New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers (2017)

Frontier Days could have been a great title on the Switch if they spent some real time to develop it. The fast paced nature of the game can be fun at times, but it's ultimately rage inducing because the game is not optimized for the style of game that it's trying to be. If you got $10 to kill and you really want a town builder on the go, it might be worth checking out. Otherwise it's not worth your time.

The shame of it all rests in that Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers isn't broken. It functions perfectly fine. This means that it was developed in such a way that it was left a bland, emotionless husk of what it was trying to imitate. For a game without microtransactions, it manages to feel like a tremendous cash grab. While it's easy to say any game was made with love in it, this feels like it was terribly misplaced.

Bringing New Frontier Days to the Nintendo Switch opens the doors to a new genre on this system and while some elements of this conversion, such as its long lifespan and controls, are very welcome, others will fall short of expectations. The game doesn't grab the players' interest into captivating them to spend more time with New Frontier Days and the audiovisual side definitely needs some reworking, which adds up to a title that had potential but becomes a tad disappointing.

New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers kickstarts a genre's presence on Nintendo Switch that I would like to see plenty more of. Shallow in execution and with little to keep you returning once you have built up your town from scratch, this largely average city builder needs to re-examine its foundations.

The first simulation title for the Switch, New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers is a mixed effort with a barnyard full of blusters. It’s a decently priced romp at $9.99, but its lack of customization and odd control scheme may turn off those who want a quality farming game.