Trash
Bandits

Trash Bandits (2024) is a running, jumping, and grappling game where you play a racoon attempting to run a hotel. You traverse the levels with precise jumps and swings to find old furniture and bits of rubbish that you can then use to decorate your hotel and attract new guests. It stands out for the unusual interplay between the two genres, where creating a successful hotel depends on your platforming achievements.

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You play an entrepreneurial racoon (and thief) who dreams of running a successful hotel. To this end, you scavenge the rubbish of the city's residents to find items and furniture you can use in your establishment to attract more guests. When guests arrive, you talk to them and cater to their needs to ensure the growing popularity of your business.

Play involves running and jumping through the various stages to find items for your hotel, then going back to the hotel to decorate and talk to your visitors. Traversal is with a grappling hook to swing across gaps, avoiding deadly spikes, and performing precise jumps to access hard-to-reach areas with the most valuable items. You can also build and share your own levels in a level editor, creating challenging gauntlets or providing simple stages for players to learn the ropes on.

The result is a game where how far you explore and how many items you find in the precise platforming stages ties directly into your performance as a hotel manager, in a compelling gameplay loop. Add to this the ability to create and play levels made by other people from across the world, and it makes for a unique game with a challenge for every skill level.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Trash Bandits 3 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.