The First Rogue-Lite of 2024 Has Me Hooked

When I first saw the name Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t played or seen anything about the first game, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, so I didn’t even know what genre or art style to anticipate.

As soon as I opened the Game Pass page I was intrigued. Although I’ve never played Hotline Miami myself, I could immediately recognize the inspiration while still clearly seeing the humor that was going to make this game unique right off the bat. After all, I couldn’t expect anything other than humor for a game named Turnip Boy Robs a Bank.

Immediately, I was hooked on just how silly it is. Having not played the first game and only having read about what it entailed, I enjoyed the brisk recap of Turnip Boy having slain a god, committing tax evasion and starting a civil war, and I was ready to jump right into the action — of which there is plenty.

It took me a little while to get used to the twin-stick controls, but the pace of the game is forgiving enough to let new players gain their bearings. Not only do the enemies not come at you relentlessly, but you get so many chances to go back into the bank and figure out where things are that it doesn’t feel like you’re being punished for making a mistake.

Turnip Boy Robs a Bank is a rogue-lite in its nature, with the progression carrying with you over the course of many runs through the bank. You’ve got to purchase upgrades for everything from the likelihood of finding better weapons to the amount of money that you can carry each time you go in, and as you go you get to meet the diverse range of Fruitfolk who await you every step of the way.

Those Fruitfolk are the ones that will actually give you quests, and that structure is one of the big things that keeps me coming back. You can head into the run and have five different Fruitfolk ask you for favors or need you to do something for them, which can provide incentive for continuing to progress further through the game.

Whenever I play a roguelike or rogue-lite, I find myself immediately comparing it to Hades. I loved Hades mostly for the story, but the gameplay was also fantastic and the progression felt natural and well-paced. When it comes to the story in Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, there’s not as much that’s driving you toward the end goal, so more of the heavy lifting is done by the gameplay itself.

The time limit on each run in TBRaB makes for an interesting dynamic compared to games like Hades or Hotline Miami because you’ve got to plan every second out so much more carefully. That plays brilliantly with the fact that you’re going from task to task, ticking things off of your list because each time you leave the warehouse, you’ve got to have a plan in mind for where you want to be and what you want to accomplish.

Not only that, but the timer makes it feel like less of a time commitment than games like Hades, where a run can take upwards of 15 minutes depending on how you play. Sure, you can keep playing Turnip Boy after the timer runs out and the cops start swarming you but once you fill up on money it can be a good reset point to just head back to the warehouse and start again.

I can’t get into the things that hooked me on TBRaB without talking about the music as well. From the moment you open the title screen, you’re met with some beats that are designed to get you hyped for any heist, and the rest of the game continues the trend. You can unlock more music as you play and earn, and you can then go into your phone and choose what music you want to be playing at any point in time, which is a great little touch.

When I look at Turnip Boy Robs a Bank in the context of the rest of the market, it’s interesting to see where it falls alongside games like Risk of Rain or Dead Cells. Being on Game Pass with Dead Cells means that more people might have the opportunity to play it, but it might not have enough behind it to drive it to the same level of recognition that games like Enter the Gungeon have received.

Even though it’s early in the year, I feel like Turnip Boy is still going to be at the top of my list by the end of 2024. I’m always on the lookout for great roguish games that I can suck myself into, and Turnip Boy managed to do so in one of the most approachable ways I’ve seen in some time. Now it’s up to Go Mecha Ball to see if it can keep the (forgive me) ball rolling.