8BitDo started as a company trading almost entirely on nostalgia — and it still does that — but it’s also making some pretty darn great conventional gaming products at great prices. Take its very first controller in the popular “mobile grip” category, the new Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller. Um, maybe take it easy with the hyperbolic names, fellas.
Like a lot of similar designs (e.g. the Razer Kishi or various flavors of Backbone), it basically chops a standard Bluetooth controller in two and puts a sliding phone grip in the middle. But there are a few things that might draw your attention. One, it uses the same layout and general shape as the previous “ultimate” console and PC controllers, which were very well received. That makes it bigger — and hopefully more comfy — than the usual gripper controllers.
8BitDo
Two, it’s using Hall effect sensors for both the triggers and the analog sticks. The tech behind this is complicated, but basically it means they last a long, long time and shouldn’t suffer from stick drift, an infamous problem for gamers. I dig those metal rings around the sticks, too, for a little extra durability.
8BitDo’s design offers several other upgrades over similar budget designs. You can program the layout of the buttons (including two extra rear buttons!) with 8BitDo’s PC app, and customize settings for sensitivity for the sticks and triggers. I also like the device-agnostic slider, which can accommodate the bigger bulk of my folding phone thanks to a wide-open top and bottom. The specs say it should be able to handle devices up to 170mm wide/tall. (That’s large enough for a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, even in a chunky case.)
8BitDo
You get all that for just $50. That’s only $10 more than the GameSir X2s that I used to blast through Skies of Arcadia on a recent vacation, and it’s half the price of the Razer Kishi V2, Backbone One, or SCUF Nomad. The 8BitDo Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller is up for pre-order now, shipping November 29th.