The game was originally planned to feature a "Heat Meter" that kept track of how many enemies the player was able to defeat in a row. More consecutive kills would build up the player's "heat," while getting hit and spending too much time without attacking enemies would lose heat. Higher heat levels would additionally make enemies more aggressive, increase the amount of points lost from taking damage, and grant Peppino new attacks. The development team compared this mechanic to a similar one found in God Hand.

The Heat Meter was fully implemented in a demo released to Patreon backers in April of 2021, but was simplified in later builds before ultimately being removed in October of 2022 due to mixed audience responses; several animations associated with it were also reconfigured for other purposes. Despite this, graphics for the Heat Meter and code for the more aggressive enemy behavior are still present in the final game. The Pizza Slug, Shrimp Thug, and Tribe Cheese enemies would also have their high-aggression modes enabled by default.