The appetite of gamers to put themselves into the life of others for fun always amazes me. I can understand those wanting to be superheroes or fantasy warriors with unbelievable powers in combat and magic, hoping for a pure escape from working 9-to-5 in the accounts department. But there are much more mundane jobs that games cater for too, like tram driving, start-up sims or even being a house decorator.
The Sims gave you a chance to take someone from life to death and now MINABO – A walk through life takes it even further. You see, this one will have you raising a turnip from the moment of sprouting, right up to its death. Confused? It’s all going to become clear, I promise.
When you load MINABO up, you will find that you have a couple of options in which to play the game. There are mission modes, for which there are twenty-five different missions with targets for living your turnip life to the full. Then there is a free mode where you have to play five missions to unlock. Each run-through of a life takes half an hour or so to complete, so there is a fair bit of game to do.
In MINABO – A walk through life you start in the ground as a little turnip, coming out into the world. You have your parents and then time moves on through the years quite quickly. All you can do at first is crawl, and then walk to the right of the screen as the years roll by. On the way, the game aims to build up your social skills – or not if you don’t want to. But then after your parents, you meet friends, partners and possible lovers. It’s here where you come across a few choices in terms of interaction with each person running symbolic emotes to represent intimacy, belonging, and conversation. There are stats for each of the turnips you meet, allowing you to see their strengths and weaknesses in these areas. Your choices build those stats bars and determine the course of your life.
What you get with each mission are several requirements for that life. So you might have to, for example, live to the age of forty, make three friends and have one romantic relationship. These mission requirements introduce different elements of gameplay and ensure there are some demands in terms of trickier tasks for you to live your best turnip life. Pets are introduced too, coming in the guise of cute radishes for you to take care of, or let die…
The spectre of death is always present in MINABO, with parents and friends croaking it along the way. But the response to those events is up to you. The game feels clever and very unique, but I’m not sure I had a particularly good time playing it. The first couple of playthroughs feel excellent and you won’t have played anything like it. But after a little while the pacing becomes a bit stale. Even with new gameplay elements being introduced it starts to feel a little depressing. Which maybe is the point.
Visually, MINABO – A walk through life looks great, running an adorable hand-drawn design. The turnips look brilliant whilst the menus are perfectly positioned. The way the seasons change constantly and the turnips get older is a nice, clever, subtle touch, with that supported by a sound score that bounces along nicely as you progress through the life of your little turnip. Just be warned, that audio can get a bit annoying after a while.
For the first hour or so, you’ll probably adore MINABO – A walk through life, enjoying the unique premise and lovely visuals. But after a playthrough or two the interest levels may start to wane, even with the addition of new tasks and pieces of gameplay. That could well be due to the pacing of the game which is quite one note, but the deaths of so many turnips might well get to you.
MINABO – A walk through life feels like almost the perfect game to play on mobile, taking in a playthrough whilst on your commute. Yet perhaps it’s not as interesting on console. There’s no doubt that it’s original and clever, but things do start to wane after a little while. However, if you want to play a social sim game with a big difference then MINABO – A walk through life could be for you.
