Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip Review

You never really know what you're getting into when you blindly boot up an indie title. You could be setting off on an amazing and touching tale of mental health and self-acceptance, having a rap battle with the fifth demi-tyrant of Magrelj, or growing fresh cabbages. Due to this ever-present mercuriality, I really had no idea what I was getting into with Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, but oh what a ride it was.

Pinning down the exact genre of the game is not as easy as it seems. Sure, it has a Grand Theft Auto-esque free-roaming city to explore with missions to complete, but it also has a bit of platforming, collectathon elements, bumper car battles, and biting political commentary (okay I may be exaggerating with that one)! You play as the titular Terry, who has set himself the goal of becoming famous. How, you may ask? By driving a car into space.

A simple goal is often a good goal!

We start our journey by joining Terry in the Job Application Center as he's looking for a job which could net him a car. He's not too bothered about what the job is; he's not going to be doing it. After said car is acquired, we're let loose into the little town of Sprankelwater which contains many people to meet and missions to complete! Luckily for us, the Mayor has recently ordered the construction of a gigantic tower reaching to the skies, complete with drivable roads on each side. Now we just have to get a car powerful enough to make the trip, where the collectathon aspects come into play.

To make our car go zoom instead of vroom, we need Turbo Junk, which can be found around town and gained by performing the many tasks the citizens of Sprankelwater have for us, ranging from committing one (1) nonviolent crime to paying off the city's massive debt. You can also go head-to-head in epic bumper car battles with your nemesis, Ricky, or just smack each and every garbage bag and bin you find.

Eat your heart out, Rico Rodriguez

While you're on your space-faring quest, you'll gain new items to use, such as a shovel for digging or a pipe for… well, breaking things. You can also unlock new abilities by completing quests and buying fashionable hats! Terry's head is too big for shirts, you see. The game also has a surprising emphasis on both sight and sound. For example, the game has a mission where you go looking for different kinds of bugs around town. They're very small, so spotting them can be difficult, however, each insect makes a unique sound! With this small addition, hearing a new sound is suddenly an invitation to investigate the nearby area.

Visually, there are some fun gags used here and there, but you can also make a fair bit of in-game money (used to buy hats, hints, and clear the aforementioned debt) by spotting passersby with golden wallets or finding an especially fancy car to… “borrow” and give to your friend, so his dad can sell it, splitting the commission between the two of you. If it hadn't come across, Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is going for a humorous theme above everything else.

The visuals are very cartoony, with each character looking like a clay figurine made in a rush. While the city itself is rife with fun little areas to explore, it's also distinctively nasty, with garbage strewn about, toxic waste being allowed to roam freely, and a sickeningly brown river flowing through the middle. It also has some imaginative names, such as Buitenrot Beach, Binnerot, and the Zandtoeter plains, to name a few. None of the characters have voice-overs as such, using a kind of gibber dialogue often used in indie titles. While some may not enjoy this, I believe it works well here, as each named character has a fitting (or horribly unfitting) gibber you can recognise a block away. The dialogue is similarly humorous, with our deadpan hero being the best of the lot.

The moment I knew I kinda loved Tiny Terry (character and game) came after a surprise twist a few moments in. If you're interested in the game, you may want to skip this paragraph as it does contain mild spoilers. It turns out the name Tiny Terry has more meaning than you'd think: he's a child. Yes, the character running around the city collecting trash, paying off debt, and driving (or stealing) cars is still in school! I don't know why, but this revelation just made everything in the game 10 times more funny to me. This may be a smidge concerning, as you can and will be hit by speeding cars on more than one occasion, but this, along with how the game slowly acknowledges this fact is simply amazing.

Always nice to find a hat that matches your look

In terms of controls, the game is simple enough: you can move around, jump, use items to break, dig, or swing at things in the world, and hop onto either your very own car or any other vehicle currently stopped, be it in a car park or honking at the person in their way. The platforming is simple fun and even has some classic “exploits” you can use to get to higher platforms, such as attacking at the apex of your jump to get a bit more height. I did find using the inventory a bit finicky and the camera a bit stubborn, but those were minor things.

The driving itself is fine, if a bit clunky, though I did find myself preferring to go about on foot, which may not be the intended experience. As the game progressed and I gained new abilities, I found myself simply journeying around the small town looking for secrets and preying on the golden-walleted individuals of Sprankelwater. The mentioned bumper car battles were also a fun little addition, though they often felt a bit unfair. Then again, you could just hop out of your car to smack your opponent's vehicle to bits, so maybe I was just doing it wrong. There are a few mini-games to try too, often involving timed button presses or a friendly game of kicking the tangerine, which was great! I do wish there were more of them, but I can understand them not being the focus.

The music (and sound design in general) was something I was very impressed with. While the game has only a few background tracks to play, it has a masterful way of giving each area of the map its own feel. For example, the city as a whole has one main theme, but if you approach the district which contains a church, you will hear the music subtly change to incorporate bells as a major instrument! The same leitmotif is used in many areas, making it feel like the music is travelling with you. It also shifts into a very jaunty rendition whenever you hop into a car, making for great cruising tunes.

Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is a humorous and lighthearted game with funny dialogue and fun quests to complete while burning rubber through the many streets and corners of your neighbourhood. While it won't last you very long (my almost-100% playthrough took about five hours), the creativity, laughs, and even wholesome moments make this a turbo trip worth the price of admission.