Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller Review

Alongside the earth-shattering look of the Nintendo Switch 2, there has come a bevy of recent peripherals. Nintendo’s submissions have included the brand new Nintendo Swap 2 Digicam, alongside a model new iteration of their Professional Controller, for those who assume sticking two Pleasure-Con right into a hand grip is beneath them. Or possibly, they only wish to play multiplayer?

The very first thing that hits you in regards to the Swap 2 Professional Controller – henceforth the Professional Controller 2 – is the standard of the smooth contact plastics Nintendo have used. The floor feels genuinely beautiful, completely easy and supple underneath your palms and a match for the texture of the Swap 2 and Pleasure-Con 2 themselves. The draw back of that’s that there aren’t any textured sections or grips, so there’s the next likelihood in case your palms are of the sweatier persuasion that they’re going to begin sliding about. Personally, I’ve had no issues by means of a heap of Fast Fusion and Cyberpunk 2077, however, nicely, you understand your personal palms.

The Professional Controller 2 is comparatively plain, with black used by means of the primary physique, with a lightweight gray panel throughout the highest for the shoulder buttons and beneath the sticks. I don’t actually just like the two-tone look, if I’m trustworthy, however if you’re enjoying you may’t see the white part in any respect, so I suppose it doesn’t matter all that a lot.

The Professional Controller 2, like its predecessor, is right here to make your Swap 2 gameplay really feel a bit extra acquainted, aping the Xbox controller’s structure and supplying you with an expertise that’s nearer to the opposite console producers. Ergonomically, it’s just like the unique Swap Professional Controller, and I nonetheless assume that’s amongst essentially the most snug controllers on the market, so we’ll take that as a win.

The Professional Controller 2 is ever-so-slightly much less broad, although, and 15g lighter at 235g, making it simply that little bit simpler to stay with by means of longer gaming periods. It nonetheless has sufficient weight to not really feel like a throwaway toy, however in case you like a chunkier feeling controller, this won’t be the best way you needed Nintendo to go.

That’s to not say that the brand new Pleasure-Con 2 and their included grip don’t really feel good – they do – however there’s nonetheless the uncanny sense that one thing is barely amiss and the size won’t meet what your palms need, or a bit of too cramped for bigger palms.. The Professional Controller 2 fully cures that, purely based mostly on ergonomics, and in case you’re planning on spending a variety of time together with your Swap 2 docked, it takes a step in the direction of important.

The key enhancements that the Professional Controller 2 has over its predecessor are a 3.5mm audio jack socket for attaching your wired headphones to, enhanced HD Rumble 2 and the addition of two ‘professional’ again buttons beneath every grip, labelled GL and GR. The audio out is an enormous boon, and it was a significant omission the primary time round. The benefit of attaching any wired headset shouldn’t be underestimated, and the audio being piped by means of sounds spot on.

On high of that, the improved rumble is far more highly effective than that of the unique Professional Controller, which I assumed was attention-grabbing given the diminished weight. As Welcome Tour teaches you, it’s not all about how a lot issues weigh, with the HD Rumble 2 altering the best way the load strikes with a view to create each extra highly effective and extra nuanced suggestions. I feel the DualSense’s haptics are higher than these within the Professional Controller 2, however this isn’t too far off.

The GL and GR buttons are additionally massively welcome. They’re positioned nicely beneath your fingertips, simply out of a place the place you’ll by chance catch them, however simply pressed if you need them because of the beneficiant proportions.

Even higher, the programming for them is baked into the Swap 2’s UI, and you’ll clone just about any of the common inputs. That’s been nice for Cyberpunk 2077, transferring the reload perform to permit my fingers to remain on the analogue sticks. I’m undecided it helped all that nuch with my intention, however I feel that’s extra the sport’s fault than mine.

These analogue sticks really feel nice too, with easy, frictionless movement, and a properly weighted spring again to centre. Now, it’s clearly disappointing that Nintendo haven’t opted for Corridor Impact/TMR sticks, particularly after they had critical issues with stick drift by means of the final era, however solely time will inform simply how sturdy Nintendo’s manufacturing is. Proper now the sticks really feel nice with a really easy feeling motion. Two years down the road? It’s arduous to say, however if you’re paying £75 for a controller, you wish to make certain that it’s going to final and Nintendo haven’t put the query to mattress.

The opposite enter buttons are responsive and comfy in use, membrane buttons by means of the primary face buttons, D-pad, shoulder pads and triggers. The shoulder buttons activate all the best way alongside their size, and the triggers are fast whereas their broad floor makes them extremely snug to make use of.

I do get to air my huge gripe right here although – why don’t Nintendo like analogue triggers? They’re mainly saying that they don’t need critical racing video games on their platform, and if you’ve acquired a system that’s able to dealing with real looking ports alongside Xbox and PlayStation, I feel it’s an actual misstep. Amusingly, they’ve set themselves up as an excellent place for FPS although, from the digital triggers on the Professional Controller to the Swap 2’s new mouse performance, so I suppose it’s a one step ahead, one step again form of factor.

Nintendo have tweaked issues elsewhere with the Professional Controller 2. The face buttons are barely bigger, in order that they’re simpler to activate, and so they’ve raised the + and – buttons to make them simpler to seek out with out wanting. I don’t like how they really feel although, as they stand a bit too proud from the controller for my liking, however then they’re higher than on the unique Professional Controller. Someplace in between would have been the candy spot, however I suppose that can include the Swap 3 in 2032.

Apart from that, there’s the brand new Chat button, proper within the backside centre of the faceplate. That is really an excellent little innovation from Nintendo, placing chat and communication entrance and centre for as soon as, and with the added GameShare potentialities that permit individuals simply play multiplayer from one copy of the sport, I feel that that is quietly the Nintendo Swap 2’s greatest function (not together with a working eShop).

Nintendo have as soon as once more priced the Professional Controller 2 on the high finish of what I’d anticipate to pay for a console’s ‘normal’ controller, now coming in at £75 in comparison with the final era’s pricing of £60. That’s going to be fairly wealthy for lots of people, however it’s undoubtedly a really good rendition of the Nintendo Professional Controller type, with the additional advantage of audio out, onboard Chat button, and the simply remapped grip inputs. Nonetheless, I actually needed to see Corridor Impact sticks – or related – and when Gamesir are placing out nice choices just like the Super Nova and Cyclone 2, I feel Nintendo have missed a possibility to place their controller on the high of the tier checklist.

It’s price noting that the unique Professional Controller, and unique Pleasure-Cons for that matter, all work with the Swap 2, and plenty of third get together controllers are getting firmware updates for compatibility as nicely. With Nintendo’s older controllers you’ll be lacking out on the brand new bells and whistles – frankly, the three.5mm output is sufficient for me to make the soar – and it’s all the time a bit fussy pairing third get together controllers, however in case you’ve spent all of your cash on a brand new console, and also you’ve acquired a number of the older peripherals mendacity round, there’s undoubtedly much less rush to improve than there might need been earlier than.