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kylera

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
1,195
27
Seoul
What are some portable Bluetooth controllers that are smaller than the DualShock 4 and can work with OS X and Windows out of the box? iOS compatibility is not needed; I have a Horipad for that.

I've been looking at the offerings from 8bitdo. Are there others worth considering?
 
I've been looking at the offerings from 8bitdo. Are there others worth considering?

Microcenter got the 8bitdo's in and so just bought one to try and used it just now on this laptop.

I'm sadly going to return it...

PROS:
- Wonderful presentation/box very Apple-esque.
- Excellent build quality equal to that of the original NES Controller (the first ones with the textured plastic)
- Nice analog sticks and buttons.
- Cool indicator lights to show the mode it's in (blue/green/yellow)
- Can work Bluetooth and via USB cable (to charge or a controller if your unit doesn't have BT).
- Cool designs available - I got the NES NA Edition (also has a Famicom one). Comes with a matching USB cable (but can use any Micro-USB cable for charging or play).
- Well worth the $40 retail.

CONS

Actually, only one...

I finally figured out the controller is set up as a Wii Classic Controller or a Wii U Pro Controller (the best controller out there equal to the XBox One Elite in my experience).

This is great if you are playing Nintendo games under emulation. NOT if you are playing Steam games for Windows.

First, the four buttons, being a Nintendo layout, are different from the XBox controller one - may take getting used to.

Second, games that let you use any PC controller you have to map out, sort of a pain, but if you are used to doing so, it will take time to configure.

Games that only use an XBox compatible controller (I've used both XBox 360 Wired and XBox One USB and both work fine) WON'T work at all (i.e. Halo Spartan Assault)... :mad:

Oh well, back to lugging around my original white XBox 360 Wired Controller I got at launch... ;)
 
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