If you have a Nintendo Switch and you love football games, you know well what the approach of Electronic Arts has been until now, which in the last five years has proposed exactly the same product on the hybrid console, limiting itself to updating the templates and try to justify this choice by simply adding the words "Legacy Edition" to the packaging.
Now, with the goodbye to the FIFA brand, the series has had to face important changes and someone thought that it was not the case to once again eliminate the Nintendo platform, with the aim of offering substantial parity of content and functionality compared to PC, PlayStation. and Xbox.
Well, how did they manage to achieve such a complex technical goal? We explain it to you in EA Sports FC 24 review for Nintendo Switch.
Structure: nothing is missing
The first thing that stands out about the Nintendo Switch version of EA Sports FC 24 is, obviously, the achievement of content parity compared to other platforms. From the home screen (which, however, already underlines the double soul of this edition, showing a not exactly splendid Haaland model) it is possible to access all the current modes of the series.
From the FC Live center to Ultimate Team, from the Technical Career to the Player Career, from Clubs to Volta Football, from Seasons (also in cooperative or local) to Tournaments, from Online Friendlies to the inevitable tutorial, to finally get to it fast. kickoff matches, absolutely nothing is missing- Enough time to download Pardo and Adani's Spanish commentary (requires approximately 1GB of additional space) and you'll be ready to go.
The fear that this list of content was a mere decoy disappears when you delve deeper into each mode, discovering that the famous Ultimate Team includes unpacking, skill tests, key moments and the curious incorporation of the women's division to give life to mixed formations, for example. so much. all but all elements seen in the other editions EA Sports FC 24.
Of course, the inability to implement crossplay (it would have been difficult for Switch users to play on equal terms with others, we will see why shortly) also led to the painful absence of a shared market, but beyond this. The depth and progression of Ultimate Team can be perceived very clearly., and the same goes for the more multifaceted modes, such as Coach Career and Player Career.
Technical sector: conversion impossible
Never as in the case of EA Sports FC 24 for Nintendo Switch is there a clear correlation between the technical sector and the playability, so before describing the latter we must answer the question we asked ourselves at the beginning of the review: how did the developers Create such a complex conversion? Well, in the same way as the different DOOM Eternal, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and No Man's Sky: making concessions.
EA Sports FC 24 runs at 30 fps on Nintendo Switch and a few days ago producer Doru Logigan explained the reason: the use of the Frostbite graphics engine, essential to achieve parity in terms of content and functionality, has been implemented very cautiously and gradual. way, but wanting to preserve the essential minimum of graphic resources the only way was to halve the frame rate and opt for the 30 frames.
We must admit that the feeling is the same as when you try to run a recent game on an office laptop, reducing the resolution, the quality of the assets and all the visual effects as much as possible to obtain a truly satisfactory experience. It's not fluid or spectacular, but it is functional for the game. In fact, what counts is what happens on the field, and in that context the EA title runs at a stable 30fps, with very few exceptions.
The problems arise as soon as you deviate, even slightly, from the action of the game: the celebrations, the repetitions, the entrance sequences highlight the clear suffering of the Nintendo Switch hardware, which results in clearly visible declines and in some trimming or interpenetration failures. Furthermore, in races, the sequences that enrich certain phases pass so slowly that they are annoying.
However, what weighs most is the fact that This great effort is also projected in the simple navigation between the interface menus: an aspect that had to be paid much more attention and optimized with a minimum of attention, since it acts as a calling card for the entire experience. The hope is that the issue will be fixed with upcoming updates.
Returning to the positive elements, the system Sonoro also resumes the quality and content appreciated on PC, PlayStation and Xbox, with the aforementioned commentary by the Pardo/Adani duo that confirms its good workmanship, the signed soundtrack and an adequate amount of convincing stadium effects to frame the emotion that has always accompanied the most heartfelt matches.
EA Sports FC 24 gameplay: beautiful but imperfect
It is clear and evident that the leap made by the Electronic Arts series on Nintendo Switch is important, given that We have gone from the mechanics of FIFA 19 to those of the current edition., with the result of introducing substantially more sophisticated mechanics into the field, capable of convincingly expressing the pleasure of the experience despite the frame rate reduced by half.
However, it must be noted that 30 fps affects the much desired (and advertised) parity, making the implementation of the technology impossible. hypermovement, which characterizes the versions for current generation systems and really adds a lot to the feel of the game, especially in the spectacular representation of the main animations of the most famous footballers.
In the same way, there is a clear feeling that the thirty frames and the reaction times halved that they entail do not fit well with the clues and assistance related to the movement of the players, which for this reason appear precisely not very reactive in the most delicate situations, when you are going to tackle the ball carrier or need an instant signal to finish the action.
The Nintendo Switch version of EA Sports FC 24 also includes specific features: the ability to play on portable mode, obviously, which for many represents a substantial strength; the touch screen, which allows you to navigate between menus, despite the slowness problems we talked about; the use of individual Joy-Cons as controllers for up to four participants; and finally the local Seasons, playable with two consoles connected via Wi-Fi.
Conclusions
Tested version Nintendo Switch digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 49,99 € Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (13) 7.1 your voteEA Sports FC 24 for Nintendo Switch is presented, on the one hand, as the exciting realization of an equality of content and functionality that owners of the hybrid console have literally been waiting for years and, therefore, capable of revolutionizing the experience that until now it had been a mere new proposal for FIFA 19; on the other, as another impossible conversion, which implies great commitments and which in some situations (incorrectly, absurdly) makes it very difficult to overcome them. In any case, an important starting point for when the series reaches the next Nintendo console, and perhaps this is the real reason behind the effort made.
PRO
- All content present on other platforms.
- The leap forward compared to FIFA 19 is evident
- Some specific features finally find their place
AGAINST
- 30 fps is maintained during the action but the rest has many difficulties.
- HyperMotion, crossplay and shared elements are missing
- Online less lively and with lower performance than we expected
