One thing I’ve been looking forward to with the Switch 2 is seeing games from the PS4 and Xbox One era, as well as more recent titles I might have missed for one reason or another, getting a second chance to shine. The system’s hardware feels like a particularly good fit for bringing over games designed around those once powerful consoles, giving them a new lease on life with a portable twist.

Frontier Developments’ many park management simulators were among the games I expected to eventually make their way to the system, especially the Jurassic World Evolution series. I figured the priority would be its latest entry, 2025’s Jurassic World Evolution 3, but surprisingly, that’s not what we got. Instead, Frontier decided to bring over its predecessor, Jurassic World Evolution 2.

You can, in theory, spare no expense… as long as you’re in sandbox mode.

Jurassic World Evolution 2, as well as any other game from the series, revolves around managing an Animal Kingdom-esque touristic attraction, but with many additional layers of complexity and, for the lack of a better term, tension. You aren’t simply tasked with building a zoo or a park with animals: you are tasked with creating environments for freaking dinosaurs. That means you have to create environments for them, actively search them in the wild with a jeep or helicopter, capture them, and ensure they enjoy their habitat enough to the point of not wanting to blow everything to smithereens. At the same time, you wanna make money out of this endeavor, so you have to build amenities and make this park interesting enough for tourists.

In essence, it’s Planet Zoo, but with more action, and more complexity. For instance, in my first run, I had just a few prebuilt fences and a task of capturing a triceratops running wild in the Arizonan desert. I built the necessary operational buildings (generators, task team headquarters, helipads, and so on), hopped in a chopper, actually piloted it with surprisingly competent controls, shot them with tranquilizers in yet another change of gameplay and perspective, then transported them to a fenced enclosure. I then created a feeding station, added rocks and trees, and then added a few other dinosaurs in order to keep them comfortable and socialized. That’s expensive, so I also had to think about making amenities on the side, attracting tourists and generating cash flow.

If there’s one thing I love about the Jurassic Park franchise, it’s that they never bothered to cover dinosaurs with feathers.

After a while, you can create labs that will research and incubate lab-grown species. Because humanity simply cannot stop playing god for a second. And thus is the gameplay loop: start off by hunting down a few species, start earning some cash, invest in your park, add more species further down the line, research upgrades, and have a team ready to take care of rebellious dinos every now and then. All while Jeff Goldblum narrates your exploits, in the most soothing voice that only he can deliver. I guess Bryce Dallas Howard is present here as well, but, like, when you have Jeff Goldblum around, who the hell cares.

It’s a niche gameplay loop, and not the kind of accessibility seen in a game like Planet Zoo or Planet Coaster, but it has its many merits. Furthermore, this package is really robust. Not only does it feature a sizeable main campaign, as well as a sandbox mode (where you can literally spare no expense, like Hammond would say), but it also includes the Chaos Theory mode, full of what-if scenarios taken from all Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies.

Jeff Goldblum is always, and I do mean always, the best part of whatever piece of media he’s in.

Considering this is a management simulator, a game where you’ll spend most of your time perusing through menus and dragging and dropping assets on the ground, one would expect for this game to be a perfect game for the Switch 2, thanks to the fact you can use its joycons as a PC mouse. And while it is fun, running well and looking fine enough, Frontier did not add this seemingy obvious feature to this particular port. Controlling a management sim with a controller is fine, sure, but why wasn’t that included in this Switch 2 port? We are talking about a game released a year after the launch of the Switch 2, after all. Jurassic World Evolution 2 could, and should, have had this feature added.

Helicopter and jeep controls are simple, but intuitive.

All in all, sinful lack of mouse support aside, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a pretty solid park and wildlife simulator that looks and runs well enough on Switch 2, filling a niche that had been sorely lacking in the system’s library thus far. The sheer amount of content, engaging gameplay loop, and added benefit of portability are more than enough to keep you busy for hours on end. And, of course, there’s the soothing voice of Jeff Goldblum occasionally telling you that you’re doing a good job. Is there anything better than that?

Jurassic World Evolution 2 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch 2.

Reviewed on Switch 2.

A copy of Jurassic World Evolution 2: Complete Edition was provided by the publisher.