Atomicom announced that the Nintendo Switch versin of JCB Pioneer: Mars is currently available on the Nintendo eShop for those in the EU and Australia, and will launch on January 3rd, 2019 next week for North Americans for $24.99.

The game is a survival sandbox game set on the red planet, Mars. You’ll need to collect materials, gather resources, and attempt to survive against the harsh conditions.

The port on the Switch isn’t just another standard port, the team actually took time to improve the overall gameplay.

Tamsyn Hastings, designer at Atomicom mentioned in the press release, mentioning…

“We’ve taken the time to really think about how we can bring the game to the Switch market. We’ve made drastic improvements across the board; refining playability and in game experiences, implementing new explorable areas and mechanics which allow us to show more game depth than the original early access release. We hope these improvements will give players a deeper more expansive and fulfilling gameplay experience”.

A lot of the feedback was based on what was gathered from the Steam Early Access rendition of JCB Prioneer: Mars.

This includes using JCB construction equipment and materials to build up a habitat to help make a hospitable place for humans.

You’ll get your hands on a number of heavy duty equipment to construct various survival facilities to support life. This includes finding oxygen deposits, setting up defenses against some of the harsh weather and hostile storms that will threaten the overall habitat.

You’ll have to deal with dust storms, meteor strikes, electrical storms, and other environmental hazards. Surprisingly it’s not a game based around fighting and killing aliens, which is a departure from most other survival games.

You can get the game right now from the Nintendo eShop if you’re in Europe or Australia, or look for it to become available on January 3rd, in 2019 if you’re in the U.S.