"Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money" is a passive money-making game that takes a very unique spin on traditional mobile game mechanics. For those not familiar with this franchise, Trailer Park Boys originally started as a mockumentary movie about life in a Canadian trailer park. The original film received enough acclaim to spin it off into a TV show.
Within the game, the player is required to purchase various businesses from the show, such as the Dirty Burger, City Convenience, and Rock Vodka, among others. From there, you can purchase customers for the businesses to generate more money, and eventually, you can hire appropriate characters from the show to automate your business. The goal of the game is to complete challenges to unlock trunks, the game's version of loot boxes, which can yield liquor, hash coins, money, or cards. These items are used to upgrade and unlock characters or businesses. As you complete these challenges, you are shown small cutscenes that progress the story, leading to the season finale, in which you fight a boss and then restart a new season with a fresh trailer park to build, retaining your character and business upgrades.
If I had to compare Greasy Money to another mobile game I've played, it would probably be a venture capitalist game, but even then, there are significant differences between the two. The game plays smoothly, and I haven't noticed any slowdowns or glitches. It boots up quickly on my LG G4. The cutscenes stay true to the show and utilize many of the famous one-liners from Ricky and the gang. Liquor, one of the premium currencies, is generously distributed as you play.
Of course, collecting characters is great for any fan of the show. The art style suits the game well, with cartoony yet highly recognizable versions of the series' cast and various businesses. The game's story is probably what you would expect—completely ridiculous with dashes of hilarity at every twist. This is refreshing since it does not follow the same story as the show's seasons.
However, the game is not without its problems. First off, you have three currencies: money, hash coins, and liquor. Money is made by your businesses, and the other two are more premium. Liquor is needed for a lot of actions in the game, and this ends up being a problem because the game doesn't have you actively playing it for very long. You log on, check Leahy's trunk for free loot every four hours, invest your money, and maybe do some upgrades. There's a steady supply of free liquor, which is great, but I really want some sort of active activity in the game to gain more of that loot rather than just closing the app and waiting. I will say it is awesome that Lahey's trunk continues to accumulate liquor even after the four-hour waiting period in case you were away and couldn't check your phone for a few hours.
Another point is that to upgrade businesses and characters, you need liquor and cards. This works for characters, but the cards are a bit much for the businesses, in my opinion. It's just another thing to grind for. Hash coins are the main microtransaction currency, and they are really expensive. It's over thirty dollars for a single legendary trunk. You can get hash coins for free by doing surveys and other various tasks described in the game, or you can get them in small amounts from trunks, but I feel like they're just way too expensive.
Finally, the game changes its parameters with each season. Some businesses don't make an appearance in some seasons, and automating businesses may require a different character that you don't have or even an upgraded version of a character. This requires more cards and more liquor. This poses a real problem when you spend a bunch of liquor that took hours to upgrade a business, only to have that business be completely absent in the next season. Keep in mind that this game is new, and I'm sure we'll get some updates and maybe some rebalancing as time goes on.
I'd also like to mention that despite my comments about grinding, this game is definitely not pay-to-win. You are able to complete any of the three available challenges to push the story forward, and better yet, as you complete these challenges, I find that I'm unlocking what I need pretty often. So, the game is definitely tailored toward people who are working their way through the game without purchasing a bunch of currency. You won't find yourself bogged down for days at a time, at least I haven't yet.
In conclusion, as a Trailer Park Boys fan, Greasy Money delivers. It brings the franchise I love into a well-made mobile experience with humor true to the show and some unique game mechanic combinations that I haven't seen anywhere else. You can tell that the developers have really watched the show and captured the essence of what fans love about the series—ridiculous stories in Sunnyvale trailer park. This isn't just a money grab-based builder with a Trailer Park Boys skin; it's a fully-fledged game that has you strategically making purchases to maximize profits. This is a must-have app if you're a Trailer Park Boys fan, so get on it!
For people who are not that familiar with this franchise, Trailer Park Boys originally started as a mockumentary movie about life in a Canadian trailer park. The original film was received well enough to spin it off into a TV show.
One of the main issues I faced on my playthrough was the lack of familiarity I had towards the franchise. In the original series, the main characters, Ricky and Julian, seem to follow this set rhythm where they are released from jail, spend the season building new (and typically ridiculous) criminal enterprises, then end up back in jail in the last episode of the season.
Comments