Game: Hair Mower 3D
System: Nintendo Switch (e-shop)
Genre: Arcade, Other
Developer / Publisher: Rising Win Tech
Price: US$5.99 |AU $ 8.25| CA $ 7.93|€ 5,50| £ 4.99
Age Rating: USA: E |EU 3+
Release Date: 3 February 2020
Review code kindly provided by Rising Win Tech
Apparently, grass-like hair can grow over all sorts of objects, and even blanket them! At least that’s the case in the Hair Mower 3D game for Switch. Sometimes you just want to play something light that doesn’t require much brainpower. This is where Hair Mower 3D comes in with breezy, effortless gameplay.
The goal is simple: guide your character across a series of oversized animal heads, foods or other shapes, and mow down all the hair (weeds) in sight! There isn’t much else it to it, and it sure doesn’t last very long.
Just Roll
There’s no backstory here, no puzzles to solve, or mysteries to unlock. Just the simple pleasure of clearing each stage by clearing away all the visible growth. You have a farmer-like character pushing a mower across the rolling surface of a large weed-covered object. They’re each suspended in midair but you don’t fall off. (Sounds odd, right? It is, but it’s oddly soothing too. If only mowing in real life required so little exertion.)
There are desserts and junk foods, even planetoids, a variety of round-faced creatures, and everyday objects like cars or sports balls. The art style is incredibly basic, with the outlines resembling something drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch. It’s not displeasing, just simple.
Thwack-and-Go
You gather coins as you go, with every cut. There are some scattered pinwheels on the surface, and hitting one of them cleanly takes out a swath of growth. For the first couple stages, there are no obstacles, but soon you start encountering chomping beasties roaming the weeds. Bumping into them takes away a number of coins. So, you avoid them & be on your way.
There are milk bottles now that will give you a boost. Once you roll over one, you become invincible & can simply knock the enemies out of your way. Hitting one makes a satisfying thwack! sound. The enemies are easily avoided however, so milk consumption isn’t necessary. But I enjoyed the sound of whacking them away just the same.
That’s Really It?
After clearing a certain amount of stages, you reach checkpoints where you’re rewarded with a whole surface of only coins. These sections of coin loot always cover a dharma-like object. But the point to getting coins at all is to buy mower “upgrades.” Except, there are only 3 additional mowers, and there’s no discernible difference in the options, other than looks. In fact, there’s no point in buying any, as this game barely takes an hour or so to complete all stages. I was quite surprised by that, at coming to the end of the last mowed object before I realized it was the last. You’re put back to the very first level/object and can simply redo it all. It occured to me how suited this game would be for younger players. With a revolving setup of mowing, it’s pretty calming, if extremely limited.
Conclusion
Hair Mower 3D seems like it never got fully developed. It has simplistic gameplay, that is nonetheless pleasant for what it is. There’s something relaxing about continuously mowing entire patches of weeds, moving onto the next. It placates my somewhat moderate OCD! I like “clearing” areas, down to every last blade of digital grass. (Kind of like the weed-pulling in the AC series – a “chore” I rather enjoy.)
I just wish they had kept working on it, adding in many more stages, and increasing the challenge – perhaps with bigger areas and a time clock. This title seems more like a mini-game included in a Professor Layton, not a standalone title. It shouldn’t even be $6, so I would think about catching the inevitable e-shop sale on it..
I couldn’t decide how to score it at first, went back & forth for awhile. But it’s likeable enough in its simplicity. 🙂
Final Verdict: I like it 