ACX Headquarters

I was never fond of third-party controllers, and this guy was the culprit. It’s not a bad controller by any means – in fact, I like it because it has a very interesting design and includes features like turbo and slow motion – but the d-pad turned me off big time. Partially because I could remove it easily, and its rubber pads became loose (I changed them with an old Dualshock rubber that was no longer functional). Hell, these controllers were cheap – I remember my aunt buying these controllers for her kids only to be destroyed one week after. At least my SNES original pads were durable enough to resist any kind of damage.

But looking past that, this thing has something going on. First off, its design clearly takes from the Sega Genesis controller – right down to its size, d-pad shape, and button layout. What I really liked about this controller is that not only it placed the L and R buttons on the right side of X and A – making it perfect for fighters like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat – but it also retained the original triggers above, so that if I were to play it traditionally I wouldn’t be bothered by the fact that they were switched to another place. Another thing I noticed is how big this controller is. I usually prefer smaller controllers that fit well into my hands, but this thing works nice even if it feels like a bulky, steroid-filled SNES pad.

Which in reality, that’s the best description for it. Turbo switches and a Slow Motion switch are found on the center of the controller, which are perfect when needing to make Chun-Li’s rapid kick attack without the constant button presses or when you need to shoot rapid-fires easily. The d-pad, while circular and clunky for traditional gameplay, is a nice alternative and plays very well when doing special moves. And the Start and Select buttons are at least far more durable than the rubber ones on the original.

All in all, this is a great alternative for the original SNES controller and I do play with it from time to time whenever I want some good precision or simply need some hardcore gameplay. In the end, however, it just doesn’t compare to Nintendo’s own products when talking about quality. 8/10