Axis Football 2026 on PC

Back in the day, I used to be quite the football sim fanatic. From 2003 onward, I invested in the yearly edition of Madden, had a blast with the uproarious NFL Street, and even dipped my toes in the water with ESPN NFL 2K5 (right before EA said “oh no you don’t” to their only competitor, gobbling up NFL exclusivity forevermore).

My interest in their annual roster updates eventually waned, with the last one I bothered buying being Madden NFL 25… And by that I mean the 2013 game meant to mark the 25th anniversary, not the 2024 game of the same name. The lack of foresight on that decision sure was something, wasn’t it?

The point I’m trying to make is that as much as EA Sports proclaimed they were “in the game”, I have been very much out of the game for over a decade now. And while I haven’t been truly satisfied by an American football game since Madden ’05, something about Axis Football’s approach really caught my eye; the focus here is on customisation, allowing you to completely rebuild the entire fictional league as you see fit.

In other words, shit that Madden used to do really well, but that EA haven’t had the balls to implement since the 2000s. Sounds good to me, however the real test will be how it plays without all that sweet, sweet Electronic Arts money. And yes, that makes more of a difference than you might think…

So I want to get one thing out of the way first, because it’s the most prevalent thought I had during my test run of Axis ’26: there’s a lot of jankiness to be grappled with here. While the most obvious instances are on the field (which we will get to in short order), even the menu systems have a way of baffling you. As an example, for my first game, although I could select Winnipeg as my CPU opponent, I couldn’t locate them to play as myself.

Maybe I have to unlock them? I’m unclear, but take it from someone who actually hails from Canada: I can assure you that nobody would go to the effort of trying to earn Winnipeg.

As an aside, the team selection is wonderfully robust. They largely mirror NFL cities, with some exceptions. Mexico City, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City are welcome additions, but better still, Vancouver and Montreal are represented, with no Toronto in sight. As a non-Ontarian Canadian, that’s kinda perfect, and I embrace the schadenfreude of this decision.

In any event, I pitted my beloved imaginary Vancouver boys against the unobtainable Winnipeggers, and began to understand what an indie football game is capable of, visually and mechanically. We may take Madden’s presentation for granted, or even deride it as being ugly or simplistic, but the change in quality here is quite jarring.

The stadium interiors are awash with static cutouts making up the crowd, and the animations, while serviceable, do not flow well from one to another. Players will sometimes stop on the spot, because damn man, their programmed route is done, and this can have a devastating impact on gameplay. It’s even worse on defence, where a distance that is perceived to be just outside of the reasonable tackling range will have the defender automatically give up. Motherfucker you ain’t Cam Newton in Super Bowl 50, take a dive and close the gap.

The best way I could describe the look and feel is that it’s as if a 2006 game was remastered to have better resolution. And that isn’t even the weirdest thing. That’d be how it plays.

Axis Football has a tendency to be balls to the wall on every single drive. On my very first play (a routine RB run to the right), I gained nine yards untouched before fumbling it on first contact. Thankfully, a teammate recovered it for what was ultimately a ten yard gain, but it served as something as a harbinger.

My second play was a pass attempt that was initially intercepted, only to be called back for defensive pass interference. This is two plays in, and they were the busiest fucking plays you can imagine. All throughout the game, there was a litany of penalties, broken tackles, or injuries. Rarely was there ever just a run for no gain, where nothing else of note occurred.

If you’re reading all this and anticipating a low score, I’ll take the opportunity to reassure you that all of these shenanigans make for a lot of hilarious fun. Something I hadn’t mentioned beforehand is that prior to this fated showdown between Vancouver and Winnipeg, I messed around with the settings to see how in-depth they really were.

You can set a value on penalty frequency out of 100, and even toggle individual fouls on or off. How does a game work without encroachment ever being called? Turns out, it’s totally silly, and I highly approve. I certainly didn’t envy the hapless Winnipeg quarterback, who had to snap the ball with a snarling Vancouver d-lineman standing literally right next to him.

On each play, you can boost your chance of success with a single button push, ranging from breaking tackles to securing catches as a receiver. There’s no apparent drawback that I could ascertain, and seeing how it’s as simple as pressing one button (that is highlighted on the screen when the opportunity arises), you’ll assuredly do it all the time. It’s not quite foolproof, and yet the effectiveness is clear to see as you watch your runner shed would-be tacklers with ease.

In a match filled with busted coverage, frequent injuries, and encroachment on every play, Vancouver took the win over Winnipeg, 19 to 17. There was no victory animation.

This is just kinda how it is with Axis Football, which values substance over style. Considering its focus on simming, my next order of business was to fire up franchise mode. This time, I was the Montreal Terrapins, equipped with a west coast offence and a logo that looked ready to BITE.

Immediately, I saw the potential in this game’s depth. While you can play with default American settings akin to the NFL, there is also a European system that includes promotion and relegation. That’s the kind of substance Axis thrives on. With that being said, there was a spelling mistake in the description for this feature, claiming that it was a “Europrean tier system”.

Apropos of nothing else, allow me to mention to anyone reading that I am a professional proofreader and editor with previous game testing experience. I’m just saying…

Anyhow, the full range of gameplay styles were available, between playing the games, coaching them, spectating them, or simulating their results. Considering how dubious I had been as a player, I elected to coach this time.

Sans my curious in-game decision making (and without my proven ability for encroachment), Axis Football played much more traditionally while I was merely calling the plays. I was especially impressed when a Montreal touchdown prompted the commentator to declare, “très bien”. It’s a fabulous detail, and the kind of superfluous flourishes that I really appreciate. The kind that Axis could potentially do with more of, in fact.

On the note of commentary, it’s perfectly fine for the most part, and Andy McNamara is a natural fit for the role. Its biggest issue is when it leans on cliche, as so many familiar football tropes are somewhat situational. When a team scores on their first play with a 65-yard long bomb, only for McNamara to observe that they were able to “grind their way out” for the touchdown, your immersion will undoubtedly be jeopardised.

Andy my dude, that’s either busted coverage or bad playcalling (likely both, as I was the team that fell victim to this particular touchdown), there’s no grinding to be spoken of.

I’ve spoken at length about the on-field product, mostly because it’s just so weird, so it was important for me to also boast about the breadth of the customisation options. You can tinker with the rosters as you see fit, or construct a new one of your own creation. I launched a fledgling squad called the Bolivia Website Dwellers, and renamed the QB Ezi Yoda.

Next, I amended all of his attributes, maxing him out at 99 in every statistic, while also making him a 50 year old, 500 pound, 8’0″ tall monster of a man. Unsurprisingly, he basically performed like Bo Jackson in the NES version of Tecmo Bowl, running laps around the opponents while they struggled to even lay a hand on him.

But of course, I had to experiment further, so before the second game I cruelly robbed Ezi of his talent, dimming down all of his stats as if I was one of the aliens from Space Jam. Remarkably, this made for an even more entertaining experience, as the QB seemed to have lost all concept of time and space.

A designed throw to a tight end running a 10-yard corner route to the left ends in disaster as Ezi hucks the ball laterally to the right for a 3-yard loss on what is ostensibly a fumble out of bounds. This is stupid. This is fun. This is Axis Football.

Owing to its mechanics being less than realistic, I can’t really declare Axis to be a definitive football simulation. However, it’s absolutely a plucky little football game; not quite arcade levels of wacky, but offbeat in a way that makes it charming. It’s basically what NFL games were back in the 2000s, and I mean that in a good way — no microtransactions, no Ultimate Team, no obsession with on-field details like the accuracy of a player’s touchdown celebration.

I remember how excited I was a few years ago to create a Madden league where all of the players had 0 in all of their statistics. When I learnt that this wasn’t an option anymore, I was crestfallen. Is Patrick Mahomes really so fragile that gamers shouldn’t be allowed to tinker with his capabilities in a fucking video game? That’s fine by me, because I can make a player in Axis Football named Patrick Mahomes, and he can suck ass if I so desire. It’s jank, but it’s highly customisable jank.

There are areas where Axis can easily be improved — the boost mechanic is overly simplistic, and sometimes you can’t do things as simple as calling an audible out of a field goal formation — but if you just want to play American football without all of the red tape and strings attached of the NFL, this is surely it.

Final Verdict

Axis Football 2026

REVIEW COPY PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER

Release Date: 8 September 2025

Platform: PC (also available on mobile, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One)

Developer: Axis Games

Publisher: Upside Down Bird

My score for this game is less dependent on what Axis Football falls short on, because if I desperately sought after those things, Madden is right there (and always at a premium cost). What we have here is a budget alternative, with a vast breadth of features and customisation options.

Axis isn’t content on trying to be like its triple-A competition. Instead, it defiantly highlights its somewhat modest mechanics, and invites you to tinker it as you see fit. As a result, you can end up playing five straight matches between the same two teams and get completely unique results, because you elected to ramp up some of the settings, while toning down others.

For simulation buffs who want to build a fantasy league from scratch, this is like crack. While up-to-date NFL rosters and gameplay bells and whistles grow antiquated after just one year, an in-depth gridiron playground is timeless — though your mileage hinges mightily on how much you can overlook its rough edges and simpler in-game mechanics.