It's time to make some serious bank!
While 2021’s Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion solidified the young Turnip hero as gaming’s newest badboy, that would only be a precursor to his newest lifestyle; a bank robber. Yes, the adorable and silent turnip is back to shake down hostages, track down body pillows, blow the hinges of a safe door, and get paid in the process.
Heading into Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, I had somewhat expected this adventure to follow largely in the tiny turnip steps of the previous game. And while elements of that adventure are here, the former was more of a Zelda-like that could be beaten in an afternoon. While that same overall length is also here, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is a fairly clever take on the roguelite, even if some elements are a bit more rogue-light’ish than anything truly in-depth you see across the genre. It is a somewhat satisfying time for the brief 4-5 hours you'll spend with it, but it was also a game that I didn't fully love, despite a few jokes that certainly made me crack a smile and the charming aesthetic that fills every single pixelated locale.
Taking place following the previous game, Turnip Boy joins up with the Pickle Gang who use the oblivious and gullible young Turnip to then single-handedly rob the bank of their rival. As the player, you'll see this happen right away with a clear vision that this group of criminals is just using you. Turnip Boy; however, keeps his mouth shut, somehow wielding a variety of bizarre weaponry, and seems to believe every word.
Developer Snoozy Kazoo comes at this latest adventure for Turnip Boy with a greater sense of confidence and presentation. The pixel art is fantastic, the jokes are less focused on genre tropes, and the gameplay loop itself is fairly satisfying. It certainly doesn't elevate the genre, but the few days I spent with it did give me a brief few hours of enjoyment. Again, I didn't love it, but I did find the whole setup, its moment to moment gameplay, and Turnip Boy especially, to be largely endearing.
The setup works like this; you'll be recruited by the Pickle Gang to rob a bank. Initially, you'll have a bit over a minute or so to grab what you can and while you'll be able to increase the amount of time you'll have, each run still has you beating a fairly limited clock at grabbing the goods. Though, to be fair, time for some reason stops when you are locked in battle with one of the game's few boss encounters.
As you blitz through the bank, you'll shake down hostages, chisel statues to find hidden gems, blasting off the door of a variety of safes, and interacting with a variety of colorful characters that are more or less all variations of fruits and vegetables. From interacting with them, you'll earn a few colored key cards and side quests that push you deeper through this massive and certainly not suspicious bank.
Between each run, you'll return to your hideout, loaded with a few members of the Pickle Gang. You'll have a small selection of weapons to start, but as you deposit guns you find on each of your runs, you'll level up your arsenal and start to unlock new guns that become readily available at the start of each bank heist. While staples like uzi’s and shotguns are quick go-to’s, you have a variety of melee weapons like giant swords to novelty weapons that border on the bizarre, but get the job done.
You'll also have access to a store found in the deepest regions of the dark web. This is where you'll find boots to traverse the acid-filled backrooms of the bank, to a body pillow that one of its local denizens will have need of, for reasons. The dark web is how you'll also solve several of the game's side quests. While it's convenient for sure to just buy these items, I do wish there was a bit more to these distractions than just buying the item you need. It's not always the case here, but it's pretty frequent.
At the start of your bank robbery career, you'll only start to bring in a few hundred dollars to then nabbing a few million, with that amount increasing considerably as you upgrade the young Turnip bank robber and diving deeper into the bank. From the ways in which you'll find to snag that cash, you'll begin to really bring in the dough in no time, pleasing your criminal partners to no end. Combine that with a small assortment of bosses that you can keep taking on and you'll have a near unlimited source of wealth.
However, navigating the bank is both enjoyable and somewhat disappointing. This is due to the bank being the same layout each run. While the bank has several areas to explore, of which you'll become very familiar with, several runs can feel far too repetitive because of blasting through the same scenery over and over again. While the key cards do shake this up by giving you different routes to take once you have unlocked them, the first few hours certainly feel like a grind.
On the flip side, having the same layout allows you to get very familiar with the bank, allowing you to fine-tune your run, finding faster paths to take, and knowing exactly where each safe, statue, boss, and hostage is, making your earnings reliable from run to run. While I would have preferred some sort of procedural generation to shake things up, I can understand the need to keep the bank static and constantly familiar. It's a game about perfecting your run; it makes sense, even if it does make the game feel a bit more grindy.
However, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank does feature one area of its content being random and that is where the elevators take you. Sometimes you'll arrive at an office area littered with hallways that echo that infamous scene in the original Resident Evil flick, to a few locations with the odd NPC looking for pet rocks, or stumbling across Dj Sizzle, a character that offers you a soul-stealing sword or the use of Call of Duty Zombies-like mystery boxes in exchange for those souls. These areas do break up the repetition, but only just barely given there are just a small handful of them.
While Turnip Boy Robs a Bank isn't likely to see me racing through its halls again anytime soon due to exhausting what I've gotten out of it, It's certainly charming and worth at least checking out, especially with its inclusion on Game Pass. I think it does offer a few good hours of play, but I found myself preferring the original’s structure and sense of adventure than the roguelite trappings presented here. With a lack of procedural generation to create distinct playthroughs, I've felt I've seen enough of the bank, its loop, and its cast of characters to last me until we find Turnip Boy out and about on yet another adventure.
Developer - Snoozy Kazoo. Publisher - Graffiti Games. Released - January 18th, 2024. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (T) Mild Blood, Mild Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Steam Deck. Review Access - A review code for the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.