EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26 Review

Welcome back, football sickos; it's that time of the year again. EA Sports is back with another Madden installment; every year it's the same story: a pocket transition marketed as the second coming of Christ. When it hits the shelves, though,  and you actually play the game, it's the game that you had the previous year, but with a $70 price tag attached to it.

Marketing is what EA does best. We all buy the Maddens or the FCs for the hype they generate, only to be left empty-handed by the end of it, and the cycle just repeats as last year's game gathers dust. We have all fallen victim to this cycle. But we go again this year with newly generated hope and hype, as usual.

Starting things off, let's have a look at Franchise Mode in Madden NFL 26. This section, we believe, is the most important, being one of the fan favorites that has seen a lot of down years. Owner Mode is gone now, which may or may not be good news to you. There's no option to mess with concession prices, merch sales, or ticket prices. You can't even upgrade or renovate stadium sections.

The UI in franchise mode this time around is cleaner and easier to navigate than in years prior. Your coach skills have a more direct impact on the game, and you unlock more abilities as you progress, adding to the RPG-like structure here. Your coach's abilities can be upgraded or downgraded depending on whether you complete the objective of that ability. You can drop tiers as well as rise through them, so we like the high-stakes, high-reward situation going on here.

In addition to being interactive, the game plan screen gives you player statistics, mismatches, and injuries to watch out for, and the kind of strategy your opponents are using. You can use all this information to your advantage when deciding your play sheets for the week and your coachability layouts to attack their weaknesses or tackle their strengths.

Play sheets are a new addition in Franchise Mode from Madden NFL 26. Additionally, while it doesn't alter your playbook as a whole, it does give plays that fit into that play sheet category a boost. And the higher the tier level your play sheet is, the stronger the boost you get. It can be upgraded by either completing the objectives and upgrading the tier that way or by buying it with coach points.

You can also manage the abilities of your coaching staff: the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and trainer. The trainer is tasked with injury prevention and recovery, but your offensive and defensive coordinators can help compensate for the head coach's shortcomings.

The RPG elements may be nice, but there are also quite a few downsides that have to do with sim stats, stat tracking, and player XP inconsistencies. For example, the game doesn't track Travis Hunter's stats on offense and defense throughout his career. All of his offensive receptions and defensive plays are shown in the game's box score, but his season and career statistics show nothing at all when it comes to offense, and only show the defense. 

QB stats are the same. The 5K or high 4,000-yard seasons are nearly nonexistent, touchdown passes are high, and interceptions are consistently low. Madden NFL 26's scouting hasn't changed either. Scouts are still assigned to various regions on a weekly basis. The strengths and weaknesses of each region vary depending on its location. And then your scouts also have these three-star, two-star, and one-star ratings.

Right now, when it comes to scouting, you have your three-star, your two-star, and a couple of one-star scouts. And when you fire a one-star scout, they are only replaceable by another one-star scout. If you thought of upgrading, newsflash, you can't. The stars have to match. You'll always have a staff of a three-star scout and a two-star scout, with the rest being one-stars. There's not much variety to talk of here. The same thing goes for your offensive and defensive coordinators.

Despite the negatives, the Franchise Mode has seen a major revival in Madden NFL 26. Because of everything they've done with the weekly goals, play sheets, coaching abilities, and how you can switch those up from week to week, it feels somewhat like a real football role-playing game. They still have a lot of ground to cover, though, so we hope EA picks up where they left off in Madden 27. 

In Superstar Mode, it received improvements in Madden 26. The positions you can play are the same as they have been, as are the NFL combine drills and player creation at the start. There's not much customization you can do.

The pre-draft interview questions have somewhat improved. It's probably the best it's been since the days of Xbox 360 and PS2, when the game would make you answer random questions. The questions in Madden NFL 26 actually have some relevance to them, and it can be argued that they are implemented better than they were in the early Madden days.

The draft logic still feels illogical; for example, the Falcons drafted a first-round quarterback a year after they drafted a first-round quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. It's peculiar for an NFL team to draft a QB in the top 10 in consecutive years. The draft day cinematics are the exact same. The silence is deafening when you get drafted with no fans cheering and no music; on top of that, Roger Goodell being mute overall makes it an awkward experience.

Circle of Influence is the newest addition to Madden NFL 26. Of course, being an NFL player, realistically, you'd come across a range of people, right? From teammates to coaches to fans, well, you have that now. In Madden NFL 26, they balance these relationships well enough. You have weekly activities such as going to a podcast after a game or signing autographs in the parking lot.

The three things that change the game for Superstar mode are, for starters, it doesn't eat up unnecessary time with long cutscenes and loading times; secondly, these choices aren't just gimmicks, but they play a role in upgrades you can unlock; and last but not least, the features actually work correctly, unlike College Football 26's Road to Glory, where you're met with unrealistic scenarios like winning the Heisman as a sophomore, but then in your junior year, you're a third-string running back. The game mode is littered with bugs. 

Superstar Mode is far more enjoyable in every way simply because it works. The Circle of Influence is a nice addition, which makes the Superstar Mode seem personal as you play it. It's the side quests, the characters you meet, the mini-games, the relationships you build, the decisions you make, and how the NPCs react and treat you accordingly that make the game mode so immersive. 

It's the lack of opportunities to sign or not sign someone's autograph after the game. It's the lack of signing sneaker deals with Nike or Under Armor and having it mean something more than just a vanity checklist. These factors contribute to the Superstar Mode not being completely the epitome of what an RPG in a sports game should be like, on the other hand. 

Let's drop a truth bomb. We've had Superstar Mode for 19 years now. When the game is over and the clock hits zero, do you get any post-game actions? Are you jersey-swapping with anyone? Are you shaking hands with the opponent or walking off the field? Are you answering interviews, or declining to speak and taking a fine? So the answer to all these questions is one big no.

Nineteen years ago, Superstar Mode was revolutionary, but 19 years later, has EA done anything significantly different from what it was then? We had two-a-day workouts, training camp, combine preparation, and pre-draft interviews. You could even star in movies and commercials.

As you got fame, you could choose agents, and as you got better, you could fire your old agent and hire a new one, and they provided new avenues to keep you hooked. We don't have any of that anymore. The Circle of Influence is a great addition, but sadly, this game mode has stagnated in development for almost twenty years since it came out. 

Let's discuss gameplay. Now that's the make-or-break for any game, right?  Well, it's great for sure, but obviously not without its flaws. Many of the problems you'll see are individual player-related. For example, Trevor Lawrence has accuracy issues with his mid-range balls when playing with the Jaguars. Well, you can't complain too since it's realistic, but let's be for real: who amongst us is playing Madden NFL 26 for realism? Not many, we assume. 

The run game in Madden NFL 26 has also regressed in some ways because it has reverted to the days of Madden 23–24 around the line of scrimmage, where the run blocking lacks any kind of fluidity. The QB-to-halfback handoff animation takes far too long to escape, and this makes reading holes and cutback lanes extremely difficult. As a result, the gap is closed before you even regain control of the running back.

Let's delve a little into the positives, even if there may not be many. It feels like the best player movement Madden has seen in over a decade. In many ways, Madden NFL 26 may be ahead of College Football 26 as well; that could be a reach, as we obviously have played more of College Football 26, so the problems in Madden NFL 26 may start to surface as we play more of it.

Madden NFL 26 has physics and tackling problems. The main problem here is that, even though it's 2025, proper gang tackling is still lacking. There's probably a million examples of it, but we don't want to bore you with all that. It's not that the breaking tackles are unrealistic; it's just that the player collisions look clunky. When there are a lot of players, it just becomes a messy jumble of players falling everywhere. Additionally, you can observe how the game's animations take over the physics portion when you slow down tackles that involve multiple defenders.

Physics isn't being used in Madden NFL 26 the way we've been told. Players without momentum are falling forward rather than backward because everything is still causing an animation to start. Or defenders wrapped around a ball carrier, but then kind of stood up out of position and fell backwards because their teammate came in and triggered another tackle animation.

Graphics are up next. Madden NFL 26 looks great when it comes to stadium environments, lighting, and textures. They do the smallest of details really well, for instance, the stitching on the jerseys, the metallic paint and reflections on the helmet, and even the detail in the cleats. The stadium atmosphere looks awesome with excellent lighting.

The heavy snow looks good, but it's nothing more than a generic paint job, truth be told. It doesn't actually get displaced at any point in the game, and the heavy wind and fog don't affect the trajectory of kicks or passes. Also, considering dynamic lighting was a feature in College Football 26, the absence of it in Madden NFL 26 is felt heavily.

One of EA's main talking points this year was their presentation. Furthermore, this year's presentation is still outdated despite the fact that they made updates. The weekly recap in Franchise Mode also lacks substance. It's quite literally another halftime show. It's three random plays from games around the league, and that's it. There are no players of the week, no box scores, no injury reports, no team standings, and no trade information. Even if you're in the playoffs, there are no playoff pictures.

As for sound and music, the soundtrack for Madden 26 boasts a great mix of new songs and old hits. And they've added new hits like Kendrick Lamar's TV Off or Linkin Park's Emptiness Machine. This is one of the better soundtracks Madden has curated in recent memory, with a wider variety of hip-hop, rock, pop, and country.

The sounds of the game are disappointing. Commentary is as bland as ever, and the stadium atmosphere is flat with a crowd that seems bored with the game they're attending. The whole atmosphere and sound on game day just feel stale, especially when you compare it with College Football 26.

So, that sums up Madden NFL 26. Kudos to EA for finally changing the presentation, even if it was long overdue; they started somewhere at least. Even with the addition of a new feature in Superstar Mode, Madden NFL 26 just doesn't deserve the price it's set at.

It is a tough pill to swallow, but the reality is that even if the game is not bad, for EA, it's simply become a cash grab. Evidently so, by the Ultimate Team pop-up, you get just as you boot the game up, it's clear what their primary focus here is. The game is neither good nor bad; it sits in a grey area of mediocrity. 

In all seriousness, we urge you not to buy the game if you truly want a football sim that's worth the $70 price tag; that will wake EA up, we hope. It's desperately needed at this point. At its core, Madden NFL 26 is respectable, but it's not the one for a football fanatic to be proud of.