Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading. In this installment, we’re covering Lawn Mowing Simulator by developer Skyhook Games.
Lawn Mowing Simulator: (The Explanation)
There have been a lot of simulation games in the past seven years that have landed on the Nintendo Switch. I myself am no stranger to them and have played a plethora of them. I have been a mechanic, raised bunnies and puppies, doused flames as a firefighter, and explored a vast wilderness in a humvee. Now I embark on one of life’s menial tasks: running a Lawn Mowing company and cutting grass for clients. Lawn Mowing Simulator finally arrives on the Nintendo Switch and it’s not without a few notable changes mostly in terms of graphics and performance.
You begin your exploits as a Lawn Mowing service company by giving your business a name, selecting a logo design, and changing the colors of your shirt and hat. Once you select all of that you can also choose your starting avatar from a handful of options. There aren’t many avatars to choose from but you barely see your character up close enough to truly care, in my opinion. Later in the game you will select employees from premade characters pooling from the same bunch so you’re bound to use nearly all of them before completing the main game.
After selecting your character you will choose between three starter mowers and a few trimmers to help in cutting the edges around flower beds. The choice you make here doesn’t really matter and eventually you will acquire quite a few pieces of equipment to help you and your employees complete tasks. I chose the riding mower initially though if I went back I would probably go with the zero-turn mower instead since it was easier to maneuver and comes with a wider cutting edge helping to trim (pun intended) your level completion time on the properties you are working at.
Once you are geared up you will select from a set number of locations, early on you can only choose one, and then jump there to begin working. When I first played Lawn Mowing Simulator back on the Xbox, I didn’t have the option of trimmers, as they were not yet released. The Switch version however launches with access to what looks to be all of the equipment and DLC packs that have been previously released on other consoles and PC. The trimmers help with getting close to the edges around flower beds without damaging the flowers. Damaging the flowers results in damage to the property and a decrease in pay.
When you first visit a location you have a short amount of time to sprint around the yard and pick up debris that may be strewn about. I found everything from garden gnomes, branches, toys, and other trash which needed to be collected before mowing the lawn. Once that was completed it was time to either jump on the mower or pull up the trimmer. I recommend trimming around the edges first, as that will set you out a bit from the edges and remove the risk of trimmer flowers and bushes that aren’t meant to be cut.
I found myself super relaxed as I cut the grass in Lawn Mowing Simulator. If ever there was a game that I would dub ‘a podcast game’ this is it. There isn’t much in terms of audio other than the sound of the mower or trimmer cutting down the grass. Each job has a set time limit and height in which you need to mow the lawn. Mowing the grass isn’t too difficult as you accelerate or swing your trimmer.Â
One major difference in the Nintendo Switch version is the visuals have that vaseline sheen to them which can make figuring out what grass has already been mowed difficult to discern. In the Xbox version I had no troubling telling the short grass from the longer grass due to the higher fidelity graphics. I also noticed the game hitch a bit more on the Nintendo Switch as the framerate seemed to stutter and struggle.
Another omission on the Nintendo Switch that is a hardware limitation is the lack of analog triggers. This might not seem like a big deal but any driving game, especially simulation games on the Switch lack that tactile press which allows for pressure ‘pedal’ pushes especially as you desire to feather corners a bit for that perfect edge trim.
Overall, Lawn Mowing Simulator is a great sim game to add to the fold and up there as the most menial task for a video game. It may not have the same polish as the title on other consoles but that is to be expected. I would love to see the framerate and graphics beefed up a bit, but I doubt that this title garners enough attention to set it apart from its console brethren. If you really want to mow the grass, there’s always getting a summer job, otherwise I would wait for a sale to pick this one up to experience mowing simulation.
Lawn Mowing Simulator: (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Skyhook Games
Publisher: Astragon
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Simulation, Strategy, Training, Other
No. of Players: 1 player
Release Date: March 14, 2024 (EU & NA)
Price: $19.99
File Size: 4.5 GB
Nintendo.com Listing
