Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion Review- Veggiexcellent
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is one of the most surprising games I’ve played this year. Not because you DON’T commit tax evasion (because you definitely do) but due to how well it pulled off its wacky concept without overstaying its welcome. Although, I’d personally love a 100+ hour game set in the Turnipverse. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion pits you as the titular Turnip Boy in a grand quest to redeem himself after his tax-related misgivings. But what actually is the game about- and is it any good? Sure, Turnip Boy himself is pretty swell but are the gameplay, story, and presentation able to lift up this adventure or crumble under unbearable pressure? It’s the first one. Turnip boy is really good.
The world of Turnip Boy is small but charming, with dungeons that you are forced to delve into to pay back the Mayor for (you guessed it) tax evasion. This brings us to the gameplay, which is basically a modern simplified 2D Legend of Zelda. You have a sword and several other items at your disposal (including bombs) that you have to use to defeat enemies, solve puzzles, and fight bosses. This all sounds pretty familiar but plays well enough to be commendable. This is also a very condensed package- lasting only around three or four hours. This isn’t a bad thing, however, as it never gets dull because of this. Another reason for the lack of dullness is the cast of quirky characters and unique locations you get to visit throughout the story. Each new vegetable you meet has a fun gimmick that doesn’t have time to get old before you’re thrust into encountering the next zany character. This goes for the environments too- which grant you new items and skills that prevent any kind of repetitiveness from playing center stage. However, despite the solid gameplay, the main draw remains the story that you’re very quickly thrust into at the start of the game.
The Turnip gentleman's grand adventure begins with tax evasion and ends with, well, more tax evasion (but in a good way). Due to your tax-related transgressions, you are sent to collect specific items by the Mayor that don’t make total sense until the very end. For a game centering around such an outlandish concept, the plot actually remains quite compelling and grounded- even being able to offer some emotional moments amongst all of the chaos it throws at the player. Of course, the journey is short but it’s refreshing to experience a more confined, comfortable experience in an industry of open worlds with a hundred things to do with none of them being interesting. Turnip Boy narrows the scope with a few things to do- with each of them being even more compelling than the last.
Really though, the presentation of Turnip Boy is the main draw. The character designs and areas you traverse fit the simple aesthetic that the game clearly strives for. It’s all quite crude at times- with menus and text boxes looking run down- but this serves the theme of Turnip Boy’s world in a way I don’t want to spoil. The animations are also fantastic, even though your character doesn’t really do much but move and swing a sword. The image of a turnip attacking with a dangerous weapon (despite having no arms) is great to see hundreds of times throughout your adventure. While the music isn’t exactly memorable, it does its job of adding atmosphere to each of the areas you traverse through. Everything just fits together nicely in a way that makes the world feel alive (well, as alive as a veggie-filled land could feel). I think ‘beautifully simple’ is the best term to describe this first outing in the Turnip Boy series. Nothing oversteps its mark, but I’m personally glad for it. A fun romp throughout the vegetable world is just the indie adventure I think everyone needs.
I think the best word to sum up Turnip Boy would be ‘Charming’. The charm that the characters and world ooze out keep you invested until the end. It pulls you through the rest of the experience, but that’s not to say that there’s anything lacking in the other areas. The gameplay and story are surprisingly really good and throw enough fun surprises at you that keeps you smiling the whole way through. Despite being so short, Turnip Boy packs so much fun and content into such a compact package that it would be simply untrue to call it anything but a joyous romp. With the newest ‘Turnip Boy’ game announced recently (beautifully titled ‘Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’), the Turnipverse really is shaping up to be something special.
