MXGP 26 is a frustrating game to review, because the part that matters most – actually riding a motocross bike – is surprisingly good. Unfortunately, almost everything surrounding that racing feels like it needed considerably more time and attention. Your milage will vary on how important this is to you.
After the disappointing MXGP 24, this feels like a significant reset for the series. MXGP 26 moves to Unreal Engine 5, completely reworks the bike physics and introduces dynamic track deformation. The result is a motocross game that can be genuinely rewarding once you get used to it, but it’s certainly not an easy one to jump into. Initially, I crashed. A lot.
The bikes have a real sense of weight to them and you need to think about your positioning, throttle and how you’re approaching jumps rather than simply holding the accelerator and steering. Get a landing slightly wrong or hit the edge of a berm awkwardly and there’s a good chance you’ll end up separated from your bike. Thankfully, there are a large number of assist options to aid with traction control, rider weight-shifting and even steering sensitivity.
It can occasionally feel unfair, particularly when the physics do something unexpected, but once I started learning the tracks and understanding what the game wanted from me, I really enjoyed it. There’s a great feeling when you finally string together a series of jumps and corners properly and start shaving seconds from your lap times. The dynamic terrain feature adds to this, and is probably MXGP 26’s best feature.
Tracks don’t remain perfectly intact throughout a race. As the bikes repeatedly travel over the surface, ruts begin to develop and the racing lines visibly change. It isn’t simply a graphical effect either. You actually have to react to what’s happening underneath you, particularly later in a race. There is a practice arena where you can basically hoon about – I tried riding back and forward in a line to build a big rut, and then ride perpendicular to it to see the effect. It worked as expected – a big dip/lip! Fantastic stuff. Combined with the different dirt and sand surfaces, it makes motocross feel noticeably different from conventional circuit racing. Add rain into the equation and races can become impressively messy.
Visually, it’s also a big improvement. On Series X, MXGP 26 can look excellent. Bikes become increasingly covered in dirt, crowds and trackside details give events some atmosphere and the deforming surfaces are particularly impressive. It’s not always flawless – there are still some rough edges, particularly with pop-in on textures at the start of races – but this is easily the best the series has looked.
Unfortunately, once you leave the track, things become considerably less impressive. The biggest problem is the lack of a proper career mode. You can compete in the MX2 or MXGP Championship and race through the official season, but that’s basically it. There’s no journey from MX2 into MXGP, no meaningful team management, bike development or sponsorship system and very little sense that you’re building a career. Complete a championship and you’re essentially sent back to the menu.
That’s particularly disappointing because the official licence itself is well represented. You get the 2026 MXGP and MX2 riders and all 19 circuits, and there’s a decent amount of customisation available for your own rider and bike. I just wish there was a better structure giving me a reason to use all of it.
Outside Championship there’s Grand Prix, Time Attack and online multiplayer, but the overall package still feels surprisingly bare. Online multiplayer can result in some quite full races, but the netcode (in the 6 or 7 races I’ve had) has been consistently shonky, which is unforgiveable in this day and age.
Despite the assists, it’s also not especially welcoming to newcomers. There are assists and difficulty options, but the game doesn’t do a particularly good job of teaching you the finer points of controlling a motocross bike. There’s no rewind either, so mistakes are punished heavily. Personally, I don’t mind having to learn a difficult racing game, but a proper tutorial would have made those first few hours considerably less frustrating. For new players, this could be a little too much, as the assists seem like they’re there more to aid riders that are getting into the game, rather than players trying to learn it from scratch.
That’s ultimately the strange thing about MXGP 26. The developers have done the difficult bit. They’ve created a solid foundation for a really good motocross game. The riding is challenging and rewarding, the track deformation genuinely affects races and visually it’s a huge step forward, but they’ve forgotten to build enough of a game around it.
I enjoyed my time with MXGP 26 considerably, and when everything clicks, the racing itself is excellent. I just wish there was a proper career and more progression to keep me invested.
Hopefully MXGP 27 takes what works here and builds on it, because the foundations are definitely there.
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
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