The release of Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion turned quite a few heads back in 2021. While its adorable graphics and witty humor won over all but the most cynical souls, its clunky controls and lackluster rogue-lite gameplay loop left many players (and even more critics) wanting more.
Less than two years later, the titular radish-adjacent ruffian is back to raise some bell pepper (oof, okay, the pun diet starts now). Turnip Boy Robs a Bank mixes its predecessor’s side-splitting humor with breakneck run-and-gun gameplay, and the final result is a delicious full-course meal that my stomach couldn’t get enough of.
Story: Crime… Crime Never Changes…
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a top-shelf example of a game that takes a simple concept and runs so far away with it that it ends up on another continent. By the end of the game, our intrepid hero’s quest to dodge his taxes evolved into an epic struggle to overthrow the city of Veggieville’s tyrannical mayor and avenge his family. Fortunately for fans of the original, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s story is just as off-the-wall absurd as its predecessor’s.
With Veggieville reduced to ruins due to a civil war, Don Dillipino of the Dillipino Crime Family decides to take advantage of the chaos and steal the “Mysterious Motherload” hidden within the Botanical Bank. However, this is easier said than done, as the bank’s ruthless owner, Ol’ Stinky, has pulled out all the stops to build a bank so big, it can’t fail. Knowing he can’t outfox Ol’ Stinky alone, Dillipino recruits Turnip Boy into his gang, gives him a gun, and sends him off to the races.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s narrative doesn’t give Shakespeare a run for his money, but it did make me care about the game’s post-apocalyptic world and its inhabitants. While the plot of Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion went almost exclusively for laughs, its sequel is full of surprising revelations and emotional character interactions that play out without being immediately defused by a joke. Once my 10-hour journey through the Botanical Bank ended, I was genuinely sad that my time with Turnip Boy and his crew was over.
Gameplay: A Fast-Paced Frolic That Rewards Skilled Play With Interest
One of the most significant issues players and critics had with Turnip Boy Commts Tax Evasion was that its Legend of Zelda-inspired gameplay was a bit on the sluggish side thanks to its protagonist’s slow walk speed and the game’s clunky combat system. Fortunately, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s gameplay formula suffers from exactly none of those issues.
Borrowing inspiration from rogue-like dungeon-crawlers like Hades and The Binding of Isaac, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank challenges you to progress deeper and deeper into the Botanical Bank across multiple runs. As Turnip Boy, you’ll need to fight through a series of rooms and hallways filled with enemies, acquiring as much money as possible by robbing cash from unsuspecting patrons or looting various treasures up for display in fancy, easily breakable cases.
The amount of time you can spend galavanting through the bank is limited by a timer on display in the right corner of the screen. As I learned the hard way, a steady stream of enemies will start rappelling into the bank once this hits zero, forcing you to retreat to your getaway car to escape before you’re overwhelmed. Leaving the bank allows you to return to your gang’s hideout with your spoils, but dying forces you to limp home with half your on-hand cash and none of the treasures you picked up.
If you want to make it to the innermost depths of the Botanical Bank and behold the Mysterious Motherload with your own eyes, you’ll need to use your ill-gotten gains to buy upgrades that will allow you to delve deeper into the complex. From new weapons I could bring with me into each new run to special “Robo-Roid” upgrades that permanently buffed my health and damage, I was never short on new options to consider as I worked to craft a build powerful enough to get me to Ol’ Stinky’s office in one piece.
Progression and Exploration: A Meal That Services But Doesn’t Quite Satisfy
Like most dungeon-crawler rogue-likes, the road to your final destination is linear in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. Every new area of the Botanical Bank has only one exit that’s marked clearly on your map. However, the path forward is almost always blocked by an obstacle you won’t be able to clear on your first run, which adds an element of puzzle-solving that adds some welcome spice to your journey.
Unfortunately, the puzzles you need to solve to progress in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank didn’t exercise my brain quite as much as they looked like they would at first glance. While the solutions to these puzzles were as creative as they were amusing, they all followed a strict formula of returning to the hideout and buying whatever you need to advance from the Dark Web. Whether it was a cardboard box or a device that could disassemble a food amalgam, the process of solving every puzzle was never as challenging as I’d hoped it would be.
Fortunately, the linearity of the main route is more than made up for the many branching paths you’ll run into as you run and gun your way through the bank. By stepping into elevators, you’ll find yourself in off-shoot rooms filled with unique treasures to loot and characters to interact with. The variety on display in the game’s main areas is cranked up to eleven in these side rooms: one minute, I was blasting through generic office space; the next, I was taking part in a demonic tournament, joining an atom-bomb-worshipping cult and helping a lonely I.T. guy expand his pet rock collection.
These side-rooms are also the primary way you solve Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s surprising variety of many side-quests. With the outside world in shambles, the Botanical Bank has become home to many foodfolk refugees who need help with various problems. While most of these side-quests turned out to be fetch quests, solving them always felt worthwhile because I was rewarded with new music, cosmetics, or just some fun dialogue.
Combat: OH %#%#$, THAT TURNIP’S PACKING HEAT!
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s answer to its predecessor’s combat problem is as simple as earth-shattering: it gives you a gun. While I started the game with a tiny pistol, my arsenal expanded as I picked up new varieties of firearms from the compost my fallen foes left behind. Fly-shooting frogs, magic wands, and an automatic assault rifle were just some of the ranged weapons I encountered on my trek through the bank, and all of them were fun to use.
Melee weapons also return, but their unwieldiness has been resolved thanks to adding a new trip system that allows you to quickly move away from enemies and dodge oncoming attacks. To my surprise, falling flat on my face saved my life more times than I could count, making learning the attack pattern of every new enemy and boss I encountered much easier.
Turnip Boy’s increased mobility made almost every combat instance into an exhilarating game of duck-and-roll-and-shoot that never lost its charm. Every area of the bank introduced new enemies that challenged my aiming and dodging skills in exciting ways, and each ended in a boss fight against a powerful foe with fun designs and tricky attack patterns. Even as my number of deaths skyrocketed, the level of excited anticipation I felt as I stepped into a boss room never diminished.
The Verdict
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is a delectable rogue-like that kept finding new ways to bring me back to the dinner table. Addictive run-and-gun gameplay, a colorful art style, and hilarious writing come together to create a memorable first course for 2024. While the game’s puzzles may be a bit underwhelming, the richness of its combat and exploration were more than enough to make up for it.
As a lifelong fan of the isometric indie action-adventure games, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank was an excellent way to break in the new year. Anyone hungry for a refreshing rogue-lite romp will be satisfied with this pixilated culinary achievement.
