![]() Think of it as a card collecting game, where the cards you obtain are the players and your plan is to create the best team you can. Perhaps one of the biggest things in FIFA these days is Ultimate Team. Then, for the first time on Nintendo, there is Ultimate Team. So, if there’s no online you are probably wondering what modes can you actually play in, right? You can get straight into a kick-off match, play in a custom tournament, play in a women’s international tournament or play in the aforementioned career mode, either as a specific player or as a manager. I was looking forward to scoring more world-class finishes against Charlie like I did at EGX (fluke, it was a cross… – Charlie), alas EA (and more likely, Nintendo) have seen fit to restrict one of the core elements of the game. Sure, offline kick-offs are available and the game boasts a nifty (albeit limited) split Joy-Con control method to kick about with your mates but no online? It’s a massive oversight. Yes, you read that correctly although there are online modes available you cannot actually invite your online chums into a friendly match. What also needs patching in is the ability to play online with your friends. From the camera jumping during set pieces, button prompts remaining on screen, random collisions (due to the dated animation engine), the yielding of random yellow cards to the bizarre blue/yellow imprint on some of the Huddersfield Town players during a match against Tottenham Hotspur, this game could certainly do with patching. What doesn’t suit the game is the few silly bugs I encountered. As you’d expect, FIFA 18 also packs in a huge range of songs that you’ve probably never heard of, but they all seem to suit the game well. I’d like a wider range of commentators to choose from – with Gary Neville being a personal favourite in the co-commentator role – but that’s my Spurs bias kicking in. ![]() The commentary is also to a good standard with Martin Tyler and Alan Smith mumbling along to the events as they play out on screen. Talking of the crowd, there’s a wide range of chants in the game and the whole atmosphere is spot on. The vast majority of players look like their real-life counterparts and the kits, stadia and even the crowd look good. The team at EA Vancouver and EA Bucharest have done a sterling job with this. The game runs at 60FPS in both docked AND handheld mode and also outputs in 1080p/720p accordingly. The game has a high standard of presentation and, although not as polished as the console equivalent, does maintain an authentic aesthetic. It took me a few matches to readjust this way, but FIFA new-comers may not notice. Modern console versions have become more refined of late, but running on a more traditional build means that some of the shooting and crossing mechanics may not feel the same. That lack of Frostbite does also then affect the presentation and the way the game plays on the field. Obviously, during development EA wouldn’t have known that the Switch would experience the explosive success achieved thus far, so the sensible portion of my brain can understand the reluctance to invest so heavily in a Switch port of Frostbite – if it is indeed possible at all. EA has explained that the Frostbite engine is required to power the story mode that they introduced in 2017’s version, following the exploits of rookie Alex Hunter and his rise to stardom. Because of the aforementioned “custom” engine that the Switch build is said to run on, it means it isn’t on DICE’s Frostbite engine. This does indicate that there are things that are missing most notably The Journey. ![]() It also has a career mode, but it’s the bog-standard one from a couple of years ago. There is the goal-line decision system replays but the referees do not mark the field with the spray. It also gets a few new things, like the current kick-off rules and corners are exactly like they are in the current generation versions – so it’s baffling that the penalty and free kicks are as they were two years ago. That means you get Skill Games, Women’s Football and for the first time on a handlheld, FIFA Ultimate Team, which will need explaining later. Not only the greatest football game Nintendo fans may have seen, it’s also the best handheld version – no question.ĭescribed as a “custom” version of FIFA, the best way to look at the Switch version of FIFA 18 is that it’s almost the same as FIFA 16 elsewhere, with a few minor tweaks and the current squads/kits and all that good stuff. It’s been incredibly challenging for me because FIFA 18 on the Nintendo Switch is tremendous fun. How are you supposed to review the best FIFA title to ever grace a Nintendo system, when it’s not quite as good as those available elsewhere? Do you score it on its own merits, disregarding a more fuller experience available on other systems? Or do you mark it more harshly, holding a system that simply isn’t as powerful – or popular – more accountable than perhaps is fair?
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