As 2024 starts to gather pace, with teams back at work and games on the horizon, we have been spoiled already with Ubisoft making a decent game (we won’t cover it for obvious reasons) and The Last of Us Part II Remastered looking more than solid. But it’s been good on the Indie front too and we have one of those plus another from last year for this week’s offerings to the Gods.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank
DEVELOPER: Snoozy Kazoo
PUBLISHER: Graffiti Games
Format: Steam, Switch, Xbox, Playstation
Price: £12.49
Steam Deck: Plays Out of the Box
Set two days after the events of the original game (Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion) the titular Turnip Boy is back on his merry adventures, only this tiome he has teamed up with the infamous Pickle Gang and if you hadn’t guessed already… will be robbing a bank!
Everything that worked it the first outing is definitely back with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. The colourful cast of characters are all stuffed full of personality and all feel like they add something to the overall world building that goes on here. Whilst the visuals have a really lovely cartoony aesthetic that keeps everything bright and breezy.
The controls are super tight too, with navigation and combat all feeling really natural, which is vital as the game this times leans into a more roguelite experience, but without that becoming the main pull of the game. Yes you have to rob a bank multiple times and you do get better equipped to do so, but it is the surrounding world and interactions that are the real draw here.
Between runs you will spend time interacting with other characters as you earn new weapons, tools, etc to use on future runs, which net you more cash to earn more items, to go back, rinse and repeat. Now I’ve just come off a year of playing tons of roguelite/like games and wasn’t overly enthralled with the idea of another instantly in 2024. However Turnip Boy Robs a Bank somehow manages to feel fresh and joyful in a very over-saturated genre, all whilst doing nothing overly different.
Highly recommend this one as a fun game to add to your library to play on and off throughout the year.
Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic
DEVELOPER: Rogueside
PUBLISHER: Rogueside
Formats: Stea, Switch, Xbox, Playstation
Price: £10.89
Steam Deck: Plays out of the box
I remember playing the excellent LIttle Things back in like 2009/10 ish and finding it both a challenging, but ultimately rewarding experience, that was also quite relaxing to settle down to. Yet somehow never really getting into the hidden object genre. So why not give Hidden Through Time 2 a try.
Essentially you are presented with diorama scenes that each have a little bit of opening narration to create a ‘story mode’ and essentially you are given a list of object to find in the scene. All pretty simply stuff.
The hook here is that each scene has more than one state to it. For example in the 1980s set of scenes you can switch between sunny and rain, or in another you can make it snow. Some object can only be found in set conditions. It’s a nice idea for sure and adds a little something extra to think about, but at the same time I didn’t find it overly needed, but it’s there and it’s not a bad addition.
Each item has a little clue to it, that can help you locate it on as map. Such as a parrot that likes to listen to children playing, so you look for kids playing a game and then look for the parrot. Some clues are more useful than others, but in the main they do help.
Some items are really hard to find though, but luckily each scene doesn’t require to to find ALL items, just an amount to move on, plus you can go back another time for another search.
The actual big hook here though is the architect mode, that allows you to use assets from the game to create your own scenes and objects to be found, which can they be shared online. The creation tools are really easy to use and alllow you to feel creative without getting bogged down fighting the controls or feeling like you need to have studied programming. As usual though, the online shared levels range from brilliant to utter trash, so I highly recommend using the filters to get the good stuff.
Hidden Through Time 2 is a fun if not essential game, that has plenty of content and the addition of endless levels via a level creation suite makes it great value and if you like hidden object it is a it’s well worth the price of admission.
