Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - Explore Dungeons, Fight Bosses, Grow Plants, and Evade Taxes!

Yes, it’s a joke. Yes, it’s also an actual game. Yes, it’s pretty good!

A Lighthearted but Sardonic Indie Game

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a 2D action puzzle game developed by Snoozy Kazoo and published by Graffiti Games. As its title hints, this game is characterized by its distinctive sense of humor, which isn’t for everyone - but if it hits you right, it might just be the funniest game you’ve ever played. You can snag this fun indie game on the following platforms:

• PC (via Humble, Steam, Epic Games, GOG, Itch.io, and the Mac App Store)
• Nintendo Switch
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X|S
• Xbox Game Pass
• iOS
• Android

Play a Corrupt Vegetable Struggling to Survive in a Colorful 8-Bit World He Never Made

The eponymous tax evasion is only the first of your crimes. Tearing up your tax bill is the inciting incident that forces you to work for Mayor Onion, a corrupt and self-serving Allium who sends you on a series of bizarre quests relating to the town of Veggieville. Along the way, you’ll steal, murder, conspire, and tear up many, many documents.

There’s not much to the actual plot, but there’s a lot of story to be had in the encounters along the way. These vegetables are very human in their hopes and loves and frustrations. The humor with which the game handles these encounters runs quite a range - from gentle to harsh, from witty to silly. At its weakest, the jokes are little more than meme references, like the piece of macaroni that spouts the Navy SEAL copypasta. At its best, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, which is something special in a video game.

Concept Rating: 5/5

It’s Supposed to Be This Way. It’s Retro.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is designed in the style of the 8-bit games of the NES era. Specifically, it looks a LOT like the original Legend of Zelda. If you’re the nostalgic type, that goes a long way. It also helps that the music is charming, upbeat, and never goes stale.

It’s hard to criticize a game for doing exactly what it set out to do, but I will note that emulating the graphics of a 25-year-old game does put some limits on what you can do. The bosses, in particular, can look embarrassingly crude when seen up close. However, in the more story-oriented parts of the game, it manages to convey (or at least successfully imply) a lot of emotion with very limited pixelation.

Graphics & Audio Rating: 5/5

Yes, It’s Hilarious, But Seriously, the Controls Could Be Better

If you’ve played any sort of top-down 2D puzzle adventure game before, you know what to expect from this sort of game. You move horizontally and vertically. Your enemies telegraph their attacks and you learn the rhythm. You avoid the attack and then use careful timing and maneuvering to get in one of your own.

It’s a classic style, and usually, it works well enough, but the movement feels a little loose, and sometimes the spot on the enemy that you need to hit isn’t quite where you’d intuitively expect it to be. In particular, it breaks down a bit during boss fights. You’ll need to use multiple items in these fights, switching between them, all while dodging the boss’s attacks. Fair enough, but the moves never quite flow together naturally. It makes these fights difficult in a way that doesn’t feel intended. Fortunately, the game difficulty is adjustable.

Gameplay Rating: 4/5

Three to Five Hours Well Spent

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is an enjoyable little game that provides a few hours of solid entertainment. It’s enjoyable as a game, but what sets it apart is its sense of humor.

It’s a relatively small and short game, and its topical style of humor is likely to become dated pretty quickly. The game is a blast, but you probably won’t play it over and over.

Replay Value Rating: 3/5

TL;DR

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a top-down 2D action-puzzle game distinguished by its whimsical retro look and its sense of humor.