Drill Core Switch Review

Drill Core Switch Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 

I’ve become quite a fan of roguelites like Ball X Pitt and tower defence games like Bean Beasts during my time at What’s It Like?. These are the kinds of games that rarely leave my SD card, often filling those shorter gaps between the bigger AAA titles in my review schedule. So when Drill Core popped up on the eShop, I had to take a closer look. A hybrid of tower defence and roguelite mechanics, it immediately felt like something that could fit right into that rotation. The question is whether it strikes gold or hits rock bottom. What’s it like? Deploy your platform, manage your crew, and prepare to dig deep as we review Drill Core on the Nintendo Switch.

Drill Core presents a really interesting premise. You work for a mega corporation that uses heavy drilling equipment to dig down into the centres of procedurally generated, lifeless planets, with the goal of launching a core to bring them back to life. Your job is to manage both your crew and your platform in a hybrid gameplay loop built around three key areas: the platform, the defence, and the mining. The roguelite progression comes from successfully extracting from a planet. Doing so earns you currency, which can then be used to select specific departments that offer unique buildings and abilities to help on your next run. Some of these can be quite impactful, like resurrecting a fallen worker and sending them straight back onto their shift, while others are smaller upgrades, such as visibility boosts or minor enhancements that just make things a bit easier.

The platform acts as your base of operations. Here, you will build barracks to recruit workers, research stations, and a range of structures that grant abilities during both the day and night. You can also construct buildings that buff your workers or help defend them while they are mining below the platform.

Mining is a much more hands-on part of the experience. You will be marking out blocks for your workers to dig through, uncovering valuable resources or, at times, dangerous creatures. There are three main unit types to manage: miners who drill through blocks, collectors who transport resources back to the platform, and soldiers who deal with any threats lurking underground. Once night falls, everything shifts, and your crew retreats back to the platform as the third phase of the loop begins.

This is where the tower defence aspect comes into play. Waves of creatures descend into the pit you have been digging, all aiming to destroy your core. You can place turrets in key locations and rely on your platform’s defensive structures to hold the line. Each night becomes more intense, with stronger enemies appearing, eventually leading to boss encounters that will quickly overwhelm you if you are not prepared.

This balance between the three gameplay phases keeps each day cycle engaging. The mining side can sometimes feel a little tedious, especially when you are constantly marking out blocks, but those moments are offset by the satisfaction of securing enough resources for a major upgrade or finding that last piece of coal needed to push deeper. There are also some gameplay decisions to make. Do you rush toward the objective, drilling down quickly and extracting early, or take a slower, more methodical approach to build up a stronger, more capable platform? Combined with the procedurally generated planets, this creates a gameplay loop that stays entertaining… when it works.

It’s a real shame to say, but when it comes to performance on the Nintendo Switch, Drill Core hits bedrock after just a few missions. Across my time with the game, I experienced more than 15 crashes back to the home screen. At one point, it became so unstable that I could not even start a mission at all. The only workaround I found was to uninstall and reinstall the game, then launch it in handheld mode before switching back to docked. Even then, stability was far from reliable. After completing missions, the game would often crash again, forcing a full restart and leaving me hoping it would not crash while simply selecting a mission or adjusting difficulty. Handheld mode does seem to have a slightly higher success rate when it comes to actually getting into a mission, but that is hardly a solution. On top of the crashes, there are frequent pauses during autosaves when drilling to a new level, which interrupts the flow of play. Tooltips that appear upon reaching certain depths also cannot be dismissed, blocking a large portion of the screen and getting in the way of gameplay. These are the kind of issues that could be addressed with updates, but in its current state, it is going to be a hard sell for Drill Core on Switch, even with its great gameplay. It is also worth noting that all of these issues occurred while playing on a Switch 2 system, which makes the situation even more disappointing. In my opinion, Drill Core would be scored in the 80/100 range if these issues weren’t there.

When the game does work, it is presented in a gorgeous pixel art style that really suits the style of play. Character sprites are full of charm and personality, and it reminded me a lot of Metal Slug at times in terms of visuals. Planet variation mainly comes in the form of biomes like rocky, frozen, or jungle types, and enemies change accordingly depending on the planet you are on. Buildings and turrets also make the platform look really cool as it develops over time, gradually turning it into a busy and fortified base. Overall, I really enjoyed the visual style of the game, despite the performance issues.

At just under $30 AUD, Drill Core should have been a no-brainer. It has an excellent gameplay loop, a striking visual style, and a strong premise. I wanted to love this game, but unfortunately, the current hassle of having to start in handheld mode and hope it does not crash when switching to docked makes it a hard sell. I am confident this issue will be fixed as soon as possible, and tinyBuild is usually on top of these things. As it stands, Drill Core stalls in docked mode before you can even start your expedition, and it is a shame, because there is a fantastic game to be played here. For now, though, it is best to wait for an update.

So, What’s it Like? Drill Core is like drilling down into tower defence.

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