This is not a tongue-in-cheek game that pokes loving fun at PC building enthusiasts it is a sim, and a pretty good sim at that. There’s a tutorial that helps teach you the ropes, but this game is clearly aimed at those who are already familiar with the basic concepts behind PC construction. If you can manage to work past the clumsy controls, there’s fun to be had here if you’re the kind of person who likes building PCs. Suffice it to say, touch controls don’t really work any better and arguably hurt the overall experience. Even if you could, if you accidentally touch something that’s not meant to be interacted with, the touch will be registered as camera control in the 3D space and your view will instantly snap off to the side. In addition, you can use touch controls when playing in tablet mode, but the game is so small on the touch screen that you can’t really see what you’re doing. For example, when using the PC, your mouse pointer will slowly “snap” to a nearby icon, which is helpful. Some thought was put into this by the developers, it seems. Whether you’re trying to get the mouse cursor to hover over the tiny clip that holds in a RAM chip, unplug a thin wire running from your CPU to your power supply, or double-clicking desktop PC icons to read email or run a virus scan, everything about this game revolves around the mouse. What feels natural when playing the game on PC feels like a chore at best when playing on the Switch, and it’s the user interface for almost the entire experience. Having played the PC version of the game before, I was excited to see a Switch release, but moments after I fired up the game with my Pro Controller I remembered something about PC Building Simulator that should have probably curbed my excitement in the first place: you will be spending a lot of time moving a mouse cursor around the screen with the analog stick. You will be spending 95% of your time either reading email, shopping for components, or working on PCs.

There are upgrades you can buy, like a second workbench or a cabinet to put computers, but none of it changes the core gameplay. In the office, you’ll find a computer you can use to run your business (take orders, shop for parts, test out software) and a workbench for working on customers’ PCs. The entirety of the game takes place in a one-room office with an adjacent hallway.

Pc builder game reviews