If football is a game of inches, then Madden usually captures that feeling perfectly in the details of its annual iterations. Every August, fans sit and obsess over what’s changed, whether the changes under the hood matter, whether the novel systems do what EA says they do, and whether everything really feels better. Usuallythat is. Not this year. I haven’t played enough Madden NFL 25 to pass final judgment, but I can already tell that everything feels very different than it did in Madden NFL 24 — and I don’t have to pull the chains out to see that a lot of progress has been made.
EA has been hyping up the refreshed look of Madden 25, and honestly, that’s where the improvements are most noticeable. The menus are much cleaner—the options are substantial, clearly marked, straightforward to understand, and, miraculously, largely lag-free. That may not seem like a substantial deal, but if you played Madden 24 on launch day, it feels like a godsend. It’s the little things, really. My wife, who specializes in UX design and has seen me play way too much Madden 24 over the past year, walked by while I was playing this year’s version and casually remarked, “This looks like a real menu designed by a real person.” Hallelujah, brothers and sisters. They heard us.
Okay, Will. Yes, novel menu. Big deal. Tell us about something more substantial. Well, dear reader, the core modes also benefit from this novel focus on presentation, and I feel like a lot of what’s good here can be traced directly to the improvements we saw in College Football 25. Franchise mode finally lets you create female coaches, and there are more customization options than ever before when it comes to heads and uniforms. There are still only ten head options for women compared to forty for men, but it’s frosty that they’re even being added.
Superstar also benefits from this novel coat of paint, despite completely abandoning any pretense of the opening storyline (and from what I’ve seen, the voice acting), which is a shame. On the plus side, things get better after the Combine. The draft actually looks and feels like the NFL draft. When the almighty Joe Throw was selected by the Falcons with the 8th overall pick, Roger Goodell, the most hated man in football, came out and hugged him before handing him a Falcons jersey and posing for a photo — just like in real life. Did Joe look like some kind of creepy golem animated by shadowy magic compared to the mute wax figure of Roger Goodell from Madden 25? Yes. Does it matter? Not necessarily. It still looks a lot better than what we had, and I appreciated all the extra customization options I got when playing Joe Throw in Madden 25 — another thing this year’s Madden seems to owe in part to College Football 25.
Once I was at the Falcons facility, I walked around with head coach Raheem Morris and we went over my goals for the preseason. Again, it’s a little weird with everyone moving their lips and not hearing any sound, but visually? Much better than last year, and I appreciated the constant visual updates, whether I was talking to my teammates in the locker room or on the field. We’re not trapped in hotel rooms anymore.
Speaking of the pitch, there are some frosty things to see here too. Everything looks better, whether it’s the character models, the animations before, during and after plays, or the novel and improved touchdown graphics that display a photo of the player scoring the point. Again, it’s the little things.
Not everything here is a home run though; I hate the novel play art, at least the ones we see in the playbook. They’re harder to decipher than the ones in Madden 24 and, conveniently, they look exactly like the ones in College Football 25. They may not all be zingers, but man, they can’t be replaced quick enough.
There are also a lot of substantial changes, like the novel kickoff rules, which seem… really weird. I don’t like them, but that’s an NFL issue, not necessarily Madden. Either way, it’ll take some getting used to. Other things are more positive. I love the ability to select coverages instead of just spawning in the baseline, and I’m a substantial fan of the ability to independently move both sides of my O-line… another feature we first saw in College Football 25. Maybe it’s just me, but Madden 25 feels even closer to College Football 25 in terms of speed – maybe I’m crazy, but if that holds true as I play more, I like where things are headed.
I also like that there are more mini-games to play and that there are finally mini-games for O-linemen that you can employ to focus them Train them in Franchise mode. I’m not particularly Enjoy those mini-games, I’ll admit, but at least they’re there and I can employ them — and the mini-games here are definitely better than Madden 24 overall. Getting messages from my GM when I’m playing as a coach in my Franchise is also a nice touch, and I’m a substantial fan of the novel commentary teams, especially Kate Scott and Brock Huard. (Say it with me: it’s the little things.)
I still have a lot of Madden NFL 25 to play through before I’m ready to give my rating. I’ve got Franchise to run, more Superstars to lead to Lombardi glory, my annual grind in the EA Money Machine that is Ultimate Team, and so on. But I’m… sanguine? Is that something I’m even allowed to be in Madden? Maybe I’m just completely screwed and will only notice more problems the more I play. After all, football is a game of all, and the smallest mistakes can lead to disaster. But right now, man, those little things? They feel pretty good.
