Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
In a sense, the arrival of eFootball on Switch 2 is something of a homecoming for Konami, whose long-running football series started off as a Nintendo exclusive decades ago.
Whether you want to start the timeline with NES game Konami Hyper Soccer or the legendary SNES title International Superstar Soccer, the path is the same: the ISS series would eventually make its way to the Nintendo 64, PS2, and GameCube, while also spinning off to the PS1 as ISS Pro.
ISS Pro would eventually become ISS Pro Evolution, then Pro Evolution Soccer (or Winning Eleven in Japan), which would see annual editions for two decades before switching to a free-to-play model in September 2021.
This free-to-play game, eFootball, was roundly mocked for being frankly awful at launch, but has been continually upgraded and improved in the five years since then. Konami recently claimed that it had passed an astonishing one billion downloads worldwide across all platforms, but even though these platforms included iOS and Android, eFootball has yet to appear on a Nintendo system.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
That finally changes — sort of — with eFootball Kick-Off, which marks the return of Konami’s football series to Nintendo for the first time since Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 was released 14 years ago on the Wii. It’s not exactly the game available on other platforms, however.
Before you jump to Amazon and order an industrial-sized pitchfork sharpener, fearing a repeat of EA’s length Switch FIFA saga, be aware that the situation here could actually be considered a good thing depending on what you want from your football games.
The FIFA games on Switch were objectively stripped-back, mode-light versions of the game that treated Nintendo players like second-class citizens until the series was renamed EA Sports FC, at which point EA finally gave Switch Switch 2 players full feature parity. eFootball Kick-Off, on the other hand, doesn’t ‘remove’ modes as such: instead, it offers completely different ones.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Basically, while the main eFootball game on other platforms is a long-running live service game which is mainly focused on online play with only a handful of offline modes, eFootball Kick-Off is the complete opposite: it’s almost entirely focused on offline play, with an online mode seemingly just tossed in for completion’s sake.
The most obvious sign of this is World Tour, a mode entirely exclusive to the Switch 2 version of the game which will take many hours to beat. The mode starts you off with a team of average players — long-running PES fans will recognise them as the old Master League roster, including the likes of Castolo and Minanda — and has you travelling the world in search of new players for your squad.
The world map is split into groups of five club teams: one group, for example, is called Asian Leagues and has you playing against five randomly chosen teams from leagues in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the AFC Champions League. Each time you beat a team, you get to choose one of their players to add to your squad, meaning as you play progressively better teams, your squad will organically improve with new, more skilled players as a result.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Once you beat a group for the first time, you can choose to take on that group again but rather than getting five random clubs, you can now specifically choose which five teams to play against, meaning if you have your eye on specific players, you can select the teams they play for.
Winning a match also earns you coins, split into Forward, Midfielder, Defender, and Goalkeeper currencies. These can be spent in the Hall of Players, a special in-game store with some of the best players in the world. What’s more, each time you clear a regional five-match group for the first time, a few Legend Players will be added to the Hall of Players, meaning you can eventually buy a bunch of retired greats and build your squad with the likes of Beckham, Adriano, Dennis Bergkamp, and chums.
World Tour is hardly revelatory — similar modes have been done in a handful of football games in the past — but for long-suffering Pro Evolution veterans who have hated seeing the series going almost entirely online for the past half a decade, it’s just nice to have a lengthy single-player mode with clear progress markers to work towards.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
It’s not quite the return of PES’s once-popular Master League mode — while the default squad may have returned, there’s no scope here for the likes of training your players, because the aim is to keep replacing them rather than improving them — but it’s still a substantial single-player PES for the first time in years.
There’s also an International Cup mode in there, as if it wasn’t already clear why the game’s releasing in June. Just to drive the point home, the default groups are exactly the same as those in the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 (so Scotland’s in there with Brazil, Haiti, and Morocco while England have Croatia, Panama, and Ghana), though you can rearrange them should you wish.
The offline focus includes local multiplayer, and you can play with one to four players, including GameShare. Brilliantly, the World Tour and International Cup modes also support multiplayer, allowing you to take on each of these single-player modes in a co-op fashion. A wide range of per-player assist options also ensures players of all skill levels can play together.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
On the pitch, the game — crucially — plays well. As I said, the free-to-play eFootball was a complete shambles when it originally launched in 2021, but Konami’s continuous updates have meant it certainly plays a much better game of football than it previously did.
The Switch 2 version is a faithful port of the others, running at a relatively smooth 60fps during gameplay (there are a few stutters here and there, but nothing game-breaking), and stringing together a smooth series of passes is truly satisfying when everything comes together.
There are a few little quirks in there for the Switch 2 game, including speech bubbles that have the players talking to each other — calling for passes, trying to motivate each other, and the like — but these can be turned off if you’re a purist.
One thing you’ll also want to turn off is the commentary, which is also retained from the main free-to-play version of eFootball. Peter Drury is perfectly fine as the lead commentator, but Jim Beglin’s co-commentary is among the worst you’ll ever hear in a football game. It’s quite clearly being read out, and he frequently leaves big pauses halfway through sentences in a way that’s wildly off-putting once you notice it. Thankfully, the commentary can be muted.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)
Obviously, there’s a big EA-shaped elephant in the corner, and some will continue to swear blind that EA Sports FC still plays a better game of football. Certainly, in some respects — the number of game modes, the sheer number of officially licensed leagues and clubs in there — EA’s game blows Konami’s out of the water, but some were disappointed that EA FC on Switch 2 only runs at 30fps, so eFootball Kick-Off at least has the edge if smooth gameplay is particularly important to you.
The main advantage Konami has is price. eFootball Kick-Off is a digital release costing $19.99 / £15.99, making it a much cheaper option than EA’s game. You could argue that you get what you pay for, but if you don’t care about things like EA’s Ultimate Team and are just looking for a football game for playing on the train or having a local multiplayer with your mates on the couch, the lower price makes Konami’s game a viable contender.
There are, of course, people who do love the free-to-play eFootball game — a billion downloads can’t all be wrong, after all — and will be disappointed that this isn’t just a straight port of the live service offering. If it can play on mobile, there’s no technical reason why Switch 2 couldn’t play it, so it appears that this is a conscious decision by Konami to focus more on offline content for Nintendo’s system.
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)
Who knows, maybe the ‘Kick-Off’ in the title is referring to the fact that this is a low-cost introduction to the series for Nintendo players, and that a Switch 2 port of the ‘proper’ eFootball might come further down the line if there’s enough appetite for it. For now, anyone hoping for online play on the Switch 2 version is limited to basic Quick Match, Ranked Match, and Friend Match options.
The servers weren’t yet turned on during the review period, so I wasn’t able to test online matches, but given that there’s almost certainly going to be no crossplay multiplayer here, you might have to go into this game assuming the online player base will be very small, and that you shouldn’t buy it unless offline play is the main draw for you.
