Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Switch)
If Turnip Boy ever heard the Benjamin Franklin quote “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, the mischievous little sentient turnip would not only object to its premise but likely take umbrage with the fact a statesman spoke with any authority on any subject. Turnip Boy’s anti-establishment leanings are certainly more silly than anarchic, a fairly easy to infer aspect of the goofy little character thanks to his starring role being in the oddly named Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion.
While often thought of as a rather stuffy form of white collar crime, Turnip Boy’s particular form of tax evasion is the impetus for his short little adventure across a world populated by living plant people. Turnip Boy’s greenhouse home is one day taken from him by Mayor Onion, the mayor asserting that since Turnip Boy hasn’t paid any taxes he must do some community service if he wants his house back. This work usually involves heading to some dangerous area to grab some item the mayor requested, so without much choice in the matter, the turnip hero takes off to interact with other living vegetables and fruits, fight off animals like snails and rabbits that view him as a snack, and most importantly still try and stick it to the man while unfortunately working for him.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a silly adventure that feels much in the vein of a show like Adventure Time, carrying on that cartoon’s elements of a colorful fantasy world where characters often talk casually and use surprisingly modern technology while still having fights involving swords and monsters. Turnip Boy’s adventure involves him running into many small characters with their own little quirks, and since Turnip Boy is a poor conversational partner and usually only speaks in the form of reactionary punctuation marks, they carry much of the conversation by showing off their little oddities. A pickle jar mafioso, a beet into video game streaming, and an explorer avocado stand out but even the smaller characters might reference an internet meme or just have something funny to say if you stop to talk with them. Interaction is often an important part of making progress in the game, but one of the funnier running jokes involves Turnip Boy’s instinctual reaction to anything involving taxation. Characters will give him important notes or letters and simply seeing the word “tax” on it makes him want to tear it up, this soon just extending to any paperwork even if it has pretty important details about the game’s oddly dark history. The game still manages to mostly maintain a light and humorous tone, but the origins of a society filled with goofy talking vegetables and fruits adds a bit of serious intrigue for a bit without the game fully abandoning its major focus on jokes and strange character behavior.
Having some substance underneath all of the wackiness was probably a wise decision as most of the game coasts by on the story and humor, the gameplay and activities involved in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion fairly tame. When you’re not speaking with the quirky cast you’ll usually be solving puzzles or fighting simple creatures in this top-down action game, your main tools being a watering can used for interacting with special plants and a sword that handles the small amount of fighting on offer. Most enemies are fairly simplistic, walking towards you or repeating a simple movement pattern so it’s less like you’re fighting them and more about quickly poking them to clear away a minor danger. There is some escalation in the competency of the enemies as you progress deeper in an experience that probably won’t even take three hours to finish even with optional content engaged with, but only a few moments ever really evolve beyond the need to jab your sword into an enemy, some bosses even easy enough to beat by standing beside them and prodding them. To be fair the bosses do start to get better at discouraging that tactic and their arenas start to get other ways to hit them to make the fight a touch more involved, but perhaps the intent was to make a game that could be played without much fast-paced opposition so players could more easily experience the humorous writing and the battles are usually inoffensive enough not to ruin that angle.
The combat does certainly show its weakness some if you decide to engage with the Sunset Station that opens up after you beat the game. Originally a patched in update for the PC version, this extra area moves away from the main game’s use of dungeons and small fights and instead has an endless train you hop aboard and fight your way through, the ride only ending once you die or give up. You can buy upgrades every few train cars for a bit before they dry up completely and you’ll encounter familiar enemies and bosses in these randomized rooms as well as new ones, but even the ones relegated to this mode alone aren’t doing much to make the combat more interesting. You are given a sort of dodge with a trip maneuver but most enemies don’t even require that much effort to defeat and boss patterns are limited enough to avoid, so unless you really want the hats you can earn for playing this mode for a while it isn’t much of a way to add longevity to this short title since it is just repeating the weakest aspect of the experience.
Puzzles do come out a bit better for occupying your time, the general difficulty still low and often the variables are limited enough you can figure out what to do without much thought. They do have their moments though, especially when aspects like fire spread and teleportation get involved. At first you usually just need to use the watering can to grow blocks and bombs to be used with the right object close by, but when the game asks you to set up a way to transport fire from one area to another or you need to place down your own portals to move things around a space, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion starts to feel like it’s really giving the player something more engaging to do. Many side quests are simple item delivery quests but others are a bit more involved puzzles as well, this usually being the way you earn extra hats or hearts and few of them are so complex that you would be put off for making the time for this optional content. The game is fairly small overall and even crossing most of the available world doesn’t take too long unless you need to backtrack into a dungeon for some reason, and with the dialogue being the main motivator for action due to its light and funny writing style it ends up easy enough to justify crossing that space to assist some very bad babysitters or reunite a potato family.
THE VERDICT: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion has some fairly shallow combat and its puzzles take a bit to evolve beyond fairly obvious solutions, but this rather short game doesn’t seem as interested in its gameplay as it is its world of silly food people and their weird interactions. You can have a bit of fun with the later puzzles, but mostly Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion gets by on light humor and unexpected quirkiness while still putting in a little effort to ground things and explain the world you’re exploring. While the Sunset Station seems to stand in opposition to the assumption this is meant to be a quick and funny game to complete in a night, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is best thought of as a short and goofy little experience that doesn’t ask much of the player but gives them an interesting and strange setting to spend a few hours in and feel pretty good about it after.
And so, I give Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion for Nintendo Switch…
An OKAY rating. The writing and silly scenarios are certainly the main draw of this quickly completed indie game and if you go in only looking for that you can likely have a pleasant little time even when the game does briefly divert into some darker ideas for a bit. The action isn’t particularly engaging but it’s not really outright boring either since it’s only really given a good bit of focus in boss fights and the post-game randomized train ride, and those boss fights at least try to be a touch more involved to justify locking you in an area and asking you to really focus on the combat. Puzzles are the better way of interacting with the world even though they also don’t seem to be trying to be too difficult, but adding in just a small layer of greater depth with the late additions of fire and portals do avoid the game mostly being about clearing away obstructions to the next small bit of funny dialogue.
While not really an uproarious comedy game, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a ridiculous romp that can make for an amusing play but one that hinges pretty heavily on it being your brand of humor. Its gameplay is mostly there to chain things together even though it could have probably gotten away with making it a bit more difficult, but the game does seem to want anyone to be able to complete it based on options to increase your strength or even completely negate the challenge of a fight with God Mode. This cute and colorful game and its quirky characters seems to aim to provide a pleasant albeit not totally passive gaming experience and it does so, but its unexceptional nature may mean its better played after acquired on a steep sale, in a bundle, or through a rental. Its writing is entertaining enough to hold interest, but the simple story of Turnip Boy is best thought of as a bite-sized amusement rather than a riveting adventure.