JCB Pioneer: Mars

JCB Pioneer: Mars is slow-paced and won’t be for everyone. There’s a lack of real excitement – this is more about the long game as you build up a base – very, very slowly.

With limited textures, resolution and gameplay, JCB Pioneer: Mars comes to the survival games catalog on Nintendo Switch with a terrible quality in all its aspects.

In spite of a fairly interesting and unique set piece, JCB Pioneer: Mars never quite manages to take advantage of its Martian background. Detrimentally slow pacing, performance issues, and a shallow gameplay loop, all work to break down what should be a memorable survival title into just another piece of shovelware coasting by on a solid premise. Worst of all, it is incomplete as of its release, still being sold as an Early Access title on Steam. It's not impossible that it will have its (very) rough edges softened with time, but the possibility of playing a complete and well made game eventually hardly justifies a purchase.

The concept of JCB Pioneer: Mars, in isolation, is potentially interesting. The Switch version, however, presents so many obstacles to gameplay that I feel comfortable calling it unplayable. The release of games like this and ARK: Survival Evolved draw into question the existence of Nintendo’s quality control. Products like this are an embarrassment to Nintendo’s digital offerings.