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0 Locomoto is an incredibly cute and cosy adventure sim involving a train. Published by THQ Nordic and released on the Nintendo Switch today! I know, like me you were hoping for a Nintendo Switch 2 version. But don’t worry, if you do own a shiny new Nintendo Switch 2, the game runs perfectly fine on there. I made sure to test it out! You can find Locomoto on the Nintendo Store right here.
Living That Train Life
If you are a fan of lovely adventures, then Locomoto might be exactly what you are looking for. So get your tickets ready for inspection, we are about to embark on a beautiful journey.
Gameplay
Starting up Locomoto you are greeted with a pretty great character creation screen. Get your anthropomorphic character looking like whatever animal hybrid you can dream of. Well, not quite, but there are a myriad of options. I eventually went for a deer with a beard. Quite fetching if you ask me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make a duck, but we can’t have it all now, can we?
Once you’ve created your character, you are then off on your adventure. First things first, getting a train. It doesn’t take you long to find an old train that is just longing for adventures. Grab some supplies, pop some coal into the engine and pull the handle. It’s travelling time! Operating the train is very simple, and you steadily get to grips with the mechanics. Firstly, you pop some coal into the engine; thankfully, you have a neat little gauge that tells you if you are in the correct pressure area. If you end up with too much pressure, just pull the whistle, and the gauge goes down. Once you’ve found your location on the map, you just pull the lever… Kronk.
Once you arrive in a location, you can head out into the real world, carrying out tasks and speaking to all the wonderful folk scattered in the game. You get given some main storyline missions to tackle, but talking to people will give you some nice, fun side quests. Completing these will give you blueprints for items that you can create, amongst other rewards.
Crafting
In Locomoto you get to explore an entirely rich environment, all while upgrading and expanding your train to allow more passengers to come along for the ride.
One thing that surprised me was the crafting. In the main cab of the train, you have a crafting table. It’s not quite as unrestricted as the one in Minecraft, but it’s still pretty neat. You can use all the items that you find while out and about. Pop them on the table in the predetermined pattern and voilà, a coffee machine pops out. Sometimes, there is no sense to the layouts; putting 3 pieces of copper to make a hot chocolate machine just doesn’t make sense. Just try to look past that and back onto the joyous game that you are playing through.
Important pieces to craft, though, are the chairs. After all, what’s a game about trains if you aren’t taking passengers? Locomoto helps you with this, as it makes you craft a chair pretty early on and introduces you to the mechanics of onboarding your passengers. It’s straightforward really, you just grab their luggage and pop it on a chair. They do the rest.
Graphics & Audio
Locomoto is an incredibly cute game. With its beautifully colourful graphics, it gives life to an otherwise small world. The character models are varied enough that you can recognise them individually. As well as the characters, the environments have been given enough character, so each area has a very specific look.
With regard to the audio, it isn’t the game’s strongest point. The sound effects are good enough, but nothing stands out. If anything, I’d say that the train whistle was the best sound effect.
Longevity
If you think that Locomoto is going to be a quick 5-6 hour experience, then you’d be wrong. Apparently clocking in at over 25 hours, the game has depth that you wouldn’t expect from something like this. I won’t lie, I’ve not completed the game, but knowing that it’s got that amount of time brings me happiness that these cute adventures rarely bring. Just make sure you enjoy the journey.
Final Thoughts
So what did I think of Locomoto, It was great. Even if you take out the train element, the game has so much charm that it could live in the wild just like that. Add the train element and how much you can do with it, and it just heightens the experience. With plenty to do and see, you will be talking about this for a long time to come, whether it’s on Switch or Switch 2.
Locomoto gets the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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