pizza tower time is a flat circle 💀

[@bladeexe]

Really sad when both devs get along with each other and have been pushing each others games.

[@ivoneo2806]

That doesn't sound sad but ok

[@SoulHero7]

@@ivoneo2806 The sad part is that the fans think Pizza Tower and AntonBlast are enemies when they're actually friends.

[@ivoneo2806]

@@SoulHero7 that doesn't feel like the sad since not all fans think that, yeah ik there friends it been like that since ten months ago l'm pretty sure

[@Theonebeliever]

Thus is the most important and valid video that has ever been made.

[@CrispyBagelBites]

Back when the Kickstarter campaign was still happening is when all of this started. Was initially a joke from fans of both games (I recall seeing a gif saying “This game will be comparable to Pizza Tower” that made rounds back then) but it’s been made clear by Summitsphere that they’re making something WAY different, and the topic has come up a bit in the backer chat on Discord. Some stuff even got changed in the Dynamite Demo because people tried to play Blast like Pizza Tower. The comparisons were inevitable, yes, but seeing people devalue Blast has just been sad after seeing how much love the team is pouring into the game.

[@dexiedoo_octo]

things being changed in the dynamite demo to avoid similarities to pt makes sense. when i played the initial version i did play it quite like pt, so when the new version was released the new antonmic bomb move replacing the old hammmer pound really irked me. learning that things like that were changed to discourage just playing it as another pizza tower makes it make so much sense

[@CrispyBagelBites]

@@dexiedoo_octo I’m not sure if you played the V1 dynamite demo back in June of last year, but that was the version that they had to change stuff from iirc. Had much tighter windows for stuff like repeat hammer bounces and you could just hold clutch to keep boosting instead of being required to do the meter boosts. It’s a shame, really. I loved how the game played when you could just hold a boost. It’s taken a while for me to get used to how it plays now, but I do see why they changed it. Gotta give blast its own gameplay flavor.

[@RandomParanoia]

"Can't wait to p rank this" is the best version of the joke!

[@jesseburgener442]

Dark Souls: "First time?"

[@WhirlyBeepBoops]

I personally think it's cool that they have the same Wario Land inspiration but are taking it in different directions. Pizza Tower focuses on fluid movement, speed, and challenge; Anton seems to be going for a "win big" vibe with the casino aesthetic and big score numbers, along with some cool shakeups with the background springs (very Kirby Triple Deluxe, I like it). Both are valid on their own merits, and I hope Anton comes into his own.

[@ssg-eggunner]

I'm pretty sure the springs is actually inspired by an older game, virtual boy wario land (1995)

[@adams8644]

but I thought anton and peppino were friends...

[@randoncourter4923]

They are more than friends, if you know what I mean

[@egbertmilton4003]

Bro, they've been snogging, and approved doing so by their creators. They ain't only friends, they're husbands.

[@thatoneXman]

Canonically, yes. For a couple minutes. Before Peppino kicked Anton out of his house for completely trashing the place. XP

[@Mr.Baldimore]

​@@thatoneXman I understood that reference

[@The0320Angela]

@@thatoneXman But then, they reconcile at the end.😁

[@Aether_Athea]

I am really glad this channel makes you feel like you can upload videos here that otherwise you may not, love your content no matter how important you think it is, also yeah, that makes sense that it’d not be great to hear that so much. I am gonna be honest, I don’t like anything to discredit Antonblast and also don’t know enough about Pizza Tower to really have an opinion of how similar they may be, but totally aware they are different still!

[@Forgado]

Regarding the Cookie Monster comparison, you honestly remind me more of Grover without his nose.

[@maximosve9634]

Antonblast is only a copy of Wario's greatest achivements.

[@thomaskuzma4360]

THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS UP! so many people are making that stupid statement. LEts give Anton as much praise as Pizza Tower , they are both wonderful games

[@Couldnt_Be_Bothered]

What bothers me even more is that this can start to make people vilify the older game (in this case Pizza Tower) and can lead to this sentiment where people who like the game lack good taste because it's popular. We see this pattern so often with so much media, like how it seems like every article covering some new indie game has to compare it to either Stardew Valley, Terraria, Breath of the Wild, or Dark Souls. Then you end up with sentiment that liking the popular game is bad, like how people keep degrading botw by calling it "not Zelda".

[@DanielHaywood]

>mainline controllers only >DK Bongos

[@PGrayOfficial]

It’s crazy how when this game had even more revealed about it in the form of footage and a demo, people just kinda forgot about Warioland and just now believe that Pizza Tower invented this gameplay style

[@melonyswife]

As someone named Dee I can understand how grating it is for everyone to make the exact same joke about you

[@FelineJay]

Last name Hava? Hava nice day, lmao gottem

[@marcodipietro813]

I used to be on the swim team so I know the struggle

[@FrahdChikun]

Did the jokes involve nuts by any chance?

[@pandebear0]

Glad you brought this up. As an artist, nothing sucks more than "your art looks just like *other artist or IP*!" I never know how I'm supposed to take statements like that.

[@SebsistButReal]

fr my style is always compared to pizza tower by my friend. all because of the eyes I occasionally use. pt didn't even create that

[@101kirbyfan]

I definitely feel this way too. I think it's just a human thing that comprehending something new presented to you is easiest when comparing it to something you already know. To many I'm sure the easiest way to understand what Antonblast is, is to think "Oh it's like Pizza Tower" which for that game, it was easiest to comprehend it as "Oh it's like Wario Land 4" It's an inevitability that people will compare what you've made to something that already exists, but as long as what you've made has your own inspiration and heart in it, and isn't just trying to be a carbon copy of something better, then I think it's best not to let the comments get to you and focus on making it shine

[@ssg-eggunner]

Tbh I usually take comments like those as positive, because I interpret it as if I actually made something decent for once

[@strangefishman7635]

many people compare my art style to dav pilkey's and i take it as a compliment

[@tamalemuncher789]

I'm sorry man, I just love Pizza Tower. I enjoyed the demo for Antonblast, but gosh dang, I couldn't help thinking of it lol.

[@ShyGuyXXL]

If you're ever unsure what to think about this "rivalry", just remember that the Antonblast Dev drew Peppino and Anton making out.

[@RococoArtSucks]

That was Raining Ketchup's drawing, not McPig's.

[@ShyGuyXXL]

@@RococoArtSucks Oh shit, you're right. My bad. Just corrected it. But yeah, it was an amazing response to this fake rivalry. 😂

[@supercamborg4218]

I love that picture, wasn’t it in the sprite sheet of the kickstarter demo or am I thinking of something else?

[@ssg-eggunner]

​@@supercamborg4218not the Kickstarter demo, but an older version of demo 2 That version had a ton of weird unused stuff, including a PT screenshot with a wall of outlets

[@supercamborg4218]

@@ssg-eggunner oh yeah, I was thinking about how the kickstarter demo had the first level of VB Wario Land in the spritesheet

[@LeGoooze]

When I saw Antonblast on the Indie Showcase for Nintendo Switch I immediately thought it was from the same developers as Pizza Tower. I've never played the game and I tangentially know about it due to memes but Antonblast has the same energy and similar visuals to the other game. It's sad the discourse is "It looks like Pizza Tower" instead of "Antonblast looks super fun". Unfortunately comparison on this kind of genre is inevitable since we have few games like this. But hey, Antonblast does indeed look like a blast, I want to play it!

[@MrMindCloud]

Biggest problem with PT’s popularity is that a staggering amount of people don’t know it’s basically Wario Land. Anton can’t be a clone because PT is just not-Wario Wario Land

[@themc3140]

I wouldn't quite say that, both games have a unique flavor that honestly makes it hard to go back to Wario land imo.

[@ssg-eggunner]

I agree with the guy above me, they are not other games, they are inspired by it The wario land slander tho..,

[@MrMindCloud]

@@ssg-eggunner I mean, I’m literally just saying they’re directly inspired by Wario Land. They’re like the Yooka Laylee to Banio and Kazooie Or the Bug Fables to Paper Mario Of course they’re different, but you can see what they’re loosely emulating. It’s not bad at all, but it’s still a truth.

[@ShadwSonic]

I thought this had been resolved since before Pizza Tower released! Guess the demo getting onto Switch restarted discussion in both good and bad ways...

[@PipeGuy64Bit]

Here's the problem. Many people heard of Pizza Tower after it released. I will admit I fed into the discourse for a brief period of time before Pizza Tower came out but it was only because I had a feeling it was going to suck due to that identity crisis Pizza Tower had before the Eggplant Demo came out. So when that first Antonblast demo came out, I had the "Pizza Tower is gonna suck, Antonblast is gonna run circles around it!" sentiment.

[@thelastwindwaker7948]

I've seen fan art of Wario as an old man, with Anton and Peppino as his sons, and that's pretty much what I think of with these games now.

[@sapphireonze]

When I saw Anton Blast and played the demo, my first thought was Pizza Tower BUT immediately after was "I'm so glad this genre and art style is having a bit of surge!"

[@worstinshow]

Even putting aside that the devs of both games are friends and likely traded notes as they were working on their own thing? I think it's wonderful that not one, but *two* incredibly talented dev teams have stepped up to fill the Wario-shaped void in our hearts that Nintendo is content to continue festering, and they've both put their own take on the formula. Internet's going to internet, though...

[@ssg-eggunner]

Getting one single game to fill the wario void is already good enough Getting two is even better I see this as a 2 cakes situation

[@therealno_one]

This will be the new Minecraft vs terraria

[@bradenwelke111]

VALIDDDD 👏 Classic Arlo, sticking up for the little guy. For the record, the comparison between you and Cookie Monster has never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. Sorry you have to deal with that. I can relate, albeit in a very different way.

[@PhanTum926]

[6:28 - 7:40] Such a good analogy of the Pizza Tower vs. Antonblast discourse, tbh. It just goes to show that no matter how one or two things of your creation have in common with another, it'll get called a "knockoff" by some stranger on the internet.

[@IsamuKunX]

As someone who’s legal name is ‘Samuel Adams’ I totally get the cookie monster thing. It’s kinda circled back from ‘it’s been annoying for the past 3 decades having to deal with it the first time someone learns my full name’ to joking about it. I know it’s coming so when it eventually does I laugh it off and then inform them ‘everybody gets one’.

[@Surkk2960]

This happened with TF2 and OW, it happened with Palworld and Pokemon, it was bound to happen with Pizza Tower and Anton Blast. People love to make competition even when a contest isn't being held. Who ever came first will always be compared to the other regardless of both their histories.

[@ssg-eggunner]

Atleast with OW it sort of turned out to be a bad game anyway

[@whiteroach3]

@@ssg-eggunner OW was a good game actually, when it released it got insanely good scores across the board and even won GOTY. Shame Blizzard decided to ruin it.

[@ssg-eggunner]

@@whiteroach3 oh yeah

[@vernontk]

Before the internet, we simply didn't listen to children and losers. We can do that now too.

[@petrjemyval]

My oppinion on pizza tower and antonblast: both, both is good

[@LordLemmysLabs]

The major similarities mostly stem from the fact theyre both primarily inspired by WL4. The only 2 things not directly based on WL4 that they somewhat share is a nostalgic cartoon edge and a combo mechanic (though they function very differently) The best way to visualize their differences is Pizza Tower is like putting Wario Land 4, Sonic the Hedgehog and 90s Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network in a blender, whereas AntonBlast is like putting Wario Land 4, VB Wario Land, Crash Bandicoot, and early 2000s CN and MTV in a blender

[@BoneDog1215]

i’m named jeff, and the “my name jeff” thing gets preeeeeeetty old

[@Jetterz1999]

I played pizza tower back when the SAGE demo was recently released, and it's just sad to see what the community turned into. It's a miracle that these excellent games are seeing the light of day, yet people would rather argue pointlessly about which one is "objectively" better

[@crimsonpolt3rgiest]

i think its kind of like the fnaf issue where pizza tower is so similar to antonblast in premise that it makes it kind of hard not to compare one to the other

[@MusicJunkie37]

If Pizza tower wasn't about Pizza it wouldn't have been as popular

[@GreenCoin24]

Yeah because if a game called "pizza Tower" doesn't have any pizza in it... ...is it just called "tower"?

[@MusicJunkie37]

@@GreenCoin24 What u on about m8

[@Hypershell]

It is impossible to lay on sarcasm thick enough that nobody on the internet will miss it.

[@Sponsie1000]

l'm not really into these kinds of "wario-style" games so at a glance pizza-tower and antonblast seem pretty indistinguishable to me, but unless this game was made from scratch in with just about a single year of development it should be obvious that these are just two games who had the same idea seperately. Which is totally plausible since they're both inspired by the same game that's been out for decades and was queueing up for its turn in the nostalgia cycle. If PizzaTower was the inventor of that gameplay style and a year later another game "just happened to stumble upon that unique idea" independently l wouldve been more receptive to the idea, but right now it seems kinda obvious that they're two game studios who're both inspired by a fun game from their youth whose games happened to be released kinda close to eachother

[@justdenys1421]

"indistinguishable". idk maybe you don't have eyes or something. visually they don't look anything like each other. both have one source of inspiration, but they branch out into completely separate places.

[@Sponsie1000]

@@justdenys1421 l donno man, to a layman they seem the same,, you getting worked up about that doesnt change that. They're indistinguishable in the same sense that l would call two old-time cars indistinguishable at a glance,, Obviously they arent identical and if you have more interest/experience with them you can point out all the differences, but at a glance they are the same to me. l thought that was pretty intuitive

[@Mahaveez]

I kickstarted Antonblast and learned of Pizza Tower development after. The INSTANT Pizza Tower got huge, I knew this would be inevitable. Anyway, Pizza Tower is Wario for Gen Z, and Antonblast is Wario for grumpy old men who liked Wario when it came out, lol

[@ssg-eggunner]

I'm a gen z but I still like Antonblast

[@xero107]

and there's takis from srb2 fusing both together

[@thedimondtimbs7297]

For me, they're just bolth fantastic games, i like them for bolth similar and different ways, and honestly, im just here for it all, and i cannot WAIT to get my grubby hands on Antonblast

[@MothFable]

because god forbid two games have the same source of inspiration

[@Hercules_Flexing]

A lot of things like this happen... Bug Fables to Paper Mario instantly came to mind.

[@arbust8]

There's a thin line separating a meme from an inside joke, and way too many people either can't tell them apart or just don't care to be mindful enough

[@TheGodofweak]

I'm with you 100% on this Arlo its so annoying to state that you're excited for a game, whether its part of a genre you like or whatever, you have other people chime in with their comments about similar games, or even worse they'll insist the game they suggested is inherently better implying you shouldn't be excited for the game. Like, any metroidvania that looks cool - You're like "Oh great, the movement looks super fun, combat looks sweet, can't wait" And some MF is like "Y'know Hollow Knight is already perfe-" I KNOW WHAT HOLLOW KNIGHT IS. IVE PLAYED HOLLOW KNIGHT. IT CAME OUT 7. YEARS. AGO. THERE ARE OTHER GAMES.

[@SuperStarEevee]

been following the growth of these wario likes for a bit and I've been ecstatic to see new ways to interpret and push forward this genre can't wait to BLAST

[@doubt2022]

3:26 in today's world it's impossible to tell when someone is joking, or spouting complete nonsense unironically

[@SharpEdgeSoda]

To me it depends if the Devs are in on the joke. They confirmed to be in on the joke. If the devs are in on the joke, then it's kind of brilliant viral marketing loop.

[@pucciraskolnikov7266]

​@PenguinEconomics-st2wstbh i think it's working

[@HealyHQ]

Pizza Tower is like if Wario Land had a baby with Sonic the Hedgehog, whereas AntonBlast is much closer to the original inspiration, Wario Land. In short, though they have similarities due to wearing their Wario Land inspirations on their sleeves, the gameplay feels *very* different between the two, with Pizza Tower focusing more on speeding through levels as quickly as possible to get the highest rank, while AntonBlast has more deliberate platforming and puzzle-solving to open up the following area. AntonBlast has parts that are telling you, "Slow down and figure out the order of operations to blast open the next area," and Pizza Tower is constantly screaming at the top of its lungs, "GOTTA GO FAST, BABYYYYYY!!" I love them both. Aside from surface-level details, they can't really be compared, because they feel so different. People calling either one a "rip-off" of the other have clearly not played them.

[@ssg-eggunner]

Not really sonic, more like jazz jackrabbit

[@Man_of_Oil]

It's like how my name is Jake, and every new person I meet calls me Jake from State Farm. Like wow! So funny and original! Haven't heard that thousands of times over the last 10 years!

[@zixorY]

Granted I thought this game was pizza tower in the thumbnail, but once the video started I thought it was virtual boy Wario land, which was the clear & unequivocal inspiration

[@tombaker3731]

This video's really convinced me that this channel's gonna be fun to follow. There's something very cool about having a place you can post a video about such a very specific topic with such a very quick turnaround rate. Very excited to see what other topics you end up talking about here.

[@jamiecartwright5720]

Thanks Arlo, I have to say i do enjoy these videos as podcast like material! Makes great listening at work.

[@MKLANCER00]

Pizza Tower fans playing Warioland 4 for the first time: getting alot of Pizza Tower vibes from this..

[@Satellaview1889]

I think we have an unfortunate case of something not being the first. Pizza Tower was the first Wario-esk game we've gotten in a while, and people's natural tendency to compare things has led many people to equate the two. If a style disappears, before reappearing suddenly, people are inclined to use the popular thing as a point of comparison. To use an analogy, Imagine that metroidvanias were an obscure style that was only in a couple games that were on obscure platforms. Then, randomly, a metroidvainia comes out, and it redefines people's knowledge of the style. Suddenly, eyes are on a previously obscure topic, and everyone is associating the topic with this new game. Suddenly, anything that tries to emulate the style, will walk in the shadow of it's more timely cousin.

[@wesshiflet2214]

the element of truth is how their HUDs converged in style and content over subsequent demos lol …also, SOMEONE made those little bowling pins first. That similarity is kinda weird

[@ssg-eggunner]

Many of the concepts of antonblast already existed by 2016-2017 tough

[@TheRedCap]

Regardless of the jokes, I'd love to see your impressions of Pizza Tower. I've played the AntonBlast demo and quite like it, and I can't wait until it comes out so I can play it enough to really get good at it so I can form a proper opinion on it. But Pizza Tower in particular has achieved god-like, top-5 status for me. It's *REALLY* good. EDIT: I now realize after watching the whole video I completely missed the point lmao. Maybe this'll become such a meme that we'll all start recommending Antonblast in every Pizza Tower discussion too.

[@gaurdianAQ]

I do wonder if this would be less of an issue if there was more time between antonblasts release and pizza towers? Like I feel like when pizza tower came out there were a ton of comparisons to wario land, but given that it's been so long that we got a wario land game it didn't feel quite as... I don't know how to put it... but i'd be curious to here your thoughts on if you feel the timing makes it worse. Like you're definitely right that I didn't think about how many times someone must read "if you like pizza tower play anton blast" and to me that's a way of recommending the game because I loved Pizza Tower and so that just gets me extra hype for antonblast. But also like, I get that Antonblast was not meant to be an "inspired by pizza tower" sort of game. It's wario inspired sure, but so to have it compared so heavily to another indie game that happened to come out earlier, I can understand the frustration about that...

[@andymejia1332]

I originally thought that Anton Blast was from the same guys who made Pizza Tower, one because of the gameplay (obviously, having same inspiration) but also they both have VERY similar artstyles.

[@justdenys1421]

Idk man, if you look at both games side by side for........ 3 .... seconds. you'd be able to see that the only thing similar between them on visual stuff is smooth animations

[@codenamexelda]

Your mindset is unpopular yet correct. Thank you for saying your peace, arlo.

[@Krispizz]

Woah! It’s the Cookie Monster!

[@TGAPOO]

I didn't think of it that way. I'll try to discuss games on their own merit as much as I can from now on. Unless I'm specifically messing with them on purpose of course. Fun fact: many inventions have been invented in several places, at around the same time (Isaac Newton, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz both invented calculus at around the same time for example, they didn't copy one another. They did however collaborate later on). If the requirements and inspirations are in place somethings are just a matter of time. Some kids who grew up playing Wario World were always going to make games that spoke to them in the same way once they were adults. Especially since there aren't many games like that on the market. I'd say it's more likely that these two groups were responding to the same scenario and ended up with similar answers. All to OUR benefit.

[@yoshimasterleader]

This happens when two properties with a similar concept comes out really close to each other. People are still comparing Armageddon and Deep Impact to this day.

[@Linealo]

Games take quite some time develop, especially with styles and designs, characters, animations and levels like those. Even if they were inspired by eachother, which is likely due to the friendship between the Devs and their communications, they wouldn't have aimed to clone from another - simply because development started waaay longer ago than the release of PizzaTower. Maaaaybe AntonBlast started later and was inspired by the demos, but what so? Can't I draw a portrait of my mum because Leonardo drew the Mona Lisa? Can't I write a song about love because someone else has done it before? This whole discussion is just so overblown and ignorant, not just to the process, but also the results, it's almost hilarious again how fed up people can become over nothing. Add to that, that these games are inspired by a completely different time of games, it gets even crazier. It's as if people would start calling any new Meteoid game a "Hollow Knight clone". I get when you point out similarities, but call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel.

[@Steinop]

Thank you so much for speaking on this

[@sonicstarman9663]

I actually really like Antonblast's style. If Arlo never talked about it I wouldn't even know about the game and try out the demo. Now I got another game to add to my Steam library. And unlike Arlo I AM a huge fan of 2D platformers.

[@Yuti640]

Looking at the footage in this video, Antonblast looks extremely cool, reminds me a lot of the virtual boy's kind of parallax travelling between the background and foreground stuff Makes me really wanna try it!

[@eightmana]

Never heard of Pizza Tower. First glance I thought it was a Tex Avery inspired Wario-like.

[@ssg-eggunner]

Funny cuz the Summit sphere community does some jokes about world of tex avery

[@garchompy_1561]

this is actually what happened to the Saints Row franchise that caused it to go under eventually. Always compared to the Grand Theft Auto franchise despite being unrelated, but had parallel development and came out shortly after GTA - San Andreas, then the franchise spent its entire life trying to distance its self from GTA causing it to get more and more ridiculous. Someinterviews with the devs from back in the day out there and them sort of venting their frustration about it.

[@Rem_Player]

I'm a huge fan of Pizza Tower and how I understand you. I perceive Anton as a separate game and talk about it as a separate game. Of course I can say (the creator of the tower and Anton are friends) Or that they are somehow similar. Nothing more. So thank you for the video. Both games are very good

[@confuzedduk1008]

All discourse aside, I would love for Wario-like to become a new genre of games.

[@mitchell9144]

Loving this channel so far. Your 2 videos on this game probably is gonna make me buy it when it comes out looks fun