{"id":900,"date":"2017-09-29T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/nintendo-switch\/fifa_18"},"modified":"2017-09-29T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T11:00:00","slug":"review-fifa-18-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/29\/review-fifa-18-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: FIFA 18 (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 1 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84962\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84962\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa04\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Video game spin is a curious thing. It must be difficult for publishers and developers to turn a negative into a positive, but sometimes the excuses are so odd our eyebrows can\u2019t help ascending skyward. The FIFA series has been a good example of this for a number of years. Nintendo fans need only cast their minds back to the launch of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiu\/fifa_13\">FIFA 13<\/a><\/strong> on Wii U: it was essentially <strong>FIFA 12<\/strong> with major modes \u2013 most notably the massively popular Ultimate Team \u2013 completely removed.<\/p>\n<p>The game was heavily criticised for this, and gamers stayed away as a result. EA then decided not to make any more FIFA games for Wii U, citing &#8220;disappointing commercial results&#8221; despite &#8220;featuring FIFA&#8217;s award-winning HD gameplay and innovative new ways to play&#8221; (as opposed to being because all the best modes were, you know, <em>totally missing<\/em>). More recently, FIFA&#8217;s much-hyped story mode, dubbed &#8220;The Journey&#8221;, made its debut in <strong>FIFA 17<\/strong> but was only available on the Xbox One and PS4 versions: Xbox 360 and PS3 owners missed out because those editions didn\u2019t run on the swanky new Frostbite game engine and according to its creative director, &#8220;without Frostbite a story this immersive doesn&#8217;t happen&#8221;.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 2 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84966\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84966\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa08\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Now here we are with FIFA 18 on Switch, the first FIFA game on a Nintendo home console for half a decade, and the spin machine\u2019s out in full force again. This time, while the Switch version <em>finally<\/em> has the much-loved Ultimate Team mode the Wii U game omitted, fans will be curious about the fact that none of the new Ultimate Team features in this year\u2019s Xbox One and PS4 version are in there. The reason, according to a <a class=\"external\" href=\"\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2017-09-01-the-limits-for-fifa-on-nintendo-switch\">Eurogamer interview<\/a> with one of the game\u2019s producers, is that having every feature in there &#8220;might be too much&#8221; for someone new to Ultimate Team. We\u2019re calling nonsense on that: and we\u2019ll explain why in a bit.<\/p>\n<p>First though, let\u2019s judge the game on its own merits. To be blunt, FIFA 18 on Switch is a fantastic game and a brilliant technical achievement. Fans of the FIFA series will immediately be able to get to grips with the game as soon as they start playing, because at its core this is \u2018proper\u2019 FIFA, not the odd bespoke versions on Wii and 3DS back in the day. The full array of abilities is available in this version, due to the JoyCon Grip (and Pro Controller) offering enough buttons to cope with it. Right stick skill moves, finesse shots, driven lobs, threaded through balls, you name it \u2013\u00a0every expert-level technique you can pull off in other versions of the game is here too. No more Wii Remote flicking, slow-mo <strong>Matrix<\/strong> moves or any of that other rubbish Nintendo-owning football fans have had to put up with over the years.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 3 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84969\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84969\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa11\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>However, because it\u2019s not running on the Frostbite engine, FIFA 18 on Switch doesn\u2019t play exactly like the other current-gen versions. The pace is slightly faster and player animations and physics aren\u2019t quite as fluid, lending the game an ever-so-slightly more arcade feel (but not to any major degree). It actually works well; as long as you aren\u2019t a stickler for intricate animation detail, you\u2019re going to have fun here. It runs smoother than a greased-up jazz musician too, with a full 60 frames per second in both docked and handheld mode making for a silky performance and the general feel that you\u2019re playing a high quality product. Although its (slightly less silky-smooth) cutscenes and other close-up moments reveal that the character models are a good deal less detailed than their Xbox One and PS4 counterparts, squint a bit during normal gameplay and you\u2019d genuinely struggle to tell the difference.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to crack out those JoyCon controllers and play some two-player matches anytime and anywhere is also a welcome one, although the game\u2019s simplified a bit in this form. If you\u2019re playing with a single JoyCon you\u2019re missing out on a second stick, a D-Pad and two shoulder buttons, which means things like on-the-fly tactics, threaded through balls and finesse shots are no longer possible. Consider this a more casual version of multiplayer FIFA, then, designed for quick games on the go: for more serious grudge matches on the move each player will need either a Pro Controller or both JoyCon so that they\u2019re armed with a full set of buttons.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 4 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84960\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84960\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa02\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Every element of the game is produced to high, error-free quality. The commentary is crisp and varied, the crowd noises are a treat and load times are reasonable (with the series\u2019 ever-present skill games on offer to keep you busy while you wait, but we found you can jump into the game in seconds anyway). If <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/nba_2k18\">NBA 2K18<\/a><\/strong> was an example of how to <em>completely<\/em> mess up a port and riddle it with errors, FIFA 18 is an example of how to do it properly. Well, on the field at least. It\u2019s when you\u2019re off the pitch and in the game\u2019s menu screens that FIFA 18\u2019s limitations start to rear their disappointing head. Again, let\u2019s be clear: this is still a far greater suite of modes than any Nintendo FIFA game has ever had (or any portable version, for that matter).<\/p>\n<p>The standard Kick Off and Tournament modes are in there. Women\u2019s football, first introduced in <strong>FIFA 16<\/strong>, is present and accounted for. There\u2019s a Career mode in there \u2013 more on that in a while \u2013 and a Switch-exclusive Local Seasons mode lets you play a five-match series against a FIFA-owning friend locally to see who\u2019s the best when the dust settles. In terms of online, you\u2019ve got Online Seasons \u2013 the league-based mode in which you start in Division 10 and have to play 10 games against random online opponents in an attempt to get enough points for promotion \u2013 but the most important addition has to be the ever-popular Ultimate Team mode.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 5 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84964\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84964\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa06\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>For those new to it, Ultimate Team is one of the most addictive things to happen to football games, and sports games in general (which is why it\u2019s since been imitated in <strong>PES<\/strong>, <strong>NBA 2K<\/strong>, <strong>Madden<\/strong>, <strong>NHL<\/strong> and the like). When you start it you pick a team name and are allocated a bunch of hopeless 50+ rated players and a random team badge, kit design, ball and stadium from the ones available in the game.<\/p>\n<p>The aim is to play games to earn coins: these can then be traded for packs containing better players, or spent in the transfer market to buy specific players you\u2019re looking for. And yes, microtransactions rear their ugly head here, but they\u2019re by no means essential. This reviewer has been playing Ultimate Team since 2010 and has never spent a single penny, yet still adores the satisfaction of building a team into world-beaters through nothing more than hard graft and skill.<\/p>\n<p>Also present are the Squad Building Challenges. These were introduced to Ultimate Team last year and are a series of regularly updated puzzles that ask you to put together specific squads with players you no longer need, then submit them in exchange for rewards like rarer packs of players. The whole thing is an obsession, though on Switch this excitement has to be tempered a little. The Switch Ultimate Team is a separate entity to the Xbox One and PS4 versions, so even though all three versions require you to create an EA Account to save your squads online, each edition&#8217;s teams are <em>completely<\/em> different. This means you can\u2019t, for example, play the Xbox One version on your TV then take your Switch on the train with you and load up the same team. There\u2019s also no Switch support for the FIFA 18 Ultimate Team web app or mobile app, which let you tinker with your squads and Squad Building Challenges while away from the game.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 6 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84965\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84965\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa07\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>This is the tip of the &#8220;missing content&#8221; iceberg, sadly. As you make your way through the game\u2019s menus, FIFA 18 on Switch can just as easily be judged on what features and modes it <em>doesn\u2019t<\/em> have as it can on what it does. Long story short, there\u2019s a lot. The brilliant new Squad Challenges mode in this year\u2019s Xbox One and PS4 versions of Ultimate Team? Not there. The new Daily Challenges, which give you mini-achievements (score three goals with a Brazilian player) for rewards? Not there either. The FUT Champions mode, where you compete in weekly tournaments to try and enter an elite league against the best players and win rare prizes? <em>Nope<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s just in Ultimate Team \u2013\u00a0there are many more gaping holes in the game\u2019s feature set. All the fancy league-specific graphics packages are missing, so if you play a match with two teams from the likes of the Premier League, MLS or La Liga, you\u2019ll still get the standard EA Sports scoreboard and timer instead of the official authentic ones. The EA Sports Football Club feature \u2013 in which you earn points as you play the game which can then be spent on historic kits, different balls, new goal celebrations and Ultimate Team coin boosts \u2013 is nowhere to be seen, meaning all that content is missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 7 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84963\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84963\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa05\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Online gameplay, meanwhile, is nice and smooth: as long as you plan on playing against strangers. Even before the game was launched we were able to find Ultimate Team online Seasons matches within seconds, so that side of things works perfectly. But there&#8217;s currently no way to invite any of your Switch friends for an online match. This is almost certainly Nintendo&#8217;s issue rather than EA&#8217;s \u2013 hopefully the still-to-come paid online service will sort out this side of things \u2013 but it&#8217;s still annoying that if you want to play FIFA against one of your mates instead of a random opponent, they&#8217;re going to have to be in the same room as you. Whether or not this is a deal breaker for you is down to personal taste, but we imagine that it will compromise the experience for a great many FIFA addicts.<\/p>\n<p>Most telling of all, though, is the Career mode, and that\u2019s how we managed to figure out why the aforementioned dose of spin \u2013 that the Switch version is missing modes because it &#8220;might be too much&#8221; for the players \u2013 was a load of old kippers. The Xbox One and PS4 Career mode in FIFA 18 has a new transfer negotiation system in which you hammer out a deal face-to-face with players. This isn\u2019t in the Switch game, presumably because of the whole &#8220;this is only possible in Frostbite&#8221; malarkey. The Xbox One and PS4 Career mode in FIFA 17 didn\u2019t feature this. It was just a normal Career mode with some new objective-based features. But here\u2019s the thing. The Switch version of FIFA 18 doesn\u2019t even have <em>that<\/em> version of Career mode. It\u2019s got the one from even older versions of the game, because (drum roll, please) FIFA 18 on Switch is basically the Legacy Edition that\u2019s on Xbox 360 and PS3.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 8 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84959\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84959\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa01\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Now, let us clarify a few things before you plug in the old pitchfork-sharpening machine. There are still a few things in here that set the Switch version apart from the last-gen games. As previously mentioned, its custom game engine means that it runs smoother and looks sharper (the developers claim it renders at full 1080p when docked and it certainly seems crisp enough for that to be true). It adds the four new stadia that the Xbox One and PS4 versions get, its Ultimate Team mode has the Icon players like Maradona, Pele and the like (the last-gen ones don\u2019t) and you can unlock a special Switch football shirt in Ultimate Team, too.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s not go <em>too<\/em> overboard: it\u2019s clear that at least some work has gone into optimising the game for Switch and ensuring there\u2019s at least some new content in there for the system. Our complaint here is more that it\u2019s not enough. The Journey story mode aside, there\u2019s no actual <em>technical<\/em> reason why any of the other current-gen modes \u2013 the Ultimate Team Squad Challenges, the Daily Challenges, the weekly FUT Champions event, the EA Sports Football Club section with the retro kits and other goodies (none of which are in the Xbox 360 and PS3 Legacy Editions either) \u2013\u00a0couldn\u2019t have been in the Switch version. Despite the producer\u2019s claim, we all know these features aren\u2019t missing because it &#8220;might be too much&#8221; for Switch owners\u2019 delicate brains to process. They aren\u2019t in there because it was decided (be it down to lack of resources or time) that there\u2019d be no effort made to implement them in the game.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Screenshot 9 of 9\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84967\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/84967\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa09\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>What we ultimately have, then, is a game that \u2013 when we look at it logically rather than emotionally \u2013 is far and away the greatest modern football game on a Nintendo system and the greatest handheld football game ever made. If you don\u2019t own an Xbox One or PS4, this still looks great and plays fantastically and is a more than acceptable version of FIFA. If you <em>do<\/em> own an Xbox One or PS4, however, you should only really buy the Switch version if you plan on mainly playing it in handheld mode. While it\u2019s still superb both handheld and docked, the latter can\u2019t really hold a candle to its more powerful and feature-rich siblings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video game spin is a curious thing. It must be difficult for publishers and developers to turn a negative into a positive, but sometimes the excuses are so odd our eyebrows can\u2019t help ascending skyward. The FIFA series has been a good example of this for a number of years. Nintendo fans need only cast [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}