Gadgetory

- What's up guys, I'm on the E3 show floor, and while there are a lot of awesome games to try out, one of the things that has been really awesome that I got to actually have hands-on with is a new controller coming from Hori, the Split Pad Pro. Now they just announced this on the second day of the E3 show floor, and what it is is a new set of joy-cons designed for the Switch that attach directly to the sides and offer a much larger, more comfortable grip design. To be clear, the controller I got to use is a prototype version of the final product, it is a fully-functional one so I was able to play games with it, but the final version's gonna be a little different having a different plastic, different finishes, and overall probably just up the comfort level a bit more than what I got to experience. That being said, honestly, it was awesome to use. I always like using my switch in handheld mode, but sometimes it's not the most comfortable experience. The joy-cons are really nice to use when they're on their own floating, but on the sides of the switch it just gets very uncomfortable over time. It doesn't really have anything in the form of a traditional grip, and that is something that this controller adds. Now just like with their d-pad joy-con attachment, these are only working when connected directly to the Switch so they are to be used wirelessly or floating in the air, but the main goal with this is so that you can use your Switch in handheld mode with a much more comfortable grip style. It's gonna be really important for more competitive or intense games. Along with the larger size of the joy-cons and the curved shaping that gives it an actual grip design, there are a lot of other little updates and changes to these controllers, as well. They do have larger buttons, everything's spaced a little bit differently to add a little more comfort, especially if you have larger hands. It also features additional buttons on the back of each of these joy-con attachments that will give you an additional button you can program. You'll notice on the demo unit I'm using there are four sets of buttons that are laying on the bottom parts of these joy-cons. There's actually two sets of these same pair of buttons because they apply to each joy-con individually, they're not connected in any kind of way, they are, technically, their own controllers. One button acts as a turbo feature while the other one is the programming button used to figure out what button you want to use for those back buttons you're able to press for easy access. Honestly, this is a product that I am really excited to see, because while there are a lot of the third-party controller options out there for the Switch there hasn't been any officially licensed joy-con alternatives just yet, aside from Hori's own d-pad joy-con. Again, while that adds a d-pad, it doesn't actually change the shape of the joy-cons, themselves, so this is the first time we're seeing an actual licensed product that giving you a more comfortable grip design. And yes, there are options out there that you can find and buy that might even offer things like wireless connectivity, but often times they're not actually that great of an idea to grab. So having an actual licensed product that's giving us a larger joy-con with the Switch is a big win. As far as pricing these are going from an MSRP of $50, which I think is at about the right price. If you get the individual d-pad joy-con that goes for 25, sometimes 20 bucks, so this gonna be basically doubling the cost to give you two of these larger joy-con attachments, plus the increased size and having the extra button on the back. They're slated to be coming out at the same time as Daemon Ex Machina, which these particular split pads are designed to be kinda based on the same image of. In fact they have really nice subtle branding of just replacing the x on the x-button with the Daemon Ex Machina symbol, which is cool. I did talk to them about any kind of potential future designs they could be doing as well, and while Daemon Ex Machina is the one official one they'll be doing, there is the chance that if this does well we're gonna see more designs come out in the future featuring other games. Again, the one I was using was a prototype design, so some of the chief differences that appear to be happening between what I used and what's gonna be happening at launch: different thumbstick tops that are gonna be red instead of just the black that you see on this prototype, and the biggest thing is the grip change. The shape of the grip is going to be the same, which I did find to be really comfortable, but the final design is going to feature something that instead of just being a smooth plastic like the prototype, is going to be designed similar to what we see on Switch pro controllers where its that kinda smooth plastic but with little dotted texturing so it adds just a little extra grip comfort to it. Looks like we're gonna have that same kind of design which is a big plus. I've been waiting a while to see some official joy-con alternatives come out, and I'm so happy that Hori is kicking things off and I'm excited to see what else might be coming out in the future.