EA Sports FC 26

Genre: Sports (Soccer

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local), 2 Competitive (Local Wireless), 2-22 Competitive Tournament (Online)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

I normally try to avoid reviewing most yearly Sports franchise games because I’m not a huge sports nut, and not only do I not have the full context of the sport, I also don’t have the full context of the series it comes from, so my review can’t possibly be as in-depth as someone who’s a massive sports fan who follows this series for decades. In other words, as far as these sorts of games go, I’m a filthy casual. Buuuuuut that also means that other filthy casuals like me might find my thoughts on this game something worthwhile to them, and EA Sports FC 26 was just recently temporarily free-to-play as a part of a Nintendo Trial promotion so… here goes, I guess.

EA Sports FC is a yearly Sports franchise of the Soccer variety that has technically been around since 2016 on mobile platforms, but in 2023 EA rebranded their FIFA Soccer series to EA Sports FC (starting with the game EA Sports FC 24) after they opted not to renew their license with FIFA. I am aware that for the longest time, Nintendo Switch was pretty poorly mistreated by this franchise, getting little more than player and stat updates in yearly installments and missing out on new content and features added to the versions released on other consoles. And if you want to know how EA Sports FC 26 fits in with that history… sorry, I don’t know, I haven’t played those games.

In any case, EA Sports FC is a mostly-competent Simulation-style Soccer game on Nintendo Switch, trying to provide players with a fairly realistic representation of the sport, which you can do in a variety of modes that range from playing as existing teams to building your own.

I’m not going to get into the different game modes here either. Instead, I want to talk about the core gameplay, which is… fine. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, but it’s mostly-sufficient. Aiming your goal shot takes some getting used to, as does the timing needed to successfully steal. Passing the ball and changing your active player feels a bit hit-or-miss, and sometimes it seems like the game takes a moment to recognize your command or enters it twice when you didn’t intend to. Oh, and I got called on off-sides penalties in this game more than every other soccer game I’ve ever played in my life

The presentation here is also okay, but the 3D character models are pretty ugly and there’s lots of aliasing and loading screens. Otherwise, this looks like a polished and professional sports game that runs fairly well on the aging Nintendo Switch hardware, but nothing even remotely approaching anything visually-impressive.

Overall, if you’re a filthy casual player like me who enjoys Soccer and wants something aiming towards realism, I think you will be satisfied but not ecstatic about EA Sports FC 26. And if you’re a more serious Soccer fan or someone who enjoyed earlier FIFA or EA Sports FC games… well, I don’t know what you expected to get out of this review, but I did try to warn you in advance.

tl;dr – EA Sports FC is a Simulation-style Soccer game that’s mostly a decent take on the sport, but has some frustrating control issues, and some ugly character models on Nintendo Switch. If you’re looking for a Simulation-style Soccer game, this will fill that role, but I don’t think it’s likely to thrill you.

Grade: C+

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

EA Sports FC 26 (Nintendo Switch 2)

Genre: Sports (Soccer

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local), 2 Competitive (Local Wireless), 2-22 Competitive Tournament (Online), GameShare Support

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Review:

Given how hard the generational difference on Nintendo Switch has been felt in this series dating back to when it was still titled FIFA, it’s natural to wonder how much of a difference Nintendo’s newest hardware makes here. This is particularly important since there’s no upgrade path here – both versions of the game are sold completely separately.

First things first, there’s definitely a noticeable improvement to the framerate and resolution, making for an overall clearer picture. However, the visual improvements aren’t dramatic, and I still noticed a lot of aliasing, and the character models are still pretty ugly. The grass looks more detailed now, but at the same time it has this odd dithering thing going on sometimes that looks uglier, so I’m not sure if this is overall an improvement.

There is one other noteworthy feature I noticed here, and that is the inclusion of GameShare support, which should be a nice way to get friends to join in with you in a game without having to own a copy themselves.

Finally, one of my complaints regarding the Nintendo Switch version of the game was the frequent loading times, and the Nintendo Switch 2 version definitely improves on this. As an example of how loading times are cut down, in the Nintendo Switch version of the game, it took me 46 seconds to load to the main menu, and another 27 seconds to load into a “Kick Off” exhibition match with a computer-controlled opponent. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times are cut down to 25 seconds and 14 seconds.

Is it an improvement overall? Yeah. Does it feel like a massive generational improvement? Not at all, and if you bought the Nintendo Switch version and are wondering whether to double-down and get the Nintendo Switch 2 version in addition, I definitely don’t think it’s worth paying full price a second time.

tl;dr – EA Sports FC is a Simulation-style Soccer game that’s mostly a decent take on the sport, but has some frustrating control issues, and some ugly character models on Nintendo Switch. If you’re looking for a Simulation-style Soccer game, this will fill that role, but I don’t think it’s likely to thrill you.

Grade: C+

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