Paleo Pines

Given the amount of games in the genre hitting Switch lately, Paleo Pines does enough to stand out with its dinosaur and ranching elements. After a few patches iron out some of the performance issues, Paleo Pines will be an easier recommendation, though it is quite good even in its current state. The relaxed pace and ease of play make this a great entry point game for a younger audience as well.

Paleo Pines is a delightful, dino-filled romp through the farming sim genre that skillfully blends real paleontology with cutesy, cottagecore aesthetics and motifs. It’s a little wobbly on the Switch but it’s still full of wholesomeness and charm.

If you enjoy simulation farming games and want to see some adorable dinos, then this game is a solid choice. However, you will need patience, or else you will have short playtime sessions.

From my overall experience with Paleo Pines, I had the most fun when discovering and befriending dinosaurs, but the rest of the game can feel like a chore at times. The jankiness of the movement makes farming more difficult than it needs to be and although the open-world section is decently sized, it has invisible boundaries on small cliffs or ledges that can break the immersion of the game world. Despite my gripes with the gameplay, the art style of the game is charming and I’m a fan of how adorable the art team rendered the dinosaurs. The world and characters also blend well together and the only real issue I had with the visuals was that the corners of the skybox could sometimes be seen and the stiffness of the human animations. Also, while doing the townspeople’s tasks, which can be a bit fetch-questy, it becomes noticeable how empty certain sections of the game world are. However, the prospect of getting more dinos to live on your ranch is what warrants launching the game up at least a couple times.