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| Image: Reggie White Jr. |
My past five years with first party gaming controls have been, how shall we say, enlightening. Usually, whenever I purchase a new game console, I stick with the first party controller. The concept of having multiple third party controllers never really occurred to me. And then I bought a PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Drifting. A term associated with racing games to get around turns without sacrificing speed. I love drifting. It feels so good to do in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and it makes me realize how much I miss the Ridge Racer series. These days drifting is more commonly used to refer to the analog stick imputing movement on its own without any movement from the player. This results in unwanted movement and can really mess with your game. Drift is such a widespread issue on the Switch that Nintendo was hit with a lawsuit. If the Joy-Cons are used enough, drift is inevitable. I've had it happen on my first Switch. My nephew is on his second pair of Joy-Cons. My sister, who mostly plays Animal Crossing: New Horizons on her Switch, is drifting. The Joy-Cons that came with my OLED Switch are fine so far. I don't use them unless a game demands it like Nintendo Switch Sports. But, it is probably only a matter of time before my OLED model Joy-Cons start drifting. Can we go back to the time when drifting was strictly a racing term?
The Switch is a phenomenal system. It is under powered but it has a huge supply of games, which has made it the go to system for a lot of gamers. The fact that it can be played at home and on the go is also a very big deal. But the drift with the Joy-Cons cannot be overlooked and unfortunately, the problems do not end there. If I'm being perfectly honest, the Joy-Cons aren't enjoyable to use. Buttons are prone to sticking and analog movement feels stiff. Prolonged periods of play with the Joy-Cons is just not comfortable. This is the default controller that comes with the Switch it comes with so much baggage.
As bad as drift is with the Joy-Cons and the stiff feel of the buttons, Nintendo isn't the only one at fault their system with a controller with a number of issues.
When I purchased my PS4, I bought Yakuza 0 and The King of Fighters XIV for it. Yakuza 0 felt perfectly fine to play on Sony's DualShock 4. KOFXIV was a different story. Movement and button inputs did not feel right. A few years later I would buy Tekken 7 and even with that game, I got the feeling that the DualShock 4 was not a controller I could play fighting games on and have it feel comfortable. Sony must have went cheap on the rubber because my analog sticks were showing serious peel wear. It is not good to have your thumb slipping off the sticks when you're playing the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and a boulder or angry polar bear are gunning for you. One of my DualShock 4 controllers, for unknown reasons got bricked. The only inputs it would take were left and down on the D-pad, leaving me with only one first party controller, lest I shell out a AAA game money for a new one. Nah, I'm good.
The problems I've encountered with the Joy-Cons and DualShock 4 forced me to look into third party controllers. As much grief as the aforementioned controllers gave me, going third party for controllers has benefited me a lot in the long run.
HORI's Split Pad Pro is a must have for anyone who plays the Switch in handheld mode. It lacks rumble but the buttons feel amazing, the analog sticks aren't stiff and the D-pad is insanely precise, something you very much need when playing Tetris 99 or Tetris Effect: Connected. Unless you absolutely need rumble in handheld mode, the Split Pad Pro is a great alternative to Joy-Cons. Sadly, these things don't work with all games. I was bummed when I couldn't use them for Sonic Frontiers.
8BitDo makes some excellent controllers, for the most part. I love the responsiveness I get from the D-pad and the analog sticks are some of my favorites from any controller, regardless of the type they've made. Issues I've had with their controllers. A few years back, I was using the SN30 Pro USB Wired controller. For a while, the thing worked great until it didn't work at all. I would plug it into my Switch and would get nada. To this day, I have no idea what caused that malfunction. There's also some noticeable lag in certain games. Mega Man Legacy Collection has it bad with my 8BitDo Pro 2 and so does Splatoon 3. Thankfully, the HORI Split Pad Pro eliminates the lag for Legacy Collection and Binbok's Wireless Switch Pro Controller (with Crack) is an all around great controller not just for Splatoon 3, but a lot of Switch games.
By owning various controllers, I've arrived at this conclusion: controllers are something you can never have too many of. Having an extra in case one goes awry is always nice. That and depending on the game you're playing, you might want a controller that is more suitable. When I'm playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I use one of my three GameCube controllers. The thing was just built so dang durable and I worry far less about mashing on it and doing crazy analog moves than I would other controllers.
I was never an arcade kid, having gone to them very little growing up but the appeal of an arcade stick is still very much there for me. I have the HORI Fighting Stick Mini for my Switch. I have a ton of arcade titles and I wan
Even as I was writing this, I was digital window shopping for potential new controllers to add to my small but growing collection. I would like to have another arcade fighters and old school SHMUPs, maybe something bigger than the HORI Fighting Stick Mini. Being raised on pads, I'm not good at movements in SHMUPs when it comes to arcade sticks, but I'm willing to learn. I could use a Genesis controller for all those Genesis games on Nintendo Switch Online and the SEGA Genesis Classics collection.
I'm not saying a plan on owning a smorgasbord of controllers, but having more than a few of them around certainly doesn't hurt.
