If you don't want to drop nearly $50 on the 8Bitdo controller, this affordable SNES-style PC game controller from Buffalo is an excellent alternative. In fact, it's probably the most affordable controller you can buy. Best Buy customers often prefer the following products when searching for Controllers For Mac. Browse the top-ranked list of Controllers For Mac below.
- Game Controller For Macbook
- Best Game Controller For Mac
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We have mentioned best game controllers for PC with some useful information. Nowadays most of the guys preferred a game controller instead of using their keyboard and mice for gaming. I think its a good move because default keyboard and mice are not made for that, and they will damage before their lasting period.
- Microsoft's Xbox One controller takes the impressive build quality and ergonomics of the Xbox 360 pad and improves upon them, making it the best all-around controller for any type of game.
- Jan 13, 2016 PS3 has native BlueTooth support and works for many games those that do you can map to most any game using joystick mapper. I hear PS4 Controller also has native support in OS X.10.10 and X.10.11 the new controller that comes with.
Your guide
- Andrew Cunningham
After 15 hours of research and testing—in addition to hundreds of hours of gaming in years past—we’ve found that the Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller (the one that comes with the PlayStation 4) is the best controller to use with your computer because it feels comfortable and responsive, connects over USB or Bluetooth, and works great with Steam, where most PC gamers get their games.
Our pick
Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller
The most comfortable and capable controller, it works great with Steam but might require some setup for other games.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
The DualShock 4 (model CUH-ZCT2, released in late 2016) also has some nice extra features that few other controllers have, such as an internal rechargeable battery and a touchpad that can simulate a mouse cursor. Making it work with non-Steam Windows or macOS games takes some extra effort, and headsets plugged into its audio jack don’t work properly with computers, but those minor shortcomings will be relatively easy for most people to work around.
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Runner-up
Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller
This is an easy-to-set-up alternative for people who prefer Xbox controllers or have large hands.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
You might like Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller if you have larger hands, if you buy most of your games outside of Steam, if you want more color options, or if you simply prefer Xbox controllers. Microsoft has made significant improvements to the third-generation revision of the controller, most notably the addition of Bluetooth so that you can use the controller wirelessly with PCs and Macs without needing to buy a separate dongle. But the taller design makes reaching all the buttons more difficult, its analog sticks aren’t quite as comfortable, and it requires AA batteries unless you spring for the $25 rechargeable battery pack from Microsoft. Or you can spend around $20 on a set of good rechargeable AA batteries and a charger.
Budget pick
AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller
This officially licensed clone feels a bit cheaper than, but surprisingly similar to, Microsoft’s Xbox One gamepad.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $21.
If you want to spend less and you don’t mind a wire, the AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller gives you most of the features of Microsoft’s version for around half the price. Its analog sticks and buttons are comfortable enough for hours-long gaming sessions, and since it’s compatible with the Xbox One, it takes advantage of the great Xbox-controller support built into both Windows and Steam. It does feel a little cheaper than the official version, its vibration isn’t as strong, and the headset jack produces tinny sound, but it feels and works better and has more features than anything else you can get for about $25.
Also great
Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad
If you like playing old games and want a more authentic experience, this is the best of the many SNES-style controller replicas.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $16.
If you play retro (or retro-throwback) games that don’t need all the extra buttons, sticks, and triggers of modern controllers, a simpler gamepad can provide a better and more authentic experience. It’s not as faithful a replica as the controllers that come with the Super NES Classic Edition, but the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad is the best of all the SNES-clone controllers out there. Its buttons are comfortable, responsive, and clicky, and it has a Turbo feature to help with repetitive button mashing. But you’ll need to manually configure most games and emulators to work with it (you’ll find no built-in Windows, macOS, or Steam integration to speak of), and it’s a bad fit for most modern games, which require thumbsticks and more buttons than this Buffalo model has.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller
The most comfortable and capable controller, it works great with Steam but might require some setup for other games.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
Runner-up
Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller
This is an easy-to-set-up alternative for people who prefer Xbox controllers or have large hands.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
Budget pick
AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller
This officially licensed clone feels a bit cheaper than, but surprisingly similar to, Microsoft’s Xbox One gamepad.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $21.
Also great
Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad
If you like playing old games and want a more authentic experience, this is the best of the many SNES-style controller replicas.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $16.
The research
Why you should trust us
Andrew Cunningham spent more than six years writing about PCs, other gadgets, and games for AnandTech and Ars Technica. He has also been playing with game controllers since he was old enough to hold one, and he has extensive experience with every major controller that has ever shipped with a Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft console.
Who this is for
Not every PC game is best played with a keyboard and mouse. If you’d rather sit back and play some of your games with a controller instead, you should consider one of our picks. A controller is a highly personal object, and your preferences may differ based on your hand size, gaming style, and operating system. If you already own an an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4 console and you’re happy with the controller that came with it, you probably don’t need to buy a different one.
Most wireless controllers connect to a PC using Bluetooth, just like a wireless keyboard or wireless headphones. All Macs and almost all Windows laptops include Bluetooth, but a gaming desktop might not. If you need to add Bluetooth to your desktop, we recommend an internal PCI Express card with good antennas (you will need an empty PCI Express slot and a free USB header on your motherboard) rather than one of the many cheap USB dongles. In our testing, small USB dongles became laggy and inconsistent after just a few minutes of gaming. Our picks can also work with a Micro-USB cable, if you can’t (or don’t want to) add Bluetooth to your desktop.
How we picked
Picking a “good” game controller is a subjective exercise, one that depends on what you’re already used to, the size of your hands, and the kinds of games you play. But regardless of which specific controllers you like, most people should look for the following features:
- Comfort: Regardless of your hand size, you should be able to hold the controller for a couple of hours without cramping, and it shouldn’t slip around if your hands get sweaty. The controller should also be heavy enough to feel substantial but not so much that it causes arm and wrist fatigue.
- Responsive buttons and triggers: Every button, trigger, and joystick on the controller should do what you want when you want. All the controls should be easy to reach, and the buttons should have enough space between them that you can find them by touch without accidentally pressing multiple buttons.
- Compatibility with Windows, macOS, and Steam: Controllers can be difficult to set up, they aren’t guaranteed to work with every game even if you get yours working on your OS, and remapping can be a pain. It should be relatively easy to get controllers working with Windows and macOS, and they should also play nice with Steam, the biggest platform for PC games.
- A good price: A good wireless controller usually costs somewhere between $40 and $60, and a decent wired controller should cost around half that.
- Wireless controllers should also work when wired: Controllers that use 2.4 GHz wireless or Bluetooth offer convenience and prevent cable clutter, but they can also introduce latency, and their batteries eventually run out. Good wireless controllers should also be able to communicate over USB when you’re playing games where split-second response time is important, while you’re charging the battery, or if you just don’t have Bluetooth.
Other features, such as touchpads, internal rechargeable batteries, or extra customizable buttons and triggers, are nice to have, but a good controller doesn’t need them.
We looked at 48 controllers from major manufacturers such as 8bitdo, Logitech, Microsoft, Nintendo, Razer, ScufGaming, Sony, and Valve, plus a few other controllers from lesser-known companies that are popular on Amazon. We ruled out those with poor owner reviews and others that cost way more than controllers with similar features.
That left us with 14 controllers to test: Sony’s DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller, Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller, Valve’s Steam Controller, the AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller, the Hori Nintendo Switch Horipad, the GameSir G3w wired gaming controller, the ZD-V+ and ZD-N, the Mygt Game Controller, the 8Bitdo SF30/SN30 Pro, the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad, the Innext SNES Retro USB controller, and the Razer Wolverine Ultimate.
How we tested
We tested all of our modern controllers on a Windows desktop, a Windows laptop, and an iMac with a variety of 2D and 3D games, including the first-person shooter Bioshock Remastered and the precise and exacting 2D action games Super Meat Boy and Cuphead. This process gave us plenty of time to evaluate the all-important analog sticks, D-pads, and trigger buttons, as well as to consider how the controllers felt in extended play sessions. For the retro controllers, we stuck to classic 2D platformers and action games like Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Metroid, and Mega Man X. We tested each controller for at least an hour, and we played with each of our picks for at least three hours across multiple games.
Our pick: Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller
Our pick
Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller
The most comfortable and capable controller, it works great with Steam but might require some setup for other games.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
The Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller (the newer CUH-ZCT2 model) is the best PC game controller for most people. It’s comfortable to hold for long periods of time, it’s responsive, it works over both Bluetooth and Micro-USB, and it works great with Steam, the place where most PC gamers get their games. It also has some nice extra features that few other controllers have, such as an internal rechargeable battery and a touchpad that can simulate a mouse cursor. Making it work with other Windows or macOS games takes some extra effort, and its headset jack doesn’t work properly with computers, but those minor shortcomings will be relatively easy for most people to work around.
The DualShock 4’s buttons, triggers, and joysticks are all easy to reach for most people regardless of hand size, and they all feel accurate, responsive, and satisfying. The position of the directional pad—on the left of the controller, rather than toward the bottom center—makes the DualShock 4 more comfortable to use than Xbox-style controllers in retro-style 2D games like Hollow Knight, Cuphead, or Super Meat Boy, and it’s still a great controller for 3D shooters and action games thanks to its smooth analog sticks and easy-to-reach triggers. The rubber on the analog sticks is more comfortable than the surface of the Xbox controller’s sticks, and the shoulder buttons, triggers, and directional pad feel more substantial than the Xbox controller’s hollow-feeling counterparts.
Steam added native support for the DualShock 4 in late 2016, so now it works well with any Steam game that supports a gamepad in the first place. The controller can also navigate Steam’s Big Picture mode, and there are even a few DualShock-specific settings you can tweak: You can configure the controller’s trackpad to work as a mouse cursor, you can turn rumble on and off, and you can customize the color and brightness of the controller’s light bar.
If you don’t play Steam games (or if you just prefer more flexibility) and you’re on Windows, you can still install the DS4Windows app to further customize how the controller works and make it work differently in different games (Mac owners have to manually configure the controller in every game, assuming that’s an option). But the native Steam support should cover most PC gamers, and it finally gives Mac owners an easy, consistent way to use the DualShock 4.
The DualShock 4 is also well-priced; you can almost always get one for less than $50, and you can often find it for $40 or less. You will have to pay a bit more if you want a color other than black, though—while basic colors like red and blue usually aren’t too much more expensive than the black version, newer and more exotic colors run closer to $60 or $65.
You can use the DualShock 4 over Bluetooth or with a Micro-USB cable. To pair it to any computer via Bluetooth, press and hold the PlayStation and Share buttons until the light bar blinks. The Micro-USB connection allows you to use the DualShock 4 on computers without Bluetooth and recharges the controller’s battery while you play. The DualShock 4 doesn’t come with a Micro-USB cable, but if you don’t have one lying around, you can get a great one for just a few dollars.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Though Steam’s DualShock 4 support now makes it much easier to use Sony’s controller with a PC than it was a few years ago, Xbox controllers still have better integration with Windows overall—plug them in, and you’re ready to go, whether you use Steam or not. And most games still use the letters and colors of the Xbox controller’s face buttons rather than Sony’s × ○ □ △ labels, so if you’re not used to the game’s control scheme, you could more easily push the wrong buttons.
The controller’s headset jack also doesn’t work properly in Windows or macOS. When using a cable, you can hear sound in headphones but can’t chat (in our tests, an attempt to record sound from a headset connected to the DualShock 4 picked up an annoying low-pitched whine). And when paired via Bluetooth, the headset jack doesn’t do anything at all. If you want to use a headset, you’ll need to connect that headset directly to your PC. That isn’t a huge problem if you're gaming at a desk, but it is annoying if you have a living room PC.
Who else likes our pick
Few professional reviewers have evaluated the second-generation revision of the DualShock 4, aside from briefly listing its cosmetic changes in their reviews of the PS4 Slim. But this controller is so similar to the first version that praise for the original version usually applies to both.
Polygon’s review calls the DualShock 4 “the best controller Sony has ever made,” but dings the controller’s seven- to eight-hour battery life. Engadget’s PlayStation 4 review says that “using the DualShock 4 is a delight.” The reviewer continues: “It’s comfy, responsive, sleek and familiar.” One PC Gamer writer prefers the Xbox One controller to the DualShock 4, but calls it “a Pepsi vs. Coke situation” and says that the DualShock 4 “is more customizable and may be a better fit for smaller hands.”
Runner-up: Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller
Runner-up
Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller
This is an easy-to-set-up alternative for people who prefer Xbox controllers or have large hands.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.
You might prefer Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller if you have larger hands, if you don’t buy many games through Steam, if you want more color-customization options, or if you simply prefer Xbox controllers. Microsoft has made significant improvements in the third-generation revision of the controller released in August 2016, most notably the addition of Bluetooth so that you can use the controller wirelessly with PCs and Macs without needing to buy a separate dongle. But this controller’s taller design makes reaching all the buttons more difficult, its analog sticks aren’t quite as comfortable, and it requires AA batteries—or a rechargeable battery pack from Microsoft that will run you an extra $25.
The controller’s ABXY buttons are attractive and responsive, the sticks glide smoothly, the lightly textured plastic on the front and back feels good to hold, and the controller has a satisfying heft that won’t fatigue your wrists or hands. But the Xbox One controller’s size makes it just a bit less comfortable to use, even for my larger hands. The shiny plastic shoulder and trigger buttons are responsive but feel less substantial than the DualShock 4’s, and the rubber rim of each analog stick is rougher and less pleasant to touch than the uniformly textured sticks on the DualShock 4. Although the D-pad is nice and clicky, it’s located below and to the right of the main analog stick, making it a bit harder to reach if you’re playing 2D games.
One of the Xbox One controller’s greatest advantages is that, in Windows, it’s dead simple to set up: Just plug it in, and Windows does the rest. While Steam’s native support for both the Xbox One controller and the DualShock 4 renders this moot if you buy and play most of your games in Steam, if you happen to prefer buying games from the Microsoft Store or somewhere else, you may have an easier time with the Xbox controller. Many games (Steam games included) also use the Xbox’s button labels in their interfaces, regardless of which controller you're using, which makes tutorials easier to follow and control schemes easier to learn.
If you own a Mac and get most of your games through Steam, you won’t need any extra software to use the Xbox One controller—the native Steam integration works just fine whether you’re paired via Bluetooth or connected with a USB cable. If you’re not using Steam and a particular game won’t natively work with the Xbox controller, the 360Controller software makes the controller work with macOS and gives you a few other controller-customization options (with one caveat—the software won’t work if you’ve paired the controller via Bluetooth, only over USB or with Microsoft’s proprietary controller dongle).
Like the DualShock 4, the new Xbox One controller can connect to your PC with Bluetooth or a Micro-USB cable; it no longer requires Microsoft’s $25 dongle to connect wirelessly to a PC. To enter Bluetooth-pairing mode, press the Xbox button to turn the controller on, and then hold the sync button on the top of the controller for three seconds. We had no problems playing over Bluetooth during our testing, but there are some caveats: Your PC needs to be running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or newer, Microsoft says only one Xbox One controller can be connected via Bluetooth at a time, and the controller’s headset jack doesn’t work. Connecting with a Micro-USB cable or using Microsoft’s wireless adapter fixes all those problems.
The Xbox One controller usually costs between $40 and $50 for a white or black version, and between $50 and $70 for more exotic colors. But if you love colorful controllers and don’t mind spending more, the Xbox Design Lab lets you pick out custom colors for nearly every single part of the controller, including the front, back, shoulder buttons, triggers, D-pad, and analog sticks—Microsoft offers a few templates to start from, or you can jump in and start clashing colors right away. Prices start at $80 but can go above $100 if you spring for special options like screen-printed NFL logos.
One reason to choose the Xbox One controller over the DualShock 4 might be its battery life—evidence suggests that it consumes less power than the DualShock 4, and either Microsoft’s Play and Charge kit or a good pair of rechargeable AA batteries will provide more play time than the DualShock 4’s internal battery. But the DualShock 4 will still last eight or 10 hours on a charge, and since its battery is built-in, you don’t have to spend more just to get a rechargeable controller.
Budget pick: AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller
Budget pick
AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller
This officially licensed clone feels a bit cheaper than, but surprisingly similar to, Microsoft’s Xbox One gamepad.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $21.
If you want to spend less and you don’t mind a wire, the AmazonBasics Xbox One Wired Controller gives you most of the features of Microsoft’s version for around half the price. Its analog sticks and buttons are comfortable enough for hours-long gaming sessions, and since it’s compatible with the Xbox One, it takes advantage of the great Xbox-controller support built into both Windows and Steam (and you can use the same tools to make it work well with macOS). It does feel a little cheaper than the official version, its vibration isn’t as strong, and the headset jack produces tinny sound, but overall it’s a solid deal.
The Amazon controller’s design is similar to that of the official Xbox One controller, so if you find that gamepad to be uncomfortably large, you’ll have the same complaint about this one. But all the buttons, shoulder buttons, and triggers are responsive and feel as good as or better than those of all the other budget controllers we tested. The analog sticks and D-pad are as smooth and accurate as Microsoft’s, though Amazon’s controller also uses a rough plastic texture around the analog sticks that makes them less nice than the sticks on the DualShock 4. The shoulder buttons are exceptionally loud and clicky, but probably not enough to bother most people.
Most of the Amazon controller’s shortcomings are the same as what you’ll find on any cheap controller. Compared with the official Microsoft controller, Amazon’s controller feels lighter, and the quilted texture on the back also doesn’t feel as smooth. The vibration motor works fine, but it’s not as strong as Sony’s or Microsoft’s. But we prefer it to the other cheap controllers we tested because it has a headset jack (albeit one that produces tinny sound and a dull, quiet whine anytime you’re not hearing other music or sound effects), because it’s officially licensed with Microsoft’s stamp of approval, and because it works with the Xbox One in addition to PCs. We also like that the USB end of the controller cable—which is around 10 feet long, more than enough for most PC setups and living rooms—has a breakaway segment. It’s a little too eager to separate from the rest of the cord, which might lead to some unintentional disconnections, but you’ll be thankful for it the first time someone trips over your cable.
The Amazon controller behaves exactly the same way as Microsoft’s official controller when plugged into a PC or Mac—Windows and Steam both natively support it, and the 360Controller software will treat it the same way as any official Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller.
Amazon offers the controller in either black or white—most budget controllers don’t give you any color option, so it’s better than nothing—but you don’t get the same number of color choices as with Sony or Microsoft. For less than $25, it’s hard to do better.
Wirecutter senior staff writer Kevin Purdy was hesitant to buy a third-party controller but has been pleasantly surprised by the AmazonBasics gamepad after a few months of use. “I worked this controller through much of The Witcher 3, Bastion, and as much Hyper Light Drifter as I could handle,” he said. “It also connects to quite a few consoles that allow for USB ports, so it’s a good backup player in general.”
For retro gamers: Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad
Also great
Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad
If you like playing old games and want a more authentic experience, this is the best of the many SNES-style controller replicas.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $16.
Any of our other controller picks will work just fine for retro games and emulators, but sometimes if you’re chasing nostalgia you want a simpler controller to match. Of all the many Super Nintendo–style replica gamepads we looked at, the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad stands out as the most comfortable and satisfying. At around $15 per controller, it’s more expensive than most of the SNES knockoffs, but it’s also the closest you can get to the real thing.
The Buffalo gamepad has four face buttons, two shoulder buttons, and Start and Select buttons, as well as a directional pad, plus Turbo buttons that simulate rapid mashing on one of more of the other buttons. All are responsive and easy to reach, and although you might miss the sculpted handles of modern controllers, the Buffalo pad’s rounded edges and simple layout make it comfortable to hold for extended play sessions. The shoulder buttons also have just the right amount of give, whereas the Innext retro controllers we tested felt stiff and mushy. Compared with a real Super Nintendo controller (or the extremely good replicas that ship with the Super NES Classic Edition console), Buffalo’s pad feels a little light in the hand, but the buttons feel nearly identical.
You’ll find no joysticks, vibration motors, or other sensors in the Buffalo gamepad, so it’s a poor fit for modern games; native Windows and Steam integration is also nonexistent. Both Windows and macOS recognize it as a gamepad, but you’ll have to map the buttons manually in each game (or emulator) you want to use it with.
The Buffalo gamepad has held up well over years of use. “I pack the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad into every Raspberry Pi retro game console I build for friends and family,” said Wirecutter staff writer Thorin Klosowski. “Every single time people tell me how great it is, and I’ve seen them last years of lightweight use.”
What to look forward to
Microsoft released an updated version of its $150 Xbox Elite Wireless Controller in October 2018. Most people don’t need to pay more than $50 for a controller, but we liked the original Elite controller and plan to test the new version in the coming months. We’ll also compare it with other high-end gamepads like Razer’s Wolverine Ultimate and competing controllers from ScufGaming.
The competition
The Steam Controller bridges the gap between games with controller support and games better played on a mouse and keyboard. It has touchpads in place of a D-pad and right analog stick, and its dual-stage triggers and back buttons are designed to give you more control and customization than traditional console controllers provide. But its plasticky body feels cheap and hollow, and its large shape is awkward for smaller hands to hold. The left analog stick and the ABXY buttons are difficult to reach because they sit too far toward the center, the ABXY buttons are tiny and clustered too close together, the bumpers are difficult to press, and most buttons—the bumpers, triggers, back buttons, and touchpads—make a sad, echoing click throughout the cheap plastic controller. It’s also so different from regular controllers that it has a substantial learning curve. Until Valve releases better hardware, we can’t recommend the Steam Controller for most people.
The comfortable and responsive Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is a must-buy if you have a Switch, and if you already own one, it can connect to your PC over Bluetooth and works with Steam’s generic gamepad support. But the Switch Pro Controller doesn’t work as well with a PC or Mac as our top picks—it won’t communicate over USB when you plug it in, its vibration motor doesn’t work, and we had to use Windows to calibrate it before its joysticks would work properly. On top of that, its ABXY buttons aren’t laid out as on an Xbox controller: A and B are reversed, as are X and Y, which could create some confusion in games that expect an Xbox-style button layout. For $20 or so more than a DualShock 4, this controller is worth trying only if you already have one for your Switch.
The GameSir G3w wired gamepad was a close second to our budget pick. It’s a DualShock-style controller that uses Microsoft’s Xbox 360 controller driver, so it integrates well with Windows and Steam, and it’s the only modern controller in our test group that costs less than $20. But it also feels light and cheap in the hand, lacks a headset jack, and isn’t compatible with any actual game consoles, all of which make the AmazonBasics controller a better buy.
The Razer Wolverine Ultimate is a pro-grade wired Xbox One controller intended for competitive use. It was impressively comfortable to use and nice to hold in our tests, and its customizable buttons, extra buttons and triggers, and customizable lighting make it a good fit for its target audience. But at $160, it’s between three and four times the price of our main picks, and most people don’t need its extra features.
8Bitdo’s SF30/SN30 Pro is a neat idea: an SNES-style retro gamepad updated with the joysticks, triggers, and vibration motors that modern controllers include. It’s compatible with Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and the Nintendo Switch, and it works well with Steam in Windows mode. But there’s a reason why modern controllers have handles—the SF30/SN30 Pro is uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time. The buttons and sticks are all pretty close together, increasing the risk of cramping, and people with sweaty hands may have trouble holding on to it.
The SteelSeries Stratus XL (for Windows or Mac/iOS) is comfortable to hold, and all the buttons, triggers, and analog sticks work well and feel good. But it runs on AA batteries and connects only via Bluetooth—there’s no wired option. The controller requires software from SteelSeries to work, but it doesn’t offer any benefits over the DualShock 4 or the Xbox One controller.
Hori’s Nintendo Switch Horipad is similar to the Switch Pro Controller, but it’s wired and costs around half as much. Like the Switch Pro Controller, it works well enough with Steam’s generic gamepad support, but it lacks vibration and the ABXY buttons will be mixed up in most PC games. It’s not quite as comfortable as the Switch Pro Controller, and its mushy removable D-pad is much less satisfying than those on any of our other picks.
The ZD-V+ and ZD-N are both wired gamepads that cost between $20 and $25; the V+ uses a DualShock-style layout, while the N uses an Xbox-style layout. Both are well-reviewed among Amazon customers, and they worked fine in our testing. They use the Xbox-controller driver in Windows, so they both benefit from the same Windows and Steam integration as Microsoft’s gamepads, and they both use Xbox-style ABXY button layouts. But both gamepads (particularly the glossy V+) feel light and cheap in the hand, lack headset jacks, and are incompatible with actual game consoles. Their vibration motors are weak too.
The Mygt Game Controller is the only controller with Bluetooth that we could find for less than $30. It works with Windows, Android, and macOS/iOS, and it has a small clip that can hold your smartphone in landscape mode. But while the controller is mostly comfortable and responsive, Windows mode uses a small 2.4 GHz wireless dongle instead of Bluetooth, and there’s no storage compartment to put the dongle into when you’re not using it. Some of the buttons are also awkwardly hidden away under the phone clip, and the D-pad is mushy and unsatisfying.
At around $15 for a two-pack, the Innext SNES Retro USB controllers are a good value if you want a pair of super-cheap SNES-style controllers that still work. They feel fine, and we had no problems with button responsiveness in our testing. But the plastic doesn’t feel as good as that of the Buffalo gamepad, the shoulder buttons are mushy, the Start and Select buttons aren’t as comfortable to press, and it lacks a Turbo feature, all of which make the Buffalo controller worth the extra money.
At this point, you shouldn’t consider controllers from previous-generation consoles if you’re buying something new; this group includes any Xbox 360 controllers, the Sony DualShock 3, and the Wii U Pro Controller. They can all work with PCs (and the Xbox 360 controllers in particular have excellent support in both Windows 10 and Steam), but their replacements are generally more comfortable, more compatible, and easier to find.
Footnotes
- This is the second-generation version of the DualShock 4, released in late 2016 alongside the PlayStation 4 Slim and PlayStation 4 Pro. It has marginally better battery life than the old model, and it has a thin horizontal light across the top of the touchpad that matches the color of the light bar on the top of the controller; overall it’s nearly identical to the first-generation model.Jump back.
- At least, it doesn’t work properly when you’re using a USB cable or standard Bluetooth. Sony's DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adaptor supposedly fixes the problem, but it’s bulky, otherwise unnecessary, and apparently discontinued.Jump back.
- This version of the controller came out in 2016 alongside the Xbox One S. If you don’t know which one you have, these image comparisons can help you figure it out.Jump back.
- If you can’t get your controller to pair with Windows, Microsoft recommends updating your controller’s firmware.Jump back.
Sources
- Tyler Wilde, Wes Fenlon, James Davenport, The best controller for PC gaming, PC Gamer, October 4, 2017
- PlayStation 4: The Review, Polygon
- Ben Gilbert, PlayStation 4 review: fast, powerful, worth it, Engadget, November 14, 2013
- Xbox One: The Review, Polygon
- Sean Buckley, We hate Valve's Steam Controller because it's different, Engadget, November 10, 2015
- Nathan Grayson, One Month With The Steam Controller, Kotaku, November 10, 2015
- Antti Kukkonen, Clash of controllers: PS4 vs XBOX One battery life, Power Profiler, February 13, 2017
I was designing a user interface for someone else's social game the other day, and I was completely oblivious that I'd just recommended a feature that Just Would Not Do.
Usually, I'm pretty good at never recommending these features—that's my Area Of Expertise: I recommend Features That Will Definitely Work and then suggest tweaks until they feel Good Enough For Me. I am a fairly critical person (single at thirty-two, I have not had a girlfriend in literally 10 years, I eat the exact same meal six times a day, I often will listen to the same song on repeat for an entire day), and the giving-in of my critical faculties usually manifests itself in what I like to call 'supertolerance'. My 'joy' is finding things I can tolerate, 'loving' them when I do find things I can tolerate, and being constantly mindful of how best to avoid the things I can't.
One of those things I can tolerate: Apple products. That's not to say I am a devout Apple fan-zombie. It's just that everything else is so . . . ugly, and clunky. When I saw what Vizio's Apple-aping personal computer lineup looks like, as a person who has read all of Steve Jobs' biography and is thus familiar with the sort of suffering he'd feel if he saw them—I'd wish that on no one—I honestly felt sort of glad for a couple of seconds that he was dead.
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So: I am so good at tolerating Apple products that you could definitely say I prefer them, and I suppose you could say I like them.
So we were talking about a user interface.
'We could make that a swipe with two fingers—' I started to say.
'—swipe? What, are we using a trackpad, here?'
My face went red. Luckily, this was an audio-only Skype call. (Skype is number one with a bullet on my list of worst interfaces in essential software.)
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'Oh. Oh . . . well, I was thinking — for a trackpad interface, yeah, we could build that in.'
'Not everybody has a Mac, you know.'
'In a perfect world!' one guy chuckled (he owns two golf carts).
'And definitely not everybody has a MacBook or newer.'
'And certainly not everybody has a Mac with one of those new multi-touch trackpads.'
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'That doesn't mean we could just put that in there . . . in addition to whatever other control we add.'
'Let's not confuse people.'
'They won't be confused if they don't know it exists.'
The Macbook is where Apple introduced the two-finger swipe. I got a seventeen-inch MacBook Pro in 2006, and literally right up until Apple announced the redesigned MacBook Pros and the MacBook Air, with their wide, luxurious glass trackpads, I had Mac users express amazement whenever I'd use two fingers on my trackpad to scroll down a webpage or a document.
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'How did you do that?'
'You just use two fingers.'
'How did I not know this?'
The unspoken answer was that 'Maybe you, unlike me, have some degree of tolerance for situations which require effort.'
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Though the two-finger swipe was a trackpad gesture I used no less than a thousand billion times per day, it never came up in casual conversations with women at parties or hobos on the bus. I especially never brought it up during interactive entertainment software user interface experience design documents, presentations, or meetings. Even when the iPhone was finished being The Next Big Thing and was, in fact, The Current Big Thing, I never ventured a millimeter toward recommending software designers relegate an input to a motion involving two fingers of the same hand moving together in a straight line. One finger on each hand, sure—man,let's just leave it at two-finger involvement maximum, and two-hand involvement minimum (they'll need to be holding the phone (another rule is to never expect or ask the user to set the phone on a hard surface (what if they're on a train or waiting at a bus stop?))).
Friendly as I myself was with the two-finger swipe, I considered it Definitely Not A Thing. And since I knew not everyone owned a MacBook Pro with a two-finger-enabled trackpad, the two-finger swipe certainly was Not A Thing I'd accidentally recommend in a meeting.
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Then, two things happened:
First, social game company executives must have all read the same article in The Secret Wall Street Journal, because they started all individually demanding that the number of icons displayed on screen in their interfaces be cut at least in half.
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Second, this year I received The Best Christmas Present Ever: it was a thirteen-inch MacBook Air. We'll ignore that it might have been a present from myself (so lonely), though I tell you what: it sure was Real Joy I felt when that box arrived at my parents' house in Indiana the week before Christmas. I never believed in Santa Claus as a kid, and I still don't, though I think I might have cracked the code re: surprising myself as much as I possibly can by creatively arranging a UPS delivery.
Say what you will about the Apple Computer Corporation: they know how to make you feel good about opening a box and booting up one of their products for the first time. I'd needed a new computer for a while, and here it was. Now I faced the hurdle I knew I'd have to face: every time I ever tweaked around with a newer MacBook Pro or MacBook Air in a Best Buy or Apple Store, my lips inadvertently screwed up as I tried to use the trackpad to manipulate the cursor. It was always too slow. Tap to click was always (inexplicably?) disabled. And the way it's all just one smooth piece now, with no tactile divider between the trackpad and the mouse button, didn't sit well with my old-habit-weary fingertips.
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Within 45 seconds of starting up my impressive new electronic toy, I had enabled tap to click and increased the pointer speed to one notch away from maximum. Thinking I'd use this thing the exact way I used my old MacBook Pro (that is: all day, every day, for five years), I set 'hot corners'—the lower-left corner would show me my windows, and the lower-right would show me my desktop.
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This is where I encountered the 'trackpad gestures' configuration menu. 'Huh,' I thought. 'I remember hearing something about this.'
Apple is so proud of 'Multi-Touch gestures' that they capitalize the 'M' and 'T' in 'Multi-Touch', and feature these gestures right at the top of their 'What's New in OS X Lion' index page.
Using gestures, I can scroll a browser window up and down with a two-finger swipe—hey, I know that one already—or I can look a word up in the dictionary by double-tapping it with three fingers. I can also 'right-click'—Apple calls it a 'secondary click'—by touching something with two fingers. Or I can--
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'Son, what the hell is that?'
'It's a computer.'
'It's an Apple computer.'
'That's what it is.'
My dad screwed up his face. My mom was looking over his shoulder and into the living room. She was eating a handful of little crunchy pretzels.
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'You've got one of those iPhones too, don't you?'
'Yeah.'
'Your brother's wife just got one of those,' my mom said. She lowered her voice: 'She's probably going to try to talk to you about it.'
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'She also got one of those things you got—a Mack Book? A Mack Pro? A Pro Book?'
'A MacBook Pro?'
'That's it,' my mom said.
'Boy, look at that. That thing's slick,' my dad was saying.
'Whatever happened to that friend of yours—you remember that friend of yours? He was your roommate in college.'
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'Yes.'
'Yes, that nice little gay boy. Do you still keep in touch with him?'
'We're Facebook friends.'
'He was nice. Remember, honey? He had an Apple computer.'
My dad was saying, 'I will always--always prefer an IBM. Remember when your brother had to borrow that Apple Macintosh from school? Damn thing only had one button on the mouse. What the hell is with that?'
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'It's not about how many buttons are on the mouse,' I was about to say, when my dad peered over the lid of the display and eyed the finer details of my MacBook Air.
'Boy, that screen is bright. What in the hell—it doesn't have any buttons on the mouse.'
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'It doesn't.'
'You can't right-click, and you can't even left click. You can't even click.'
'It's got a clicker,' I was saying. 'The whole thing is clickers—'
He walked away, shaking his head. I thought it over: this is a guy who didn't professionally use a computer until he was already 40 years old—at which point he'd started using one every day.
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I remembered friends of mine, in Japan, lifelong Windows users, in the age before Wi-Fi was everywhere (like serial killers): 'Can I check my email for a second on your computer?'
'Sure, man.'
An instant later: 'Whoa, what the hell did I do—hey, nice desktop wallpaper.'
'Sorry, the cursor speed is high.'
'How do I get the internet back?'
'Here.'
'Okay, thanks. Whoa—it's the desktop again.'
'I've got hot corners enabled.'
'I don't know what that means.'
And they would go on not knowing what it meant, even after I explained, 'It's set so that when you move the mouse to a corner, it shows the desktop, or all your open application windows,' and they replied, 'Oh, okay'.
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Christmas, 2011: I was a Multi-Touch gestures evangelist.
'Look at this.' I showed my dad: 'Use two fingers to scroll. Touch with three fingers to move something. Grab the file here; slide it here. One touch. Grab a window at the top: move it around. Spread two fingers to zoom out. Pinch two fingers to zoom in. Flick with three fingers and a thumb to show the desktop. Scoop with three fingers and a thumb to show all applications. Slide four fingers up to see all open desktops. Slide four fingers to the right and I have a calculator and movie showtimes. Slide to the left—and I've got my desktop. Touch here and I can maximize this web browser. Now it's full-screen. Now look at this: swipe this way to go back to the desktop. See this photo? Pinch here, and twist—and it rotates. Just like that. Slide three fingers down and—hey there!—I've got an overview of all my open apps, windows, and desktops at a glance.'
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My dad was silent. 'Well, shit,' he said.
'It's not a mouse with no buttons—it's a mouse with a million buttons.'
My dad was silent for a couple of seconds, and then said, 'You should get a job at the Apple store.'
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I'm sure he meant that as a compliment, though it only made me sit there, sigh for a second, and realize that I am, in fact, not yet rich. Here I am with a MacBook Air and no car. Such is life. On top of that, I'm on a sheet-covered sofa (big brother's eldest daughter is allergic to cat hair) in Indiana during a sleety, frozen holiday, wondering every third second if I left a stove burner on back in Oakland, California, if my apartment exploded, if Pixar was damaged in the explosion—and my little brother just got married the day before at a justice of the peace, he and his new wife have a five-month-old son, my big brother has the same three children as last year (only they've been slightly enlarged), and I have a fancy computer, fantastic hair, nice jeans, and no car. I have, at least, in the past week, learned to love Multi-Touch trackpad gestures.
My dad was silent for a couple of seconds, and then said, 'You should get a job at the Apple store.'
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My old friend Doug Jones comes over after a shift at The Factory. Me and him are going to go to Perkins in his Subaru WRX and inhale some omelets. He'll talk about his kids and I'll talk about user interfaces. Before we leave the house, I show him some trackpad gestures. Unlike my dad, Doug Jones is not particularly Mac-averse. He's opinionless. He's my truest Gamer Friend From Way Back. He's the only adult I think I know who actually plays video games instead of obsessively reading reviews and previews and deciding that nothing is worth it anymore. When my company has enough money to secure his and his family's future, I want to hire him and pay him six figures just to sit at a desk next to mine and tell me when I'm being too much of a jerk.
'I seriously played every game this year,' I tell him. 'I have them all in a stack on my desk. And I have to tell you—this right here has amused me so stupidly.'
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I get on the internet. I spend thirty seconds looking for a blog post longer than two browser window-lengths. I can't find one. Aha—I decide to navigate to one of my articles.
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'Look at this,' I say. I whip two fingers upward on the trackpad. The browser window accelerates, careens downward, and then slows to a gradual stop. 'Look at this,' I say, again. I whip my fingers downward. The text accelerates upward. I drop my fingers lightly onto the trackpad. 'Look at that—I can stop it right there.'
'Oh . . . kay.'
'Look at it—look—.' I do a slow, deliberate sweep of the height of the trackpad, from top to bottom. 'At a lower speed—see this? At a lower speed, one swipe equals exactly one scroll.'
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'Alright?'
'Now, if I really whip the thing, it cranks up and jets down there. It's weighted, like an old stereo knob. I lightly touch it to stop it. It's fantastic.'
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'Okay.'
'Think about it!' I said. 'Now look at this—here. You try it. Swipe with two fingers.'
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He gave it a shot.
'Alright.'
'Now swipe with one finger. Yeah, see that—it just moves the cursor. Now put down three fingers. Put them anywhere. Now move those three fingers around. See? You're highlighting text.'
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'Okay.'
'Now slash four fingers downward. See that? It opens up a dashboard of windows. Slash them back up. Now slash to the right or the left.'
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'Huh. Can it do diagonals?'
'I'll—I'll look into that.'
'It'd be neat if it could do diagonals.'
(It can.)
'Seriously, really just whip that scroll bar around. Watch the text flip by. Now flip in the other direction. Look how smooth that is! See how it turns on a dime! That's literally thousands of hours of interface tweaking that went on there. It's magnificent. This is the Bugatti of web browser scrolling.'
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'Hah.'
'So I was thinking—what if the turnaround wasn't so instant? What if touching one finger onto the trackpad was, like . . . a brake? What if it had to slow down? What if I whipped two fingers and then whipped two fingers in the opposite direction, and the scroll bar, rather than turning around automatically, slid to a stop and then turned around.'
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'You must be the only person who can have more fun with an operating system than a video game.'
'Actually!' I started to say. Then I stopped. I recall all the game designers I'd seen sitting in board rooms in 2011 with brand-new MacBook Pros. Not a single one of them had ever said, between pizza slices or granola bars, 'These trackpads sure are sweet.'
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'. . . Maybe you're right.'
We were at Perkins. Doug Jones asked the waitress for 'A cup of regular to start, and decaf after that.'
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'So, like—imagine you're using that trackpad to play Super Mario Bros..'
Doug Jones took a sip of his coffee. How do people do that, when it's so hot?
'I'm imagining.'
'So, like—imagine you're using that trackpad to play Super Mario Bros..'
'Like I said, about the whipping two fingers up or down. Let's say up makes him run right and down makes him run left.'
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'That wouldn't confuse people?'
'Nah—if 10 million 13-year-olds can get their heads around up being down and down being up in a first-person shooter.'
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'Fair enough.'
'So you whip it hard to run. Whip it in the other direction to skid and turn around. Plant two fingers to slow your guy down. While you're scrolling with two fingers, touch with one finger to jump. Hold to jump longer.'
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'How do you duck? How do you throw fireballs?'
'You duck by slipping two fingers to the right. You throw fireballs by tapping three fingers anywhere on the pad.'
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Doug Jones blinked.
'That might work.'
I played through 1-1 in my head.
'It does work.'
'How well does it work?'
I played through 8-3 in my head.
'It works better than a Nintendo controller.'
'How much better?'
I played through 8-2 in my head. Then I played through 2-3.
'Way, way better.'
'How much way better?'
I tried Super Mario Bros. 3, world 3-8.
'Incredibly better.'
'I'm still not sold. Like, how would you do a first-person shooter with just a trackpad? How would you do that without buttons, or without a keyboard? What about a 3D action game?'
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Game Controller For Macbook
I opened my mouth. I closed my mouth. 'I'm—I'm sure you could do it. 3D action games rarely even use the full versatility a 3D space can afford, anyway. You'd probably use a bunch of pinches and rotates and spreads.'
Doug Jones swallowed some coffee.
'How about Super Mario 64?'
'Are you asking if Super Mario 64 used 3D space well, or are you asking me to redesign it for trackpads?'
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'Redesign it for trackpads.'
I opened my mouth; I forgot to close it for a couple of seconds.
My final answer was: 'Hmm.'
Since then, I haven't been able to figure it out more than ninety-nine percent of the way. Unfortunately, if it's not a hundred percent, it's not enough.
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And besides, how many people using Macs with Apple Multi-Touch trackpads want to play games on their computer in the first place? The PC Gamer Demographic—rife with individuals who have embraced hotkeys and scroll wheels since two seconds after their invention—no doubt includes thousands of intrepid users who would leap right on board with Multi-Touch trackpad controls. So, of course: if you build it, they will come—and at first, it has to be optional.
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You'd need a Different Sort Of FPS for trackpad-only controls to work. For what it's worth, I can conceive of a 3D platformer that works sort of excellently—sort of. The epiphany hit me while I was in a Vietnamese restaurant, showing someone how I could use a pair of chopsticks in each hand. This, of course, lead me back around to my hypothetical design for an FPS: yes, it would certainly have to be a Different Sort Of FPS—probably something like GunValkyrie, not something about headshots and turbo-sprinting down corridors. It'd have to be more about finesse. It'd have to more like checkers than what FPSes are currently like (the current FPS gamedesignosphere, for those keeping score, is like Connect Four where you have 0.7 seconds to make your move; it's about strategy, though it's also about how fast you can move your hands—and I mean that as a compliment).
I tried to explain my Multi-Touch trackpad gesture-controlled 3D platform action-adventure game to a half-dozen people. I couldn't make any of them get it. It must not have been good enough.
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It could be because of how I devised it while showing someone I could use a pair of chopsticks in each hand simultaneously. I mean, how many people can do that? It's something wise old men do in kung-fu movies. I should add that no one ever thinks it's impressive, unless they try to do it themselves and find their brain promptly snapped in half. I guess crushing someone's self confidence in their motor skills isn't the best way to invent a bold new user interface.
As I developed and redeveloped my idea for Trackpad Super Mario 64, my idea for Trackpad Super Mario Bros. grew in depth and became a perfect jewel in my mind. In a few short weeks, I'd possibly solved platform games on iOS.
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Many of the platform game on iOS has those atrocious on-screen buttons. They both get in the way of the action and are unresponsive as heck. Either one of these reasons is two strikes in one—that's four strikes these games have, and that's one more strike than something needs before I press the 'home' button and promptly delete the app.
The reason on-screen buttons don't work is—well. If you ask a room full of hardcore gamers, they'll tell you it's because 'buttons are better'. If you ask a room full of game designers, they'll tell you that it's because iOS games requiring on-screen buttons are either direct ports of classic games which were Designed For Buttons, or else slaves to archetypical game designs which required buttons.
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Let's not get ahead of ourselves: the point is, we shouldn't port exact remakes of Megaman or Contra—we should make new and better games in the same style, one which actually makes use of the potential of an analog device.
I had a look around for successful 'hardcore' gamers' games on iOS which implement platforming or shooting. Note that, in games like Canabalt or Jetpack Joyride, the player is moving automatically. Even in Halfbrick's nifty Monster Bash, the player is running automatically, with screen regions designated for jumping or shooting. Why is this? Because movement is tricky; because the world's paradigm is currently a couple inches away from where it should be.
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THE FUTURE OF MOTION CONTROLS
'Here's a Kinect.'
'Okay.'
'I want you to design a game for this which is actually fun.'
'Okay.'
'I'll leave you to it.'
The next morning:
'How was that Kinect yesterday?'
'Oh.'
'Did you come up with anything?'
I looked over the lip of my MacBook Pro display.
'Nope.'
'Have another crack at it?'
'Nope.'
That's my review of the Kinect.
I suppose I could also review Child of Eden in one sentence: that game is about as fun as an accountant's birthday party.
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The Kinect is dumb. I'm sorry.
Best Game Controller For Mac
A girl I was thinking of dating asked me if I had a Kinect, and I said I didn't. Then she saw that I did have a Kinect.
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'Hey, you do have a Kinect. Let's play this.'
'Nope.'
'Come on — it'll be fun. Do you have that dancing game?'
'No.'
'We can go to Target and buy it.'
'I'd rather we just skip that and go straight to having sex.'
'You're an asshole. You're—you're such an asshole—'
'Also, I don't have a TV.'
'Oh.'
'Yeah. See?' I pointed to the TV stand, atop which rested no TV.
'Why do you have a Kinect and no television?'
'I needed an Xbox, so I figured I'd get the one with a Kinect.'
'Oh.'
'I figure someone might make a Kinect game that is sort of decent.'
'That dancing game looks nice.'
'I don't want a game that looks nice. I want a game that isfantastic.'
'I want to play that dancing game.'
'That's how They get you.'
'Why wouldn't you just buy the cheaper Xbox if you hate the Kinect? Can we at least try it out? Can't you control the menus like in ‘Minority Report'?'
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'Well, if I had a TV, maybe we could try the Kinect out on the Xbox dashboard menus. I assure you it's about as much fun as making a banana smoothie using a coffee stir instead of a blender. And that ‘Minority Report' user interface is a joke. Why would anyone want that? Why would anyone seriously want that?'
'It looks neat.'
'I don't want a computer interface that looks neat. I want it to do its job. I want to Get Work Done—I don't want to become a professional fashion model while doing it.'
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'What about the Wii?'
'What about it?'
'I bet you sit down while playing Wii Tennis.'
'First of all, I don't play Wii Tennis. Second of all, if I did, yes, I would sit.'
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'You have no imagination.'
'That's not true: I'm just a realist. Realists can have imaginations.'
'I bet you pee sitting down, too.'
'I do! Sometimes it's the middle of the night, and I don't want to turn the light on.'
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'What about that PlayStation thing?'
'That thing would be great, if it actually existed.'
'I saw it in Best Buy.'
'That's not what I mean.'
She blinked.
How was I having a conversation about motion-controlled video-gaming with an adult female? What sort of awful sitcom had I stumbled into?
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'What about iPhone games?' she asked.
'What about them?'
'Do you hate them, too?'
'I sure don't—some of them are great, in fact.'
'Like which ones?'
'Like this one I made.'
I showed her the one I made. She played it. She handed the iPhone back.
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'I'd play that.'
'You just did.'
'No, silly, I mean if I had an iPhone.'
'It has to be released first.'
'Maybe I'll have an iPhone by then.'
A few months later, I had this MacBook Air. I was finally alone with the glass Apple Magic trackpad, fully familiar with its Multi-Touch Gestures. Here I am, on it right now, sweeping one, two, three, and even four fingers—pinching and rotating and squeezing and spreading like a pro, sitting in my same old slacker-jerk posture, in my Calvin Kleins and bathrobe, yawning on the stairs of my own apartment—I figure, I have these stairs here in my house: I might as well sit on them, sometimes, even while computing. I'm sure my face, if isolated from my surroundings and activity, would not appear, to a Hollywood blockbuster summer movie audience, to be the face of a man hip-deep in the highest of high-tech. The casual popcorn-muncher would have no reason to suspect that this is the face of a man computing—and computing hard—with efficiency, productivity and aplomb far surpassing Tom Cruise's futurecop in 'Minority Report'. He's catching killers—so what? I'm running a business. I sure am cool. Yeah, I'm great: I'm just going to go on sitting here with this bored look on my face. (I wish I was rich (I wish I had a girlfriend (I wish I didn't need a root canal (I sort of wish I had a TV (I bet I'd have six-pack abs already if I played Dance Central every day))))).
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This thin sheet of glass beneath my fingers feels better than maybe any electronic device I have ever touched.
It occurs to me quite gently this thin sheet of glass beneath my fingers feels better than maybe any electronic device I have ever touched. I wonder why that is. I am particularly sensitive to friction: for example, I prefer the Hori EX2 wired Xbox 360 controller to the official Microsoft one. That Hori is a company that knows how to pick a delicious plastic.
Game Controllers For Pc
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Here's this glass trackpad, and it's like butter—like micro-stubbly butter, like what the world's smartest mad scientist would want his robot dolphin's fuzzy hide to feel like.
The responsiveness—the lightning speed with which the trackpad identifies the number of fingers you've laid atop it—is extraordinary. If you've never sincerely laid hands on such a trackpad, I ask you to try it out the next time you're in Best Buy or an Apple Store. It's not the same as an iPad or an iPhone. There's none of that sluggish, syrupy friction of finger against glass. The smoothness of the material and transparency and instancy of contact to input to output is remarkable.
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I get on the internet, and I find the keynote speech at which Steve Jobs introduced the glass Magic Trackpad for Apple's desktop computers. I want to see the words he used.
Here is an exact quote:
'We've optimized the coefficiency of the friction on the glass, so it's just really beautiful.'
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Optimized! Coefficiency! Friction! Beautiful!
These are the sorts of words I was born to follow. ('Coefficiency' isn't even a word. (Neither is 'instancy'.))
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I had a really good think about it: they have these things for desktops, now. I read and watched CNet.com's review of the trackpad, in which the editor asks if the device is meant to replace the mouse. His answer is 'not exactly'. He asks: 'Will the mouse ever really die?' He says 'this is maybe another step toward [the death of the mouse]'. I looked at the new issue of Mac|Life while at the drug store the other day; they've got a feature that's trying to predict the future of Apple products. They've got something called the 'iDesk', where the desk is a multi-touch glass surface. I saw this and immediately thought that the logical step between right now and this multi-touch desk surface is an Apple trackpad that's twice as wide as the one we have now.
Here's where I start wondering.
'IT'S GOTTA BE A MOUSE AND A KEYBOARD'
The first time I heard a gamer say he refused to play a first-person shooter without a mouse and a keyboard was at an Electronics Boutique several months after Goldeneye's release on the Nintendo 64.
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I heard it again—this time from my little brother—when Perfect Dark was released.
As Halo and the Microsoft Xbox loomed, 'there is no better way to play a first-person shooter than a mouse and a keyboard' and 'I don't play FPSes on consoles' had become mantras among the hardcore LAN-party FPS crowd.
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As recently as September, 2011, people as intelligent and prominent as Kotaku.com's editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo casually expressed the common-knowledge 'fact' that 'Trackpad = Diablo death'. This statement was with regard to his MacBook Air trackpad not being as good for playing Diablo III as a mouse would probably be.
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I won't say Totilo is wrong. In its current state, I'd be a pathetic fool to insinuate that a mouse isn't a better tool for plumbing the depths of Diablo. Same thing for Starcraft. For what it's worth, we might as well go to the Wikipedia article for 'Mouse (computing)' and edit the intro paragraph to read, 'The mouse was invented by Counterstrike, Diablo, and Starcraft.'
I could not imagine a professional e-sports gamer playing Starcraft 2 with an Apple Magic Trackpad.
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Though why not? Why the heck not? Can we redesign Starcraft 2 to feel amazing with trackpad gestures?
I just thought about it for three high-octane seconds, and the answer is: 'Duh.'
Starcraft would take too long to describe, and I'd hurt my head in the process, so let's do Diablo instead.
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Note from the video in the above-linked Stephen Totilo piece the faint sound of a mouse click. Aha—is Totilo one to disable tap-to-click? Tap to click is the soul of a gesture-based complex game interface. We'll need it on for our example. That way we can use the mouse click regions for other things—nothing fancy, of course.
Game Controller For Imac
At the very least, our ideal Diablo would use all the Mac OS X Lion three- and four-finger gestures: spread with three fingers and a thumb to open your inventory, touch three fingers on an item the cursor is resting on to move it. Set potions in your belt; slash four fingers up, down, left or right to use an item in a particular belt slot. (I'd set 'down' to be my trusty little potions.) Touch an enemy to attack it or a spot on the ground to move there. Touch an enemy with three fingers to use a queued technique.
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This isn't perfect, though it's a good-enough launchpad.
Going deeper: the challenge of Diablo often stems from Clicking The Right Thing Quickly Enough. You don't want to click the wrong monster, for example. You might not want to click on the loot that a monster just dropped—you might want to click on the monster next to him. Or you might want to run away—yes, running away is a very good thing to do, sometimes.
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Game Controller For Mac Powerbook
A common method of player movement in Diablo is to click a spot on the ground and hold the mouse button down. The player will now run in the direction of that arrow, and that arrow stays in the same position relative to the center of the screen.
Trackpads 'equal Diablo death' because, until the Apple glass trackpads, with their 'inertial scrolling', they weren't so deliciously sensitive to movement and finger acceleration.
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So let's try this: if you put two fingers on the trackpad, the game will immediately place the cursor on a part of the screen relative to where you put your fingers. Now you can tap to click, and hold it there, and . . . you're running in that direction.
That solves one problem.
Now for the others. I've mentioned before that the trackpad is genius at immediately recognizing how many fingers you've just put down, and what you're doing with them. A quick three-finger swipe to the right on the center of the trackpad could be one skill. Left could be another. You could pinch or spread to switch between different skill configurations. How many configurations could you have? Six or seven, maybe. Pinch three times to get from configuration number four to configuration number one. Spread three times from configuration four to get to configuration seven.
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In the inventory screen, you can set up different equipment configurations. Just use two fingers to rotate—either clockwise or counter-clockwise—anywhere on the trackpad to cycle between equipment configurations.
I think you get the idea.
What I'm saying is . . . yeah, I could design a trackpad control scheme for Diablo III that allowed at the very least the same amount of control expression as a mouse and an entire keyboard. (Note that I didn't even mention that the Magic trackpad allows multiple 'clicking zones' for use of the pad as a mouse button—we would have gotten silly really quickly.)
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Now let's get ridiculous and talk about designing thought-speed trackpad controls for Starcraft 2. It won't be hard if we cheat a little bit and start with: 'Two track pads, one for each hand.'
I'll just leave it at that.
A TRACKPAD TO THE PAST
I asked followers of my Twitter to suggest me classic games to redesign for single-trackpad gesture-based controls. Most of the submissions were 'Zork', 'Typing of the Dead', 'Steel Battalion', 'God Hand', and 'Street Fighter III', so most of my responses would be: '-_-'.
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I've sat here and thought this over with my MacBook Air on my lap. I've filmed a little video of my hands 'playing' a few games with the trackpad. See if you can get what I'm saying. (I'm particularly proud of Katamari Damacy (note the 'chopsticks' motions).)
BACK TO MARIO
So we come back to Super Mario 64. How would you control Super Mario 64 with a trackpad? What checkers-worthy FPS could one conceive with Apple's little glass-and-aluminum square? My mind reels; I'm giving it a lot of (too much) thought. I'm thinking if you put two of these things on the desks of the right people (Will Wright, et al (make sure he has a comfortable chair)), and we'd have something better than Portal 2 knocked out in six months.
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In summary: is the Apple Magic trackpad better than a Dual Shock 3? It's better than a Rock Band guitar, that's for sure. Whether it's better than a Dual Shock 3 or not: I can't really say, because there aren't any games specifically for it. It's better than an iPhone, because you're not touching the screen.
tim rogers is a person you can follow on twitter; he also sometimes reviews video games here.