I play lots of of hours of Madden NFL yearly, however one factor I have never executed in practically 20 years is play Madden on a Nintendo platform. To my recollection, the final time I performed the sequence on a Nintendo system was Madden 08. After that, I switched to enjoying the sport on Xbox consoles, and I’ve by no means regarded again, as Xbox grew to become my most well-liked platform. Just some years after I give up Madden on Nintendo, EA Sports activities give up Madden on Nintendo, too. However the Swap 2 guarantees a brand new starting for Madden on Nintendo platforms, and primarily based on a Madden 26 demo I performed on Swap 2, that future could also be brighter than the pairing’s lackluster previous.
The final Madden recreation launched for a Nintendo gadget was Madden 13, launched in August 2012 for the Wii and Wii U. After that, EA stopped supporting the platform with its American soccer recreation, seemingly as a result of technical limitations made it untenable to proceed. Within the Wii and Wii U period, the video games routinely underperformed critically, supplied fewer new options than their counterparts on Xbox and PlayStation, and carried out worse graphically. I performed a recreation of Madden 26 on Swap 2 in handheld mode–I did not see it docked–and although it did appear to be a graphical step down from what I later performed on PS5, nothing else about it felt compromised by the platform.
Even within the case of the visible downgrade, it was no totally different than what I would count on if I have been to play Madden 26 on my Steam Deck. Handhelds nonetheless include the baked-in understanding that you just’re dropping a little bit of luster for the comfort of the expertise, and figuring out that, I used to be in a position to take pleasure in Madden 26 on Swap 2.
The heftier Swap 2 felt higher in my arms than the unique Swap, and I used to be glad to see that Madden 26 affords function and mode parity with the opposite variations. Not did it appear to be “Madden, however…” The older Nintendo video games have been so typically Madden, however with out the brand new physics engine, or Madden, but without the foundational sim gameplay. I spotted throughout my session that I had initially sat down with some skepticism, nevertheless it evaporated throughout my Pats-Chiefs conflict. Madden 26 on Swap 2 appears to be, properly, Madden.
To the extent that Madden 26 might include its personal set of issues, it at the very least would not appear to be I can pin the problem on Nintendo because the accountable get together. Having stated that, I positively nonetheless wish to see extra of the sport earlier than I finalize my opinion. I would love to do a comparability of loading instances, each from menu to gameplay and likewise from menu to menu, as Madden’s laggy menus are a legacy ache for the sequence on any platform. However at the very least now I’ve seen for myself that once I step onto the sphere with Madden for Swap 2, I am not being requested to compromise on both my soccer know-how or the sport’s mechanical depth.
I play Madden in a enjoyable, pleasant, but nonetheless aggressive league of 32 gamers (which you’ll sign up for here), and for these video games, I wish to play on an enormous display screen. I additionally desire Xbox’s normal button format over Nintendo’s–which feels backward in my thoughts and price me two interceptions in my demo–so I will not be making Swap 2 my go-to platform for Madden this 12 months. However as a result of the sport now not looks like a port with lacking items, I can positively see a future the place I might get the sport on Xbox and Swap 2 if EA supplied cross-save performance. In fact, for that, I would additionally must track down a Switch 2, however you get it.
To have the ability to handle my roster, play apply mode, signal free brokers, and give my fake players cool names on the go could be greater than sufficient to get me to purchase into the Swap 2 model as a second possibility. And for gamers who truly do desire Swap’s button format and would enthusiastically play it in handheld mode, this looks like the primary Nintendo-based Madden that holds as much as different platform variations in twenty years.
For extra on Madden 26, try my impressions on the best feature the game offers (and took from School Soccer 25), and be taught how the game had to change for one very special rookie.
