The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is an excellent alternative if you want a beefier gamepad. The Nintendo Switch’s removable Joy-Con controllers had been the bell of the ball throughout the super-popular console’s launch. However, tiny controllers can get quite uncomfortable if you want to play for long durations.
Sure, the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons are an imaginative layout for on-the-pass, transformable play; however, they’re nothing to write about in terms of lengthy use-time periods. Players with more giant fingers may additionally feel uncomfortable, thanks to those mini-controllers. Even sliding them into one of the non-obligatory Grip accessories, turning the Joy-Con halves into a more traditional single unit left many looking.
Enter the Pro Controller, an ideal suit for the PS4’s DualShock 4, and the Xbox Wireless Controller for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. In many respects, it can be even great those pads, even though it is one of the pricier services. Of course, like any professional accessory, it also works for Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED.
With these possibilities, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is a great item to have by way of your facet. This yr’s Black Friday deal is on November 25; we will hold you published on all of the superb Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Black Friday deals available.
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller at Amazon for US$59
NINTENDO SWITCH PRO CONTROLLER: DESIGN
The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller doesn’t destroy the mold in layout. Where the cut-up nun-chuck look of the Joy-Cons takes a few getting used to, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is instead your widespread two-analog stick, take care of-gripped pad. It seems like an Xbox 360 controller if a little curvier in hand.
It is nicely weighted for balanced play and has a barely translucent end to its plastic casing, with a circuit board-style sample delicately etched into its surface. Suppose you discovered the Joy-Con buttons a bit fiddly. In that case, the Pro Controller is a long way beefier, with large A, B, X, and Y buttons inside the traditional diamond formation at the proper-hand side, backed by two triggers and offset analog sticks.
The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller feels chunkier than its PS4 and Xbox One opposite numbers; however, that might be down to its class-leading battery existence. Where you’ll get around six or seven hours from a DualShock four, you’ll obtain a whopping average of 40 from the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. That’s a hell of a lot of playtimes, so a little top-up now and then the way you’ll probably in no way see it wiped out.
It’s a forward-wondering pad too. It functions as a USB-C reversible charging port, meaning you won’t have to mess around the round to get it to plug in. There’s additionally NFC integrated for connecting up your Amiibo collectible figurines. If the black aesthetic isn’t for your liking, Nintendo’s launched numerous themed alternatives through the years, along with tie-ins for Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Fix the D-pad
The largest issue I have with the Switch Pro Controller is its finicky D-Pad. It’s been unreliable due to the fact that since day one, to the point wherein I have a tendency to avoid using it completely if I can.
Play a sport of Tetris 99 using the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller’s D-Pad and it’s nearly guaranteed that you’ll end up tough-dropping a Tetronimo you didn’t suggest, resulting in early elimination and cries of frustration. And that’s because the Pro Controller’s D-Pad has an uncongenial dependency of falsely registering horizontal inputs as vertical inputs.
Considering that Nintendo has a record of manufacturing almost impeccable D-Pads through the years (not consisting of the microscopic one on the GameCube controller), the Switch Pro Controller’s borked directional pad honestly is an outlier for the corporation.
The dodgy D-Pad hassle is exacerbated similarly by way of the reality that the Joy-Con controllers don’t have a dedicated D-Pad either, which means that you’re at the mercy of Nintendo’s Pro Controller if that’s your preferred manner to play.
An overhauled D-Pad could pass a protracted manner to making Nintendo’s Pro Controller experience worth its professional moniker, then, and it’s lengthy late at this factor.
Add a headphone jack
It’s also as a substitute baffling that the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller nonetheless doesn’t have a headphone jack. Even when it launched in 2016, this was regarded as an atypical omission on Nintendo’s factor, mainly as Sony’s DualShock 4 gave us this option in 2013, and Microsoft’s speedy date of its true Xbox One controller to provide the same capability in 2015.
Seven years later, the shortage of a headphone jack at the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller seems like a large oversight, and it without a doubt wishes to be addressed. I now do not frequently play games with the use of my TV speakers alone, but that’s although the best desire for the Switch except you have got were given a couple of Bluetooth headphones – and Nintendo’s most effective delivered Bluetooth connectivity to the Switch the last year.
Considering that the Switch itself has a headphone jack, there’s no motive why Nintendo could not have stuck a 3.5mm port on its controller thru now.
Improve the HD Rumble
Sony’s DualSense controller has demonstrated that haptic input can truly stun; yet as the well-known axiom goes, “Nintendo did it first”.
HD Rumble is a criminally underutilized portion of the Nintendo Switch, with even Nintendo neglecting to utilize it really in its first-party titles. Truth be told, the last time HD Thunder truly wowed was in 1-2-Switch, which additionally feels like when Nintendo abandoned the innovation.
HR Thunder may not be essential as cutting edge as Sony’s hand-shivering haptics, however, I’m persuaded that Nintendo could add a better-than-ever HD Thunder to its Genius Regulator, which presently feels like you’re holding a vibrating Nokia 3310 when it ”s thunders’.
Sony’s DualSense regulator has demonstrated that haptic input can truly stun; yet as the well-known axiom goes, “Nintendo did it first”.
HD Thunder is a criminally underutilized portion of the Nintendo Switch, with even Nintendo neglecting to utilize it really in its first-party titles. As a matter of fact, the last time HD Thunder truly wowed was in 1-2-Switch, which additionally feels like when Nintendo abandoned the innovation.
HR Thunder may not be pretty much as cutting edge as Sony’s hand-shivering haptics, however, I’m persuaded that Nintendo could add a better-than-ever HD Thunder to its Master Regulator, which right now feels like you’re holding a vibrating Nokia 3310 when it ‘thunders’.
Add analog triggers
Couldn’t it be perfect on the off chance that Nintendo dumped the advanced triggers on the Nintendo Switch pro Regulator and added a few simple ones, as on Microsoft’s and Sony’s cushions? Indeed, yes it would.
On the off chance that you’re indistinct regarding the contrast between the two, computerized sets off fundamentally go about as a button: you press them down and they register information. Simple triggers, in the mean time, give greater devotion and work more like a gas pedal on a vehicle – they can enroll various degrees of info relying upon how far down you press a trigger, which gives players more granular control in dashing games, for instance.
Having simple triggers on the Master Regulator would cause dashing games to feel a great deal more fulfilling to play on Switch, and would help future titles like Mario Kart 9. For the present, we’re left with holding down a button to make vehicles go vroom.
NINTENDO SWITCH PRO CONTROLLER: FUNCTIONALITY
As innovative as they are, the Joy-Con pads may be an act in perfecting hand contortion while used singularly, and the optional Grip pads nonetheless don’t pretty make up the difference with the competition.
The Switch Pro Controller is a whole lot better, however. Its sticks have an exquisite level of resistance and are with no trouble offset, and the face buttons also have a perfect amount of intensity. When it involves the D-Pad, Nintendo has had the nice because the days of the NES, bearing in mind pinpoint accuracy in 2D sidescrollers.
It’s still present and correct with the Pro Controller here and shows up simply how missing the break-up-button D-Pad strive on the proper-hand facet of the Joy-Con (while used in a unique set-up) is.
If there’s one factor of contention, it’d be with the rear triggers, which don’t have pretty much the depth we’ve come to anticipate from triggers on other pads. Instead, they’re some distance towards extra shoulder buttons than deep triggers. That’s not a problem with many games; however, it can be a bit jarring with shooters or racing titles.
VERDICT
The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is a beautiful pad. It’s a must-have in case you use your Nintendo Switch at home; however, it is perfect for tabletop mode too. However, it is also one of the more pricey pads on the market compared to those paired with rival consoles at £59.99 / $69.99 – however, none offers its NFC skills or capacious built-in battery skills. It’s a top-rate addition to your Switch set-up, but we’d say it’s additionally vital.
