Madden NFL 26 Review (Xbox): A Ten-Yard Gain With a Five-Yard Penalty

When it comes to the Madden franchise I’ve sunk countless hours into the annual release cycle and often come away feeling like I haven’t gained anything substantial from my time with it. This time around with Madden NFL 26, I set the bar low for what I should come to expect from it and was pleasantly surprised with what I found. While the game at its core practically remains the same from years prior, there are some things that EA has changed that make this experience more robust yet streamlined at the same time. 

First and Ten

Coming into this year’s Madden, I wanted to truly feel like I was playing true American football. With hard hits, fluid motions, and a weight behind gameplay that was lacking in prior years. Madden NFL 26 did a great job doing just that with making the quickest receivers feel like true burners down the field, while stocky defensive linemen felt like they could maul almost any man standing in front of them. This is what made gameplay in prior iterations feel more slowed down and less like a true-to-life football experience. The position that felt the most refined was quarterback, with pocket movement feeling more intentional and responsive and all of your throws requiring the utmost precision without feeling too challenging. I also found that catching animations felt more true to form with skinnier wideouts using more finesse to catch a contested ball compared to big-bodied receivers who could go up and fight for the ball. 

Second and Long

While there were improvements made to the overall gameplay, there is still a litany of bugs and quirks with this experience that lingers. In the realm of bugs, I often found when I was extending plays by rolling out of the pocket, receivers at times flat out stopped committing to their routes and were just standing in the middle of the field doing nothing. On that same note, linemen whose sole job is to protect their quarterback were often following in the footsteps of their receivers and stopped looking for a defender to block. 

Madden NFL 26 is a visually stunning game, and that shouldn’t go unspoken, but visuals can only get you so far in a game that’s all about presentation. A pretty substantial part of the game we call football is the various announcer teams and the personalities they bring to the game’s narrative. At times, the calls coming in sound very robotic, which is a problem that Madden hasn’t been able to shake in recent years.  Eventually, I opted to mute the commentary and listen to Madden’s soundtrack during gameplay, which happens to be some of the best work that EA has compiled in years.

Third and Five 

Coming into this review, while I was interested to see how the game performed overall, I was more interested in the various game modes that Madden had to offer and what this game could do to keep me on the hook. Long time veterans will clearly see improvements have been made across the board in franchise mode and the game’s skills trainer, but I do think there is plenty of work to be done to give this game a pass. 

Franchise mode got a lot of attention this year with a complete overhaul to the way you go about prepping for your weekly games. Playsheets are the thing that allow you to workshop a gameplan for specific opponents. How you go about training for a given week also determines how well-rested players are and could prove useful in giving your starters a much needed break and your backups valuable practice time to hone their craft. Overall, what Madden NFL 26 did here was make the coaching aspect of franchise mode matter and feel important which when talking about the NFL in real life we all know coaching matters. 

According to EA and Madden, coaching is the only thing that should matter to you. This is due in part to the fact coaching is the only option available to the player within franchise mode. In years prior, players had the choice to be an owner, coach, or player which makes the removal of this feature even more of a head-scratcher. With that being said, you can still pose as a general manager, but that entails very surface level things like signing players and making trades. Speaking to the removal of being an owner, you can no longer control the stadium your team plays in with aspects like setting ticket prices, updating facilities, and merchandise pricing all gone from the game. While it may be features that seem more like busy work to some, Madden NFL 26 has removed some very immersive components of the Franchise mode that people have loved playing with.

Fourth and Goal

Madden NFL 26, by today’s standards, is a good game. Under the hood, EA made a lot of changes to how gameplay feels between the hashes with every single hit, catch, and pass feeling more precise and impactful. However, with all those changes being made to the game, there are still lingering issues within it that can’t really push the medium forward such as robotic announcing, bugs, and a lack of true innovation. The overall groundwork for what a truly great football game could be is there, and with each passing year, EA is slowly pushing the ball closer to that ever so elusive goal line. With that being said, it’s that slow pace in which they’re improving the experience that holds it back immensely from reaching the hall of fame status we all know it could achieve.

Madden NFL 26 was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Electronic Arts. It is also available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.

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