The property I am currently living in is approximately 1,100 square metres. Factor in the house, driveway and shed, and I would be generally looking at around 700-800 square metres of lawn to mow. Factor in that one of my dogs loves to have a dig around the backyard, mowing can be a hell of a slog.
The mere idea of taking the task of mowing the lawn and simulating it in my spare time sounds like the work of a mad man. Why on Earth would I want to mow the lawn in the comfort of my lounge room when I could be finding my 700th Korok Seed or rampaging as Elephant Mario? Well, there is something oddly satisfying about a job well done, and the premise of Lawn Mowing Simulator is cleaning up a shaggy old lawn and turning it into something you can be proud of.
Booting up career mode allowed me to start my own lawn mowing business and create an avatar who would be performing the onerous tasks at hand. After naming my business “Mowrider,” naming my Avatar “Moe” and choosing the only avatar with a “mow-stache,” I quickly got over how hilarious I thought I was and selected a ride-on lawnmower to begin my business.
Thankfully, the game lets you test drive the three cheapest Ride-ons in the game so you can get a feel for the controls. Different Ride-ons have distinct functions such as mulching the grass, having a grass-catcher, as well as side- and rear-ejection. The game also does an excellent job of explaining exactly what all these functions mean for those like me who pretend to know my stuff when I go to Bunnings.
Once you have done a few jobs, the game can become a bit of a slog as you build your business. You start out with only yourself as an owner/employee, and you can only pick certain jobs. Some clients require specific mowing equipment such as a battery-operated mower as opposed to a petrol powered one. Some clients require a ride-on that does mulching, or those fancy stripes you see at football ovals. If you have not built your business up enough, it is tough to afford to have all these different ride-on mowers set up at once.
When you are pigeonholed into only being able to perform certain jobs, things can get tricky. For a while, I was stuck picking up rubbish instead of mowing lawns because the only mowing jobs available required an eco-mower. The game seems to do this to force you into taking out a loan, which does allow you to get more mowing equipment and even hire extra staff, but then gives you the burden of having to complete jobs well enough to stay afloat with the loan repayments.
If you are successful enough, and you complete your contracts well, you gain both money and reputation points. The better your overall reputation, the bigger and more complex the jobs become. Eventually you will find you need to keep building your headquarters and increasing your capacity to purchase mowers that will be able to perform different jobs. Some require smaller, more agile frames while others require big bulky equipment capable of performing ninety degree turns. I did not think I would be thinking of strategies in a game like this, but the word “simulator” slapped on the front in big bold letters probably should have twigged something in my brain.
The only real issue with the game that stands out is how well the grass is rendered on the Nintendo Switch. For the most part, it is surprisingly easy to tell where you have and have not mowed. The grass generally turns to stubble once you have ridden over it, and small patches can be seen from quite a distance away. Even if there are difficulties, there’s an Assassin’s Creed like “pro gardener” button you can press down to magically see where untouched grass is. The main issue comes when using the roller, what is supposed to occur is two different coloured cut grass to represent a pattern in the lawn, the Nintendo Switch struggles with this and most of the grass will look identical, making it tough to know what has been rolled over and what hasn’t.
In order to determine how much of a simulator this really is, I mowed my own lawn over the weekend to see what the main differences are. The advantages of mowing in real life include a sense of pride at a job well done, the ability for my dogs to easily discover their toys for fetching, and some peaceful time outdoors soaking up Vitamin D and catching up on podcasts.
The advantages of mowing in Lawn Mowing Simulator are that you don’t have to go through the rigmarole of setting the lawn and your equipment up, a much smaller chance of foot injuries, a lack of potholes made by the aforementioned dogs, and the ability to use expensive equipment you’ll never get to use in a million years. Overall, I much prefer to mow on Lawn Mowing Simulator than in my own lawn, however I do understand that my dogs probably prefer I keep the yard clean for them.
To punctuate what Lawn Mowing Simulator does well, I will use the slogan from British garden care and paint company Ronseal, “it does exactly what it says on the tin.” If you want to mow other people’s lawns without the hassle of getting on all your gardening gear and performing manual labour, then this is for you. You may not look at your virtual lawns the same way as your dad looks at his backyard after a job well done, but it may just be the sleeper hit that the Nintendo Switch may need in a desolate 2024.
Rating: 3/5
Loco Motive, MySims: Cozy Bundle, Stray, Nine Souls, Servonauts.
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