Pity Pit from eastasiasoft and Panda Indie Studios is a charming retro-styled procedurally generated vertical journey down a mine to save your significant other. Learn more in our Pity Pit review!
In Pity Pit from eastasiasoft and Panda Indie Studios, you’ll play as Oratio, a Dwarf who loves mines, and is usually hanging out at mines with his wife, Gwendoline. One day, a nasty demon pops up out of nowhere, grabs Gwendoline, and goes down a nearby mine shaft. It is up to you to go down that mine shaft and chase Devil Johnson so that you can rescue your one true love, in a 2D procedurally generated vertical platforming adventure that bumps up the difficulty every step of the way.
The controls are very easy to understand. You’ll move Oratio with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, digging left, right, or down by pressing the Square button to use your shovel. This tool can also be used to hit enemies so that you can defeat them, but you need to pay attention in case an enemy has some protection to keep you from damaging it! If you want to use a bomb, you can deploy one by pressing up on the left analog stick or the D-Pad and pressing the Square button. Bombs are a bit rare, so be sure to make good use of the ones you manage to collect!
As you explore each of the randomly generated stages that Pity Pit will throw at you, there will be many coins for you to collect. Coins can be used at the shop to purchase things like a life potion that will grant you an extra life, as well as materials such as coal, bomb rocks, copper, iron, steel, gold, and more. These materials can also be obtained at the blacksmith by combining the stuff you’ve picked up, but without having to spend any coins as well, on top of getting a chance to use them to unlock extra tools to aid you on your quest – a better shovel can go a long way!
The trophies in Pity Pit will easily pop as you play, with a series of objectives that shouldn’t take you more than 20-30 minutes to complete if you pay attention to what you’re doing. There are a handful of trophies for digging through hundreds of blocks, another trio for picking up dozens of coins, trophies for collecting – and buying – many materials, another set for detonating one, three, and six bombs – which is why you should use all bombs as soon as you grab one -, and then a trio of trophies for defeating two, ten, and twenty enemies.
Pity Pit is a fun arcade-style old-school infused game that reminded me of games like Dig-Dug with a look that feels somewhere like a mix of the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. You’ll be digging, and digging, and digging as you learn from every mistake you make, progressing further and further with every subsequent run. The game is out now on PlayStation 4 at a low budget price of only $4.99, offering a Platinum trophy along with its fun gameplay mechanics.
Disclaimer
This Pity Pit review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by eastasiasoft.
