Experimental video games that create something never before are always interesting and unique, regardless of whether or not they fail in their attempts. Minabo – A walk through life takes the idea of a turnip being born and marching through life alongside friends and family in order to see what decisions you will make as a player. Do you stick by your partner’s side and watch your children grow? Or perhaps do you stay single and make sure you can spend as much time with your own parents as possible before their untimely end?
While the premise is wholly unique and presents a package that runs well and is easy to understand, the fun factor of Minabo – A walk through life just isn’t quite there. It’s really sadder than anything else as you have to make choices between people that seemingly would have meant everything to your little turnip, and while that sadness isn’t the detracting factor, it’s that the gameplay is seriously lacking with runs that are quick and get bogged down with a ton of monotony.
As you enter Minabo – A walk through life you’re given the choice to name you little, baby turnip nestled into the ground. With a delightful and hand-drawn art style, you’re birthed into a colourful world. Simply tapping a button to move forward, you’re sent forward in time as your turnip begins to age from a crawling infant to a much slower, elderly turnip. Keeping things simple, Minabo – A walk through life lets the player focus on the primary goals of moving forward with time and building relationships with those around you.
“Keeping things simple, Minabo – A walk through life lets the player focus on the primary goals of moving forward with time and building relationships with those around you.”
There are three types of social interactions needed in order to keep your turnip alive—Physical Contact, Intimacy, and Belonging. None of these, however, cause much different forms of interactions, as they’re just button presses necessary in order to keep your gauges full, much like you’d find in the needs of your characters in The Sims. Staying next to your chosen group and interacting with them keep your gauges full, as well as theirs, so staying close to those you want to keep alive is the most essential part of the game.
Each interaction is measured based on several factors, but basically, all you have to do is watch the circle around each interaction to see the level or red versus green on that button. The more green, the more likely it is that the interaction will be positive and replenish both character gauges. Otherwise, negative interactions can cause negative emotions, like being enemies with another beet.
Once you’ve decided what sort of life you’d like to have, you simply continue tapping yourself forward in time while maintaining your gauges—that’s it! While 25 missions are available that task you with obtaining different types of relationships, like Friends, Best Friends, or Romances, each is simply obtained by continuing to pump up the same turnip over and over again until they reach that level of friendship.
“With an art style that’s delightful and hand-drawn, you’re birthed into a colourful world.”
While a ton of collectable hats are available that offer different bonuses for interactions and different traits that also grant or detract from your interactions, it all just boils back down to managing everyone’s gauges to live as long as possible or to reach each mission’s goals. Even though Minabo – A walk through life is definitely experimental in the thought processes you have to go through and the way it makes you think and connect with others in real life, it fails to make an experience that’s all that fun to move through to completion.
In the end, Minabo – A walk through life isn’t much of a game. While all the pieces work properly, the art style is cute and charming, and the deeply thought-out idea behind it makes it something that piques your curiosity, simply pressing buttons in sequence to keep an ever-emptying gauge full is about as much fun as watching a bucket of water slowly drain and then turning on the faucet to refill it every few seconds or so. The mission system helps, but I didn’t find myself wanting to play this gameplay loop over and over again to take this completionist approach.
