Review: EA Sports FC 25 (Switch) - The New Best Football Game On Switch

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

If you've been following the history of the FIFA series on Switch, you'll know there was a massive plot twist last year. After delivering exactly the same FIFA game for six years in a row and getting progressively more frustrated Nintendo Life reviews in the process, EA finally stepped up its game with EA Sports FC 24 and delivered, for the first time on Nintendo's console, full feature parity with all other versions of the game.

Now that this new honeymoon period for the series is over, does EA Sports FC 25 continue this bold new strategy of treating Switch owners as well as everyone else, or has EA gone back to its old ways and just delivered last year's game with updated rosters?

Thankfully, in this case, it's the former. EA Sports FC 25 on Switch does indeed include the new features added to the other versions of the game this year, meaning Nintendo players will again get the exact same feature set as those playing on more powerful systems.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

The most notable of these new additions is Rush, a brand new 5v5 mode named after Mega Man’s dog (citation needed) which puts teams on a smaller pitch and focuses on faster, more close-quarters gameplay. Rush is a brilliant new way to play the game, and feels like the sort of thing that was only made possible following EA’s split from FIFA.

This is partly because it essentially rewrites the rules of football in a way that would likely make the official bearers of the rules squirm in their suits. Kick-off is replaced with a mad dash for the ball, the pitch is split into thirds instead of halves (so you can only be offside in the final third) and red cards are replaced with blue cards, which take a leaf from ice hockey’s book and send players to a sin bin for a minute.

EA’s dabbled with something similar in the past with the Volta mode (which was only just added to the Switch version for the first time last year), but Volta has now been ditched on all formats and Rush is its replacement. It’s for the best too, because while Volta – with its emphasis on tricks and its wall-based arena – was maybe a few steps too far away from core FIFA gameplay, Rush feels like a more natural extension and as such playing it will help you to improve your dribbling and short passing in the main 11v11 mode.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

The other main change in this year's game is a complete revamp of the season rewards structure. In previous games, seasons – which tend to last around five-to-six weeks – were restricted to the popular Ultimate Team mode, but now each season spans the entirety of the game. This means you can gain experience by ticking off certain weekly and season-long tasks in Manager, Player and Clubs modes, and use these to unlock rewards across all modes, not just Ultimate Team.

This is particularly useful on Switch because it means that even when Ultimate Team is a ghost town – which it can be on Switch at times – and you’re struggling to find a match, this no longer prevents you from gaining experience because you can now focus on other modes that don’t require online multiplayer, while in turn still earning Ultimate Team rewards.

While all of this new focus on feature parity is undoubtedly a great thing for the series on Nintendo's console, the two major issues we had with last year's game remain and it doesn't feel like a suitable solution is possible any time soon, at least not on the current hardware as it stands.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

The most immediately noticeable of these is the performance. When EA was shamelessly churning out the same FIFA game on Switch for six years in a row, it was based on a legacy Xbox 360 version of the game, and as such ran at 60 frames per second with ease. Last year, however, EA’s decision to bring the Switch series in line with other versions included a graphical upgrade, and a move to the Frostbite engine. While this resulted in a visual upgrade in terms of player and stadium detail, it did have an impact on frame rate and that remains the case here.

You’re once again looking at a frame rate of 30fps on Switch (maybe even a little lower while docked), so if you were hoping that last year’s game was a temporary teething problem while EA optimises the new engine on Switch, it’s still the same situation this season. To be clear, the game remains perfectly playable at 30fps, and players who don’t own it on other systems probably won’t even care, but if you’re used to playing the game on Xbox or PlayStation then you jump over to Switch, it can feel a little jarring and you’ll take a while to adapt to the change.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)

The other main issue – and it’s another one that EA probably can’t do much about now – is perhaps partly a result of its years of negligence on Switch. Ultimate Team continues to have a far smaller player base on Switch than on other systems, and with crossplay impossible (because the other versions run on a different engine) finding a match at certain times of the day can be a very time-consuming process.

The Transfer Market remains a perfect indication of how few players are engaging with Ultimate Team on the Switch version. At the time of writing, there are around 30,000 items on sale in the Transfer Market on Switch, compared to millions on Xbox and PlayStation. As we said last year, it's a shame that each system has its own transfer market instead of EA bringing them all together: as it stands, it’s much harder to build a team on Switch when there are fewer opportunities to play online and earn coins, and the players you want to spend those coins on are in far shorter supply.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)

Both of these issues — the performance in particular — feel like the sort of thing that should be remedied with the introduction of the Switch’s successor, so we can only hope that EA plans to continue its recent form, chooses not to make the same mistake it did with Switch, and this time hits the ground running by supporting the next console with a full feature-complete version of EA Sports FC 26 next year.

For now, however, FC 25 is proof that last year's game was no fluke and that EA is still all-in on ensuring Switch owners are no longer being treated like an afterthought. The addition of Rush mode and the tweaks to the season pass make FC 25 the new best football game on Switch, but if you have last year's game and are still thoroughly enjoying it, do bear in mind that the leap here is nowhere near as large as the one from 23 to 24.

Conclusion

EA finally treated Switch owners to a feature-parity football game last year and EA Sports FC 25 continues this by adding the new modes also available on other systems. Rush, in particular, is a great new way to play a tighter, more action-packed version of football, and the expanded season rewards system means the game is less reliant on Ultimate Team – which is typically under-populated on Switch – to give players new tasks throughout the year. Performance is still underwhelming but this is otherwise the second solid entry in a row from EA.