Moving Out Switch Preview

There’s not too long to go until Moving Out comes out on the Switch, so here’s a writeup on the demo, currently available on the Nintendo eShop.

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Moving Out is a game from developers DEVM Games and SMG Studio – creators of one of my favourite titles on the Switch, OTTD. 

Partnered with the notorious Team17, there’s so much going for the game, but what’s it like?

Who knows? Moving Out isn’t available until the end of the month, but you can play the demo which features four playable levels, that won’t be featured in the final product:

• The mandatory tutorial
• Holly’s Home
• Dread Manor
• Packmore River

But whoa there, Nelly – what’s it about?

You take part as one of the employees of Smooth Moves the removal company. 

Throwing you into an intensive training regime which has you dragging sofas, throwing fragile boxes and slapping ghosts, the aim is to have you F.A.R.T. accredited:

• F – Furniture
• A – Arrangement
• R – Relocation
• T – Technician

With up to four players in co-op, the aim of the game is to transfer removal items to your truck to be taken away. Like the sound of that? How about Totally Reliable Delivery Service on Steam?

The controls are intuitive such as left stick to move, right to aim and B to jump, but there are also a few other tricks at your disposal such as catching items with ZL, grabbing them with ZR and hitting any threats with the Y button.

You can’t get a game over from being hit or falling into the water as you’ll respawn – from a box – but it will affect your time, and the goal here is to do it in the fastest time to obtain a Gold, Silver or Bronze respectively.

Aside from the timer, there are a few other challenges as not breaking the windows, or breaking them all anyway.

The physics in Moving Out are great and larger objects handle well.

You can’t throw a bed, and you’ll have a classic moment of turning bulkier objects around many times to fit through a door frame.

Or you could throw them out the window.

Of the available shortcuts, you can Jackie Chan your way through a glass plane, or throw a toaster from inside the living room onto the waiting removal truck – it’s ace.

Speaking of ace, my first character was a toaster, and throughout each level there would either be toast popping up all over the place or it would get stuck, turning black.

You could say, he was out to earn a crust.

Me

Moving Out was made for the Nintendo Switch – sure, it’s out for every major platform, but it looks like a Nintendo release.

The graphics are fantastic, and the colour palette looks like Pokémon Sword and Shield – which is a good thing.

On the other hand, the music is dreadful and the only real negative to comment on at this stage. 

Having the option to play with a friend is also a bonus, but if you’re really popular, you can have three friends join you!

I only had the one friend available, and I forced them as they were family, but only through the idea of ‘review this game with me’.

The moment they played, they were hooked, and we were both gutted that we couldn’t play other levels or features.

That will have to wait.

It was a bit like the sandbox element of Totally Reliable Delivery Service, where we did our own thing – the only penalty being the timer.

The timer is just about right.

In the first level, Holly’s Home, it took a while to develop a strategy, i.e. stacking up the larger items first makes it a much more efficient process.

When it came to Dread Manor, I’d managed to get everything on the truck well within Gold, but two of the items on board were haunted chairs, and they escaped from the truck bed, meaning I had to chase them down again!

The final level is a nod to Frogger, and there’s even a little cameo too. 

In other words, there’s bound to be variations to the moving aspect when it comes to level design, and I’m keen to see how this plays out.

In summary, Moving Out is a very realistic simulator as not only did the removal team break a number of objects, but you’ll see a very evident trail detailing every area they walked.

Moving Out is released on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC on the 28th April.