Truck driving sims can be strangely addictive, giving players a chance to take control of heavy rigs, navigate tricky roads, and enjoy the satisfaction of parking a massive vehicle with precision. With that in mind, I jumped into Truck Driving on Nintendo Switch 2, hoping for a relaxing, on-the-go experience. What I found instead was a game that feels far too simple for its own good, with graphics, audio, and gameplay that never quite manage to get out of first gear.

When it comes down to the gameplay, Truck Driving feels more like a mobile time-waster than a full Nintendo Switch title. You know those old phone games where you navigate a vehicle through a short area and park it in an end zone? That’s exactly what this feels like, and nine times out of ten, it was a single turn and you’re done. There’s no real challenge, no sense of accomplishment, and certainly nothing to keep you hooked for long.

The audio in Truck Driving was almost non-existent, which made the whole experience feel incredibly lacklustre. Outside the generic truck engine noise and the novelty of the horn, there was nothing else to hear. That was essentially the extent of the sound design. This title could have benefited from some background music or even a celebratory sound effect when you arrived at the parking area, but it lacked these elements.

The controls were super simple. You pull the right trigger to drive, the left trigger to brake, and steer with the left analog stick, and that was pretty much the extent of the controls. The only real novelty came from pressing “X” to blast the horn from The Dukes of Hazzard, which is called “The Dixie Horn”, and honestly became the highlight of the audio in this game. Beyond that, the controls were extremely simple and at times frustratingly tedious.

I was super disappointed with the graphics in Truck Driving. The whole thing looked like it was ported straight from the Nintendo 64, which is really underwhelming for a game this simple. There was a straightforward concept behind this game, and the developers had ample opportunity to enhance the visuals with sharper truck models, more detailed environments, and some personality added to the textures. Instead, everything feels like it was dragged and dropped from the engine with no polish. The result is a world that feels generic, flat, and lifeless, which makes it even harder to play this game.

Truck Driving on Nintendo Switch feels like a bare-minimum effort that doesn’t really justify its place on the platform. Between the outdated graphics, lack of audio design, and mobile-style gameplay, there’s very little here to recommend unless you’re looking for the most basic truck-driving experience possible. It’s a shame because with a few more layers of polish, better visuals, deeper mechanics, and some actual atmosphere added, this could have been a fun little game to kill some time on.

Written by: Hayden Nelson