Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion was a funny, Zelda-like todo list of a game that won serveral RPS staff over last year. Now it’s getting a “follow-up spin-off” which adds roguelite and top-down shooter elements into the mix, called Turnip Boy Robs A Bank. Watch the reveal trailer below.
The original game had plenty of combat, but you were more likely to be slicing at sentient fruits and veg with a sword than firing off machineguns on your various quests. Turnip Boy Robs A Bank stars the same grinning root vegetable and seemingly the same irreverent tone and sentient foods, but it’s about delving into the “deep, dark depths” of the Botanical Bank, stealing money, and using that money to buy new weaponry.
Examples given include a diamond pickaxe, C4, and a radio jammer, and the trailer above further features poisonous flowers, haunted bricks and, er, bath water.
Alice adored the original game in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion review, calling it “the funiest game I’ve ever played”:
It’s got an extremely online vibe, but with a sense of self-awareness. I suspect this is a very specific brand of humour, but it was one that I really enjoyed. Early on, for example, a streamer blocks your path and demands a sub from you – so you have to go and buy a sandwich. One of the first side quests you can encounter is to retrieve rent from a tenant, but the only action available at that point is to kill him. The other tenant expresses some dismay, until you hand the cash over. And Turnip Boy will gleefully tear up not just his own tax documents, but literally any piece of paper that is handed to him. This is exploited to great effect.
I enjoyed the game a lot too, mostly for the way it piles you high with small, daft quests so that every step across its colourful world feels like progress. That’s why I call it a todo-list game, and it’s great for playing to relax of an evening.
Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is currently aiming for release in 2023, and you’ll find more screenshots over on Steam.