It might not have the audience of football, baseball, or soccer, but to its proud fans there\u2019s something truly special about hockey. It\u2019s the cold air of the arena, the weight of the puck against your stick, and the feel as your skate glides across the surface of the ice. To their credit, the developers at EA Vancouver seem to get all of that, and it\u2019s led them to create an enjoyable NHL simulation that has earned a dedicated audience. That dedication, however, has increasingly been tested in recent years as the series has failed to truly move forward in any meaningful way. EA Sports NHL 26 continues this dynamic with a game that nails most of the elements that make hockey special, but it never feels like the kind of significant jump over what\u2019s come before that might make buying yet another version exciting rather than obligatory. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve played a hockey game from EA at any point over the last few years, you have a good idea of what to expect from NHL 26. The lynchpin of the series is Franchise mode, which allows you to take the team of your choosing on a season-long quest to hoist the Stanley Cup. It\u2019s basically the default mode, showcasing what the series is best known for and it still does that all pretty well. Individual games are fast, the controls are intuitive, and EA Vancouver has spent years refining a formula that mostly works. Granted, there are very few other hockey games available right now, and those that do exist don\u2019t have the official NHL players or teams; that lack of competition might be what leads the developers to play things so safe and leave so much unchanged year to year. To be fair, it\u2019s hard to fault them too much for not fixing what isn\u2019t broken. <\/p>\n
However, this situation has created an unfortunate trend for the series that\u2019s made each year\u2019s version feel like baby steps, and NHL 26 continues to focus more on smaller tweaks than on substantial changes. As a result, it\u2019s easy to miss adjustments made beyond mirroring the big roster changes we\u2019ve seen over the offseason, such as Mitch Marner being on the Golden Knights after leaving the Leafs, and Matt Dumba appearing on the Penguins following his Dallas departure. As of this writing, EA Vancouver seems to have done a pretty good job making sure everything is up to date, including representing the Utah Mammoth with their new name, uniforms, and arena (following a season under the temporary \u201cUtah Hockey Club\u201d label). Lastly, PWHL has been updated to add the women\u2019s league\u2019s two new teams from the 2025-2026 season, though that mode feels completely unchanged beyond that. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to miss adjustments made beyond mirroring the big roster changes.<\/p>\n
Though Franchise mode seems to be the most popular single-player mode in EA\u2019s yearly NHL games, I really enjoy the customization options and the general approach to the sport found in the narrowed focus of Be a Pro. As someone that grew up playing hockey, there\u2019s something that feels really authentic about focusing on controlling an individual player. There\u2019s a greater need to consider line changes, playing in position, and setting up CPU-controlled characters. <\/p>\n
What We Said About Last Year’s NHL 25Every IGN NHL Review Ever<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no denying that the action on the ice looks better than ever in NHL 25, and it\u2019s nice to see Franchise Mode get some welcome changes that help it feel more authentic for those interested in the sim experience. But when I look at this year’s entry as a whole it’s quite lackluster, with very few meaningful mechanical changes that ultimately just leave it feeling like more of the same as last year. For being the first NHL game available exclusively on current-gen consoles, it\u2019s a shame that NHL 25 is still stuck in the same last-gen rut. \u2013 Nick Ransbottom, October 4, 2024<\/p>\n
Score: 6<\/p>\n