When Cities: Skylines was announced as an incoming port to the Nintendo Switch, fans of the series were excited that their favorite city builder was now coming to a portable gaming console. However, the product that launched seems to fall so far short of expectations that many are saying it should never have been ported in the first place.

A History of Cities: Skylines

Developer Paradox Interactive has had a smash hit in Cities: Skylines game on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Especially on a powerful gaming rig, the game can really show off the potential for creating a large-scale, detailed city, and zooming down to the individual streets highlights further the polish of the graphics. As of 2019, six million copies had been sold across those three platforms and is considered both a critical and commercial success.

Via: Youtube.com (CultOfMush)

When the announcement was made for the Nintendo Switch, many were skeptical that the hardware limitations in the portable console would be able to handle the gameplay. However, recent successful ports of game like God Eater 3, Skyrim, and incoming ones that look stellar like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, were referenced to alleviate concerns. If these recent and upcoming ports could work on the Switch, why not Cities: Skylines?

A Rocky Launch And Frustrated Players

Frustration mounted quickly as all the fears about the port were affirmed at the launch of the game. The frame rate suffered once a city was built up, the game lacked any touchscreen functionality - which seems bizarre considering the hardware being available - and the level of detail of even small towns is jarringly low. Zooming into the streets makes one think they have traveled back in time to the late 1990s with the blocky environments of GoldenEye 007. Yes, you can tell the buildings apart, but the shift from attractive design to merely functional blocks leaves an awful taste in one’s mouth after having played any of the other game releases.

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Poor Performance And Poor Developer Response

Framerate becomes an issue almost immediately when playing the game. Upon starting, some users were reporting about 30 FPS, but this seems to slow considerably as the game goes on and a city expands. By the time one reaches a medium city, to say nothing of aiming for a large metropolis, the FPS crawls to between 10 and 20.

Worse still is that Tantalus, the team behind the port to the Switch, seems content to blame consumers for expecting the game to look and run as it does on other systems. “The problem was some critics complained that in certain sections the game slowed down," they said in an interview with GamingRespawn. "Well…yes, it did. That’s because it was being made to run on a machine that fits in your hand rather than a machine that sits under your desk.”

Tantalus's statement implies that it was unreasonable for consumers to expect a one-to-one detailed port of a resource-heavy console game to a handheld console. At face value, yes, this would be a rather unrealistic expectation - but it was exactly what was advertised to potential customers when the port was announced. Take a look at the trailer for the game below, and then consider how a potential buyer could expect anything other than a fully-performing port of their favorite game.

Why Was This Port Even Made?

We have to ask at this point, what was the point of the port considering that the game performs best on other platforms? Is the move purely motivated by profit? It is simply that some developers see the hype and high-sales numbers for the Switch console and are determined to get a piece of that consumer pie?

We can only speculate, but it is hard to justify such a port being made in 2019 when so many other developers are leaning hard into making some outstanding ports for the limited hardware of the Switch.

Interestingly, if the game had been instead rebranded as a unique game for the Switch with its limitations advertised more honestly - sort of as a Skylines Lite - it would have performed better on the market. Fans didn't really expect the game to be a perfect port from the PC, but they were certainly angry when they were promised exactly that and then given this sloppy game.

When a developer promotes one thing and under delivers, it damages the reputation of the group in the long-term. After this debacle, fans are certain to steer clear of any ports made by the parties involved in Cities: Skylines as well as being wary of upcoming Switch ports in general.

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