Nintendo’s greatest gamepad merely prices an excessive amount of

The Swap 2 Professional Controller is not good, although. For one, it prices $85 (up from its initially introduced $80 worth, because of the Trump administration’s tariffs). I suppose that is not as unhealthy as shopping for an entire new pair of Pleasure-Con 2s for $95, and it is not too far off from the PlayStation 5’s $75 Twin Sense 2, however it nonetheless stings. It is much more painful when you think about that 8Bitdo’s excellent Ultimate wireless controller presently prices $50 (down from a $70 launch worth), it really works with the Swap 2, has rear buttons and it options Corridor impact joysticks. Which means they’re impervious to the drifting drawback that plagued the Swap 1’s controllers.

Whereas players have been begging Nintendo to implement Corridor impact sticks for years, the corporate nonetheless hasn’t listened. Each the Pleasure-Con 2 and Swap 2 Professional Controller seem to make use of the identical mechanism because the Swap 1’s equipment. In an interview, Nintendo producer Kouichi Kawamoto mentioned the corporate “redesigned every little thing from scratch,” for the Pleasure-Con 2, and from my time with the Professional 2 Controller it additionally feels considerably completely different than earlier than. However actually, all I can do is hope and pray it does not begin drifting. One Reddit consumer claimed that their Switch 2 Joy-Cons were drifting right out of the box, however that does not seem like a widespread concern.

Past the pricing and technical disappointments, although, the Swap 2 Professional Controller is a dream to play with. It severely leveled-up my Mario Kart World efficiency, because it was simpler to float round corners and hop as much as rails with out cramping my palms, one thing that is unavoidable with the Pleasure-Con 2. I used to be capable of play for a number of hours with the brand new Professional controller and I did not discover any ache, and I may additionally nonetheless maintain it simply as my palms obtained sweaty.

As somebody who was raised on each model of Avenue Fighter 2 on the SNES, I additionally needed to put the Swap 2 Professional Controller by its paces for combating video games. And let me inform you, the hadoukens got here simply. The controller’s D-pad sits underneath my left thumb comfortably, and it’s a cinch to click on and rotate to carry out Avenue Fighter 2 strikes. Whereas enjoying Soulcalibur 2 (now accessible as a part of the Gamecube Classics for Nintendo On-line subscribers), the Swap 2 Professional controller was additionally comfy whereas holding my proper fingers above the face buttons, much like an arcade stick. (That is a Soulcalibur approach I realized on the Dreamcast and by no means let go.)

Regardless of being fine-tuned for Mario Kart, the Swap 2 Professional Controller is not ideally suited for extra practical racing video games because it does not have analog triggers like its predecessor. Nintendo engineers have said in interviews that the corporate opted for digital triggers since they’re faster to reply. Premium gamepads just like the Xbox Elite have switches that allow you to select between fast set off modes and lengthy analog presses, so there’s clearly a remedy for Nintendo’s analog aversion. However implementing that kind of customization additionally makes gamepads much more complicated and costly.

A minimum of Nintendo gave us a modicum of customization with the Swap 2 Professional controller’s rear GL and GR buttons, which sit proper above the deal with grips. You possibly can immediately remap their performance in any recreation from the Swap 2’s fast settings menu, making it simpler to do issues like change weapons or soar with out transferring your thumbs away from the joysticks. I ended up remapping the drift and motion buttons in Mario Kart World to GL and GR, which helped me keep away from reaching as much as hit the highest set off buttons. You may as well remap all the Swap 2 Professional Controller’s buttons from the Swap 2’s accessibility menu, the place you’ll be able to create presets for various titles too.

After round 10 hours of enjoying a wide range of video games, the Swap 2 Professional Controller’s battery fell to 82 %. Nintendo claims it could last as long as 40 hours, however sadly I haven’t been capable of play that a lot throughout this evaluate. Based mostly on what I’m seeing, although, the gamepad ought to attain 40 hours simply.

As a lot as I just like the Swap 2 Professional Controller, it’s undoubtedly an extravagance at $85 when 8Bitdo’s Final gamepad affords much more options for $50. However when you’re a devoted Nintendo fan, otherwise you simply can’t settle for third-party controllers, it’s additionally among the best gamepads you should buy immediately.