HORI's Nintendo Switch D-Pad Controller Coming West This Fall With Mario And Zelda Designs
HORI has announced that it is bringing its Switch d-pad Joy-Cons, decorated with Mario/Zelda [...]
HORI has announced that it is bringing its Switch d-pad Joy-Cons, decorated with Mario/Zelda designs, west this September.
As you may know, the special Joy-Cons launched this month in Japan, and at the time, it was unclear if they would be making their way to western markets. But now we know they will, though when exactly this September is unclear.
The new controller is actually just one single left Joy-Con that notably adds a proper d-pad for the low price-point of $25. The price-point is apparently this low as a result of HORI gutting the Joy-Con of the Bluetooth, gyrosenor, and SL/SR buttons features. In other words, the special controller is designed for handheld mode, and isn't a bad offering if you want a more classic d-pad to enjoy your games with, especially if said games are fighting games or platformers.
It's worth pointing out that multiple users have reported that the controller drains the battery of the Nintendo Switch faster than it would with a regular Joy-Con. According to HORI, the cause of this is leaving the controller connected while the Nintendo Switch is in sleep mode.
It's also worth pointing out – in case it wasn't clear – that with the aforementioned missing features you can't use the controller detached from the Switch.
The fact that these controllers are selling despite their issues, just shows that there is a market for a Joy-Con with a proper d-pad on the left side, and it's a market that Nintendo continues to ignore for reasons unclear. Even if Nintendo had to charge extra for the controller, I'm sure there would be a metric ton of people lining up to hand over their money. There's a lot of d-pad enthusiasts out there, and almost all of them are unhappy with the Switch's current offering.
As mentioned above, when in September HORI plans on releasing the controller in the west hasn't been divulged.
As always, feel free to hit the comment section and let us know what you think of the news. Do you think Nintendo will ever release a similar product in the future at a premium price-point?
Source: Nintendo Everything
