If there are a few things that we can pretty much all agree on, that we love games and food. More specifically, when that food is pizza. We all have our favorites, from those who enjoy just the plain cheese to those who are in the pineapple on the pizza club (you know you like it) pizza has a way of being its own type of language for everyone to join in the conversation. But what if you were a possum that just loved to eat? A possum that just wanted to take your bloated self to enjoy life? Do you think you could contain yourself and keep your conscience clean, or would you break down and wreak havoc wherever you could? It’s interesting to think about. But does developer, Cosy Computer bring the the pizza to the possum or the possum to the pizza? Let’s find out with Pizza Possum for PlayStation 5.

Pizza Possum is a short and sweet arcade experience where your goal is to eat as much food as you can without getting caught. An adorable mix of wholesome and mischievous, you hide and seek your
way through the village alone or with a friend, using items and bushes to maneuver your way around the patrolling guard dogs. Get to the top of the village, eat the massive pizza, and steal the crown
from the dog leader’s head.

So before you try and eat all that you see, there are a few things you should be aware of. First, make sure that the DualSense controller is charged. There is no need to be at the top with that big pizza in your eyes to only get caught because you forgot to charge the controller. Second, find your favorite place to sit. And finally, just sit back, relax, and have some fun. With all that said, let’s continue…

When you first start the game, you get to see the dog leader, Bella Chonki who is basically taunting anyone and everyone that they have this gigantic pizza that nobody could ever steal. To help “assure” this, there are Bella’s dog friends throughout the village, to again, assure not only the people but herself, that there is no way, in any shape or form, that the gigantic pizza will not be stolen, but will somehow to remain warm enough to still eat by the time, if it was possible, but it’s not, to steal so said pizza.

This is where we meet up with Possum, who admits to loving his favorite type of pizza, the stolen kind. So it’s going to be up to you to help Possum and try to get to the top to not only get the pizza but the crown as well. But remember, there are Bella’s dog friends who are just looking for a possum to capture so you need to be on the lookout for them and try not to get detected.

Lucky for Possum as he has a few tricks up his possum sleeves such as hiding in bushes. This doesn’t work all the time, but if you can get away fast enough, you can hide in a bush and the warning indicators will start to go down. You want to try and eat all that you can so that you have enough points in order to receive a key to unlock the gate of your choice. Speaking of eating, this is where you may need to play smart. While eating food is encouraged here as it increases your points so you can get the key for the nearest gate, you have to be careful as eating too much food will cause Possum will start to become bigger, which causes him to slow down. Sometimes the only way to try and outrun those dogs is through the water, but just like eating too much, this will cause slowness.

During your adventure, you will come across tools to use, such as speed boosts, smoke bombs, and punching gloves. Also, feel free to climb on anything you can as there are some good places to escape to in case you need to take a breather. While you are making your way through the village, taunt whomever you want to, it’s up to you. As you are running through the village, you will notice some of the local residents. Yes, they may be startled or scared, but that’s okay because they will drop some food which comes in handy when you need to add to your points.

As you start to earn more tools to use, you will notice boxes that you can run through that will contain a tool, however, you don’t know what tool it will be. Hopefully, you can get some of the roadblocks that will stop the dog friends in their tracks for a certain period of time. Also, be on the lookout for certain areas that have the letter P above them. They are used as your last area to start from in case you get caught.

Just don’t forget to hit the X button to use the tools and I will say that pay attention to the direction you want to use the tool in. Many times I used the tools in the wrong direction and when you were on your last smoke bomb it just went to waste because you were too worried about getting caught, so you ran like there was no tomorrow and all of this to try to eat some stolen pizza to then steal the crown from Bella and try to make it back to the starting point.

Let’s talk about the graphics and sound. When playing Pizza Possum on the PlayStation 5, everything was bright with vibrant colors and pleasant on the eyes. Shadows from buildings looked to be nicely done and really showed when you get to areas with cliffs with the water below. With the sound, there are parts where I just sat and listened. The Jazz-like music might just have you snapping your fingers. While it may not be a soundtrack that everyone is inspired by, for some, you just have a newfound taste in music and I found it just added to the overall experience.

There is something that I would love to see added. For one, online co-op. Yes, there is local co-op to be played (there wasn’t anyone I could try this out with) and that will be a good time with family, but how fun would it be if there was an online co-op? There could also be different modes such as freeze tag pizza, capture the pizza, and even online leaderboards to see who may be the best pizza stealer.

Pizza Possum gives us that arcade feeling that allows anyone to play and allows someone who may have kids to get involved in gaming if they are not already. It teaches us that taunting someone about something they love, is never the right thing to do as something bad will always happen, but also that it’s not a good idea to steal or there will be consequences to be had. We try to do the right things and sometimes there are temptations that will lead us down a dark path, and with what’s going on in the world, wouldn’t we rather be going down the brighter path of life?

Pizza Possum is out now for PlayStation 5 on the PlayStation Store. A review code was provided. To learn more about the game, please visit the site and follow them on Twitter.

In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to see how high of a score I can get and eat some pizza.