Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip PS5 Review. The indie gaming scene is great as they generally do things that the big budget titles can’t afford to do. Much of the time, these titles use quirky gameplay as their appeal while others focus purely on storytelling.
Then there’s Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, a title that strives for cheekiness at every turn. Combine funny writing with a strange premise, and you have a recipe for a good time. Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t quite translate into the gameplay side of Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip.
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip PS5 Review
When it comes to odd premises, this game sits right up there with the best of them. No laws or law enforcement exists in this town, yet the city runs like any normal city – with the many weird situations that you find as you go along. This leads everyone to interact rather strangely all the time. With that said, no one gets angry with each other. That kind of social interaction is just part of life in Sprankelwater.
The titular Terry wants to drive to space. Yes, DRIVE to space. Thankfully for Terry, the city went bankrupt so it could build a tower complete with a road so people can drive into space. While the tower makes the path easy to identify, Terry still needs to deal with gravity. So, he takes a taxi job just to get a car that he can soup up to make the interstellar trip.
The only thing that makes that possible is Turbo Junk. These parts (in quantities of 150) get applied to Terry’s car, with each upgrade adding an increase to the turbo reservoir available in Terry’s taxi. After obtaining a certain amount of these upgrades, Terry can finally have enough propulsion to drive to space. Turbo Junk isn’t just “junk” by name. People all over town have Turbo Junk to offload, which usually leads Terry to do odd jobs in order to obtain the junk.
Leaning Into The Goof
The true strength to Turbo Trip is the writing in it. The entire game presents itself like a meme, and this aspect of the game makes for a good time. As mentioned above, the goofy, nonchalant way people talk to each other makes the efforts all worthwhile. One guy sunbathing literally starts on fire from exposure to the Sun, but he won’t believe you.
You team up with a car flipper who won’t buy cars from places too close to him because he doesn’t want to raise suspicions with his neighbors. The major, after a small announcement in front of the Space Tower, just floats away and disappears.
The government office asks you to help pay off the city’s debt of 999,000,000 Money. With all payments, the office adds three zeroes to each number just because “that’s what the government does.” So, to help out, Terry suggests adding six zeroes, and they lose their minds at the perceived brilliance of Terry’s idea. These are just a few examples, but the humorous writing channels that goofy energy so well.
Means To An End
While the story and writing make this a fun excursion, the gameplay lacks a similar flair. Gameplay itself feels more like a means to an end instead of an engaging experience. Terry moves responsively to your inputs as long as he’s on the ground. When you jump, you do not have the same level of control. If you want to jump far, you need to run first. If you want to jump in a direction, you need to be moving in that direction prior to the jump. This all sounds petty, but in a tongue-in-cheek experience, asking for a serious platform mechanic feels out of place.
There is also very little room for directional change while in the air. Eventually, you can buy a parachute, which allows you to change directions a little easier. However, the movement feels far more realistic than I think it should. In defense of the game, the controls do well enough to fulfill what the game asks of you. It’s just not an overly fun experience in and of itself.
Car control also feels muddied. Anyone who has driven a low-end car in any Grand Theft Auto game will know the experience: very little grip on the road, and the vehicle slides all over the place with little control. However, when you use turbo, you can take 90-degree turns like the laws of physics went on break. All in all, these controls feel like a design choice intended to contradict itself, much like the humorous writing that does it well.
Working With What You Got
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip does provide you with options when it comes to shortcuts for weapons or equipment. From your inventory, you can assign different equipment, the map, weapons, etc. to the four D-Pad directions. You spend a great deal of time both digging things up and hitting things. Unfortunately, you can’t hit things with a shovel and you can’t dig up things with a pipe, which makes the shortcuts quite handy.
With that said, what you do in the world matches the writing much closer. You can run around the map, hitting waves of people with a pipe. I think my favorite interaction is hitting people while they sunbathe. Unlike standing victims, they don’t even get thrown from their chairs. Instead, they just show a low-key shocked face before going back to sunbathing.
A Fun Evening Romp
Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip. The combination of writing and premise make this a funny game to waste away an afternoon with. The way Turbo Trip puts things together and then subverts expectations is nothing short of special. Unfortunately, if you want to reach 100% completion, including the Platinum Trophy, you will need to acclimate to the game’s loose controls. The narrative experience only lasts about three hours.
If you walk away from the game after finishing the story, you will more than likely have a better opinion of the game than I have. Otherwise, you will spend at least six hours after the story cleaning up everything. That’s six more hours with the gameplay without having the fun story supplement the experience.
Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip is out on PS5 and Nintendo Switch on February 14, 2025.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.