Lawn Mowing Simulator Switch Review
There’s an unofficial weekend ritual that happens in my quiet street here in central Queensland. My Saturday mornings start with me watching the kangaroos bounce past my backyard while I sip my coffee, counting down until 9 am. As soon as 9 hits, the street slowly becomes a melodic symphony of 2 stroke lawn mowers firing up one by one, as we collectively mow out lawns before the unforgiving Australian heat kicks in. Lawn Mowing Simulator by Skyhook Games Studio gives gamers an insight into whether this weekend ritual was a full-time job, tackling this chore and making it into a surprisingly in-depth simulator. What’s It Like? Slap on some sunscreen, fill up the 2-stroke, and grab the whipper snipper as we review Lawn Mowing Simulator on Nintendo Switch.
If I may bring something more important to your attention for 15 seconds: This month is National Myeloma Month. Myeloma is a blood cancer of the plasma cells that affects over 22,000 Australians with over 50 people being diagnosed each week. We still have no cure for myeloma and treatments required to keep it under control have a huge impact on families living with this type of cancer. I’m not asking for money, or asking you to give money to someone else, I just want to spread some awareness since my father, who is my best mate and hero has been battling terminal Myeloma for the past few years. To find out more about this insidious disease, Click Here. Love you dad.
Lawn Mowing Simulator doesn’t have much of a narrative, it simply puts you in the boots of a lawn-mowing entrepreneur as you start your own business. You can customise your character, choose your company name, buy some starter gear, and away you go. It’s part simulation, part tycoon, and believe it or not, part cozy game. The gameplay loop starts off simple enough, selecting a contract that details the work such as how overgrown it is and what length you need to cut the grass to. There are plenty of things you need to keep in mind when tackling a job, like weather conditions making the ground softer, potentially incurring fines if you damage it, and grass height which could overload your engine or damage your blades. Some contracts might require advanced gear and if you find your mower struggling to cut with the best of them, you can pack up your gear and head on home without a penalty. Each job starts off with a pre-lawn check, tasking you to clear obstacles that could damage your equipment, as well as returning lost valuables you may find, and then you start to mow. Each contract awards a certain amount of dollars which you can then use to upgrade and repair your gear or put back into your business.
The main gameplay revolves obviously around mowing lawns as you build your empire. The gameplay is relaxing and addictive and much like another favourite of mine, Powerwash Simulator, I found myself zoning out while mowing away. You can mow anywhere you like but usually have to achieve over 99% of the job completed before you successfully complete the contract. I had to contracts early a few times because I went ahead and purchased the DLC-laden “Landmark Edition” which throws in a lot of new contracts, right at the start, meaning I had to wait until I upgraded my Headquarters before I could sufficiently tackle the Dinosaur Park and European locales. Thankfully, there were other jobs in the rotation that I could choose for the most part, but surprisingly, it appears you can only select from a certain amount of contracts at a time, sometimes sticking you with big jobs you may not be equipped to handle. Once you get a bit of capital behind you, however, you get stuck into the business side of things.
This is where the fun starts, as Lawn Mowing Simulator has a very surprising amount of depth to the business management side of things. You earn a reputation that unlocks jobs and can advertise on Social Media, Flyers, and other forms of advertising to build your Rep and unlock higher-paying contracts. You can even earn simple litter collection jobs which may seem arbitrary at first, but even these quick jobs progress time forward, moving you one day closer to upgrades or advertising campaign results. Work hard and you can upgrade your HQ, allowing you to store more gear, and soon you will start amassing a fleet of mowers and gear as well as staff to smash out multiple contracts in one turn. Soon you’ll be managing maintenance, wages, and rep as you climb your way up the Lawn Mowing industry ladder. It’s a well-thought-out approach meaning you can select multiple contracts assigning staff to handle jobs while you tackle your own. There’s no exploiting it by accepting contracts and leaving early as your staff follow your lead, so 100% completion and hard work is the only way you will climb the ladder of success.
Graphically, the game has taken a bit of a hit compared to the other console versions, and usually, that’s to be expected, but something about Lawn Mower Simulator seems slightly off due to lighting and shadows which all seem a little flat, leaving the world of Lawn Mowing Simulator looking a little sterile. That being said it’s still fairly easy to discern cut heights and what has been missed, and you can utilize your “pro-vision” to highlight any blades of grass that refuse to bow to your lawn mowing prowess. For my vision-impaired horticulturists, there are no accessibility options, and more research would be required to see if Lawn Mowing Simulator might be for you. The sound design is accurate but I did find the constant drone of a lawn mower leaving me wanting to listen to something else, so I found listening to podcasts or my own music playlists with the game volume down worked well. There is a lot of attention to detail in the equipment, which uses real-world products for authenticity, and the ambient environment noises are well done too… until you fire up the mower.
Performance-wise, Lawn Mower Simulator has moments of framerate drops, to me, it didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the game, but for those who insist on silky smooth mowing action should look to other platforms. It has the same performance in both handheld and docked, but found it looking slightly better (as most games do) in handheld due to the smaller screen resolution.
All in all Lawn Mower Simulator is a great game with some fun management mechanics that reward the patient player. It’s almost cozy like gameplay relaxes and it feels rewarding to grow your business from one mower to a team of landscapers. It’s a slow-paced game with decent performance that can waver at times, but for those who enjoyed Power Wash Simulator, you will find a lot of fun here. For a lower price point of $30 AUD for the standard edition, and only a fraction more for the Landmark Edition with DLC, the grass may be greener on the other side with different sims, but this is the only one that will let you cut it.
So, What’s it Like? Lawn Mowing Simulator is like a Tycoon game, with Power Wash Simulator Vibes.
