FIFA 22 (Switch) Review | Nintendo Life

“Fool me once,” says the famous phrase, “it’s your fault. If you cheat on me twice, it’s my fault. “

With FIFA 22, EA is trying to fool us three times, and while we haven’t been able to find any official decision on what this means, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s basically “the shame” again.

“Well that’s not entirely fair, Nintendo Life,” (maybe) we hear you say. “EA makes it perfectly clear that FIFA 22 on Switch is a Legacy Edition. He’s not trying to fool you at all, he’s being very direct about what you get. “

Yes, okay, you’re right. Perhaps we should have put more effort into getting this introduction right. But at the end of the day, if EA isn’t willing to put any effort into FIFA on Switch, why should we try to show it off? That would be arrogant of us.

FIFA 22 is the third Legacy Edition on Switch. What this means is that it’s basically the Switch version of FIFA 19, with the teams and kits replaced. But wait, that’s not all! A drum roll, so to speak.

As we’ve said in previous reviews, FIFA 19 was a slightly improved version of FIFA 18, which itself was essentially a port of that year’s Xbox 360 and PS3 Legacy editions. Confused? Let us summarize for you. The Switch version of FIFA 22 is essentially the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 17.

Let’s put it another way, more colorful. Do you remember Kaká, Pirlo and Totti? They are all in FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode these days as ‘Icons’, legendary players who have since retired but can be recruited as special additions to your squad. The version of FIFA that FIFA 22 on Switch is based on is so old that Kaká, Pirlo, and Totti were normal players.

Not that you can realistically get them in Ultimate Team now, of course, because the Switch version of Ultimate Team is a ghost town that, at the time of writing, was selling around 25,000 players and items on its market screen. of transfers, compared to 2.2. million on Xbox (and probably even more on PlayStation, since it’s generally sold more in those formats).

Not surprising, of course. Ultimate Team hasn’t changed in the slightest since the first FIFA game on Switch (FIFA 18), with no single additional mode or feature included at the time. How could EA expect gamers to care about a mode that hasn’t had a shred of work in nearly half a decade?

Take a look at Ultimate Team on other systems and you’ll see that players get revamped versions of Division Rivals and FUT Champions modes. The Switch hasn’t even received the original versions of them yet, while other formats declare them obsolete.

Of course, this complaint is not strictly limited to Ultimate Team, it is the case across the board. Career mode is now so prehistoric that they could probably extract DNA from it and clone a raptor, while everything else has been left intact for so many years that we’re surprised EA didn’t add ‘dusty’ to their list of weather options.

The annoying thing is, as we’ve mentioned every time we review FIFA on Switch, the main game itself is still very good. It was fun when it came to FIFA 17 two console generations ago and time hasn’t suddenly rendered it unplayable.

We’re not even unrealistic enough to hope that EA can somehow update the game with next-gen versions. If the fancy new Hypermotion buzzword that EA is pushing in its multi-million dollar TV ad can only be done on a PS5 or Xbox Series X, that’s perfectly fine. Let them have their silky smooth animations, those braggarts.

But EA should have thrown a bone at Switch owners, and by that we don’t mean tying a rope around the same bone, pulling it back, and throwing it at us again the following year. People are buying this game, they deserve to have their loyalty rewarded with some kind of new feature, anything.

That is also not hyperbole or guesswork on our part. At the time of writing, FIFA 22 is the best-selling Switch game on Amazon UK. Based on that metric right now, and of course it won’t last long, more people buy FIFA 22 on Switch than any other game. Think about the permutations of that. It was also announced that on its launch weekend, 5% of FIFA 22 sales in the UK were the Switch version, which is still a lot when you consider how many copies that are.

Soccer fanatic kids and Switch owners everywhere will be getting FIFA 22 for Christmas and will realize it’s the same one they got last year. Your Christmas is going to end up being as fun as the one the Cratchets had in A Christmas Carol. And we don’t mean the merry “God bless us all” Christmas, we mean the one in which Tiny Tim died.

It’s a matter of respect, frankly. The Switch version may be cheaper than the others, but $ 40 / £ 35 is still a lot of money for some people, especially if those people have already bought FIFA 21. For those poor idiots, they are paying a healthy sum for what is essentially a ready. upgrade.

Some may argue that because FIFA 21 was $ 50 / £ 45 and this time EA has lowered the price by ten dollars, we should take it easy. Others would say that, hey, at least EA actually released something, unlike Konami, which won’t even bring its new electronic soccer game to the Switch, even though it’s on mobile devices (not that we’re missing out, of course. but it is the beginning of the thing).

Sorry, but we don’t accept that Stockholm syndrome. We refuse to be fed stale food and think “well, at least it’s good that they feed us.” This is now the fifth time that Switch owners have been treated like second-class citizens, and the third time that we haven’t even received the courtesy of a single tweak to the game itself.

Enough is enough. Please don’t buy this set. If you must have a soccer game on Switch, buy an old used copy of FIFA 20, or 19 or 18. They are all the same. Sure, the rosters will be out of date, but in case you haven’t yet grasped the point we’ve been subtly making throughout this review, the whole damn game is out of date anyway.

Last year we said that FIFA 21 was “the last straw”. This can only mean that FIFA 22 is throwing piles of straw on a dead camel. And if that’s the kind of behavior you support, then as the phrase goes, it’s your fault.