Released back in October of 2023, Sociable Soccer 24 finally made its way to the Nintendo Switch this past July and thus is now in my hands. With footy options being limited on the Switch, it’s worth scoping out how this one holds up with our Sociable Soccer 24 review.

What I Like

Surprising Authenticity

Equipped with the FIFPRO license, Sociable Soccer 24 has a surprising amount of authenticity to offer. With over 13K professional players and 1,000 teams, you can take the club of your choice and attempt to win one of the 80 trophies offered in the game.

It’s unrealistic to expect authentic uniforms, but the basic color combinations are there and surprisingly there aren’t kit clashes when randomly matched up against an AI opponent. Even the tactics and roster management are surprisingly realistic, but we’ll get into that in a bit.

Gameplay

According to Tower Studios:

“Get your adrenaline pumping with the game’s lightning-fast and intuitive gameplay. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a casual player, Sociable Soccer 24’s user-friendly controls ensure that everyone can enjoy the excitement of the pitch.“

It’s everything Tower Studios described and more. It’s fast and intuitive in the sense that it’s easy to pick up, yet takes a little time to master, especially when you factor in the ability to toggle the controls between assisted and manual — and of course the difficulty levels (Easy, Moderate, and Expert). At first, I began with assisted controls on the moderate difficulty levels before finding my footing and changing to the highest difficulty and manual controls, which still ends with me sending a few shots into the stands (a good thing).

The commands are simple on defense as well. You turbo and slide tackle, and the game switches players for you on that end to a better standard than eFootball. In general, the best form of defense is similar to UFL where you just try to run and take it off the other player while dribbling, but it’s acceptable for a game on the Nintendo Switch — on the PS5, not so much (sorry, UFL).

No DLC

What you see is what you get from Sociable Soccer 24. In a genre dominated by loot boxes in console and mobile games alike, it’s refreshing to know that you won’t need to grab your wallet if you want to enjoy the game. With a selling point of about $25, Sociable Soccer 24 is reasonably priced and offers enough content to justify the cost.

What’s even more reassuring is that Tower Studios (Sociable Soccer 24’s developer) is committed to updating the game as seen by its most recent patch (June, 2024).

Nice Pace Of Play For Seasons & Tournaments

One area that I really like, and is a must for mobile games, is the length of time it takes to complete a tournament or season. For my tournament playthrough, I focused initially on the Africa Cup of Nations, complete with three group stage matches, and luckily I was able to guide the Ivory Coast through three knockout rounds that ultimately culminated in me achieving legendary status and taking home the trophy, all in about 45 minutes.

Season play takes longer as expected, but since you’re not playing the other teams in your league home and away, you can get through a complete season in a couple of hours or space it out and take your time over the course of a few days.

Can Feel The Difference In The Quality Of Players

It’s a strange thing to say about a game on the Nintendo Switch, but you can really feel the difference between good and lesser players when it comes to quality. My first match with Sociable Soccer 24 was the heated contest between Argentina and Brazil with me taking charge of the Selecao, and just like recent times, Argentina handed me my head on a plate with Julian Alvarez scoring a hat-trick.

The action was fast and Argentina was all over me, a stark contrast between my “world” squad, DC United, where it was slowed down because my players were not as good.

What I Don’t Like

Lack Of Stats

There aren’t many things I don’t like about Sociable Soccer 24, but the lack of stats across their modes is the big one. I don’t expect a game like this to have the advanced stats EA FC has, but a simple tally of goals, assists, and clean sheets is the bare minimum and that’s what I expected, especially as I put my finishing boots on and started scoring goals for fun.

Even if the stats aren’t tracked on a league status page (league leaders and so on), it would be nice to see some Team Player stats.

Bottom Line

There aren’t many mobile or Nintendo Switch sports games that can hold my attention, but Sociable Soccer 24 is one. You may or may not find me getting a few matches in during work hours while I slog from online meeting to online meeting. You can’t prove it regardless! At about a $25 price point, the game offers a good bang for its buck and is enough to satisfy a hardcore footy fan like myself or casual fans like my daughters. Either way, Tower Studios you have a fan.

The post Sociable Soccer 24 Review (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Operation Sports.

It’s been a while since we here at OS touched on Konami’s eFootball series and with good reason. The once beloved franchise PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) has slowly faded into obscurity after its rebrand in 2021 to eFootball.

Despite starting off with a strong initial release of PES 2021 Season Update where PC modders are still working wonders, the subsequent releases (eFootball 2022 – present) have seen the popularity of the game diminish to nearly an afterthought in the football gaming community, getting lapped by EA’s EA FC franchise and facing a new challenger in Strikerz Inc.’s UFL. Before we touch on the current state of eFootball, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.

eFootball Roadmap

Do you remember this? I know, I almost forgot too because shortly after it was released in fall of 2022 it was derailed and thus forgotten by early 2023. While Konami did get cross-generation (PS4 -> PS5, Xbox Series X/S -> Xbox One) working, there’s still no true cross-platform (PlayStation vs. Xbox vs. PC) available yet as Konami appears to be squeezing the juice out of its eSports Tournaments while still skimping on modes that we came to associate with PES over the years.

Konami doubled down here:

Paid Content
– The number of teams that can be used in leagues and club teams will be expanded and distributed as additional paid content by the end of 2022
– Master League will be available as additional paid content during 2023

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) May 31, 2022

Back in February of 2023, Konami updated the community about what was on the horizon, and to their credit, they did deliver on everything they planned for — although there’s absolutely nothing worth bragging about in this list with updates like “additional player slots” and “additional number of substitutes for Dream Team.” These are simple fixes that shouldn’t require too many resources. Now the list on the bottom is where we should start to hold Konami accountable:

• Master League – MISS
• Co-op Mode – HIT
• Edit Mode – MISS
• Additional selectable teams in Authentic Mode (Exhibition) – MISS
• Cross-platform compatibility on console – MISS
• Cross-platform compatibility between console and mobile – MISS
• Mobile controller compatibility and support – MISS

In football terms, if you convert 1 of your 7 chances, chances are you won’t be around too long. And that right there is only a PORTION of the long list of neglected features and modes that were in eFootball 2021 Season Update yet still haven’t made it to eFootball.

What’s To Come With eFootball?

Well, for starters, Konami has rebranded the name again, dropping the “2024” or in this case what would be “eFootball 2025” to simply eFootball.

UPDATE ALERT

We will be making an update to eFootball 2024 in mid-September

After this, the name of the game will change to simply "eFootball".

eFootball v4.0.0 will include updates to reflect promotions/relegations of domestic leagues and player transfers pic.twitter.com/EYqagW5GtK

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) August 8, 2024

So back to square one figuratively, but as EA proved, a name is just a name and considering that digital sales exceed hard copies, changing a brand name isn’t the no-no it once was.

What’s Coming With eFootball (2024)?

If we’re being honest, it’s hard to say as Konami teases the new September update with assurances that assets will carry over (eFootball coins and points, GP, and so on). What’s not carrying over you ask? Well, for starters, it seems like the never-ending carousel of top-flight Italian teams sees Napoli, Roma, and Monza going over to EA FC, with rumors of both Milan-based top-flight clubs (AC Milan and Inter Milan) heading back to eFootball.

Considering Konami’s past history with incorporating legendary players into their various modes, this actually bodes well with both Milan clubs boasting a long history of iconic players (Maldini, R9, and Seedorf to name a few). As is the case with losing licenses, the removal of players comes with the territory as Konami confirms on their official website:

“Due to changes in licenses and available content, some players and managers may become unavailable.
Unavailable players and managers cannot participate in matches, but you can still earn GP and items for releasing them.”

And folks, that’s about all we know as Konami, true to their past, drops this tidbit on the bottom of their 2024 update page:

Large-scale maintenance for License Update: We will conduct a large-scale maintenance in mid-September as part of the eFootball v4.0.0 update.

So if you’re wondering about a game that will update in what could be less than two weeks then rest assured, you’re not alone.

Bottom Line

Football games are always in a precarious position when it comes to release dates. With most top-flight European seasons starting this past weekend, there’s the thought that it would be nice to beat market-leader EA FC to the punch but then you have the transfer window shutting at the end of August, which requires a lot of resources to swap players to new teams, create new players, and the like.

Release your game after EA FC and you run the risk of no one noticing. Konami seems to have their base players set and don’t seem to be in that much of a rush to add PES staples like Master League and Edit Mode. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that we’ll see neither of those two modes as Konami would have made a major announcement by now, especially with the rumors that when they do come they’ll be available via paid DLCs. As for now, my expectations are at an all-time low with this franchise, but the lure of the old ways will always have me tempting fate.

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