well well, a surprise came today. i ordered a black pro from japan and hooked it up to play muramasa for a few hours today. it looks a bit goofy plugged into a white remote, but you're not really going to be staring down at the controllers while you play anyway. my immediate thought was "wow, this is comfortable"; the grips feel very nice. as others have said there's a rough surface on the underside of the controller that helps you grip without being scratchy enough to draw your attention to it all the time. the digital D-pad also has a similar rougher surface. the analog sticks seem much stiffer and heavier than the old classic controller; i've yet to play a 3D game to test them, but already i can tell there's a difference in feel and the angle your thumb comes to them at. they're definitely easier to reach and don't feel as flimsy as the old sticks.
everyone likes this controller better than the first version, but no one seems to think it's perfect. my complaints are that although the left and right halves of the controller are spread further apart, the +, home, and - buttons are positioned the same as before at dead center. this means that you have to reach in farther than before with your thumb to hit + or -, which is doable but annoying. if they had just spaced those buttons out a little further so that each were closer to the other buttons on their respective sides there wouldn't be a problem. overall it's not bad, it's about the same as the stretch you have to make to hit those buttons on the wii remote. the shoulder buttons are also a little odd; the new oversized ZL and ZR buttons are the default resting place of your index fingers and as you'd expect they feel incredibly comfortable. the problem is, you never use them; i've yet to find a game where you have to use the Z triggers, so i assume it's more for new wii titles than VC games. the small, normal L and R buttons require you to reach upward to hit and aren't quite as nice to rest your index fingers on, so the buttons you need to press are less comfortable and the ones that are comfortable are never even used. i wish they had reversed the buttons so that the oversized ones were normal L and R, it just makes so much more sense to give the higher priority buttons the best comfort.
anyway, overall it's very good and these are the types of little complaints that you can get over and forget about after some use. the new white gamecube pad is a better value, since you get a heavier, sturdier controller with rumble and analog, but the pro would still be a fair buy if priced at $20 like the current classic is. that is all.
It looks like the dualshock. The dualshock is the best controller in the history of forever. So the classic controller pro is automatically Nintendo's best controller ever.
The Game.
Is it after 9PM EST? You should probably ignore the above post.
i went through a bunch of old games and to be honest i'm not too sure of what games this controller matches well with. SNES games may actually work better with the old classic controller since L, R, +, and - are within easier reach; N64 games work a little better with the pro but the gamecube has always been the best choice for those and the pro does little to challenge it. sin and punishment, the zeldas, ect. are really intuitive with the GC pad, while the pro is a bit of a mess in comparison. i also tried it with resident evil 4 and found the GC pad to be much more comfortable, although in fairness that game was designed for the GC after all. still, it reminded me that having rumble is pretty sweet. there's no doubt this controller was designed primarily with new wii titles in mind; in fact, the monster hunter staff helped design it specifically to work well for their game. that makes it even stranger that rumble wasn't included. so if you're lusting after this for your VC games you may not get what you expect. muramasa is about the only game i've played so far where i didn't prefer the good old gamecube pad, and that unshakable sense of something being slightly off i got from first CC remains with this one. the pro is still very good, but if nintendo was going to re-design the controller it would have been nice if they had made sure to nail it the second time around.
ah well. my advice is that if you want to play old VC games, get the old classic controller. if you want to play N64 and GC games, get the gamecube. if you want to play new wii games, get the pro.
I think this will work a treat with the classic arcade games from Midway Arcade Treasures 1&2 via a Classic Linker and in VCA titles where you can generally also remap the buttons as you see fit to use the Z triggers.
yes. i've gotten used to pressing L and R already, but it would still be sweet to swap those buttons with ZL and ZR. i really want to use those triggers!
i think i've been spoiled by the gamecube pad. there's never any confusion over where to rest your thumb at any given time since the oversized A button serves as a sort of 'home'. the single set of comfy triggers also make things simpler. a lot of people hate it, but i think with the right game it's the best controller there is.
The Classic Controller Pro is being released in the EU on November 20th, and I am looking forward to getting one, I had 2 Classic controllers a while ago but swapped my unused one with a NL member in anticipation on the Classic Controller Pro being released. One thing I am wondering is if NSMB:Wii will support the Classic Controller Pro as they are both released in the EU on the same day, it could just be coincidence.
Once I get money from people at Christmas. I am ordering it off of Amazon. I think it looks like it would be more comfortable with the analogs being slightly further apart.
it definitely is, everything about the joysticks feels better. something about the wider spacing between your hands also just feels right. the handles are nearly the same shape as the GC but a little skinnier, which is good news if you have small hands. i hope i didn't seem like i was ragging on the controller too much, i have a few complaints but i really do like it.
I seriously think its a waste of money if (as I do) you all ready own a regular classic controller.
The classic controller works brilliantly for 16 bit games (as well as fighting games and shmups in general), the Wiimote great for 8-bit games and my Cube controller is perfect for N64 games- I dont need anything else.
A quick search on Play.com shows it is available for pre-order for £24.99, I would imagine it is easy to get hold of from all online retailers who do not have the worry of shelf space.
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Topic: classic controller pro thoughts
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