I have a new nemesis and it's a bug-like creature with a horn, firing shots at me on the back of a giant orange beetle. This is the first boss battle in the pixelated platformer Pepper Grinder from developer Ahr Ech, which sees me use a powerful drill to carve through pockets of the landscape and take out enemies. Using the sand encircling the blunderbuss-wielding bug and its oversized steed, I dart in and out to avoid the increasing number of shots being fired in my direction. Everything is a matter of timing. I have to try to avoid getting hit as I wait for the beetle to move in just the right spot so I can plunge my Grinder drill right into its soft underbelly and knock the rider off. Then, I land as many hits on the buggy foe as it scrambles to get back onto the beetle.
It proves to be a challenge as I try to learn its attack patterns and avoid taking too many hits. Each time I whittle down the Beetle rider's health, its projectiles seem to change, going from a single blast to a whole burst of them that splay out over a wider area, making it trickier to avoid hits as I wait for the beetle to move into position each time. The fight resets if your health completely depletes, which has me on tenterhooks every time I narrowly avoid a hit. My frustration only grows with each failed attempt, but when I finally beat it, nothing beats the cathartic moment at the end of the fight when I get to mash the ZR button on my Switch controller to dig my drill into the enemy and deliver a final blow.
