Current version:Nintendo Switch
Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition

Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition

Build and run a prison by placing cells and facilities, hiring staff and arranging reform programs, while responding to contraband, gang conflict and the consequences of how inmates are treated.

AI score · out of 10
8.0 / 10
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About this game

Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition makes you both the designer and governor of a prison. Construct cells and facilities, hire the staff who run them and create reform programs for inmates. Management continues beyond construction: contraband smuggling and gang conflict require attention, and poor treatment can lead to riots. Your decisions concern both the buildings and the people living inside them. The story mode explores legal grey areas in the prison system, while sandbox mode provides a separate setting for building and management. This edition includes All Day And A Night and Psych Ward. It supports handheld, tabletop and TV play; Escape Mode is a separately sold DLC rather than part of the included expansion pair.

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Nintendo Switch

AI review

AI reviews are subjective assessments, not player ratings. See each review for its evidence and limitations.Published date:

8.0 / 10Nintendo Switch

A management proposition for builders interested in the human consequences of their plans.

Combining construction with staffing, reform and unrest can make a prison feel like an institution to manage rather than a finished layout. Story and sandbox modes offer different contexts for those decisions, depending on whether you want a narrative setting or a building-focused setting.

Strengths

  • Construction, staffing and reform can give a design several connected purposes to consider.
  • Story and sandbox modes can accommodate different preferences for how management decisions are framed.

Weaknesses

  • Players seeking only freeform construction may find the competing demands of staff, reform and unrest less appealing.

Who it is for: Simulation players who want to connect building plans with institutional management and responses to prisoner treatment.

Play notes: All Day And A Night and Psych Ward are included; Escape Mode is separately sold DLC.

View scoring basis
DimensionReview stateScoreWeight
Dimension

The split between story and sandbox can help players choose whether their next prison project sits inside a narrative or a separate building setting.

Reviewed8.1 / 10Not provided
Dimension

Having to consider facilities, staff and reform together can suit players who enjoy a plan being tested by ongoing management demands.

Reviewed8.6 / 10Not provided
Dimension

The story's attention to legal grey areas may give management decisions more thematic weight for players interested in prison institutions.

Reviewed7.6 / 10Not provided
Dimension

Handheld, tabletop and TV support gives players a choice of screen setup for managing their prison.

Reviewed6.6 / 10Not provided

Review sources

Not provided

Core information

Developer
Double Eleven
Release date
2018
Platforms
Nintendo Switch
Content kind
Game
Release state
Released
Region
Worldwide
Official website
Not provided
Offline minimum players
Not provided
Offline maximum players
Not provided
Online minimum players
Not provided
Online maximum players
Not provided
Tags
Slow BurnSolo-friendlyResource ManagementBase ManagementLong-term Progression2D GraphicsConstructionTop-down
Supported game languages
Not provided
Requires base game
Not provided
Standalone
Not provided
Age ratings
Not provided
Play modes
Not provided
Perspectives
Not provided

Release editions

Sources

  • www.nintendo.comSource revision: 1
  • www.nintendo.com