Madden NFL 26 hands-on preview — Can this be the best Madden title in a decade?

Madden is a legacy game that has had its fair share of ups and downs throughout the year. I’ve covered Madden NFL for GamingTrend for the past four years, and I’ve played since Madden on the N64. With that, I have to say that this is the biggest jump Madden has made in a long time, especially with Franchise Mode, which has had the biggest upgrade in a decade. 

I had the chance to visit with the Madden NFL 26 team to preview the game and discuss the changes coming to the franchise this year. Over the next few months, I will be sharing some of my thoughts about each aspect of the game as we get reveals and blogs from EA Sports. This impressions piece will focus on my gameplay experience with Play Now and some of the things I noticed as I played. 

Their saying for this year is “Built from Sundays” with an extreme use of NFL Data to drive Madden NFL 26 to the next level. 

I, of course, played as my Miami Dolphins, who is my favorite team regardless of not winning playoff games. I tried some of the new weather-affecting gameplay with downpouring rain and fog effects. In Miami, weather can be unpredictable, and it’s nice to know that we can see a monsoon-style rainstorm in Madden. This impacted my ability to throw the ball intensely as Tua was unable to get the ball into the hands of some of the team’s newer players, like Nick Westbrook-Ikine, while players like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle had less trouble. Clearly, catching ratings will mean that much more during heavy snow and rain. 

Alongside the weather, the physics-based tackling has gotten an upgrade with more animations and ways to stiff-arm and lay down tackles. 

One of the biggest changes I wanted to see in gameplay was the upgrade to Fullback blocking. Playbooks from Mike McDaniel, Jim Harbaugh, and Kyle Shanahan have a lot of plays with fullbacks blocking for a runner. With previous iterations, I dealt with a lot of indecisive fullbacks who would never really know who to target or would lock in on one player and miss the impact block, even with a player as good as Kyle Juszczyk or Alec Ingold out there. This year, so far, I can see that they are closer to the blocking style of the linemen from the last couple years. 

Past that, I’m excited for people to experience the updates to the visuals including lighting, weather, and more. (More on this in coming months). 

I did get a chance to play M26 on the Nintendo Switch 2 during the preview event for two drives. It will take some getting used to due to the button layout, but it'll be a lot of fun bringing Madden with me where I go!

Madden feels good to play so far, with several additions you’d expect and some that are simply going to make playing the game more fun for a longer time. 

We’ll have more in-depth articles explaining everything from Franchise Mode to Superstar Mode and more in the next few months. Keep an eye on GamingTrend.com for all your Madden NFL 26 news, impressions, and reviews.