Gustavo

"Gustavo is Completely Lost... Nobody has seen him since he crawled into the Pizza Dungeon."
— Toppinbot

Gustavo is the deuteragonist and second playable character of Pizza Tower.

Description

Gustavo is a small man with beady eyes, a big nose, brown hair, and a brown moustache. He wears a brown shirt and a white apron. He also wears a chef's hat, brown pants and shoes. He is generally shown to be a nice person who likes to help others, but he has also been shown to get angry at times. In McPig's words, "Gustavo is super friendly, but don't disappoint him, he'll get back at you." This is shown when you fail to deliver pizza in an earlier build, as he would show his dark side and pummel Peppino as an act of punishment.

He first appears outside in the game’s opening, looking at a map until he is run into by Peppino. He can be seen throughout the game, guiding Peppino towards the exit in most levels and appearing on every floor in the Hub progressively becoming friends with a Stupid Rat, later named "Brick". Gustavo makes his playable debut in Gnome Forest where he drops off Gnome Pizzas to many gnomes throughout the level before they freeze up. He later reappears in a playable form in The Pig City, after Peppino is arrested. He has what seems to be a cabin located in Refrigerator-Refrigerador-Freezerator. In WAR, he shoots random enemies with Brick when appearing. In the Pizzahead fight, he appears after Pepperman's refight, where he's used to be thrown at the bosses to stun them, with The Vigilante being the only one where he is required to be used in a refight.

Main Abilities

Much of his move set revolves around Gustavo and Brick separating from and rejoining one another to progress, as many of the duo's attacks remove Gustavo from Brick's backside.

Brick will return to Gustavo at any opportunity he is able to, homing in and defying gravity and physics (as rats typically do) to return to the chef the moment he can.

Underlined Moves: Separate Brick from Gustavo when used.

Dash

The duo can dash at high speeds, defeating enemies they run into and breaking blocks, including Metal Blocks. However, contrary to Peppino's Mach Run, Gustavo and Brick are unable to keep their speed while turning.

Double Jump

By pressing the jump button in midair, the duo ball up midair to perform a second hop. Doing so can also destroy Metal Blocks, among other things beneath the duo.

Wall Jump

By touching a wall after double jumping, the duo is able to bounce off of walls and reach higher areas.

Brick ball

By pressing the up + grab button, Gustavo kicks Brick forward, rolling the rat into a ball and sending him barreling into enemies and picking up any toppings in the way.

Spin Attack

By pressing the grab button, Gustavo will perform a short-range spin that defeats enemies.

Stomp

Pressing down in midair, Gustavo extends his feet out to stomp on enemies and quickly descend. While it is a ground pound of sorts, Gustavo is unable to break metal blocks.

Crawling and Climbing

Crouching and climbing ladders dismounts Brick.

Rail Climbing

Gustavo can climb across Grind Rails. Pressing down and jump drops Gustavo off of the railing.

Eating Balloons

Touching a Rat Balloon will cause Brick to swallow the balloon, puff up and slowly float downwards. Pressing the jump button will make Brick spit the balloon out, launching the duo upwards before they fall down and can move as normal again.

Taunt

Gustavo and Brick briefly pose. This acts the same as with Peppino, parrying projectiles and enemy attacks and are able to super taunt after killing 10 or more enemies. Some taunts are references. Both characters must be together to taunt.

Jump

Jumping onto enemies will defeat them.

In the comics

Gustavo was planned to appear in an unfinished comic featuring him and Peppino in the desert, where the two would've been antagonized by Mr. Incognito.

Pre-release

For early appearances and scrapped ideas, see the pre-release page here: Gustavo/Pre-release

Trivia

In Thing of the week 7: The obligatory forest maze and gnome pizza delivery level it's said that Gustavo is a gnome. It's unkown if that information is still true.
He's been described as the "Mario to Peppino's Wario" from a personality standpoint.
- This, by extension, could mean Brick is Gustavo's Yoshi equivalent.
It has been said that Brick is based off of Rick the Hamster, one of Kirby's animal buddies from Kirby's Dream Land 2 & 3, due to his ability to form into a ball and roll.
McPig has jokingly stated that Gustavo's catchphrase is "I'm going to kill you!".
His Toppinbot description makes a joke about Pizza Crawler being cancelled, claiming he hasn't been seen since he crawled into the dungeon.
In the same vein of Peppino having an ability that seems clearly inspired by the Spinning Piledriver used by Zangief in the Street Fighter series, Gustavo's spin attack used when separated from Brick looks to be inspired by Zangief's Double Lariat.
In Gustavo's technical difficulties image, he is shown flattened applying a first aid kit bandage to a crying Brick's head. However, the red cross on this pack was changed to a green one in a later patch. This is likely due to usage of the red cross being prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.^[1]
During Pizza Time in Gnome Forest and Pig City, it only leaves to Mr. Stick to guide the player to the exit door due to Gustavo being a playable character.
Gustavo is treated as a transformation in the game.
Unlike Peppino Spaghetti and Theodore Noise, Gustavo never had a confirmed last name for him.

Gallery

For more images, see the gallery here: Gustavo/Gallery

References

(due later)

↑ https://www.redcross.ca/about-us/about-the-canadian-red-cross/red-cross-emblem/the-red-cross-and-the-law#:~:text=The%20Geneva%20Conventions%20specifically%20prohibit,Cross%20and%20Red%20Crescent%20Movement

[1] ttps://www.redcross.ca/about-us/about-the-canadian-red-cross/red-cross-emblem/the-red-cross-and-the-law#:~:text=The%20Geneva%20Conventions%20specifically%20prohibit,Cross%20and%20Red%20Crescent%20Movement

[1]