REVIEW – With nearly every annual sports franchise, it must be said that releasing a new title for the coming year often seems unnecessary. This time, Milestone has also fallen into this trap by releasing a new title instead of covering the 2026 season with an update. The Italian developers have sacrificed their integrity for the sake of more money.

Milestone is known for several franchises, including Monster Energy Supercross, Ride, and Hot Wheels Unleashed. However, MotoGP has been released every year for over a decade. Does the 2026 installment even make sense?

Minimal Changes, Full Price

Compared to last year’s installment, the main changes to this year’s MotoGP game are that the developers tweaked the physics, adjusted the Arcade mode, and changed the Race Off modes. The main focus remains on getting players onto the track as quickly as possible. There’s no story in Career mode and no significant changes to the modes. The only change is that online lobbies can now accommodate up to 22 players. There’s also card collecting. Fortunately, it’s free, so the cancerous “Ultimate Team” system from Electronic Arts hasn’t infected Milestone; these are cards you can collect for free.

As usual, in Career mode, you can create a character or step into the shoes of a specific rider, even in the Moto3 category. Press conferences are a better place to discuss our rivals and what we’re developing on our bike. This influences our main competitors on the track and how our bike evolves over the course of the season. Otherwise, it’s the same as before, with the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP seasons and full race weekends. In MotoGP, sprint races are also included. There are also additional challenges, such as multi-week competitions against our rivals, which we’ve seen in Formula 1 for many years, or weekly tasks to complete.

Milestone aims to keep us on the track and performing with these challenges, thereby showcasing the difficult-to-achieve balance between speed and cornering. As we move up through the categories, cornering becomes more difficult, and there are noticeable differences within each category. While it feels great to sharply throw the bike into a corner and overtake on the inside, it can be frustrating when you don’t have full control over the bike. That’s when the array of difficulty-adjustment options common in MotoGP games comes in handy. In the Sim option, you have more control over the bike, including pit stops and tire pressure. The physics are stricter, and you must follow the rules. In Arcade mode, it’s harder to crash and easier to get back on track. Plus, crashing into someone doesn’t have such severe consequences. One downside is that you can’t customize things as much as you can in Sim.

Why Buy It This Year?

While the AI can adapt to your skill level and you can adjust the penalties slightly, it can swing to two extremes: either things are too easy or everything becomes excessively difficult. This is good news for casual players and hardcore fans alike. As mentioned earlier, Race Off mode has been expanded to include multiple types of bikes and tracks. For example, you can ride mini-bikes or larger two-wheelers in shorter races. Each has noticeably different handling. These can be useful for breaking up the monotony of Career mode, which does have monotonous moments. MotoGP 26 runs smoothly with no issues with frame rate or screen tearing, and it still looks impressive in the rain, though the handling is different then. However, the quality of the tracks is questionable beyond just realism. The sound quality was good, and the game utilized the DualSense’s haptic feedback during gameplay.

25.5 or 26?

In the case of MotoGP 26, it’s clear that it hasn’t improved enough to warrant a new release. This makes it difficult to give it a high rating because, compared to the previous installment, there aren’t any significant changes. Once again, the Nintendo Switch is on its own, so it can’t play with the others. The Rider-Based Handling System, which has become this year’s marketing headline, is of no use. Last year, they switched to Unreal Engine 5, and dynamic rider ratings can alter riders’ abilities throughout the season. So, what is the overall picture? It’s a good game, but nothing more. You can have fun with it, but it’s really only recommended for hardcore fans. Of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if this year’s new features were eventually removed from the game, as Milestone has become quite adept at doing so over the years. We’ll see. Next year. Or in two years.

-V-

Developer: Milestone
Publisher: Milestone
Release Date: April 29, 2026
Genre: annual game adaptation of the MotoGP championship