Madden NFL 26 Review – Review

In the 13-year, two-generation gap since Madden last appeared on a Nintendo platform, a lot has changed about football, video games, and the world. One thing that hasn’t changed all that much is that a good portable football game doesn’t really exist anywhere outside of a few years on PSP. Even the recent PC releases of Madden haven’t translated to a dependable Steam Deck experience as it isn’t even natively compatible with the Valve handheld. While the Switch 2 release of Madden NFL 26 isn’t flawless, it’s a more than satisfactory return to the world of Nintendo for the NFL that more or less replicates the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X experience with reasonable visual drawbacks and longer load times. The Switch 2 version is the best portable Madden game I’ve ever played and even the docked experience is totally fine.

Since it’s been so long since Madden has been on Nintendo, it makes sense to break down modern Madden a little more granularly. The game has head-to-head options and quickplay, as well as a robust Franchise mode for a deeper simulation experience. Madden Ultimate Team, an online microtransaction-heavy card game, is still a major driving force of the entire game, making a lot of it require an online connection. That being said, not every aspect of the game is locked behind the internet and the game is usually relatively clear as to what needs online and what doesn’t, even offering options for Franchise for offline and online.

I dabbled in the microtransaction paradise (or is it purgatory?) that is Ultimate Team for a little bit without spending real money, and I can understand the collectible card appeal of building up your squad. While it doesn’t seem to be as generous and expansive as MLB The Show’s similar mode, you can still get a nice experience without opening up your wallet. Ultimate Team is also a big part of the competitive aspect as you can play games online. In general, I wouldn’t recommend the Switch 2 version if you’re going to be a competitive Madden player. First off, crossplay is only available for other versions of the game, so the pool of players will only be the ones on Switch 2. I suppose it could be a big fish in a small pond scenario if you’re into it. In general, I don’t actually disagree with EA’s decision to make Switch 2 not a part of crossplay because any Switch 2 player would be at a severe disadvantage by virtue of being on less advanced hardware.

A disadvantage for players familiar with other versions of Madden might also be the control scheme. During games, I initially kept pressing the B button (where X is on the PlayStation controller) to go to the next play, but that would trigger a fake spike play call. The A button on Switch is used to progress, which makes perfect sense in Nintendo land, but definitely is off-putting to someone who has played Madden on PlayStation for the last few years. In general, the controls felt natural after I readjusted. On my first day of playing, I noticed a consistent input delay during gameplay, but that issue seemingly vanished the next day. Asking around, it appears that the input delay is likely happening because the game is compiling shaders in the background after initially downloading. That also tracks because of how often I saw crowds load in without heads or with generic jerseys that quickly transitioned to the real home team’s threads in my first few games as well. Even after the shaders load, there’s some jank in the between-the-scenes visuals, though the impact on gameplay has been minimal. Sometimes the down and distance might be slow to update. Sometimes the center might be very confused at a timeout and the camera will fixate on them trying to crouch and snap the ball despite the rest of the team being on the sideline.

The meat and potatoes of Madden for me has always been the Franchise mode and the Switch 2 version comes at a good time because this is easily the best the Franchise mode has been in ages. This is the mode where you pick a team and then play or sim through multiple seasons, going along with the ebbs and flows of wins, losses, and the offseason. The week-to-week in-season flow is primarily focused on playing games, but you also have to contend with roster management, future contract negotiations, and player development. New this year is a bigger focus on leveling up your head coach to add different benefits, like special sets of plays or player buffs. Offensive and defensive coordinators, which in past games basically did nothing, actually matter now, featuring similar level progressions as the head coach. Not everything is fixed in Franchise, as I still don’t care for the updates they made to college scouting recently. The good thing is that if there is an element of Franchise you don’t want to do, you can toggle it to be handled automatically.

A surprise highlight for me is the Superstar mode, where you create a player and try to become a superstar (it’s in the name of the mode!). This has been around Madden for decades, but significant updates were made this year to make it far more engaging, featuring more engagement if you’re a backup and defined chapter progressions to give your career more of a story arc. It also has a layered system where you level up your influence with players, coaches, fans, and more to give you boosts and different opportunities. Befriend a hacker and you can parlay that into altering your player’s base stats. Make nice with your agent to get to a point where you can demand a trade. I’ve messed around with multiple characters and while I can see some of the connective tissue behind the scenes, I’m impressed by the variety that’s come out of my experiences.

At a glance, Madden on Switch 2 isn’t visually impressive, but after playing a ton of the game docked and handheld (and also coming off of years on PS5), it plays totally fine. The load times are kind of long. Sometimes crowds load in weird. But the gameplay, easily the most important part, is not an issue. It’s evident to me that the team at EA Sports tried to do what they could to make a solid version of Madden early in the life of the Switch 2. It’s rough around the edges, but it’s the most feature parity a Madden game has had on a Nintendo platform since the age of the GameCube. I hope that, unlike Madden on 3DS and Wii U, we get to see EA Sports take another crack at bringing Madden to Switch 2 because the initial release captures the fun of the game and future releases could refine and improve all of the technical aspects.