Cut out preservatives, or die trying in <em>Mold on Pizza</em>

Rarely are we conscious of it, but on every slice of pizza, there is a war raging. The cheese and crust are the battlefield, and preservatives are the staunch defenders of a comfort food constantly under siege by bacteria and fungi. In Mold on Pizza, you’re the mold, and the enemies are the preservatives trying to protect the pizza from your fungal onslaught. It’s a tower offense game, so the mechanics are familiar if slightly inverted. With a cute aesthetic and food-inspired spin, all that’s left is to see how well the Korean-based BTNcafe’s game delivers.

Visually Appetizing

The first thing that will catch your eye is undoubtedly the pizza-inspired visuals. The levels, stage select board, and icons are all representations of pizza, albeit with occasionally interesting toppings. If toppings like broccoli seem a bit jarring, remember, Korea is the Wild West of pizza.

Each stage uses different toppings to create slight variations, dividing the stages into multiple lanes or creating other obstacles. Before starting each level, you choose which mold you want to take into battle with you. This is easily likened to something like Plants vs. Zombies.

You’re introduced to basic mold, followed by explosive mold, and a pink ranged mold early on. While I’m no mold expert, I think I can say this aspect of the game relies a bit on creative biology. The mold and preservatives themselves are definitely stylized, and the former is particularly reminiscent of germs depictions in other games. The “preservatives” look like different takes on salt, which, actually makes sense.

Gameplay

For your mold to thrive you need moisture, which functions essentially the same as sunlight in PopCap’s standard-setting plant themed tower defense series, but there are a few differences. You start with a limited area conducive to your growth. Once you’ve been beaten back by the preservatives, the cheese terrain will be too dry to spawn new troops. That sounds ridiculous, but it’s fairly intuitive during gameplay.

You upgrade your abilities by collecting droplets and pickles. The water droplets and pickles are used to purchase upgrades and unlockable perks. Water droplets make sense if you’re trying to grow mold, but pickles might seem out of left field. That is, unless you’ve ever ordered pizza in Korea – because every box of ‘za includes a side of sliced pickles.

Harder to swallow bits

Some levels in Mold on Pizza are really unforgiving. Hesitate for a second and the preservatives will have wiped you out completely. Other mini-games do a poor job of explaining what you’re meant to do – by not explaining at all. This can is forgivable because retrying is little in the way of pain, and the mechanics are largely borrowed from other mobile titles. But frustration can still arise.