This week, I have spent most of my time going in-depth with Killer Klowns from Outer Space; you can read my review here, so there hasn’t been much time for indies. I had to make time for two of my most anticipated titles.
On to the games!
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip
It’s time to help Terry get to space in this weird new adventure from developer snekflat. Tiny Terry has been left at home by his parents as they go off on a fancy holiday. While he is at home, he is supposed to attend summer school. Instead, Terry decided to go to space instead of doing that. First, he needs a car, the obvious choice for a space-faring vehicle. Terry takes a job as a taxi driver so he can get a company car. You’re probably thinking that this game is a Crazy Taxi escort mission kind of game. Wrong. Terry has no intention of ever driving anyone anywhere unless it’s himself to space.
Instead, Terry is unleashed upon the city of Sprankelwater. It’s an open world filled with weirdos and collectibles galore. Your overall goal is to upgrade your car enough to drive straight up the side of the new tower in the middle of the city. Luckily, they decided to put roads up either side of the new monument.
To get as high as possible, Terry needs to upgrade the turbo boost on his car so that he can go as fast as possible for as long as possible. To upgrade the car, you need to collect turbo junk, which can be found all over the map. Every 150 pieces of Turbo Junk you collect can be turned in at the mechanics garage to upgrade the turbo boost. You can also get money. Not by working, of course; that would be madness. Instead, just smash things. You can also find or buy a shovel to dig for treasure or find a lead pipe to smash larger things. Then, buy all the hats you could dream of from the many convenient hat stores around the city.
There is plenty to do along the way to space. Challenges like impressing the soccer kids, helping to commit non-violent crimes, and completing a dance routine are just some examples of the nonsense Terry can get up to. You can also catch bugs, go back to your home and feed your fish, and help the local pet store owner find their missing blueprints so that they can create Gummy Pups.
A lot is happening in Sprankelwater, and Terry can basically get involved in all of it. It’s a very funny game that also touches on socio-economic politics. There are some bafflingly strange characters, a unique and vibrant art style, and a wonderful soundtrack to boot. It is mostly about getting to space, though. Also, there are secret crabs that can be found and robbed. Perfect.
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is out now on Steam.
Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends
It’s time to get cooking in this adorable restaurant and life sim from Catch & Release, LLC. Play as Sushi Bot, the newest resident of the tiny town of Rolling Hills. Town Mayor Coggie has asked you to come and help put Rolling Hills on the map with your culinary skills and even gives you a small restaurant to get started. Also in the small town are a market, furniture shop, and café all run by Coggie’s kids. To grow your culinary prowess, your restaurant, and the town, you have to utilize the ingredients available to you and build friendships with the locals.
You’ll start with some basic recipes you can improve by adding ingredients. Each recipe has a basic flavor profile that will correlate to the ingredients. For example, Bok Joy improves vegetable dishes, and Blissberries improves sweet dishes. More recipes and ingredients will become available as you improve and build your reputation and friendships. Some dishes, like Chewy, will also have customer effects. Chewy recipes will slow down customers, giving you more time between taking orders.
There is no actual cooking involved in Rolling Hills. Instead, a conveyor belt in your restaurant will turn out a variety of dishes with each refresh. However, the belt needs to be charged to be refreshed, so you will have to keep an eye on its power level. The speed of its recharge can be improved by purchasing furniture with the Electric property. Furniture with Relaxing properties will make your customers slower to anger due to slow service, and Profitable items will bring in more money. There are various ways to decorate your restaurant to optimize the customer’s experience and make your life easier.
When your restaurant opens, you will have more to deal with than just serving customers. You’ll also have to deal with cleaning up tables, picking up dropped trash, waking up customers who fall asleep, and quickly serving customers on the phone so that their noise doesn’t upset others. You’ll also have to dodge camera flashes, as they will stun you for a short time.
Raising your friendship is the best way to improve the variety of products and services available to you. At the café, you can invite someone for coffee, dessert, or a feast to grow closer to them. As your friendship levels up, you will get more perks. New potential residents will occasionally appear in town with a quest line to complete. Completing these quests will get them to move in, and with them will come a new set of perks. The first new resident is Min, who will allow for daily challenges and a points shop where hats, furniture, and recipes can be found. One of the daily challenges will be to find the Imitation Crab. This involves finding something out of place in the world, which will turn into a crab wearing a fake nose, mustache, and glasses. Crab bonus achieved.
Then there’s the main storyline. It turns out that Rolling Hills is literally cursed to be obscure. It’s up to you to help break the curse by creating sushi for the powerful spirits that have been sleeping. Normal sushi things!
Rolling Hills plays like a cross between Plate Up and Animal Crossing and looks like one of the newer 3D Kirby games. Cartoony, cute, and honestly fun to play, Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends is a must for those who love combining cozy games with management mechanics.
Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends is out now on Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
For more indies, check out our weekly round-up of the newest releases in indie gaming.
