Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip review

As someone who grew up playing colourful platformers and daft rhythm games, the idea of a video game being deadly serious has never sat well with me. That’s not to say the drama of The Last of Us Part II or the heart wrenching moments of Final Fantasy IX didn’t hit me right in the feels while playing, but for the most part when a game takes itself too seriously I find my attention drifting to something more fun, fanciful, or downright silly. Nothing quite describes Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip other than downright silly, and sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered.

Our hero Terry has one goal in life: to make his way into space. Whereas less creative people would maybe aim for a job at NASA to achieve this, Terry reckons that by driving a car fast enough up the tower in the centre of town he can break through the atmosphere and go floating among the stars. The only problem with this genius plan is that currently Terry doesn’t own a car, which is why at the start of the game Terry is applying for a job as a taxi driver with absolutely no intention of doing this job whatsoever.

Once the interview is complete and the car is yours, Terry is sent out into the world with the overarching goal of making his way to space. To do this you’ll need to upgrade your newly acquired vehicle with a whole lot of boost, which means collecting a whole lot of junk from across the city. I’m not using the term junk here to describe a load of different collectibles you’ll need to succeed in Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, the most important collectible you need is simply called Turbo Junk and can be found just about everywhere.

It’ll take a while lot of Turbo Junk to be able to send Terry into space, so for the majority of the game you’ll be jumping on buildings and checking down alleyways in order to gather every last scrap of it. Terry doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of platforming abilities, but by finding the right routes to get to hard to reach places you’ll be rewarded by loads of the useful metal shards and maybe even some money.

The other important collectible in Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is cold hard cash, which you can use to buy all sorts of handy bits of equipment that will help you on your space quest. Things like a shovel that can be used to dig up piles of cash and junk, or a glider that helps you get to new (and hopefully fruitful) locations. Getting a new item always feels rewarding, and there’s a nice selection to gather from the junk shop.

Although the world of Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is thematically rather tiny, it is suitably dense with things to do. As well as just gathering bits and bobs from around the environment, there are all sorts of quests dotted around the map that will reward you with even bigger piles of junk or money. It’s a nice change of pace to play football with a fruit against school kids, or compete in a yoga dance competition, and although none of these side quests are particularly mind-blowing, they’re all nice and charming.

Although there isn’t a whole lot of intense, challenging gameplay in Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, the daft charm of the game absolutely makes up for it. The goofy looking characters of the world always have something funny to say, and the game made me chuckle multiple times in its short runtime. Special mention must be made to the sunbather on the beach who doesn’t realise how much he’s burning, even once his body begins actually setting on fire. Terry’s adventure is gleefully stupid, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Although I don’t have a whole lot of complaints about Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, there probably isn’t quite enough of it. It won’t take you long to gather all the junk you need to complete the game, and by the time you have you’ll probably have seen everything the game has to offer as well. I clocked in just over two hours before I was chilling up past the atmosphere, and if that isn’t enough for you then this isn’t the game for you.

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is a silly sandbox game full of charm. Collecting bits and bobs from around the city is fun, but not as fun as interacting with its weird and wonderful inhabitants. It will be over a little too quickly for some, but for those looking for something light-hearted to break up an evening of gaming, Terry and his quest are waiting.