New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneer is a town building simulator that is centered around building a town, hunting, fishing, and growing crops.
General Gameplay
Micromanage your town from gathering food, wood, wool and other things to survive and get ready for the yearly harvest. The game is designed to be a true town simulator from getting supplies to keeping the pioneers happy, and other day-to-day things.
Audio
The game has a charming tune that plays in the background to give the in game world some life. There are some basic sounds like animal sounds, trees being cut and so forth. As the game has minimum dialogue there is nothing offensive in the audio for any of your gaming family members to hear. As this is a Nintendo Switch title, there is no 5.1 surround sound, but the audio from the device and SMART TV came out very clear and easy to hear. If you are playing the game on the go, it is best to use headphones as the audio can get loud from the game.
Visuals
Lots of colorful and detail are in the game from the backgrounds, to people, animals and other objects. New Frontier does a great job showcasing the visuals in the game so they can be seen. From going to the SMART TV to tablet view, there was no type of graphic distortion or sizing issues; the game looks great from both views. As the game does not support any type of colorblind mode, we did notice that some of the more lighter reds and greens were harder to see in the tablet view than on the SMART TV view. That said, it was not enough of an issue for people not to play the game.
Controls
Controls are simple; as a mobile game they are designed with an input for the commands and other buttons to open up menus that give you the information you need. There are different menus in the game but only one button is used to control the game flow. The game is designed to be more of a move-and-click style of play, as it is a Sims style of game. For newer gamers this may be a challenge at first, but in our play testing for gamers, after an hour or so they were able to play the game without any issues. The game does not need any special controllers to be used outside of the Joy-Cons but we highly recommend using a Nintendo Pro controller when playing the game.
“New Frontier Days is a unique game for the Nintendo Switch, but it takes a unique taste to appreciate the game.”
Delivery
If you’re looking for a Sims style game on the Nintendo Switch then you’ll appreciate New Frontier Days, but those who are not into the Sims style of games may find the game very difficult with lots of micromanagement throughout the game. The best thing to do is watch some videos online of the game in action to see if this is your cup of tea. Best to watch some of the clips out there and see for yourself if the game is worth your time.
Family Friendly
Being a Nintendo Switch game, New Frontier Days is designed more for the more mature gamer, or a gamer who is into Sims Style of gameplay with micromanagement. If you have gamers in your gaming family who are into this style of gameplay, then New Frontier Days is a decent game to have in your Switch library; otherwise it is best to avoid the game. One of the main reasons we feel this way is that the game is a unique style of game – it is not a platformer, shooter, adventure, or action title. It is a game in which you micromanage your resources and grow your town as you are doing this. Now we did see some fun aspects in the game when playing it with our younger gamers. I would suggest if you are looking for a good parent/child game then New Frontier Days would be a title to help you teach your young ones on how to handle multiple tasks at once. It’s a great teacher of resourcefulness, task management, etc. Also, as the game is more of a slower pace, this is a great road trip game to have for some pre-teen gamers who are looking for something challenging but nothing too dumbed-down. For special needs gamers, they had a blast playing the game as it was very involved with lots of managing resources, people, food and so forth. This was a game that our gamers with Autism and Asperger’s really liked. As all special needs gamers in our family are different, it is best to try out a demo (or view videos online) first before purchase.
Closing
New Frontier Days is a fun, Sims-style of management, however, be sure to have extra hours in your day to invest in this micromanagement game.
Be sure to listen to our podcast about our real thoughts on New Frontier Days!
