EA Sports FC 27 On Switch 2 Is Excellent, but Something Feels Missing

Playing EA Sports FC (or FIFA as it was in another life) on the original Nintendo Switch was always something of a Faustian bargain. You get the convenience of playing on the go, sure, but often at the expense of getting a demonstrably compromised, entirely different game from what you might get on other platforms. While FC 27 has its own share of problems, it’s a good start to mention that it has complete feature parity with the PS5 and other platforms.

On the pitch, FC 27 delivers a convincing football simulation, with meaningful improvements to defending, set pieces, and player movement. Off it, the expanded Career Mode and the new online social space, The Grounds, provide plenty of reasons to keep playing. Most importantly, this is a version that feels designed for Nintendo’s newer hardware rather than an increasingly compromised adaptation of a game built for more powerful platforms.

The biggest strength of FC 27 is that its gameplay improvements aren’t simply cosmetic. EA has made several adjustments to the way matches unfold, giving players more control over the finer details of attacking and defending.

Corner kicks are a particularly welcome improvement. Rather than treating set pieces as a largely automated exercise, the game lets you organise teammates around the penalty area, positioning them near the front or back post or spreading them out to create different attacking opportunities. The additional control makes corners feel more tactical, rewarding players who understand their team’s strengths instead of relying on the occasional lucky deflection.

Defending has also undergone an important change, with automated tackles removed in favour of a system that places greater responsibility on the player. AI-controlled teammates still position themselves and jockey for possession, but winning the ball now requires more deliberate input. This makes defensive positioning, timing, and anticipation more important, even if particularly gifted attackers can still feel frustratingly difficult to dispossess.

New Triggered Curved Runs help attacking players find space, while through balls demand more precision in their timing and direction. Improved dribbling and physical-contact animations also make encounters between players feel more natural.

As in FC 26, players can choose between Competitive and Authentic gameplay. The former offers a faster, more familiar experience, while the latter favours a more deliberate approach to passing and movement. Neither radically reinvents the formula, but together with the other refinements, they make FC 27’s matches feel well tuned.

The familiar frustrations haven’t disappeared entirely. Attacks can still favour pace and technical ability over physical strength, and the occasional awkward collision or questionable decision can disrupt the illusion of watching a real match. Nevertheless, FC 27 remains an excellent football simulation, and these improvements benefit the experience regardless of platform.

Career Mode receives some of the most substantial changes off the pitch. Transfer negotiations are more involved, with clubs making competing offers and players potentially changing their demands before a deal is finalised. More detailed negotiations, including performance-related and buy-back clauses, give transfers additional personality and make building a squad feel less like working through a menu.

Dynamic Overall Ratings also place greater emphasis on form, morale, and fitness. Players can develop differently depending on their performances and circumstances, adding another layer to team selection and squad management. Player Career benefits from new challenges and greater positional flexibility, while the wider management systems encourage a more considered approach to developing a club.

Ultimate Team, meanwhile, introduces FUT Gallery, a collection-focused feature that allows players to preserve and showcase cards they’ve owned, even after selling or otherwise removing them from their active squad. It provides another long-term objective for collectors, although its appeal inevitably depends on how much time and money you’re willing to invest in the mode’s ongoing cycle of player acquisition and squad building.

Unfortunately though, just like FC26 on the Switch, FUT lacks any form of crossplay or interaction with other platforms, instead being stranded onto its own Nintendo-exclusive island with a much smaller transfer market.

Why Hit The Grounds?

The headline addition to FC 27 is ‘The Grounds’, an online social space that expands FC beyond traditional matches. If you’ve played the city sections of recent NBA 2K games, this is clearly EA’s take on that. Featuring locations inspired by football culture in the UK, France, and Argentina, it lets players create an avatar, explore neighbourhoods, participate in smaller matches, and take on casual football-themed minigames.

The concept is promising, particularly for players who want a more social experience. The problem is that The Grounds depends on a healthy online population. On Switch 2, the absence of crossplay means its matchmaking pool is considerably smaller than on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Finding enough players for certain activities can therefore be difficult, undermining a mode built around spontaneous online interaction.

I also just really question the point of an open city environment to replace things that had hitherto been done using simple-to-navigate menu screens. While I understand the appeal of finding other players in a more tangible ‘space’ for more organic matchmaking, I simply do not care to schlep myself across a small open world to move between game modes, when a simple click in a menu got it done so much quicker.

There’s definitely potential for The Grounds to be expanded into something meaningfully fresh and compelling in its own right in future releases, but in its current iteration I can’t help but feel it’s solving problems that didn’t exist. The difference between FC 27 on Switch 2 and the older Switch editions is most apparent in how complete the experience feels. Earlier entries, particularly the versions released between FIFA 19 and FIFA 23, often felt like recycled releases with limited feature development. EA eventually brought Nintendo versions closer to their counterparts with FC 24 and FC 25, but performance remained a persistent concern.

FC 27 Performance - Switch 2 vs PS5

FC 27 benefits from hardware that can handle a substantially more ambitious presentation. Player models, kits, stadiums, and matchday animations retain much of the detail associated with the larger-console editions. The result is a football game that feels considerably less compromised, whether you’re playing docked on a television or taking your team with you in handheld mode.

That doesn’t mean every technical problem has been solved. FC 27 continues to run at 30fps, and the menus have historically been an area of concern on Switch 2. The previous entry suffered from sluggish Ultimate Team navigation and occasional freezes during team setup. The latest version brings more stable menus, but the overall experience still doesn’t feel as consistently responsive as it should.

For players upgrading from the original Switch, though, the difference is significant. FC 27 finally feels like a contemporary football game that happens to run on a Nintendo console, rather than a lesser version of the game available elsewhere.

The PS5 version remains the superior technical package. Its 60fps gameplay makes player movement and transitions feel smoother, and the difference is particularly noticeable when switching defenders, executing quick passes, or reacting to a loose ball. On Switch 2, the 30fps presentation introduces a perceptible heaviness to the action.

This isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. Football is less dependent on instantaneous reactions than certain competitive shooters, and the game’s momentum-based movement means you often need to anticipate what will happen rather than simply react. After a few matches, the lower frame rate becomes easier to accommodate. Players who primarily enjoy Career Mode or casual matches may find the compromise entirely reasonable.

Visually, the Switch 2 version makes a respectable impression. Player likenesses, kits, and stadium details remain convincing, and the presentation retains the pre-match atmosphere that gives FC its sense of occasion.

There is also the question of online connectivity. Switch 2 does not share crossplay matchmaking with the other versions, and Ultimate Team operates with a separate transfer market. That means fewer players to trade with, potentially scarcer cards, and a more restricted multiplayer community. The new FUT Gallery feature is consequently harder to enjoy to its fullest when rare cards are more difficult to obtain. These are ecosystem problems, and much harder to overcome than hardware limitations.

EA Sports FC 27 is simply the best version of the series on a Nintendo console to date. It delivers an excellent football simulation, a comprehensive selection of modes, meaningful Career Mode improvements, and the intriguing (if somewhat pointless) addition of The Grounds. Most importantly, it no longer feels as though Nintendo players are being asked to settle for a lesser game.

Yet EA still has work to do. The lack of a 60fps performance mode remains the biggest disappointment, while the lack of crossplay and a shared Ultimate Team transfer market prevents the online experience from truly shining. The Grounds could be a major selling point, but its long-term appeal depends on whether enough Switch 2 players stick around.

Verdict

FC 27 on Switch 2 is a very good football game, but it isn’t the best version of itself. That distinction matters. For Nintendo players, this is a substantial step forward from what’s come before, but still hamstrung by the lack of cross-platform play. That is to say it’s not without its compromises, even if they are much easier to stomach this time.

DISCLAIMER: REVIEW COPY PROVIDED BY EA.

EA Sports FC27 is available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.