Hori USA Drops The Price Of Its D-Pad Joy-Con Controller

Sadly it doesn't work with the Flip Grip so it loses most of its appeal.

While a good idea this was just poorly implemented. Being tied to just handheld limits its use.

Joy(-con) to the world!

Does this thing still drain the battery at all times? That, and the lack of a matching right joycon, are why I didn't bother with these. The fact that I would still be draining one of my regular joycons made it feel pointless to me.

@Regpuppy the draining battery issue was fixed in one of the switchs system updates

@Regpuppy You can buy just a right joy-con in stores.

@link3710 Then what's the point of getting this one when I can just buy two new joycons? 20 dollars more and I can have two fully functioning joycon, just without the classic D-pad. Also, there isn't a joycon that matches up perfectly with the blue they used.

@Moonlessky Ah, thanks, I wasn't following news on that.

They really need to make brand new colors or even a theme skin for those joycons cause that plain blue color joycon is ugly not to mention plain blue is my least favorite color. I choose anything over plain blue.

I have one that I use when I want to play 2D platformers in portable mode. It's not terrible and better than buttons. But it bugs me that the shape isn't quite the same as a normal joycon.

This is definitely the cheapest option for a portable d-pad. A good kit is nearly twice as much and that requires a lot of work where you might not want to get into it if you don't have any experience with that sort of thing. Getting one that has been nicely built for you is over $100.

A must-have for those who love playing classic fighting games and platformers on-the-go.

IMHO, the d-pad on the Hori Joycon is whack.
Mine’s been collecting dust. I’ve been bothering everyone to make a proper left joycon with a classic Nintendo D-Pad in the analog stick location instead of just lazily repurposing the original board.

I've already got all 4 versions of these (Blue, Mario, Zelda & Pokemon). So no I won't be picking any more unless Hori bring out some new designs.

But they are great if you want to play portable 2D performers or fighting games.

They need to fix the minus button.

@Wavey84 Then you heard wrong, the 8bitdo controllers are amazing, haven't seen any lag with them

@Regpuppy they fixed the battery draining issue a few updates ago.

I WAS going to get this, but then I heard about handheld only restrictions.

@Heavyarms55 That's how I use mine, too. I got the Mario themed one, which goes decently with the red right Joy-Con. My biggest issue with it is that it cramps my hand to use it without a grip on the Switch , but once I do (I use the GoPlay grip, which I had already), it feels pretty good. For $20, it's really not bad if you can get over the caveats; made my most recent playthrough of The Messenger even better, and it's great with the NES, Mega Man X and Sega Mega Drive collections.

@Regpuppy

I can get these Hori gamepads for around $22-$25 in Canada. A set of dual joy cons is $100. Don't know where you can get a pair of joy cons for about $40 USD...

That being said, I might get one as I primarily game in portable mode, and it might be better for Mega Man games and the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive compilation... and most retro inspired games too...

It might be helpful for all the ACA Neo-Geo stuff I have, but I still can't bring myself to buy one.

@Realnoize Joycons are 80 USD for me, assuming they're not on sale. This controller is 20 USD. So it's really not worth it, based on price. Especially since I often see joycon on sale for 69 USD.

The only thing holding this up is the D-pad, which I personally don't see as worth it, on its own. Especially since it is purely for handheld. For docked mode, I already had 8bitdo, Gamecube controllers, and other things with better retro setups.

I love it ... Cheapest way to solve the left stick drifting issue that most switch users face after using their switch for a few months (if not earlier).
I'm even happy that it is done by third party... I never bought TP gears before. But the bad hardware quality of the Switch proves that Nintendo standards are now very low.
Price for Europe ?

The d-pad is awesome. I use it on a daily basis for Street Fighter, BlazBlue, etc. so I don’t know why some people are saying the d-pad is not great quality because it truly is as fighting games are absolutely the best way to really put it to the test. Also, this is the ideal way to play the classic NES games of course.

Already got one. And it had been perfect for TETRAS 99.

I know it's stupid because there's no bluetooth but...it feels realllllly good in handheld. Switch has a huge issue with crossbar Dpads on the Procontroller and even 3rd party Pro controllers (the GC controllers, both PowerA and Nintendo proper misread horribly as well, maybe e worst of all) on all their controllers. It really stresses me out. 8bitdo usb receiver with a dualshock is the only way to go for dpad games requiring a modern controller.

I want them to make a matching right side now. I just want both sides to feel the same, even though it’s already close

@humbucker I actually bought a replacement stick on amazon for $8 and fixed it myself. Works like brand new again.

@Wavey84 They couldn't have replaced the analogue stick with a dpad. The dpad uses digital input. The analogue uses... analogue. If they would have removed the stick and put both the buttons and the dpad, switches OS would read both the face buttons and the dpad as the same thing. So in handheld you would have 2 dpads, which is fine, but doesn't help anymore than what they already have implemented. But in docked mode the dpad would either have to be dead, or act as ABXY. It a 0/1 on off input. A game that is programmed to read degrees of motion wouldn't recognize that on off input as direction pushes, unless they reprogrammed the game to accept it. That would have to be done on each game individually across all publishers.

In other words, what you are asking for is out of Horis hands.

I would have liked it if they swapped the placement of the dpad and stick though.

Excellent little joycon. Perfect for portable fighting games.
@Regpuppy Still not sure I get your reasoning, Joycons 80 making a single joycon 40. This joycon is 20 making it half the price of a normal joycon but it has half the features. If you add in the fact that the d-pad is at least twice as good as the normal one for fighting games, retro games etc this makes it excellent value for money imho. I actually use this more than the standard one when in portable mode.

Of course, it is down to personal preference but I could never say I haven't got my money's worth out of it.

@Mqblank I just don't value the D-pad enough to sacrifice all of the other features, for one mode if play. If you do, that's fine. It's just not for me.

I honestly don't like it. I don't care for the D-Pad, buttons are fine. It just doesn't seem like a step in the right direction to sacrifice so much just for a D-Pad.

What a piece of crap. I'll play my Switch with a real controller, thank you. I've always found the directional buttons to be more than perfectly fine.

A piece of crap? Good luck trying to play a fighting game with the directional buttons on a standard joycon. They are the real crappy thing in this discussion.

I have two of these wee beauties!

No, If I want a proper d-pad, I'll use one of the 8-bit Bluetooth controllers.

So much complaining, for something with a clear purpose. It's currently the only option for an actual d-pad in handheld mode.

"I'll just use a proper controller" - Good for you, that's not a solution for handheld mode though is it.

"The buttons are fine, I don't need a d-pad" - That's great for you too! You don't need to buy one, or tell everyone they're crap because you don't need the one thing they're designed for. You can go about your day.

The use case is for those of us who are playing 2D games in handheld mode and finding the buttons on the standard joy-con unsuitable.

This controller is great, unfortunately, things wear out. I bought mine after the price drop, and need a replacement. The only problem is Hori is charging nearly 78 dollars for these controllers now. Someone needs to address this. I'm pretty sure they hiked the price due to coronavirus upping the demand on portable consoles and accessories, just like how scalpers have once again taken advantages of people locked down, buying Switches.