I had the 8bitduo Ultimate and I loved it, though it was a little awkward to hold at first as I was more used to the slanted handle design of an Xbox controller. Unfortunately, I think I must have left it somewhere in public leading to it being stolen, as I haven’t seen it in a few months in spite of constantly looking for it. (Fucking ADHD, man) I was also already in the market for a second one as I have a younger sibling who enjoys playing with me, and her current controller isn’t winning any awards (powerA). I also wouldn’t mind something more comfortable to use in handheld mode. I had a Hori Split Pad pro, but I did not like it at all. The controllers felt cheap and hollow, they drained the switch’s already poor battery life even faster, and one half quit working after like a month.
With that out of the way, I’ve looked at a few options:
I could get another 8bitduo Ultimate, and I definitely might, but I’m curious if there are other, more comfortable options available.
I’ve looked at the Gulikit King Kong 2 (and 2 pro) controllers, and they seem great on paper, but I’ve read a lot of reviews claiming they’re prone to hardware failure in some form or another.
Lastly, I’ve seen a lot on the Nyxi Wizard. It’s newer, so I don’t know that there’s any long-term reviews available, and I don’t know how comfortable the GameCube layout is for most games, but I’ve read that in terms of quality it seems great, plus it has the benefit of being a joycon substitute.
Last lastly: Another thing I want to consider is whether I should get a joycon substitute, or get a console mount for a pro controller. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Fixture S2 (i have an OLED) but I’ve also read that it tends to break with extended use.
Out of curiosity, why not go with ProController? I have my share of issues with JoyCon, but I love Pro Controller.
It’s also on my list of considerations, I just completely forgot to include it lol
In that case, I vote for Pro Controller, but I haven’t used any 3rd party controllers, so I might be biased.
For the Switch, it has to be either their own Pro Controller, or IMO that very 8bitdo Ultimate. The latter has the upside that you can also use it on PCs, on the downside its vibration is significantly worse than the Nintendo one.
Everything else I’ve tried, Hori, Gulikit, they’ve all been disappointing by comparison to those two.
You can use the switch pro controller on PC
Just want to mention that Guilikit now have the KK3 Max which has some improvements over the KingKong 2. It’s also possible to grab a PS5 controller and connect it to your switch with an 8bitdo wireless adapter.
I have both Guilikits, an 8bitdo ultimate and the ps5 combo here. The 8bitdo ultimate is certainly the safest option of the bunch, but I like the KK3 Max most.
The KingKong Pro 2 has some massive polling rate issues. If you want to use the thing wirelessly on PC, you’re stuck at 60Hz and it’s not even very consistent, which is awful compared to all the others. Not sure how it’s looking on switch since it’s difficult to measure that, but I feel like it’s similarly much slower than other controllers.
The KK3 Max doesn’t have that issue, though I haven’t done any latency testing yet. In terms of Gyro, the KingKong Pro 2 was also pretty bad, no way I could play splatoon with that. I don’t know if that’s improved on the KK3 Max, I haven’t tried gyro yet so I can’t comment on it.
While I’ve had no hardware failures with either of them (I’ve only had the KK3 Max since yesterday), they also don’t exactly give me confidence that they won’t. It’s not that they’re badly built, but in particular the stick caps and should buttons just feel like they might give out fairly early. I will say that I find them by far the most comfortable though, and I love the material they used, it feels really nice, especially compared to the 8bitdo ultimate’s cheap plastic. I also find the back triggers to be much better than the others. On the KK3 Max they have this new digital trigger mode and it’s awful, but the normal analogue trigger feels fantastic. On the KK2 the triggers were pretty nice also.
PS5 controller’s battery life is awful. Also the experience can vary depending on the adapter used, the Mayflash Magic ones I found to be significantly worse than the 8bitdo adapter.
The 8bitdo ultimate is just an allrounder. I don’t like the shape and materials used, as well as the way the back triggers feel. All those points are better on the Guilikit, but then again the 8bitdo certainly is built better and I can say that it has 0 polling rate/latency issues and its gyro works great, which is why I say it’s the safest options.
Also, no matter what 3rd party controller you’ll get, you won’t ever find a replacement for the original Switch Pro’s HD Rumble stuff. In fact, Rumble is always a little awkward on all of these controllers I find.
Rumble, while neat, isn’t really a huge concern for me. (Though I haven’t tried the HD Rumble on the og) I think I’ll be more into first party options if/when Hall Effect becomes the standard.
I forgot about the PS5 controller, I wanted to try it on PC since games on Steam can use the adaptive triggers. Battery life isn’t a huge concern for PC play since I’m close enough that I can use a wire (plus Bluetooth on Windows is incredibly annoying imo)
Thanks for letting me know about the new Gilikit controller! I wasn’t aware they released a new one. Id love to hear your thoughts on it once you’ve had a few months to assess it. Looking at the product page it seems to have taken a more Elite controller approach which is always cool, and it (at least claims to) cover just about everything I that could have been improved over the KK2
p.s. do you think they got in trouble for using King Kong in there branding or did they just want to shorten the name?
Oh I would never use bluetooth on PC, that adds input latency like crazy. I was talking wireless only ever over 2.4Ghz with the 8bitdo adapter. Even there the KK2 had really bad latency while all the others were fine. The KK3 Max actually comes with its own adapter to achieve 1000Hz wirelessly (I got only around 880, but still higher than all the others on stock which are usually stuck on 250 or 500Hz. You can overclock the PS5 to 1000 when wired but I never did).
Also since you mentioned them going for an elite controller style with the KK3 Max, I wouldn’t count on its back pedals. Personally I find they make it impossible to hold the controller. I’ve never liked the back pedals on the Xbox Elite, and I like them even less on the KK3, while I found the one on the 8bitdo ultimate really nice (though I never used them anyway).
As for the branding I have no clue. They did have a US/Target version of the KK2 Pro called the Zen Pro which was the exact same controller, just sold at Target. I think they’re just weird with their naming.
On that note, I’ve also heard there is supposed to be more budget versions of the KK3 Max coming out over the year (I think it was two more), similar to how they had a KK2 and KK2 Pro.
I bought a KK3Max and it’s a really good controller, with a couple of caveats.
It has the best control sticks I’ve ever used, hands down. Hall effect sensors instead of crappier potentiometers like the official switch pro controller mean no risk of the infamous stick drift. Very responsive, and allow me to raise the stick sensitivity for the most precision (still prefer a mouse for FPS games, but for every other genre it’s a good alternative).
The analog triggers are excellent and a physical toggle lets you switch them to digital triggers. Alhough the triggers are spongy in digital mode, with a fair amount of travel time before registering the input, you can open them up and mod them to eliminate this delay. Apparently it was added after product testers complained about the triggers being too sensitive or something (which I wish they didn’t).
The buttons are solid, without sticking. D pad is good, though I prefer classic D pads from older Nintendo controllers like the Wii U and the SNES (the switch pro D pad is trash). Back paddles are welcome, though the lower paddles are less ergonomic unless you bend them to rest closer to the back of the controller. You should also note that the back paddles can only be assigned to other controller buttons, and not unique key binds. The gyroscope is also perfect in Switch mode, though I wouldn’t recommend it in Xinput mode because it can feel wonky and imprecise. This controller also has a form of HD rumble, and even carries an NFC sensor for Amiibo support.
The big caveat is the input delay when connected by Bluetooth. It can be noticeably slow, even in Switch mode, adding a good 40+ ms of lag. For most games that don’t rely on precise inputs, you can eventually adapt, but to resolve this issue for games like Super Smash Bros or racing games, I’d recommend a long Usb C cable for the Switch, or to use the 2.4 GHz adapter on PC.
One more thing I’d note is that this controller doesn’t come with proprietary software to customize input mapping. This is a positive for me because I don’t care for bloat, but for others that would prefer extra customization options, it’s a sore spot.
It’s been about a month, and I haven’t had issues with quality control or component failure. I’d recommend the controller for people who don’t want stick drift, and enjoy a controller that punches above its weight (the Xbox elite 2 controller that rivals most of its features costs more than twice as much). Although its input lag in Bluetooth is a big headache, its performance is exceptional by wire or dongle and it almost completely outperforms the official Switch Pro controller IMO (which still suffers from stick drift and has a terrible d pad).
Borrowed a buddy’s official pro controller and WOW that is one hell of a dpad. Honestly I was a little offended.
Can the 2.4ghz adapter be used on the switch to eliminate the input delay or would I have to get a cable?
Sadly, no. Bluetooth or wired only.
I’m chiming in with another vote for Nintendo’s own Pro controller; I find it very comfortable
I thought the Hori were terrible on a bunch of levels. They felt cheap everywhere, were stupid loose on the rails, the sticks were barely better than the joycons, the buttons were worse. Free would have been overpriced.
I use and like Binbok’s bigger one that’s a similar shape though. It’s still not the quality of a PS/Xbox controller, but it’s a lot less bad than the joycon or Hori.
I have a friend who has the 8bitdo classic and the ultimate and I own the official nintendo pro controller. So I had the chance to try all 3. I might be biased because it was a big purchase for me but the official pro controller is my preferred controller out of all controllers I could try. I rank it higher than:
- Xbox one
- 360
- dualshock 1 2 3 4
- PowerA
- 8bitdo classic (the one that looks like a NES pad)
(I tried all of the above)
I actually really like the PowerA one. Cheap by comparison and feels really good. (To me at least)
Sorry for the long post, it’s 5am and I can’t sleep
Consider the KK3pro max (which I left feedback on in another comment), or the Flydigi Vader 3 Pro, but be careful of quality control issues (you’ll have to carefully test third party controllers during the return period to make sure everything works no matter what).
