Let me start by saying that the entire concept of the Turnip Boy series is ludicrous and at the same time strangely beautiful. Developer Snoozy Kazoo lives off of crazy ideas and good execution with their Turnip Boy series and gives me hope that when the bigger companies in the video game world collapse, we’re going to be left with the best gaming experiences that we didn’t immediately see. If big companies keep gobbling up developers and publishers, that sad realization will come to reality before we know it. And we’ll need games like the Turnip Boy series to keep the industry alive.
Anyway, soapbox standing aside, Snoozy Kazoo’s latest release of the Turnip Boy adventures is called Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, which is a fascinating journey of our proud hero where he joins a group called the Pickled Gang so that he can help rob banks. As the first game was built with an RPG backbone, almost The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past inspired, this one seems to be built on the Hotline Miami gameplay structure concept. Yes, that includes all the gratuitous violence as well. I mean, as violent as you can be killing veggies and fruit. Strangely enough, the blueprint for HM works well with this release and makes it fast-paced fun while also keeping the humor and entertainment established by the series firmly intact.
So, lock and load, let’s get the ultra-vegetable violence going, and let’s discuss Turnip Boy Robs a Bank.
Pickles and Pay
The narrative behind Turnip Boy Robs a Bank starts with Turnip Boy recruited by the Pickled Gang, a group of pickled veggies who are hardened criminals trying to bring down the system from the inside out. They recruit Turnip Boy because of his long-departed father’s connection to them. Turnip Boy learns that his father and the head pickle were trying to take down the Botanical Bank run by a very evil veggie called Stinky (guess what veggie he is) who hides an even thicker, and more sinister underbelly beneath the bank. It starts simple but soon becomes deeper and far more complicated, also ups the insanity considerably.
The story in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is absurd, but at the same time brilliant as it begins to unfold beyond the perceived lunacy of its intentions. The more I played this game, the more the story unraveled to reveal a deeper, well-thought-through multi-act narrative that shouldn’t have been as good as it was. We’re talking brutal bosses, hide-and-seek reveals that lead to bigger outcomes and an outrageous and tricky ending that only fans of Dark Souls could appreciate. Seriously, what began as a simple snatch-and-grab, ended up being a rollercoaster ride of the summ-…winter.
The story in the game has a lot of twists and turns, fits well with the gameplay design, and lasts just as long as it needs to connect with the player and have them thinking about replaying it. We’re talking about a full 7-10 hour experience here with 100% completion. And every single one of those hours will keep you captivated and locked into the gameplay. The game’s story is packed full of humor and good narrative design, as it dances well with the actual gameplay.
No vegetables were harmed during the making of this game
Harmed in the game? That’s a different story. As mentioned previously, the gameplay in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank emulates the design of Hotline Miami. You have a twin-stick design that allows Turnip Boy to burst through doors, point and shoot with authority, and then go from bank room to bank room anticipating and taking out baddies. Your goal with this type of gameplay is to collect as much money as possible and then get out in the allotted amount of time. It’s a quick hitter of a game that is meant to be a fast experience for the user and that works just fine in conjunction with the game’s story and intentions.
If you think about it, almost every single bank robbery in a movie is timed with the criminals aware of how long they have before the cops show up. Movies like Heat or the beginning of Batman: The Dark Knight contain robberies constrained by time, heightening the moment’s suspense and making the entire experience a bit more thrilling. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is led by that same type of time constraint. The game even gives you a time-limited run, as you have two minutes at the beginning of the game to garnish as much money as you can, while also expanding your run and uncovering more of the bank as you push forward. Once those minutes are up, you’re bombarded with an endless number of veggie cops that you must traverse to escape back to base. Each run works this way, as you collect money, find new branches to explore, and wash-rinse-repeat the process.
That may all sound like it could get boring quickly but let me assure you that it is quite the opposite. As you get gobs of cash to bring back, and you can lose it all if you die during your run, you spend it on upgrades and black-market items. Both categories directly affect the progression of the game.
The upgrades can be in the form of more health, time, or buffs to make the experience a bit more impactful and/or longer. It’s a balanced way of getting your player to get through the challenges of time constraint, while also pushing them ever so slightly to gather as much as they can before heading back to base. Two of the most important upgrades in the game are costly, as you can expand your time limit and expand how much cash you can carry. The latter of the bunch is vital because that dictates how easily you get through the game and what purchases you can make. The more cash you can grab, the easier it is to purchase items, buffs, and upgrades, thus making it easier to hang in the bank and get more uncovered and done.
The black-market component is also interesting, as you can purchase items that are directly connected to how far you can expand your adventure. This could include items such as C4, which allows you to blow open big bank vaults to get tons of money at once, or maybe rockets that can be used for…other things. The black-market items also include necessary items later that will progress Turnip Boy into the final stages of the story. Both upgrades and black-market items are wrapped around the core concept of this game, which is led by the Hotline Miami backbone – shoot, grab money, and escape safely.
Getting back to the Hotline Miami comparison, the strategic element of the gameplay, which helps drive its interest and keeps the player engaged, is how you must figure out the best plan of attack when entering a room. Since you have limited time, you have limited damage before you lose everything, and so much at stake when going into the Botanical Bank, you must plan how to handle enemies. Since the game contains a variety of enemies with different moves, bursting into a room with guns blazing shouldn’t be your immediate strategic plan. The game requires you to know enemy reactions and to understand their moves before you make yours. For example, when an enemy spots TB, they immediately shift their focus to him. Each enemy has their own set of attacks, some quick and disruptive, while others are slow and multi-hit methodical. Each enemy is placed the same way on the map when you re-enter a level, which means you know what to expect but still must adjust to their different attacks. On a very basic level, this is like a game of memory, remembering where certain types of enemies reside and what their moves are before opening new areas to conquer. It’s all a rush regardless, and yes, pun very much intended.
Now, while enemies and the gun-blazing action are damn good in this game, it is very much helped by the variety of guns and weapons you can acquire. Ask yourself, have you ever wanted to throw fireballs out of a devil’s trident? Well, you can in this game. What about locking and loading a fireball-breathing cat that kills with its meows? Snoozy Kazoo made so many ways to take down veggies and made them interesting. You’ll constantly want to try out new weapons and find secret rooms to acquire them. They only stand to keep the gameplay fresh.
On the room side of the equation of this game, you’ll find standard rooms you start in, then slowly uncover locked rooms, accessed by beating bosses, secret and random elevator rooms, and the occasion Satan worshipping room to deposit souls you gather. Again, this game is ludicrous, creative, and non-stop keeping your attention. I’m just absolutely impressed by this game and what it delivers.
How ya doing, Turnip Boy?
The progression system in this game is thick as it is encouraging to the player’s motivation. As you start expanding the bank’s map and uncovering new storylines to make Stinky more sinister, you are constantly pushed back into the fray. The big bosses in the game help do this as well, as they are interesting as they are increasingly difficult as you progress. My time with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank took about seven hours, minus the extra time to go back and try to fully complete it. Each moment I spent in the game never felt like it was wasted, as progression made me feel like I was pushing forward at a good pace. When one big push was completed, the game rewarded me with a key to another big push, and it kept motivating me to return and to do better. That was a constant until the very end. The game rewards you according to the amount of effort put into it, which means there isn’t time wasted. The progression feels good from top to bottom, as I always felt like I was inching my way toward something new at every turn of the narrative corner. It never let me down, which is unusual for games these days, as they tend to have slow points in the middle of their narratives. This one never had a dead point.
Now, the only minor complaint I might have during my progression session here is that there weren’t enough upgrades to quench my gameplay thirst. Nearly halfway through the game, I maxed out the upgrades and was hoping for more of them to appear as I spiraled towards the end. Sadly, that didn’t come to fruition, which meant that I was collecting money for no good reason. While that didn’t dramatically affect my experience, I did wish there was more to gain from my robberies. That wall was the only snag in the entire gameplay progression design.
Trust me, not even close to a dealbreaker. NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.
Parting thoughts
For a game that is $14.99, it provided an experience that could be comparable to a triple-A game priced around $50-60. While the backbone is straight from Hotline Miami, the humor that goes with it and the story that is built around it, plus some damn good gameplay design, make it one of the biggest steals in 2024. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is by far one of the best experiences that I have had in the last six months of reviewing. It’s a game that I will return to at some point, and a game that I will revisit years from now again and again. Its addictive gun-toting gameplay mixes in perfectly with its meaningful story to deliver some darn good times. It’s a solid follow-up to Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. And I’m glad they mixed up the gameplay a bit to bring a different experience for the sequel.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank from developer Snoozy Kazoo is an action-packed game that uses a quick pace to keep the engaging gameplay moving forward, while its item and progression system encourages players to keep coming back for more.
