8BitDo 64 Bluetooth Controller Review: For Human Hands

The Nintendo 64 was a fantastic console, location to generation-defining games specified arsenic Super Mario 64 and GoldenEye 007. With its 4 built-in controller ports, it revolutionized multiplayer gaming successful beforehand of nan TV, and it was nan first mainstream console to present an analog stick, basal for navigating nan burgeoning 3D worlds nan mean was starting to deliver.

Unfortunately, nan controller it did each that pinch was an abomination, an unholy three-pronged monstrosity that earned my lifelong disdain. Fast-forward astir 3 decades, though, and third-party peripheral shaper 8BitDo has improved connected nan original N64 pad successful almost each measurement pinch its caller 64 Bluetooth Controller.

Nostalgia Upgraded

8BitDo’s pad is chiefly designed for nan Analogue3D, an upcoming section programmable gross array (FPGA) console group to play original N64 cartridges, but it tin beryllium paired to practically immoderate Bluetooth-enabled device, from PCs to smartphones to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles, wherever it tin beryllium utilized to play nan integer N64 crippled room included for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers.

Aesthetically, traditionalists whitethorn lament nan deficiency of nan original N64 pad’s pops of color, but they person a sleek elegance to them. Intended to reflector nan likewise monochrome Analogue3D, 8BitDo’s efforts lucifer perfectly, while besides looking for illustration a fitting companion to Nintendo’s charismatic Switch 2 Pro Controller. Functionally, this takes everything that made Nintendo’s original controller truthful groundbreaking and repackages it into a modern portion that, crucially, fits into nan mean human’s 2 hands. Every input is coming and accounted for, meticulous down to icons and fonts.

The 64 Bluetooth Controller massively improves nan orientation, though. The original Z-Trigger, erstwhile connected nan underside of nan charismatic controller’s mediate prong, is now 2 enarthrosis buttons, sitting wherever nan L2/R2 triggers do connected a PlayStation grip, while nan analog instrumentality is shunted to nan left, comparable to an Xbox controller’s near stick. The consequence is that each input is wrong easy reach, eliminating nan request to juggle your grip. It besides introduces immoderate invited 21st-century upgrades, for illustration making nan thumbstick drift-proof acknowledgment to Hall effect tech, and baking successful haptic feedback, eliminating nan request for a abstracted Rumble Pak.

Stick ’Em Up

The thumbstick is nan star, emotion incredibly precise acknowledgment to some Hall effect sensors and retaining nan eight-way “gate” astatine its base, nan octagonal notches allowing it to threat satisfyingly into place. Expect effortless combos successful 1080° Snowboarding, precise shots successful Perfect Dark, and soft flying successful Starfox. The unit of nan instrumentality is besides wider, shorter, and made of metal, making it consciousness acold sturdier than that of nan original pad. While nan apical of nan instrumentality reproduces nan trio of raised concentric rings and subtle concave dip for your thumb to remainder on, it’s rubberized now, alternatively than slippery plastic, making for a surer grip.