NHL 26

NHL 26 takes what NHL fans have seen in real-life NHL broadcasts and lets you experience it on your console. You get to feel the intensity of a Stanley Cup final while playing as some of the game's best.

NHL 26 brings new gameplay changes that bring hockey to life in a way that is better than ever. There are still some things to be ironed out, a typical issue for yearly sports releases, but there is a lot of fun to be had for hockey fans everywhere.

NHL 25 seemingly had a lot of potential as the franchise finally left the last generation of consoles behind, leaving fans expecting big things for the series that had been on a downhill trajectory for a few years. Instead, what we got felt like little more than a roster update with a few new features sprinkled in.

With a number of improvements such as a new goalie crease system and NHL EDGE data being used to enhance player behaviour, NHL 26 is undoubtedly a great hockey game. Be A Pro mode still has some issues, though, and you can just tell that the series doesn't get as much love as the likes of EA Sports FC.

I sat down to write this review with the realisation that I’ve been reviewing EA Sports’ NHL franchise for 15 years now. Re-reading some of my reviews, I couldn’t help but laugh at the general advice I always seem to give: you probably don’t need to buy new iterations of the franchise each and every year; one every two years should sort you. In later years, that’s been adapted to exercising some patience and waiting until this or last year’s version eventually makes its way to Pl...

Annual sports titles are generally fixated on iteration. Adhering to an annual release schedule for titles with massive scope and a general high bar for visual presentation is difficult, so the titles have to cherry-pick a few things to change for a given year and hope things improve.

NHL 26 is a fine take on the sport of hockey, but it largely fails to offer any significant jumps from last year’s game.