I was genuinely excited to see Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition. While I enjoyed the PS4 version back when I reviewed it in 2017, I spent a lot more time with it on Nintendo Switch. The added portability and ease of play made it perfect to just sit down and vibe with, and once the Nintendo Switch 2 came out, I was genuinely hopeful for a Switch 2 upgrade.
Alas, my wish was granted, and a finger on the Monkey’s Paw curled. Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition is a pretty lacklustre upgrade—if you can even call it that. It’s the barest of minimums that does offer a fundamentally good game with some minor enhancements, but is so close to the original “Nintendo Switch Edition” that it makes one wonder why it even exists.
“However, what seriously bums me out about Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition is just how little it tries to suit the Nintendo Switch 2’s capabilities…”
I’m being genuine when I say practically nothing has been changed from the original Cities: Skylines – Nintendo Switch Edition to this one—save for the inclusion of eight DLC packs that weren’t included in the original. Other than that, the way the game looks, feels, and plays is virtually identical. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true; the game does implement some minor QoL features, like additional details when building and UX improvements, but these changes are so minor, I honestly didn’t even notice them.
Where the game could have made changes, like a better onboarding experience, basic tutorial mode, or even added explanations to help players understand what all the little meters on the bottom of the screen are, Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition completely drops the ball. Despite the fact that it’s still a really good and genuinely engaging game, even with its upgrades, it still feels like a game from 10 years ago.
However, I really don’t want this review to skew mostly negative, so in the name of fairness, I do want to talk about some of the things I do like. As I said, I honestly feel Cities: Skylines is genuinely at its best on the Nintendo Switch—being incredibly well adapted for a console experience, and made even better by the system’s portability. Not only that, getting a Performance Mode that brings the game up to a respectable 60fps certainly makes the experience so much more enjoyable.
However, what seriously bums me out about Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition is just how little it tries to suit the Nintendo Switch 2’s capabilities—although I say that, at this point it’s so common at this point as to be expected. Here’s a game with the nerve to charge $49.99 for itself, with no upgrade path from the previous Nintendo Switch, and the two versions are virtually identical. This game doesn’t even implement the Nintendo Switch 2 mouse control—although it does support USB mouse and keyboard controls, at that point you may as well just play the PC version. Heck, you’d think it would at least have touch controls for easier handheld play—something the previous version was missing too—but I guess that was just a little too much effort to put in.
“If you didn’t get Cities: Skylines on the Nintendo Switch, there’s still a genuinely enjoyable game here…”
Visually, the game doesn’t seem to take advantage of the system either. Through all my testing, playing in both Quality and Performance looked practically identical in handheld mode, save for the obligatory 30fps the game runs at in “Quality.” While the textures are marginally more crisp when playing in docked mode, it’s barely noticeable in a game where you spend the vast majority zoomed out into the literal skyline to manage a massive city. Heck, the game doesn’t even support touchscreen functionality. As far as I can tell, all you’re getting from this “Expanded” edition is all the DLC expansions and an optional 60fps bump, so I guess the name is technically correct (the best kind of correct).
If for nothing else, Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition takes me back to a simpler time when the Nintendo Switch was brand-new, and low-effort ports were abundant. Back then, it was easy to forgive something like Knights of the Old Republic II, because the novelty of it being on the only portable system at the time was enough. But now, with the supposed power of the Nintendo Switch 2, there really isn’t any excuse for a game to re-release under the titles “enhanced” or “expanded” edition and add virtually nothing.
If you didn’t get Cities: Skylines on the Nintendo Switch, there’s still a genuinely enjoyable game here. The fundamentals are still so rock solid that I honestly can’t be too mad at it, and playing it at an adult’s frame rate certainly helps the experience. But if you’re thinking about “upgrading” to this version, seriously, save your money.
