It’s been quite awhile since EA has released a Madden title on a Nintendo system. The last one that Nintendo fans could play was Madden 13 back on the Wii U (and Wii). Enter Madden NFL 26, the first Madden titles to appear on a Nintendo platform in over a decade. Is this version of the game something you should take seriously? Let’s get into it.
Gameplay
If you’ve been away from the Madden series for several years like me (the last one I played was Madden 18), the controls here will feel familiar, but have a few nuanced changes that you’ll want to take note of. This isn’t necessarily new to the series, but with the standard button passing, you have the ability to lead your receivers in any direction you like with the joystick. This works with lob passes (simple button presses) or bullet passes (holding down the button). It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it feels great and is very useful.
The kick meter this year will take some practice. To initiate the kicking sequence, you’ll need to stop the arrow on the horizontal meter as close to the center as possible with the press of B. From there, you will need to keep ahold of B until the power fills up in the vertical meter. The goal here is to not fill it up completely to the top, as this will result in too much power being put into the kick and increase the possibility of missing. Getting to the point just before the top is the best way to do this. I’m still kind of torn on this, but it at least makes things challenging.
Overall, Madden 26 is just fun to play on all sides of the ball. The weather effects are also great, with rain and snow really having an impact on player performance, just like in real life. If you’ve been away from the series for quite some time, it might be beneficial to check out some of the Training Camp before hopping straight into the competition.
Modes
The Switch 2 version of Madden 26 features all of the modes that you will find in any other version of the game. The main modes here are Ultimate Team, Franchise, Superstar, Online and Quick Play. I’m not super interested in Ultimate Team or competitive online play myself, but these are here for those that are looking for these aspects of Madden. Ultimate Team lets you collect player cards, create a team of your dreams and then compete with them online. The Creation Center is also place where you can download or upload custom teams, playbooks, sliders, rosters and draft classes. As mentioned previously, Training Camp is also a great place to go for some practice or to just go through some of the mini-games. Needless to say, there is a lot to do here.
Do You Need to Be Connected Online?
Before getting into online performance, it should be noted that some of the modes can be played completely offline. This is still a bit limited. Superstar Mode and Ultimate Team cannot be played at all and Franchise has some limitations. If you try to go into the latter, you receive the following warning: “Progression Warning: Unable to connect to EA servers. You will not be able to earn progression towards your objectives or cosmetic unlocks. Please try to reconnect to EA servers, or continue.”Of course, like many games these days, having some kind of online connection is encouraged. Playing regular games or the mini-games is fine. Still, this limitation is a bit disappointing and something to keep in mind.
Online Play
Although it took me quite a while to get connected (upwards of eight minutes or so), when I got connected, the game performed pretty well for the most part. Online matches use four minute quarters and the chat is turned on by default, which kind of surprised me when my opponent started talking with someone else. I’m usually not one to chat with randoms, but as a way to test the Switch 2’s chat feature, it actually worked pretty well, even with my console on the other side of the room. Getting back to the overall performance, the main thing that bothered me was the kick meter - the timing just seemed to be a bit off. Granted, I’m not the greatest at kicking in this year’s game, but otherwise things were fine. It’s all really going to depend on your and/or your opponent’s connection. Regardless, online play in this version worked well when I tried it.
Franchise
Perhaps the deepest mode that the series has on offer, Franchise lets you take control of a team and in an effort to guide them to the Super Bowl. You can create your own coach, or simply take control of an existing one. On top of playing the games themselves, you’ll have to worry about signing players, creating weekly strategies for opponents, abilities for stat boosts, managing the coaching staff and so much more. When it comes to the actual games themselves, you have the ability to play the entire game, simulate, play offense of defense exclusively, or play key moments. I’m just scratching the surface with my coaching career here, but I’m really enjoying what’s on offer in Franchise. There is definitely a lot that you can do, or NOT do if you like. The CPU can do a lot of things for you just in case you would rather focus on playing the games. What’s on offer here is fantastic. Additionally, you can opt to play by yourself or with up to 32 other players online.
Superstar
It’s hard to believe, but the Superstar mode in Madden is 20 years old. The mode has had a lot of influence on sports games over the years in a positive way, introducing similar modes in other series from EA and many others. Unfortunately for Switch 2 owners, you won’t be able to have any connection to high school or college like fans can do with College Football and Madden. Still, what’s on offer on Nintendo’s platform is nothing to scoff at. Starting off at the NFL Draft, it’s up to you to impress scouts with drills, interviews and more. After getting drafted, you’ll then have to work your way up the depth chart by earning the trust of your head coach. You won’t just be automatically thrust into the starting position - you have to work at it.
Players have access to a “Sphere of Influence,” a hub of sorts that shows what kind of relationships you have with your agent, coach, fans and many others. You gain and lose influence with each of these through your play, weekly objectives, interactions with the media and a lot more. It’s a pretty cool aspect of the game. There is even an online hub where you can play 3-on-3 games with others online. I’m primarily playing on my own, so this doesn’t appeal to me, but this is an option available for those who are interested.
Visuals, Audio & Performance
Madden 26 on the Switch 2 is a sharp looking game. The player models sport quite a bit of detail, realistic faces, jersey textures, facial expressions and gear. Stadiums and fields also look great and do a good job at putting you into the experience. The three commentary teams are also a nice touch (and a carry over from the previous version on other platforms). These are assigned at random or you can opt to pick whichever team you like. Personally, I love Greg Olsen and Mike Tirico the best, but the other two teams (Brandon Gaudin & Charles Davis and Kate Scott & Brock Huard) aren’t bad. In addition to the normal presentation, different presentation elements are also in the game for Thursday Night, Sunday Night and Monday Night Football. They’re EA’s take on these, but they’re pretty realistic and a great addition.
To address the elephant in the room, there are some major issues with the framerate in Madden 26 on the Switch 2. Things on this version are pretty unstable, hovering somewhere above and under 30 frames per second throughout the experience. The worst culprits are the cutscenes, which are all over the place. Not only this, but sometimes odd things, like fans appearing without heads, pop up from time to time. It’s hard to say whether or not this will be or can be addressed with future patches, so we can only cross our fingers and hope. Despite this, I didn’t find too many issues with the framerate impacting the gameplay.
The issues with performance seem to be worse when playing the game in TV mode, however, there appear to be less when playing in Handheld Mode. It’s still not perfect, but noticeably smoother. I’ve also changed the download location of my game from the SD card to the system itself, but the issues still persist and I haven’t seen a noticeable difference. I’ve ran into other issues as well, such as a particularly annoying instance in Superstar mode. After playing through a pre-season game, I chose “Finish Game” to take the software started back to the Superstar menu. The game chugged and did nothing for five minutes and didn’t appear to be able to properly close out that game session. After closing the software, of course, my progress hadn’t been saved, so I had to go through the game again. Bugs like this can probably be fixed somewhere down the road, however the issues with the framerate might be a bit more of a challenge for EA to straighten out. Simply put, if you’re looking for a version of Madden 26 that runs smoothly, the Switch 2 version is going to disappoint.
Conclusion
Madden’s first appearance on the Switch 2 plays well but is hampered by issues with performance, most notably the framerate. There are definitely worse examples of this in other games, however if you are coming from another platform to the Switch 2, this will be jarring. Even with that said, the problems with the framerate didn’t hinder the gameplay. Handheld mode also provides a better enough experience of the NFL, but still but still has some of the same issues that can be found on the TV. Simply put, if you can overlook the issues with the framerate, you will probably still enjoy the game. If you can’t, well, then maybe this version isn’t for you.
*Update* August 15, 2025
EA released a patch to the game that greatly improved the framerate issues. It's still not perfect and the game will stutter from time to time, but it's a lot better. With that being said, everything else I said in the review stands.
Final Score: 8.0
But let’s turn things over to you. What was the last Madden game you played? What system do you generally prefer to play the series on? Back in the day, I was always partial to versions on the N64 and GameCube, but the Wii left me turning to my Xbox 360. After that, it was PS4 all the way. Anyway, be sure to sound off in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
by Danny Bivens
originally posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, 11:58 p.m.
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