FIFA 18 (Nintendo Switch)

Product Information

It must be difficult for publishers and developers to turn a negative into a positive, but sometimes the excuses are so odd our eyebrows can’t help ascending skyward. As a first attempt at releasing FIFA on Switch, EA has nailed the look and feel and given us a brilliant console and (more notably) handheld game.

I agree that it won't hold up next year, but this year it ticks off an important market segment that Nintendo has left abandoned since the DS. This review even says in its conclusion that "EA Bucharest gets the benefit of the doubt this time". In addition to unique control and gameplay features, as well as a robust FIFA Ultimate Team, players can participate in Local Seasons across two Switch consoles, as well as Kick-Off mode, Career Mode, Online Seasons, Tournaments, Women’s International Cup and Skill Games.

FIFA World Cup™ Player Pool: Featuring up-to-date squads from every qualified nation with refreshed ratings, FIFA World Cup™ Ultimate Team gives you everything you need to build your international dream squad.

Thanks to a revised chemistry system, FIFA World Cup™ ICONS, and dynamic player items related to the real-world tournament, FIFA World Cup™ Ultimate team lets you build your dream international squad. Online Seasons: Compete against other Nintendo Switch players online and track your divisional progress as you push to get promoted and ultimately win the championship.Yes, you read that correctly; although there are online modes available you cannot actually invite your online chums into a friendly match.

So while FIFA 18 on Switch is a tentative and far from perfect version of this worldy of a sports sim, it in no way deserves the hammering it has been taking from elsewhere so I hope this redresses the balance somewhat. FIFA 18 on Nintendo Switch is the best FIFA you can take with you anywhere, play anytime and with anyone,” said FIFA 18 Producer, Andrei Lăzărescu. To me the gameplay seems to be more responsive and the ball less rubberband-ed to the player's feet than past FIFAs and Fifa18 on PS4.

Reviews have somewhat harshly labelled FIFA as a poor relation to its home console cousin and again if you are looking at it in black and white and judging it as a home console game then there is no escaping that fact. So let’s not go too overboard: it’s clear that at least some work has gone into optimising the game for Switch and ensuring there’s at least some new content in there for the system. Hmm butt hurt over vita, it was dead sales wise ages ago, yet still it gets games, very strange for a dead machine. You can also split the Joy-Con and play in tabletop mode, but the reduced number of buttons severely limits how you play, with skill and finesse shots glaringly absent. FIFA tends to lag behind PES in this regard on all systems, but it's honestly pretty terrible looking when docked on Switch.