Game: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Genre: Adventure, Action, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developer|Publisher: Snoozy Kazoo | Graffiti Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $14.99 | UK £13.49 | EU € 14,99
Release Date: April 26nd, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to VIM Global
Suitable for Vegetarians
There are those times when you’ve just finished a hard day’s work and your brain just isn’t up for that next AAA game that takes 5000 hours to finish. You want something small, something bite-size. Something you can actually finish. Plus it helps if it has cute cuddly graphics and is suitable for vegetarians. Well, my avid reader Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion may be just the bite-size vegetable gaming bite that you need in your life.
The Mischievous Turnip
Turnip boy is a cute but devilish turnip who expresses his feelings only in smiles, whether he is causing mischief, defeating enemies or committing tax evasion. After getting evicted from his home by the nasty Mayor Onion, Turnip Boy must now go on a few missions to pay his debt to society. Of course, this also provides ample opportunity to cause more mischief to the other NPCs along the way.
It’s a silly plot filled with light-hearted humour. It’s hard not to giggle each time Turnip Boy finds any type of paper note and proceeds to rip it up often to the horror of the NPCs. The game appears to feature its fair share of meme references, many of which went over my head since I lack the pop culture and internet education of the young adult audience this games may appeal to.
A Cute Little Devil
The games simple but colourful graphics are quite striking. Its creator started making this game while they were studying at college and originally it was created for fun. But after completing their college education they saw an opportunity to touch the game up and sell it as a product to a potential audience.
So the cute graphical aesthetic and random tag lines ‘Commits Tax Evasion’ are designed to turn heads and I feel for the most part it works. The cute graphics are certainly charming and colourful. This may be one of the cutest vegetarian games at the moment. Accompanying your mischief is a pretty upbeat soundtrack, something that may just light up your day.
A Bit Like Zelda
Turnip Boy takes its inspiration from games like Minit and Zelda. The game plays from a top-down perspective and you move Turnip boy around the map hitting enemies with your vegetable sword and completing some basic puzzles along the way.
Combat is very simple; you can use your sword with the press of a button. I found using the right analogue stick had much more effect. Flicking this in the desired direction gives the game a light twin-stick shooter feel to it making it much easier to take down enemies and tackle the big boss fights at the end of dungeons.
Puzzle sections are pretty simple to tackle. Often you use a watering can to create a bomb or watermelon block and then push them in the desired direction to solve the conundrum. It’s not too taxing in fact the only time I ever really hit a small wall in this game was when I wasn’t entirely sure where to find an NPC to progress the plot. With the game’s simple design it performs fine in handheld and TV modes.
Not Too Taxing
Turnip Boy is incredibly short. The adventure took me under two hours to finish. The main incentive to replay is to hunt down all the memos scattered around the game which appears to unlock a hidden ending. Short games to me are fine, ideal in fact if you are a busy person with not a lot of time to commit to gaming.
It did feel in this instance that it could have done with a little bit more, especially since some of the puzzle sections only started to gain momentum towards the end of the game. Unless you’re looking to speed run, there’s not a lot of incentive to replay.
Conclusion
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion will likely attract an audience thanks to its cute graphical style and bizarre yet humorous premise. It does feel like it could have done with a little more content and the meme humour is likely to be hit or miss for some people.
But if you’re looking for something short and sweet this is a good title to pass the time with before your next intensive gaming project. Just don’t expect it to teach you anything about Taxes.
Final Verdict: I like it
