Okay, so I know that the headline kind of contradicts the point of the article. If you should go into Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip knowing as little as possible, reading hundreds of words on the topic might negate that possibility. So I’m going to try and be as spoiler free as possible here because, one, I don’t want to ruin it and two, there’s so much good stuff in this game packed into a deceptively simple package.
Seriously, Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is some of the most fun I’ve had with an open world game in years. And, as far as “knowing as little as possible,” I went in off a couple of screenshots and some Steam credit burning a hole in my pocket.
So, let’s start with what youshouldknow. Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is an open-world game that seems to mostly be inspired bySimpsons Hit & Run- that is, it’s a sillier, family-friendlyGrand Theft Autowith some minor platforming and collecting elements. You’ll drive (or walk) to different spots, get little side quests, use items, and generally explore the space. Fortunately, the game doesn’t attempt to straight up rip off The Simpsons’ style and instead goes with something equally colorful, but a bit more like an Adult Swim show from 2010. Everyone is vaguely person-shaped, and their facial features are only sometimes in the right spots.
So why should you go in blind? Because even the game itself starts you off without knowing anything. While most modern gameslovecrushing you under hours of tutorials, Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip gives you the most basic controls and lets you figure out the rest. The game expects you to have played other games before - especially open world games - andfigure outwhat you’re supposed to do. Outside of one or two early moments, the game rarely outright gives you a quest - and even then, you can handle it at your own leisure.
There is a “story” - Terry wants to collect enough literal garbage to be able to drive to outer space - but there isn’t really a critical path the game sets you on. You’ve got to stumble your way around. In the opening scene of the game, there’s a silly joke that actually turns out to be anextremelyuseful clue. The best part was the realization when it hit me. “Holy crap,that’swhat he was talking about!”
But this is what the game wants! It doesn’t tell youmostof what you may do right off the bat. That’s not negligence; that’s brilliance. It trusts the player. Like Simpsons Hit & Run, the map isn’t that big. Unlike GTA or Assassin’s Creed, you won’t be stuck in deep wilderness trying to get from point A to point B. Hell, while playing Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip there were times I suddenly realized that I’d walked a loop around the edge of the entire map while searching for a spot to…do a thing I was supposed to do. It’s a map that’s just big enough to have interesting locations to explore and small enough that the game doesn’t turn into a fast travel teleportation simulator.
I thinkwhythis works so well for me is that Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip feels likeactualexploration in a game. When someone tells you about a spot on the map, you can mark it, but the game doesn’t automatically throw a glowing line on the street telling you how to get there. Hell, the spot they mark might not even be the exact right spot. When a character asks you to speak to someone at a certain building, half the time they’ll only tell you which neighborhood it’s in. It’s up to you to get to that neighborhood and poke around to figure out what they were talking about. At times, it almost reminded me ofDragon’s Dogma 2, which is wild.
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