Trash Sailors Switch Review – Garbage In, Garbage Out

Trash Sailors is a hand drawn cooperative sailing adventure from fluckyMachine and tinyBuild Games. It is a bizarre concept, where the waters around you are just brimming with trash that you use to repair your boat. In many ways similar to Overcooked, Trash Sailors puts you in ridiculous scenarios where teamwork is key, and that is awesome for the co-op and unfortunate for the single player.

So is Trash Sailors a great multiplayer experience on the Nintendo Switch? Or do these sailors need to go down with their trash ships? Let’s find out!

Well, the world has been rubbished by a giant Trash Tsunami, which has left trash all over the place, floating around just waiting to get picked up and used for your own desires. Trash is now officially your main resource, and its value knows no bounds. You can recycle it into fuel, raft spare parts, and even weapons for the journey! But beware of swamp crocodiles, toxic sharks, arctic pirates, and other hazards that will sink your trash boat en route to victory.

What can be said about Trash Sailors story other than that it barely has one, and what is revealed is done so masterfully with its gorgeous opening scenes. We are looking at an apocalyptic scenario where towns have been brought underwater, trash is just swimming everywhere, and the survivors are making use of the current state by finding ways to use the trash to their advantage.

This is a fun scenario to think about, and I love the creativity Trash Sailors takes as they apply this awful scenario and somehow make fun. The quirky characters you get to choose from and customize set the tone for what’s to come, and the experience is a solid one whether you are playing alone or with friends either online or locally. However, it is worth noting that the cooperative experience is absolutely where Trash Sailors plays best.

Gameplay-wise, Trash Sailors is quite interesting, as you and your team need to maneuver your way through flooded areas collecting trash, repairing your boat, and fending off any attackers. Doing this alone can be quite overwhelming, especially after the first few stages, which again reminds me heavily of Overcooked. It is not that the single player experience is bad, but managing so many things alone is a lot more stressful than it is fun. However, if you even have one extra person to play with, the difference is massive.

Stages are set up in a way that obstacles are constantly in your path, and hitting any obstacle will damage your boat. This is where your little trash compactor friend comes in handy, as you collect the trash it asks of you, and you refuel your boat as well as repair it with the trash you collect and bring to the compactor. In order to pass a stage, you have to make it to the end without your boat falling apart or all members becoming incapacitated, and each part of the boat basically has set amounts of “health”, so once a part is gone completely, it usually takes three rounds of repairs to bring it back to standard.

In multiplayer scenarios, divvying up responsibilities and sticking to them is what will ultimately keep your boat afloat. Ideally, in a four-player game, one person steering, one person fishing for trash, one person repairing, and one person fighting off baddies is the best scenario, but in games with less players, pulling off double-duty is standard. This is again even worse in single player, as all responsibilities are on one player controlling two characters. I appreciate when cooperative games still cater to single player gamers, but there needs to be better balancing in games like this so the solo player does not feel overwhelmed within the first few stages.

There are various side quests within each stage, particularly the collecting of maps that gives you access to further stages, but one thing that needs to be discussed is the combat. This is probably the most frustrating area of the game, because it just does not feel good. Lining up hits is clunky, and there is no indication as to how much damage you are dealing. It is a cool concept, though, as it is a specific and necessary job in certain stages, but I think Trash Sailors is already overwhelming without the need for enemies and combative scenarios.

The highlight of the entire game, though, is the absolutely outstanding and beautiful artwork. To be honest, this is what is so disappointing with some of the gameplay, because I thoroughly enjoy just looking at all of the neat art in Trash Sailors. The little details like the patch marks on the boat and the fabric used from chairs is really fun, and I love the different stages, how they look, and even how they differentiate themselves from previous ones. There is so much stunning artwork here, and the chaotic look of four different players scrambling with all the mess that is floating all around is wildly satisfying to look at.

The soundtrack and even the effects could have been better. I would have loved to see this area match up to the gorgeous art style, but what we got instead is a bunch of generic sound effects and music that feels very basic for this type of game. Considering the unique approach to art, having a solid soundtrack would just take the aesthetic to the next level. Unfortunately, this is just an area that lacks originality.

The whole experience is so unfortunate, because Trash Sailors has the potential to be amazing. Sadly, though, the current state leaves much to be desired. The single player experience is damn-near unplayable after a certain point, and the controls can be infuriating at times, some times even feeling unbalanced or just plain broken.

Thankfully, though, the multiplayer experience is still loads of fun despite those problems, and I do think it has the potential to be an excellent party game if some of these issues are addressed. Unfortunately, as it stands now, it is hard to recommend this one. Sure, if you are looking for a fun and even hilarious multiplayer game to play locally or online, Trash Sailors will absolutely entertain.

However, with the amount of multiplayer gems that currently exist on the Nintendo Switch eShop, it is hard to look past this trash. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and Trash Sailors is definitely trash… but the fun kind. With a little more refining and some needed balancing, it can become a treasure for all, though.

Trash Sailors Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: tinyBuild Games
Developer: fluckyMachine
Release Date: October 6th, 2022
Price: $19.99, £17.99, €19,99
Game Size: 1.2 GB