Castle Renovator’ is a simulator game published by UltimateGames. This version of the game was played on the Nintendo Switch. Players will be tasked with accepting quests to renovate, clean and repair properties which is very similar to ‘House Flipper’ titles.

The game starts off by placing you in front of a run-down plot of land with a quest board as you accept the quest it will slowly teach you the ways of cleaning and building. These skills you are able to take back to the plot of land as you make your own home. The quests are quite simple; you go to someone’s land, pick up their trash, clean their stains, and sometimes fix up a thing or two. They get a bit more complex as time goes on, going from cleaning up areas to straight-up building things.

Each time you complete a request, you get money and some resources to take back with you, and through this it allows you to build your own property as mentioned above. As you progress further, you are able to expand your land and start renting out property for a steady income of gold while working on the other supplies needed with tasks.

While undergoing quests you will have a handy and helpful checklist that will guide you as you play. An extra section on the list will mention if there are hidden chests to be found which will reward you with gold. As you are working, any leftover items such as wood can be transformed such as becoming a crate of wood that you are able to bring back with you by placing it on the wagon attached to your horse.

In between quests, I would suggest making sure you unload it to the warehouse that you will be introduced to as there has been a few times I forgot and lost some supplies due to it. Although, there are different quests it all became quite repetitive, as most simulators do.

The controls can feel a bit miss matched to most universal controls but it is easy to adjust too. When you are looking at something either to pick up or clean, the button needed to interact will be displayed which keeps it on an easy-to-play level for all aged players. I played both in handheld and docked with a Switch Pro Controller and as always will suggest using the controller as it never feels more cramped with hand room.

The visuals for Castle Renovator are not the most top-tier thing you will see. It is fairly low budget, in terms of the environment and the buildings however, when you are doing your own designs and making your castles how you want despite the visual output, you will still feel proud of the work you have done and see it as perfection.

In terms of audio, I was left feeling very lonely with no music present. It is a really silent game in that sense. When building you will hear the construction noises when you place a segment down but it is quickly followed by the silence that is in the game, so bring your own music to be supplied here for the relaxing time ahead.

In conclusion, Castle Renovator does take ‘House Flipper’ and expands what is used by giving us more land and a fantasy twist that you could build up a castle and rent it out, but sadly that is all that really changed in comparison to the other games like this. It plays the same and with the lack of audio and low visual graphics, it is hard to ignore the flaws of the game. If it had more unique changes and ambiance to outway the flaws it would be a much better experience that didn’t feel so repetitive.

Written by: Shane Walsh