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A game doesn't need ultra-realistic graphics, sophisticated gameplay, or an interesting and complex story to be considered good among players. Sometimes, a bit of charm combined with silly humour is all it takes to win a player's heart.
Such is the case with Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, an indie open-world game that won me over from our first meeting. I can say I never played a dumber and such a charming game at the same time in my entire life, and I love it beyond measure.
Innocent, silly humour, colourful and charming graphical presentation, and an interesting approach to storytelling will crawl under your skin and stay there all the time while you play this game. Even the obvious, ugly graphics will not bother you at all, because they're there for a reason; in fact, everything in the game is there for a reason, and those tiny little games are there to show us how the game can provide fun even without pumping millions of dollars into it.
Story
The main character, Terry, sets himself on a mission to go to space, and in order to do that, he will need a job. Why does he need a job? Well, to earn money in order to buy a vehicle that will help him on his mission. The dumbest part is that the vehicle he plans to go to the space with is no more than a tiny taxi.
His main preoccupation will be finding the required materials to upgrade his taxi, not to earn money or drive passengers, but to make it space-worthy.
The story of this game is so illogical and stupid that I guarantee you'll be laughing out loud all the time. All of Terry's quests and everything he's doing has nothing to do with common sense, and the mission he takes will be so ridiculous that you simply won't be able to drop the game, only to discover what bigger stupidity lies behind a corner.
The story is told in a comic book style featuring speech bubbles because the real language is replaced with some sort of game's gibberish. You can even press the B/Circle button on your controller, and Terry will constantly babble something, which can be quite charming and funny.
All the characters Terry meets are interesting and charming as well, and given that the game is designed to be some sort of sandbox open world, you'll meet a lot of them throughout your playing. Every conversation with them will have a humorous tone. For example, when you speak with the children playing football, they will argue with you about football/soccer things, which can be really hilarious. All conversations are just like that—funny and very interesting.
To be honest, if you chose to play Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip for some sophisticated story, you're definitely on the wrong address because this story and the game in general are nothing like that. But the way the story is told, the sarcasm and humour you'll encounter are really worth the time you're about to spend if you decide to give this game a chance.
Gameplay
Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is a sandbox, open-world game in which you find missions all over the map and participate in them. Imagine GTA with very unattractive graphics, weird-looking characters, and totally oversimplified gameplay, and you'll have a pretty picture of what this game looks and feels like.
Most of the missions are oriented towards finding different upgrade materials for your taxi and installing them inside the garage. Apart from doing missions, you can collect stuff like turbo junk required for installing turbochargers on your taxi, find the money you'll need to buy different outfits or some upgrade materials, and pretty much everything else you can encounter in the games with similar orientations.
Some mission-givers will require different sorts of collectables you'll discover throughout the map, and everything is designed in a fetch-and-bring kind of style, which can be interesting at the beginning, but very soon you grow tired of the entire system. I'd say this game's biggest problem lies in a lack of mission variety because, from the beginning to the end, everything looks and plays quite the same.
Of course, your taxi is a very important part of gameplay, and you'll be using it all the time to traverse larger distances. The driving model is pretty clumsy, and while driving your car, your vehicle will behave like a hockey puck all the time, bumping from one side of the road to the other. Luckily, the game lacks realism in terms of hitting pedestrians, so hit them as much as you please because it's just damn hilarious sending them flying.
You can be hit too by other drivers, so watch carefully when you cross the street. However, you won't die from it because the game doesn't have any kind of fall or hit damage—another genius addition to the game because this way it is too much fun.
You'll use different kinds of tools for different kinds of jobs, like a pipe that you obtain very early in the game and that will serve to break stuff and look for money, or a shovel that will be used to dig up money from the ground; all those concepts are quite unorthodox and funny, which is the main aim of the game.
Given that Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is an open-world game, you'll explore the open world mostly, but you'll be able to enter many buildings as well, mostly for picking up different sorts of loot hidden inside. Expect a lot of platforming because the game is just designed that way. To pick up some collectables and materials, you'll sometimes be required to finish some parkour sections and platforming, which, hands down, is probably the worst part of the game.
It will be extremely hard to time some jumps and reach some platforms, so be prepared for loads of frustrations and even flying controllers if your temper is as tiny as mine.
Graphics and Sounds
It is just rude for a game to say it is ugly, but in the case of Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip's graphics, I'm just lacking the other word that is suitable enough. Well, let's say it is unattractive, but the real truth is that the graphics of this game are really unpleasant to watch.
Everything looks like it was made during the first generation of computers, like 30 years ago or even more, but the thing is, you won't be bothered by it, trust me, because if this game looked any different, it would be a total miss.
The textures are awful, as is the character design, all full of straight lines and weird-looking polygons, but it definitely holds a certain charm, and everything is somehow adding to the overall atmosphere.
There are, surprisingly, a lot of graphic options to be changed in the PC version of the game, along with some modern ones like advanced anti-aliasing or ambient occlusion, which, truth be told, doesn't reflect very well on the overall graphic presentation because the game is still very hard to watch from the visual point of view.
The colours, on the other hand, are very vivid and sharp and give the game a cartoonish look. The characters are also designed to look like they jump out of some strange cartoon, and just by looking at them, you can get an impression of what kind of game you are playing.
Sounds are cartoonish as well, and if someone comes into your room while you're playing Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip without seeing you doing it, they might have the impression that you are watching a cartoon. The soundtrack changes when you're walking, platforming, or driving; every situation has a different soundtrack reserved for it.
I've already mentioned that the game doesn't use real language but some sort of blubbering, and all that is translated inside the speech bubbles. This unarticulated speech is funny as hell, and I couldn't get enough of it the whole time while playing Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip. Every character has a different voice, and the developers deserve commendation for it. They could simply use the same voice, but they didn't.
So, in terms of visual and sound presentation, it would be a lie to say that Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip looks and sounds like the game you can recommend to a friend to enjoy its beauty; not even close, but the game has a certain charm, and that's undeniable. At the end of the day, this is not that kind of game. Its qualities lie in different areas.
Conclusion
I will end as I've begun: I've never experienced such a dumb game that I loved so much. This game will keep a smile on your face all the time because of good sarcasm and strange jokes. Its stupidity will make me laugh out loud on a couple of occasions, and for that alone, it has my recommendation.
Do not expect to enjoy some great visuals or some sophisticated gameplay; it is all minimalistic in this game, but it is all well-packed, and if you approach the game with an open mind and try to understand all that is written between the lines, you might enjoy this game just as much as I did.
The Good
Innocent, dumb humour- Funny character interactions and dialogues
- Cartoonish and vivid sound design
- Unique, unarticulated speech sounds
The Bad
Lack of gameplay variety- Unattractive graphics
- Simplistic and repetitive mission design
