Turnip Boy is back in the Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a sequel to Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is the sequel to Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. The game was developed by Snoozy Kazoo, a small development studio from the USA. The game’s publisher, Graffiti Games, is known for publishing games such as Blue Fire and Ugly. Unlike the first game, which was more of a puzzle Action adventure, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is a fun Rouglite action adventure that can be quite addicting.
There are a lot of familiar faces in the game, such as Annie, you’re a friendly Avacodo scientist. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank starts with our protagonist by a campfire as the Tax God lies burning in the background. He receives a call from Dillitini, the leader of the pickle gang and a long-time rival of his family business, the Turnichinos.
Dillitini offers a truce, believing that with Veggieville in chaos, it would be the perfect time for both groups to take advantage and make a lot of money. The game has quite a few mechanics needed as you progress through the Botanical Bank, but before you get into the truck to hunt down the mysterious motherload hidden in the bank, you must ensure you are fully equipped to take on the security guards and the Fuzz.
Being fully equipped means having at least one weapon on you to start your run-off. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank has a weapon research system. While you start with just your trusty sword and a pistol, you will be able to pick up a variety of guns that you can turn in for research experience to unlock more powerful weapons.
There is an ammo system as while the guns you bring from the safehouse have unlimited ammo, any weapon such as the cactus shotgun has a limited amount of bullets before you need to find an ammo craft, which sometimes spawns after you kill off a security guard. To get to new areas of the bank, you will need to defeat bosses and take their keycards.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank has a total of five different areas to explore in the Botanical Bank, along with elevators hooked onto an RNG system, as the places they stop at are randomized in each run. Each area in the Botanical Bank has its own unique enemies to take care of, such as the rock-like monsters in the seed stock, and unfortunately, each area has its difficulties to deal with; for example, the Dark Dock requires a lantern and boots as it is incredibly difficult to navigate otherwise.
While the Elevators may lead to random places, the bank as a whole is not randomized, making it pretty easy to navigate once you’ve learned the layout. There are two methods to escape from the bank. One is to run back to the Van you arrived in, which is fairly easy in the beginning as you aren’t too deep in the bank.
This becomes less viable when you unlock areas that are deeper into the bank, such as the Cryptic Crypt. When you’re doing these runs in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, you need to pay attention to your timer. When it runs out, the jammer you have on the alarm deactivates, and you will have to deal with the Fuzz swarming to your location. The second escape method is to find a subway station and grab a train out of the bank.
Once you’ve chosen your escape route, you will find yourself back at the safehouse. This is where you interact with the crew and make a variety of different purchases. Dilitini pushes forward the main quest, Annie introduces a side quest centered around taking selfies at interesting locations, and Rafael sells permanent upgrades.
The enhancements offered by the ex-IRS agent come with significant benefits, spanning from prolonging the bank timer to intensifying your weapon’s impact or even a bigger bag to carry all the money you are stealing. Adding a humorous touch, Rafael aligns most upgrades with a gym theme. There’s also a distinct dark web market that primarily showcases items related to completing tasks or to help you get around.
Beyond Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s character interactions when grabbing or turning in tasks, the more obvious actions in the bank revolve around pilfering. The available methods for bank robbery include finding statues and breaking them down with a pickaxe, breaking into vaults, seizing items from displays, and directly robbing people by shaking the money out of them. Each action comes with an associated animation, most of which are skippable, and all briefly pause the police timer.
There are two types of valuables in the bank: cash, with a limited carrying capacity, and objects of worth, counted separately and added to your total at the run’s end. Exploring thoroughly often proves worthwhile, as it uncovers numerous valuable items. Each area sees the items worth going up in value, meaning it may be worth the risk to delve deeper into the bank after you take out the area’s respective boss.
In an action-adventure game, exploration serves more than one purpose. This is where the elevators come in handy in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, as they allow you to explore new areas that are randomly picked every run. You can find NPCs that will give you tasks such as bringing them pet rocks or DJ Sizzle a fire.
This will give you new tracks to listen to in exchange for souls collected by killing off the security guards in the bank. Notably, one elevator unveils a hidden fungus cult gaining popularity within the bank The Shroominati, while only three of them have tasks they can be difficult to complete as they all require multiple runs to finish.
The bank’s most distinctive feature lies in its memorable boss fights. Each boss fights in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, which is well-crafted, with consistently humorous dialogue and distinct tones in different areas. For instance, your first boss creates an almost bullet-hell environment. Between the weapon fire from his gun, he also calls in backup from the Fuzz, meaning Dodge would be your best friend here.
Now, while the bosses are fun to get around, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank gets a little more complicated at the end of the game. You will need to face and defeat all four bosses in a single run. That means fighting your way to each boss fight area from one side of the map to the other. This can be incredibly tricky as three of the bosses have a stage where they are practically invincible, and all you can do is dodge as well as you can.
The sound engineering in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is done incredibly well. The soundtrack is incredibly diverse and doesn’t get repetitive, as you can hit shuffle when playing music in a run. The sound effects added to the immersive experience as well as helped to give that adrenaline rush most rouglites are known for.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank’s graphics were vibrant and worked well with the gameplay and art style, keeping to the same pixel art style of the first game, just with a more rougelite play style, making it a memorable game sequel.
Overall, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is a fantastic sequel to the first game and a great rougelite with short gameplay that both new players to the genre and veterans would enjoy. The gameplay is polished, and the controls are easy to learn, allowing players to get into the rhythm of shaking down other veggies for their hard-earned cash as Turnip Boy easily.
