A big overhaul, or riddled with bugs?
(Credit: EA)
🏈 Reviews for Madden NFL 26, the latest entry in the longstanding sports series, have started to roll in
👍 According to Metacritic, the game has averaged a score of 72
🙌 Some reviewers have called it the best entry in the series in a decade and praised its feature sharing with College Football 26
🪲 More critical write-ups have noted a litany of bugs that heavily impact its playability
Reviews for the latest Madden title – Madden NFL 26 – have started to roll in, and so far, it's looking reasonably okay.
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Of the seven reviews of the PS5 version available onMetacritic at the time of writing, the game has averaged a score of 72, which the review aggregator site deems as 'Mixed or Average'. This may go up or down as more reviews are published.
The consensus among the reviewers seems to be that Madden NFL 26 is an improvement over its predecessor in the game's scope and further optimizations to the game's key modes make it a worthwhile upgrade.
Here’s what the critics have to say about Madden NFL 26.
GamesRadar+ has been one of the highest givers of praise for the game with a four-star review, calling it "the finest entry in a decade by some margin", adding the following:
Madden 26's presentation and franchise improvements are authentic, fantastic, and worth a sustained play. It's still narrowly edged out by the fun and flair of College Football 26, but the gap between these sibling games is closing, inch by inch.
Hardcore Gamer highlighted the improvements made to Madden NFL 26, thanks to its feature sharing with EA's College Football 26, and argued that EA made good on its promise for a much-improved game. They had some reservations about the buggy gameplay, though:
Transitioning over to Superstar Mode sees the best iteration of this mode in some time with the addition of Wear & Tear and the introduction of the Sphere of Influence. Everything off the field goes above and beyond what most have expected from the franchise in a while, but on the field is where the frustrations sit. The QB DNA and Coach DNA are incorporated well, but issues with blocking and the AI create baffling results that you hope to get past but never truly can. Hopefully some patches can see this alleviated, but otherwise it's safe to say that Franchise and Superstar Mode are officially back.
More critical writeups
Not all reviews were as glowing as the two above, though.
For instance, as much asBut Why Tho praised the overhauls to gameplay and the longstanding Franchise mode, they still felt it was behind College Football 26 overall:
There is enough depth to Madden 26 that makes it an experience worth the update. It still is not as strong as the CFB franchise, but it is making strides in the right direction.
What's more,Game Informer felt that the title wasn't "ready for primetime" because of various bugs. For instance, textures failed to populate and some animations failed to load, while the simulations in 'Superstar' mode misread basic strategies and plays:
Despite a disappointing launch, Madden NFL 26 isn’t unsalvageable. I would imagine many of these problems will be fixed through post-launch patches, but that doesn’t change the fact that despite how strong its fundamentals appeared to be prior to stepping onto the field, much like a nervous rookie, this entry just wasn’t quite ready for primetime.
Madden NFL 26 seems to get a lot right, with big overhauls to its gameplay and one of the biggest updates to its Franchise mode in over a decade. However, the presence of too many bugs and the fact that it isn't as strong as EA's College Football 26 product is leaving a sour taste for some reviewers.
Madden NFL 26 is out now for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
Check out the**upcoming PS5 games** and**upcoming Xbox games** lists to see what’s up next for Sony and Microsoft’s consoles.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.