Review: Truck Driving (Nintendo Switch)

Truck Driving is a title developed by Tap Nation and published by Ultimate Games. It’s marketed as an action game, according to its Nintendo page, but it’s a driving simulation at best. Out of so many driving sims in the world, how does this particular game compare? Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

The premise of Truck Driving is to learn how to drive a truck, though there is no story. It’s simply a simulation to see if you can handle the physics of driving heavy loads between three different trucks, two of which you have to unlock. You do this through various levels of small driving exercises.

What type of exercises? Well, the first few levels involves driving in a straight line. Then come small turns, then bigger turns. Some levels include you driving backwards, going up and down ramps, and… that’s about it. Each level took seconds. And, no, that’s not an exaggeration. Overall, Truck Driving took me twenty minutes to complete all fifty levels.

These levels are broken into two segments: day and night. The first twenty-five levels occur during the day, and the final twenty-five levels occur at night, meaning the graphics are darker and your headlights are on. It took me two of the night levels to realize those are exactly the same as the other batch. So, instead of fifty unique driving exercises, you’re repeating the same twenty-five you just completed five minutes ago.

When you complete a level, you’ll earn coins, and that’s what you use to unlock the remaining two trucks. Each truck has a heavier load than the last, and I could feel a difference with the physics. However, that didn’t make the game any more difficult. I still got through the levels with no problem. I even tried to purposely drive off the road to see if it would “fail” me, but it didn’t. I was able to drive back on the road, make it to the parking spot, and still earn my coins as a reward. There were no consequences and nothing else to do in the game.

Even after completing all fifty levels and unlocking all trucks, I have 5,000 coins left over that I can’t do anything with. I can’t customize my trucks, I can’t buy more, I can’t even buy cool horns… although the trucks do have a horn that does nothing but give you aesthetics, it was delightful to play around with it.

Part of the reason the horn was fun to play with was because Truck Driving has no music, only sound effects. Fifty levels of nothing but the truck’s engine whirring, non-existent people cheering for me when I complete the levels, and me continuously booping the horn.

And that’s all there is to it. Truck Driving is not a groundbreaking title by any means, though I can see younger kids having a good time with it. I think it’d be a fun short and sweet title for little kids to get a feel for playing video games, especially if they have a fascination with trucks. The levels aren’t difficult, controls are easy, there are no consequences, and it’s not overstimulating. Plus, you can honk the horn as many times as you want.