It’s encouraging to see that the game developers like Ohana Games are doing their bit by taking a more educational and socially responsible role in producing a fun game on recycling. The concept itself may be a bit strange, but the gameplay is decent enough to make you forget that you’re actually performing something as routine as sorting out trash!

You start the game working at a Recycling Center set up by Mia, a tourist who chanced upon a landfill while holidaying on an exotic island. Casual games developers seem to have a thing for tourists on exotic islands, it seems. It’s probably their subconscious selves yelling at them to take a break, but I digress. Not all games rely on stories after all.

The game is easy enough to pick up and understand. Trash comes down a conveyer belt. You collect the same types of trash and put it into the cleaner. Once that’s done, compress the refuse and send them off to their respective trucks. It does feel like being in school and having your teachers make you separate your trash into paper products, glass, tin and plastic. Why do it in real life if you can do it in a game?

The reward system in this game is equally as unusual. You’ll have the occasional scatterbrain who accidentally throws his family’s heirloom into the trash and you get to pick these up for extra points. There’s even an iPod or two thrown in there sometimes! Mighty strange. Earning enough points per level allows you to upgrade your recycling center by buying more conveyer belts, cleaners and compressors. You hardly feel rewarded because it seems like you’ll have more and more garbage to process!

This game looks and feels decent enough. The types of item that come through the belt are easy to recognize thanks to its sharp, clean design. One thing that bothered me was the fact that the sound in the game did not prompt me much, so I could actually play it even without the speakers on.

Recyclorama is a well done in spite of its strange premise. I foresee a lot of kids and even adults spending hours on this game without even realizing that all the while, they’re going through something as mundane as recycling. It’s a fun tool to educate people of the need to be more environmentally conscious.

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