Third Party Controllers - Scott The Woz

Hello everyone, Scott here! I'm on life support now! There's no reason, it just felt that way. I've been told that the machine I'm connected to is doing cool things; It's efficient, it's useful, it's made by Mad Catz... ...I should probably start reviewing my will. Did you know that hands can contain trash and damn trash? Gaming

controllers

are pretty underrated in the grand scheme of things. I mean, as long as you can reach all the buttons at once, that shouldn't be a problem, right? They are ridiculously important to the gaming experience. But that importance comes at a price.

As the years have passed, the cost of official game

controllers

has increased significantly. We went from the Gamecube controller retailing for $19.99 to my programmed laughter over the price of the Switch Pro controller. HA! Game controller prices can be absolutely ridiculous, sometimes they cost almost as much as a new game, sometimes they cost AS MUCH as a new game, MORE than a new game! 70 bucks, man, I found a mattress for that amount. I admit that things like the Nintendo Switch Pro controller and the DualShock 4 have a lot of random crap, and it at least explains why the prices are so much higher than controllers have been in the past.

But the Xbox One controller is virtually identical to the Xbox 360 controller in terms of features, and it costs $65. Did all the money go into giving tire tracks to your thumbs? Drivers can be expensive. Sure, you can probably get by with just the one that comes included with your console, but what if you want to play a local multiplayer game or if your controller breaks for some reason? You will need an additional driver, and the officers... They can be expensive. But... you always have... other options. They give them away with car stereos. Third

party

drivers, drivers that are not manufactured by the company that makes the console.

You never know what you'll get with these things! Since they are made by a company that has nothing to do with the actual console, they do not have to comply with any rules, designs, or legal restrictions. Nothing! Now, why would you purchase a

third

-

party

controller instead of your own? Well, I can think of a few reasons, but most of the time it comes down to price. These bad boys were sometimes sold at prices considerably less than the official controllers. You can use that money for new games and your mortgage. However, let's not rule out all

third

-party drivers here, because I consider them to fall into two types: "Great Deals" or "Great Tricks." Either the controller is cheaper and that's why you would want it, or it has something that the official controllers don't have.

Like the "Quick Shot Controller" for NES. This is not supposed to be a replacement driver, it is supposed to be an alternative. If you want to use a joystick with your games, take out the coffee table and stick the stick with the suction cups, this isn't going anywhere. This works well for arcade style games or things like Top Gun if you're one of those people. But in terms of the controller, with no real advantages compared to the official controllers outside of the price, the Hanyu Explorer I for NES. Literally just another company's version of the NES Advantage.

There isn't much reason for you to choose this other than the fact that it's cheaper than the official Advantage controller. However, this has some interesting features. These two top buttons do absolutely nothing and there is a useless battery compartment. I really need to start using this term better. In the grand scheme of third-party drivers, these aren't too bad. Third-party controllers were more sophisticated in the NES days, mainly because you needed at most two standard NES controllers, so in order for people to want other controllers, they had to stand out. They needed to have features that normal controllers didn't have.

That required almost any unofficial controller to have turbo buttons like the Sega Genesis' Turbo Touch 360. This gives me chills. We have switches to activate any of the buttons, but the star of the show here is the lack of a D-pad. I'm sure tons of people who saw this in the store said, YES! Do you ever use the Genesis controller and... There's too much D-pad here. Now, I mean, no D-pad is exactly what I wanted from a Sega Genesis controller. This is a touchpad and it detects where your thumb is. Where is your thumb. Yes, this doesn't work very well.

You don't get the precision of a real d-pad at all. I don't know if this is crazy due to old age, but I couldn't imagine it working so well when it was new. But hey, if you want a more standard experience, here's the Sega Genesis Owl Pad. I'm sure someone stood over this controller like you were waiting in the living room for your date to come down and were talking to his dad about how much you like the Sega Genesis controller. We are an Owl Pad family. What about the C button? I don't know how easy it is to see, but it is significantly stiffer than all the other buttons.

The back is a soap dish. Now, if you're looking to buy retro gaming apparel these days, chances are you'll come across these off-brand controllers. They look pretty similar to the originals, but with a few things altered so Nintendo doesn't have a damn aneurysm. If there is only a blank space with the Nintendo logo, you should run. These things take advantage of people who are looking to buy older systems and need an extra driver. They are often sold in retro game stores and look almost identical to the original controllers, but are almost always inferior in every way.

Come on, $15, which is about the same price for an official N64 controller. But people still buy them because they look very similar and are new. At least in the past, third-party companies respected the consumer to differentiate themselves from first-party companies. They made sure to add their own stupid touch to their product. Introducing the Boomerang 64. I dropped the analog stick and all that's left is a stick, so I had to improvise. Now this isn't as bad as it might seem - it's a feast in my hands - but it does give you an N64 controller with a slightly more conventional design.

It has a built in noise if you slide some AAA and there are two full Z buttons for max. But the D-Pad is stiff, the L and R buttons are in completely outboard locations, and overall it's just an awkward controller. Also the name is a lie. The Super Pad 64 now screams "Oh fuck, oh fuck, I need a Nintendo 64 controller and I only have $10." I'm going to say that on my wedding night. It's a substitute, but that's all it really is, it doesn't stand out at all compared to the original. I mean, yeah, this isn't cool... But I'm used to it not being cool.

The Super Pad 64 just feels weird without those grips on the sides. It feels incomplete. Z feels like a gas station fuel button. The controller works, but that's all it really does. It's totally just for people who needed that extra controller for multiplayer. The Super Pad 64 is the kind of thing I think of first when I hear the term third-party controller. Cheaper in every sense of the word. But this was done by Performance. The COMPANY I immediately think of when I hear the term "external controller"... is "Mad Catz". If you walk into a building built by Mad Catz, get out of there.

Get all the children out of the room. Three, two, one... Jesus Christ, censure that. The only Mad Catz product I legitimately own without a second thought that it was made by Mad Catz was my GameCube memory card, and I'm still happy to have it with me. Look at all these memories, a whole page of save files from Nickelodeon games, I love to play. But look at this, "16X." Whatever that means, keep it up, I had so much storage on this card! Mad Catz were never the worst controller supplier, but they were definitely known for their mediocrity.

But I mean, come on, have you ever been misdirected by a company that made a Dallas Cowboys PS2 controller? Many of their drivers aren't terrible, but they are on the way up. The Mad Catz Gamecube controller, we talk about compensation. You take a regular GameCube controller and then simply warp each element of the controller until it becomes a shrunken, grotesque GameCube pad. Oh, and bold the button fonts. Just looking at this, there's something undeniably cheap about it. Like many of these drivers, it works, but so does going bankrupt, so whatever it is, different people like different things.

Well, what about the Mad Catz Arcade Stick for Xbox 360? With all the arcade titles available on 360, you needed a good arcade device to play them. I still need a good arcade to play. This controller is all show, no work. You look at it and say, "Wow. This is everything a regular Xbox 360 controller is, but with controllers designed for arcade games!" A joystick with a fire button on top, a spinner for games like "Arkanoid", this is going to end in heartbreak. This is just a normal thumb on stilts. It has such a wide range of motion that most arcade joysticks are locked in a set number of directions.

Here you have a full 360 degree movement, which let me tell you now that this does not work well for Ms. Pac-Man. The entire controller itself is too small, like you want to be able to slam an arcade controller against a coffee table and not have to worry about it moving all over the place. No, this one is too small and light to put up and play with, but it's too big and cumbersome to hold in your hands. These are many of the same problems as the Atari 2600 joystick in terms of size. I can't say Mad Catz didn't try with this controller, but they didn't.

But do you want to know who tried it with their controller? Nickelodeon. "Put SpongeBob in your hands." SpongeBob SquarePants controllers for PlayStation 2 and GameCube. I remember the ads for these and yes, it's SpongeBob SquarePants in your hands. He is a good Wednesday night driver. I won't use it all the time, but one day a week seems fine to me. You get a lot of these novelty drivers made by third parties, like a Dallas Cowboys driver, dammit. Now you can't talk about new controllers without mentioning Afterglow. Yes, at some point I was 16 years old, this interests me.

A Wii Afterglow remote control, transparent in every way. Put some batteries in, sync them up and that's pretty disappointing. They move the placement of some buttons, like buttons 1 and 2 are at an angle, that's a bit annoying. Plus and Minus are right next to the A button, honestly a pretty cool change, but then the Home button moved all the way up and you need a damn toothpick to press it. Well, why sit here and complain when we can complain in even more style? A rock candy Nunchuk. Finally a controller that responds to my lucid dreams. The Nunchuk finally has an ass!

It's also clear plastic, but because of that, we can see some dodgy-looking cables here, which don't look very good. If this doesn't scream playing "Goosebumps: HorrorLand," I don't know what does. Now what happens if you're playing Xbox 360 and your hands start bleeding? Damn, you don't want to stop playing to dry your blood. So we present to you Airflow, the controller with a fan! You press this button and the fan turns on. Well, that proves it. This is a very standard wired Xbox 360 controller, but with LEDs and a fan with two different speeds. Honestly, he's good at what he does.

If you really crave a controller with a fan, you can do a lot worse than the Airflow. Speaking of good third-party controllers, the Logitech Wireless PS2 Controller. OMG, this is really comfortable. I dare say, more comfortable and resistant than the official command. Traditional PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 controllers just aren't my thing, but this kicks it up a notch and just melts in my hands. Also, I like the blue under the analog sticks. Are funny. Here we have some controllers for Nintendo Switch. The first is the 8BitDo SN-30 Pro. I've always heard a lot about 8Bitdo, doe, damn, whatever.

They specialize in retro style Bluetooth controllers, this one obviously takes a lot of inspiration from the SNES. And yes, it's pretty good at what it sets out to do! I don't see this as a full replacement for the Switch Pro Controller, but as a complementary controller for 2D platformers or retro stuff, so yeah, it's good! It also works on PC, Android and... ...Irrelevant, so there are tons of uses for this. But what about a controller made specifically for the Nintendo Switch? Well, good luck to you, here is the Power A wireless controller! "The Legend of Zelda" themed, specifically with some Twilight Princess art.

It's okay, I mean, it's perfectly okay. It has motion controls. You also have these buttons on the back. You can assign any of the other buttons. However, you don't get HD Rumble or NFC here. For that, you have to earn an extra $20 for the official Pro Controller. That's not worth it. The extra money may not be worth what youadds the Pro Controller in terms of features, but I will say that the extra $20 is worth the more premium feel of the Pro Controller. This is perfectly fine, it does the job. But for 50 bucks for a third party controller, at that point I'd go with a Pro controller.

I have a bunch of PS3 controllers here. Alright, first, this is the GameStop brand. It feels good, let me try the trigger. OMG... The level 1 wired PS3 controller, much like an Xbox One controller. The X has been deleted here. That means someone must have used this thing. Rock Candy strikes again, this time with this little PS3 controller. This feels like something I get out of a capsule machine. Let me back up a bit to the PS2, TTX Tech's wireless controller. I see, they had to make sure the button symbols were different enough to avoid copyright issues with Sony.

What are you talking about? That's not a PlayStation X. It's a Norse symbol. It feels like one of those BEBONCOOL type days, you know? Here is the BEBONCOOL for Nintendo Switch. This hurts. It just doesn't feel right. These triggers, the sticks, the D-pad. No. It's okay, I've never bought third-party controllers before because you'd almost never get the same experience or quality as with the first-party offerings. Sure some stand out, but 90% of the time you'll have trouble buying these things. "Oh wow, a Nyko controller!" You might also say, "Oh wow, I can't just buy a used controller of my own or save a little extra for the official one!" Sure, some of them have their place in the market, but time and time again I asked myself "Why do most of them exist?" And on top of that, Mad Catz played tricks on me!

This is not a life support machine! THIS WAS JUST A BOX OF BREAD!