EA Sports FC 24 Nintendo Switch review

EA Sports FC 24 on Nintendo Switch is really good. I know that’s a strange way to start a review, but to say “I’m as surprised as anyone”, would be a massive understatement. After years of EA Sports basically ignoring and, frankly, being borderline insulting to the Nintendo Switch audience with repeated roster updates and repackaging a years-old game as new, perhaps the fresh start for the football game series itself has benefitted Nintendo players as well.

Rather than labour the point further, it’s worth noting that EA Sports FC 24 on Nintendo Switch contains all the bells and whistles of its bigger brother counterparts (Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5), with one major caveat: halving the frame rate. Make no mistake, jumping from the latest generation to EA Sports FC 24 on Nintendo Switch will take some adjusting to. At 30fps the game is more than playable, but it’s noticeable if you’ve played any other version. Your eyes will adjust, of course, and the frame rate is far better on the eyes if you’re playing handheld, but it’s there, it’s a thing, and it’s the major reason that it looks half as good as it does.

Now, again, I’m not going to pretend it looks as good as the PS5 version (and if you want a full review of the new features, etc, you can read our PS5 review, here), but it does look surprisingly good, all told. Player likenesses are there, and there’re no occasions where you feel as though the screen has been smeared with butter right over your favourite pro’s face. Up close and personal, during replays, things look good. And I know it seems I’m constantly damning with faint praise, but there’s good reason for cynicism when it comes to football games on Nintendo Switch.

That said, you will notice the crowd doesn’t look right. But I think given how many hours are spent playing a game like EA Sports FC 24 on Nintendo Switch, you aren’t going to worry too much about that. All told: no, it’s not perfect, but it’s still incredibly surprising to see it looking this good on hardware this old, and even more so after so many missed opportunities over the years. By all accounts FC 24 is running at 1080p docked, and 720p in handheld, and I might be nit-picking here but I’d have loved a chance to set a performance mode to get a few extra frames at the cost of dropping resolution. But again, it’s still a marvel that it runs as well as it does at all.

Jumping to the latest engine means that if you have been playing FIFA every year on Switch, you’re going to be taken aback at the changes to the gameplay. While it’s been incremental for everyone else who’s been playing the past few years on Xbox or PlayStation, the new HyperMotion Engine upgrades are rendered here just as well. It’s a slower game, with all the new PlayStyles in place, the latest changes to Ultimate Team, Career mode… it’s the full game. And again, I know how bad that might sound, but for those who have wanted a full FIFA, or in this case EA Sports FC 24 on Nintendo Switch for years, this is actually the one.

It’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for EA Sports to do it, but I can finally recommend a Switch version of its flagship football game. I wonder what the future will bring, of course, not least because this year’s game is slower than previous titles, and so the 30fps doesn’t harm it as much as it perhaps could. I can’t pretend I don’t notice the drop to half the frame rate either. Some will have no issue with it, but spending some time with it certainly helps.

And look, it’s not perfect either. The menus seem to have latency not present in other versions, and for those of you who smash through the Ultimate Team menus to get where you want to go in record time, it’ll be a minor issue to contend with. All told, though, Switch owners can finally feel like they have a proper option when it comes to one of the biggest games of the year, and that’s worth shouting about. Now, EA, keep this going, please.