Cities: Skylines is one of those games I love the idea of but in practice I’m neither creative nor strategic enough to have a proper long-term vision for my builds. Despite my own shortcomings though I always enjoyed my time with the game when it originally released on home consoles back in 2017, and even spent a good 20 hours with the original Switch version, where I was able to overlook the fairly egregious technical issues because the portable factor outweighed them. I’m pleased to say that Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition takes a game we all know is good and finally gives it the handheld version it deserves.
If you’ve somehow never heard of Cities: Skylines then it’s basically a spiritual successor to SimCity. Your job is to take an empty plot of land and transform it from a quaint hamlet to a bustling metropolis. The game does a good job of doling out tutorials and new things to experiment with, and while the game is always a little overwhelming (even as someone who’s played a lot of it), there’s a good rhythm to it as you bring more people into your settlement which then unlocks new infrastructure elements to increase your size and scope, taking you to the next unlock milestone.
There’s almost too much to talk about, especially as my focus was mainly on Switch 2 performance. You’re responsible for every facet of your city though, from ensuring suitable education and health provisions for your citizens to zoning decisions, building transit systems and keeping traffic flowing (which is always my downfall). Things quickly snowball, and you’ll find yourself needing to keep citizens happy by providing the public services they expect while also balancing the books and ensuring proper taxation is bringing in enough money for you to continue expanding.
Sandbox mode now lets you build on up to 25 tiles, up from the 9 the OG Switch was capped at, so you really do have the opportunity to make some mega cities if you’re skilled enough, complete with expansive suburbs and industrial districts. The appeal of these games to me is that they’re almost like digital versions of model villages, so I love being able to get down to ground level and see my creations as the virtual citizens do. Cities: Skylines not only lets you pan the camera down but you can even drive or walk around your city, which I always found very cool.
Controls are intuitive, although I still find the HUD a bit bewildering at times, as there can be multiple menus to use for each tool, which can make it confusing trying to get the perfect roads in place. Controlling the cursor can also be quite finicky too as the tuning is perhaps a tad sensitive.
I can’t remember if this was in the original Switch version, but holding LB gives you a precision mode which slows down the cursor and makes selecting small on-screen elements much easier, and I made regular use of it. Interestingly the Switch 2 version gives full mouse and keyboard controls too, however this isn’t something I was able to test. As someone who either plays in handheld or sat on the sofa with the console docked to the TV, I’m not sure when this option would ever come in handy, but I’m sure it’s nice for the players that want it.
The original Switch version was an ambitious port but unfortunately was plagued by Vaseline-smeared visuals and an erratic framerate, so I was glad to see things on the Switch 2 version are significantly improved. Visuals can be a little blurry when you’re zoomed right in but whether you’re using Graphics or Performance mode the framerate seems a lot more stable.
To be honest, it’s stable enough at 30fps on Graphics mode, even in large cities, that I didn’t see the point in Performance mode, where I didn’t notice it get much smoother. Regardless of your choice though you should find this much more palatable than the original version.
You’re also no longer limited to just the base game, with 10 DLC’s included in the package bringing new tools for nighttime building, snowy weather, parks and harbours along with additional map packs to play with. There’s a whole lot of content here, and with enhanced performance I think Switch 2 is probably one of the best places to play thanks to the portable format.
Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition is as good a game as it always has been, and a great fit for Nintendo’s hybrid handheld. Performance is much-improved, it’s added a bunch of DLC and thrown in a few quality of life enhancements for good measure, and at the end of the day that’s all that’s needed.
