As tick follows tock, runs follow blocks, and the Raiders enter another rebuild phase, we have the yearly arrival of Madden. While there are alternatives out there, rightly or wrongly, it remains the NFL’s premier simulation. Despite some players experiencing burnout after more than forty entries in the franchise, it continues to push, improve, and tailor its experience for modern players and the latest consoles, and this year’s earth-shattering change-up for Madden 26 is that it’s come to the Nintendo Switch 2, making it the first handheld Madden in years.
More impactful is the fact that Madden 26 on Switch 2 is the same game that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series gamers are getting. There’s no legacy edition, no simple roster update, and no sense that you’re playing a version of the game from several years ago. This is the full Madden 26 experience, but on the go, and it makes for the most addictive and easily accessible entry we’ve had in a long time.
There’s two absolutely huge time-sinks in Madden 26, and they’re the classic combo of Franchise mode and Ultimate Team. Franchise mode remains the choice for the purist: pick your team, pick your coaching style, and then attempt to wrangle your team all the way to the Super Bowl through multiple years, taking control on the field and in the back office.
If you’re a fan of the real-life sport, it’s the mode that makes you feel as though you’re genuinely part of it, and EA have made significant changes to the way Franchise functions in an effort to make it feel more realistic and more involved. Personally, I think they’ve done a great job. You’re in control of your full staff team, and they’ll come to you with suggestions and pointers, giving you a nudge on a player that’s worth trading for, or helping you to evaluate your team’s overall health. Players will also come to you to discuss their position within the team, and you must choose how to motivate them and what you expect from them in their role.
Trading is a little messy, and some of that is because the menu controls aren’t labelled clearly, and they’ve opted for some buttons to take double duty while others, like the shoulder buttons, don’t do anything. There are definitely a few other behind-the-scenes quirks in Madden 26, and you have to hope that someone will notice and make a few changes in a patch, especially for players who are going to spend a lot of time in the menus.
Ultimate Team is the other key draw here. Collect player cards, complete challenges, upgrade your team, and take your team out against other players to see how it fares. Ultimate Team thrusts a lot of stuff at you for free, and if you’re the patient type, you can get away without spending extra money on buying card packs. At least for a while.
Madden Team has a way of insinuating itself into your psyche, and sooner or later – sooner in my case – you’re going to break and spend your real-life money on a bunch of ephemeral player cards with slighter better stats than the ones you own. I do this every year, and since I’ve never got too carried away, I remain perfectly happy with my choices. If you have anything against predatory monetisation, or you’re nursing an addictive personality, perhaps this, and likely all of EA and 2K’s sports games, are not for you.
The Switch 2’s menu performance is nowhere near as snappy as that found on the PS5, and Madden Ultimate Team is where you’ll feel that the most. It’s not diabolical, nor truly off-putting, but it is slower. If you’re the sort that wants to rush through team selection, optimising your cards and opening packs, the Switch 2 is the slowest place to do that. However, you can do that with Switch 2 anywhere you want, assuming you have an internet connection. You can’t take your PS5 on the bus.
The need for an internet connection is something that Madden largely relies on these days, and while you can play Franchise Mode offline, it prevents the EA servers from helping out with any simulations you might be doing, and you’ll be without the live rosters available with the online version. This is a bit fiddly on Switch 2, as an active connection is much less of a guarantee, and I did find myself waiting for everything to sync up a few times when I was waking up the Switch 2 from sleep. Still, this is (disappointingly) nothing new for the franchise or gaming in 2025.
Outside of Ultimate Team and Franchise Mode, there’s also Superstar, which once again lets you create your own character, fight your way through the NFL draft and then build your position and importance in your team. I still like this – who doesn’t enjoy putting themselves in the game, and supplanting Brock Purdy as the lead Quarterback for the 49ers – and you can tailor your player so that he fits exactly with how you think you’d play in real life. You might need a good imagination. There’s more of a documentary feel to Superstar, and Madden 26 as a whole, and I think it’s a great fit, feeling as though you can put more of yourself into the player than ever before.
Performance is going to be the key question mark over the Switch 2 version, and it’s fair to say that Madden 26 plays a competent game of gridiron on the handheld. It’s not the fastest, or the smoothest, but the player models look decent, the animations remain intact, and all of the features you’ll find in the PS5 version are present and correct. Frankly, it’s remarkable and exactly what I was hoping for. After struggling with previous Maddens on my ROG Ally and the non-existent support for Steam Deck’s Linux OS, this is truly the only viable way to play Madden 26 on the go. It’s excellent, and it’s been a long time coming.
There is a gentle caveat to that; there remains the slight shonkiness in the menus and in some of the on-field action that we’ve come to expect from Madden. I genuinely think that this is the best it’s been at launch for a number of years, and none of it truly detracts from the experience, but in an ideal world everything would function perfectly, and all the jank would be gone. Still, the team will undoubtedly continue working on it throughout the season, until we arrive at Madden 27.
I have to talk about the EA Music in Madden 26, if only because it’s one of the best sports game mixes I can remember. The 166 track lineup is all over the shop in terms of genre and timeline, jumping from 50 Cents’ In Da Club through to We Go On by Bia and then The Contract by TwentyOnePilots, before taking a sojourn into rock and metal with Bush’s Machinehead, Electric Callboy’s Elevator Operator and Korn’s Freak on a Leash. Hell, there’s Megadeth, Chappell Roan and Lizzo nestled up against each other. If you’ve got an eclectic taste in music, it’s absolutely spot on. If you don’t, you can turn off all the songs you don’t like.
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