The Madden franchise has become somewhat of a meme over the last decade. The franchise has lacked serious innovation in features, graphics, controls, and game modes, and hardcore fans expect to buy a $70 reskin with new rosters. Madden 26 might be the year the hallowed game franchise finally enters the next generation and feels like a video game made in the future of 2025.
Saquon Barkley and his iconic backwards hurdle grace this year’s cover. Jaguars fans are happy Saquon is jumping over air on the cover, but the rest of us won’t let them forget. This year’s theme is called “built from Sundays,” with the idea being that the Madden development team spent years studying the NFL to create a more immersive experience. The players’ tendencies, playbooks, stadium traditions, etc., have been more accurately transcribed into a more immersive feeling NFL video game experience. I have no idea why they haven’t been doing that this entire time, but I digress. At least the trailer is dope.
Madden 26 Reveal Trailer
It’s not a surprise that a year of College Football 25 completely reinvigorated the football gaming experience; Madden 26 is bringing some competition. The sport of college football makes for a better video game football experience, in my opinion. The crowds, stadiums, turnover traditions, rivalries, and everything that makes the sport of college football great translate into the video game experience in a wonderful way.
Madden, in comparison, feels dull and bland, but this trailer looks like it’s finally bringing the hype back to the game. People love the NFL, people want to love Madden, the game just has to be good. Let’s hope Madden 26 breaks a long trend of bad entries and some of the features they’re marketing early have fans like myself pretty excited for a Madden game that isn’t complete shite. EA Sports dropped an entire blog breaking down the core new features coming with Madden 26
The NFL community couldn’t be more excited about Mr. Redzone himself, Scott Hansen, joining the game for special primetime presentations and halftime reports. The game is finally expanding its depth chart positions to reflect the modern roster construction. New positions include the edge rusher, nose tackle, long snapper, and the gadget player position. Special players like Travis Hunter receive wear and tear buffs that allow him to excel at two different positions, but normal one-way players can’t have the same effect on both sides of the ball thanks to the wear and tear system.
I don’t want to get my hopes up because this franchise has been a model of mediocrity for about a decade, but as the blog reads, the game might actually be good. Madden might fully be back this August 11 for pre-orders and August 14 for everyone else.
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Feature Image Credit: Madden NFL 26 (@EAMaddenNFL) / X
