If you’ve been following the Odyssey-like epic (Homer’s, that is, not Mario’s or Abe’s) that is EA FC’s relationship with Nintendo consoles, you’ll know that we’ve been out of the rut for a few years now.
After it emerged that the Switch version of FIFA 18 was essentially an updated port of FIFA 13, Nintendo players (and this reviewer) became increasingly dumbfounded as FIFA 19 to 23 were all basically the exact same game with no new modes or features.
This all changed when EA finally saw the light with its first rebranded entry EA Sports FC 24 (and the subsequent 25 edition), which finally saw Switch owners getting full feature parity with other versions… though a drop from 60fps to 30fps as a result was disappointing.
The arrival of Switch 2 brought hope that the performance issues would be resolved, but while last year’s EA SPORTS FC 26 continued to ensure Switch 2 owners got exactly the same modes as everyone else, it still ran at 30 frames per second.
“The wishlist of improvements for next year is clear,” I wrote last year. “If EA can offer some sort of performance mode which allows for 60fps gameplay, and find a way to tap Switch 2 users into the same shared Ultimate Team transfer market used on other consoles, you’d be looking at a near-flawless Nintendo version of the game.”
So, has EA pulled off either of these? Well, no. The game continues to run at 30fps with no performance mode to speak of, and the game’s popular Ultimate Team is still on its own little island on Switch 2 with a much smaller transfer market.
Let’s put that to the side for now, though, and actually focus on what’s new here. Once again, EA has ensured that all the new features added to the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC versions of EA FC 27 are also presented and accounted for on Switch 2, including its shiny new mode, The Grounds.
If you’ve played The City mode in NBA 2K, you’ll have a rough idea of what to expect from The Grounds. It’s a small open-world section where you create an avatar, then take part in a series of small online matches — 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, Rush or minigames — to earn currency and build your stats.
The Grounds is also now the new home of Clubs mode, where players can put together teams of up to 11 humans and team up online to take on others. Given that the Switch 2 version of FC 27 doesn’t offer crossplay with other versions, however, good luck managing to not only build a full team but find another full team to compete against.
This affects The Grounds as a whole, in fact. Because the Switch versions of FIFA / EA FC had a much smaller online player base than the other console and PC versions, and because the Switch 2 version followed suit, I struggled to find regular matches in The Grounds, which is online-only. Granted, the game’s still in Early Access period at the time of writing and more players will arrive come its full release, but it will still be a fraction of the crossplay player base on other formats.
The same goes, as ever, with the game’s most popular mode, Ultimate Team. Since EA has started putting the effort in and ensuring Nintendo players get the same features as everyone else, the size of the Ultimate Team community has started growing a little – it’s somewhat easier these days to find a match in one of the more popular modes like Rivals.
It still doesn’t support crossplay, however. While this is understandable given that the game doesn’t run exactly the same on Switch 2 as it does on other platforms, the fact it still has its own separate transfer system means players still have a much smaller pool to buy and sell players with.
This has a knock-on effect on Ultimate Team’s main new feature, FUT Gallery, which becomes much harder on Switch 2 as a result of the smaller transfer market. The idea of FUT Gallery is that every player you’ve ever owned in Ultimate Team — even if you sell or otherwise get rid of them — is kept on a list. You can then use this list to complete sets of players: this could be a set of Premier League players, or a set of Team of the Week players, or what have you.
You’re then graded on your set, with rewards given out for sets with rarer cards in them. But given that rare cards are harder to come by in Switch 2’s smaller ecosystem, that makes it far trickier to build a collection impressive enough to make an impact in FUT Gallery.
That’s a lot of grumpiness, so let’s focus on the positives for a bit. On the pitch, it still plays a fantastic game of football. There will of course be those for whom a 30fps presentation is simply a dealbreaker, and it would be a lie to suggest that if you play on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or PC and then play on Switch 2, you don’t notice the difference immediately.
It’s especially relevant now that it actually has competition, which EA FC 26 didn’t at launch. Now that eFootball Kick-Off is available on Switch 2 and runs at a solid 60fps, FC has a rival game which clearly looks smoother when put side-by-side. The main thing still going in FC’s favour — and it’s a very important one, to be fair — is that it still plays a far better game of football than Konami’s game does.
That said, because this is a football game and not F-Zero, and because its player movement is based on momentum rather than twitch reactions — press the shoot button and they may take a couple of steps before hitting it anyway — the game is perfectly playable once your brain adjusts to the drop in frame rate. If you don’t play the game on other formats and this is your first EA football game in a while, you may not even know it’s an issue.
It only takes a couple of games to get used to the frame rate, and while we still hold out hope that one day EA will figure out what it needs to do — be that heavier reliance on DLSS or what have you — to get the Switch 2 version of EA FC running at 60fps, for now this will be a perfectly acceptable way to play the game for most people, especially on handheld.
It’s single-player where EA FC 27 shines on Switch 2, then, which is why it’s nice that Career mode has had a bit of an upgrade, with a new transfer process which adds extra steps to the negotiations. This is designed to add more drama with the increased potential of other clubs coming in at the last minute, players getting greedy and trying to change the terms before shaking hands, and the like. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s more engaging.
Ultimately, EA Sports FC 27 ensures that EA’s series remains the best way to enjoy football on Switch 2. It’s still got a comically large helping of official teams, leagues, and stadiums, and a strong helping of modes that are each substantial enough to serve as full games on their own. You could buy this, only ever play Career (or Ultimate Team, even with its smaller player base) and be happy.
It remains to be seen whether The Grounds can build a large enough player base on Switch 2 to avoid lengthy queues for matches, so if you were thinking of buying the game mainly for that, you should probably hold fire until it’s been out for a little while and that mode’s popularity is clearer. Whereas Ultimate Team has a bunch of single-player tasks that let you continue playing when it’s hard to find a match, The Grounds is a far more multiplayer-focused affair, and will live or die depending on how populated it is.
Put that to the side for now, then, and you’ve still got a brilliant football game. If you’re happy enough playing through Career mode in FC 26, you may not necessarily need to make the jump to FC 27, but if you’re an Ultimate Team player (where you’re basically forced to move onto the next game), new to the series, or returning after a long break, then it comes highly recommended.
Now, how about that 60fps mode and cross-progression next year, EA?
EA Sports FC 27’s new mode, The Grounds, may not be best suited to Switch 2, because it relies on the kind of large online player base the series has struggled to maintain on Nintendo’s console (and those who do show up are likely to play Ultimate Team instead).
Despite this, everything else remains as enjoyable as ever and on the pitch — where it matters most — it continues to play an excellent game of football. As long as you can get over the fact it runs at 30fps and isn’t wildly different from last year’s game (The Grounds aside), this is the best football option on Switch 2 at the moment.
