Cities: Skylines – Nintendo Switch Edition

Genre: Management Sim

Players: 1

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Review:

Cities: Skylines is a Management Sim that is comparable to the Sim City series. So comparable, in fact, that when it was originally released in 2015 on PC, many pointed to it as a far superior alternative to the massively disappointing 2013 Sim City release. In the time since then, it has gotten nearly 30 DLC expansions and has been brought to multiple other platforms, with the Nintendo Switch getting a release in 2018.

So about that “Nintendo Switch Edition” subtitle this version of the game has… don’t get your hopes too high for a lot of Switch-exclusive content here. You won’t find any unique buildings or scenarios, there is zero support for motion control or the touchscreen, and while this version of the game does come packed-in with two of the expansions (After Dark and Snowfall), all of its other content is not here in any shape or form. In fact, beyond portability, the Nintendo Switch version of the game only brings two unique things to the table: more fleshed-out tutorials and HD rumble support… both of which are actually kinda’ nice, and having the rumble go off when the spot you’re about to place is ideal is a really nice touch, but let’s be honest, these two small additions hardly justify the addition of a new subtitle for this version of the game.

And of course that’s not getting into what this game sacrifices to work on the Nintendo Switch in terms of graphics and performance. I’m not gonna’ sugarcoat it here – when it comes to visuals, this game is rough. It definitely has its good qualities – there is a massive level of detail here, and at any time you can zoom in really close to the street level to take it all in, not just the various buildings, but the people, the traffic, and the hustle and bustle of the city, and at least that much is all impressive. However, to get all of that to fit on the Nintendo Switch, the resolution took a huge hit, textures are constantly popping in and out, and the framerates frequently shudder under the weight of it all. Thankfully this is not a game that requires a steady framerate to play, but it’s a damn shame when you can clearly see the game struggling to play on your Nintendo Switch, especially once you’ve spent a good amount of time building up your city.

Despite the technical difficulties this game has on the Nintendo Switch, its high quality still shines through in its gameplay – this is an absolutely phenomenal city building game, giving players a lot of freedom to construct their dream city, with the option of playing within a budget and with gradual progression that unlocks as you go, or the ability to turn off either or both of these to turn the game into your own free-for-all sandbox.

However, it bears mention that this is also a very technical city builder. Your populace needs roads leading to residential areas that house them, some way to get to commercial areas to shop and industrial areas to work, everything needs to be connected to electricity and plumbing, coverage from police, medical, and fire services, as well as a nearby cemetery to collect the deceased. Your residents care about noise in their living area as well as pollution, industrial zones will complain if the populace isn’t providing enough workers or if those workers don’t have good access to education, they may also complain if they don’t have good access to supplies from supply routes, traffic is simulated on a ground level meaning that areas that become gridlocked will do so in real time, stopping up workers’ commutes and services… the game thankfully gets you used to all of these rules gradually, but it’s a lot to juggle, and I have only just detailed a fraction of it.

I’d like to focus on the commute a bit more, because clearly this is one of the passions of the development team (this game actually originated from a game that was all about managing traffic routes and commute). It’s not initially clear to players just how much they’re expected to micromanage some of this game’s elements. Take buses, for example – players can’t just set up bus depots in an area and expect that to do anything. No, after doing that, they need to establish bus routes. And they can’t just draw a line and call it a day, they need to set up the route in a complete circuit, and not only that, but also establish bus stops, and if they want buses to go both directions, they need to establish a second route going the opposite way, going over all of that as well. Want to make a subway? You can’t just set up the metro stops, you have to set up the actual subway tunnels connecting them, as well as the routes they’ll take through those tunnels. Seriously, if you really want to perfect your city, you’ll be spending hours working on these tiny details, and the game kinda’ demands that of you, too, at least if you want the game’s pop-ups to stop hassling you about traffic.

However, this is one area of the game where one of the game’s biggest flaws (beyond its graphics) rears its ugly head the most – while the game’s creators have done a mostly solid job bringing the mouse and keyboard controls of the PC game to a gamepad, this game can get extremely finicky when it comes to targeting just the right spot, and it can be a real pain to get the game to detect what you’re trying to do, and this is most evident when you’re trying to set up bus routes. However, it rears its ugly head in other places too, sometimes making a simple act like trying to place a road an exercise in frustration. At one point, I wanted to change the location of a freeway connecting to the outside world, and upgrade it in the process to something with noise barriers – the game absolutely refused to recognize that the roads were connected, even when they very clearly were (cars were driving on them and everything!).

Do I think Cities: Skylines on the Nintendo Switch is a disaster? Absolutely not – despite its very severe flaws, this is still the same intensely addictive Management Sim that people fell in love with on the PC, and I got sucked into playing it for hours on end well after I felt like I had gotten enough to review it. However, I can’t give it a pass for those flaws either, as they are pretty terrible. Make no mistake, if you want a great city building game on the Nintendo Switch, you will thoroughly enjoy Cities: Skylines, but you will do so while constantly being frustrated with its technical flaws at seemingly every turn. If that sounds acceptable to you, go ahead and give this game a try. However, if you can play this game on the PC instead, it’s highly recommended that you do so.

tl;dr – Cities: Skylines is the “Sim City killer” Management Sim that took the PC by storm in 2015, and it is every bit as fun and compelling on the Nintendo Switch. However, here that fun is heavily weighed down by a slew of technical flaws that cripple the framerates, make the resolution a mess, and make the interface a temperamental pain to deal with. It’s still loads of fun, but if you can play the PC version, that is clearly the better way to go.

Grade: B-

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