We've been trying out the newest addition to the Switch's line up of accessories, the appropriately named Joy-Con Wheel Pair made by Nintendo themselves. As comfortable as they are and for all the advantages of having something chunkier to wrap the tiny controllers in for those with bigger hands, there's a big problem with them.
As soon as we slapped a Joy-Con in we noticed that in the triggers there was a large amount of travel required before you actually hit the button, and in my personal view, it was an unacceptable amount. It made gameplay uncomfortable and awkward, but thankfully we found a super-simple solution to the woes this brought, and it's something anyone can do at home.
Make sure you check out the video above where we show you the problem in detail and the method to fixing it. Unless you don't find this kind of thing a problem in which case you should probably look at another one of our articles instead.
Comments 81
"before you were actually hit the button" i mean, not trying to be a jerk, but do you guys proofread your stuff before posting it? It doesn't seem like you do.
I'm not gonna use the Steering Wheel, but other people might find this video really usefull. It's just a shame that the players have to fix something when Nintendo clearly could have done a better job.
@RedMageLanakyn
They only listen to you if you are a "lovely people".
@Nagi_Nagisa Seeing all the issues with the Switch, it seems Nintendo doesn't do much QA anymore these days as they used to. /sad
I can't believe this reached the market in such state. Not from Nintendo themselves.
I would NEVER buy something broken or with a design flaw knowing I'd have to fix it myself. Horrible.
@the8thark Yeah it seems that way here and over at Push Square. I've pointed out a few errors to Sammy and he straight up ignores it, and doesn't fix the issues either. I guess I just have a higher standard for myself and my work, and i'm not above fixing an error if someone points it out.
lol it appears everything switch related pushes gamers to have to become an engineer in order to use the products.
One day we'll build consoles like we build PCs.
@RedMageLanakyn "games journalism" has always been the lowest form of writing. At least they're not SJWblogtaku but they're barely 1 step above. If all publishers could just email me new announcements directly it'd be great. Sadly they don't and we have to suffer stuff like this.
High quality yet complains about shotty build......
Felt pads for dock, felt pads for wheels. Got it. Thanks Alex!
@Menchi187 Very harsh words. Lowest form of writing? There are lower forms.
@Kid_Sickarus Why not just buy a pc then?
@Menchi187 I agree that kotaku is the lowest of the low, but this site and push square do a pretty good job covering things without getting too far off track. I just don't understand why people can't proofread their work.
I believe this is purposeful to prevent accidentally pressing the button when setting down the wheel, a big issue with past Wii wheels.
Confession: I'm an all wheel player.
Nintendo quality is all gone?
Like the Joy-Con problem with solution with one tiny foam.
((
@RedMageLanakyn
If your not above fixing errors then you better go back to your first comment.
@RedMageLanakyn Rushing to post "news" is more important than getting the words or facts right. The results effectively diminish the value of journalism as a service and instead suggest a lack of respect for the reader beyond monetizing clicks. The internet is every bit as useful for confusing and shrouding as it is for informing and sharing, and it's sad that the economic realities encourage the former endeavors (even by well-meaning writers/sites).
It all portends to an embarrassing future, but I'll always remain hopeful that someday we will get it right no matter how unlikely.
@ogo79 That's neat and all, but in practice I haven't actually seen any flesh person actually alter a component of their Switch. Everyone I know has gotten by just fine without any dock, joycon, etc. engineering. In the future I might send in a joycon for repair, but that is the only issue I've seen in over about a dozen real-life Switches. Small sample size, but so is just about every account you read online about anything...
So cute comment, but likely born more out of the internet hivemind than actual reality.
@OneArmedGiant Writing comments isn't my job. I don't work for this site and am not held to any professional standards. Oh, and your first "your" should be "you're"
Not an issue for me as I don't use wheels. Seems a bit odd given Nintendo's usual quality control though, but I'm sure that there is thinking/reasoning behind it somewhere......
@Menchi187 If Games Journalism is the lowest form of writing, does that make you the lowest form of troll?
@Pac-Fan yeah, I phrased that badly. I meant to say that it feels like consoles are becoming more and more choice driven, there are often different versions of a particular console and you can choose different controllers. I think it's a short step from mid generation console upgrades to being able to specify the 'tier' of components that go into your console's case (if not necessarily actually build it yourself), maybe even taking it in to get upgraded components fitted to replace the ones you started out with and Consoles move even closer to becoming diet-PCs.
Except for Nintendo. They'll always be the exception somehow
'Foam adhesive pads' trending on eBay...probably!
Who else just ordered some?
@Jeronan Yeah, their quality assurance seems to be worse recently. I'm hoping since the Switch itself is still in a sort of "beta" phase, all of these issues will be addressed by Fall and we won't have to worry about stuff like this anymore.
I don't know what the actualproblem is, the Wii Wheels were exactly the same! I personally live by the Wheel and slam on the drift button quite a bit. I won't be "fixing" mine, if anything this is a huge bonus. Nintendo wouldn't release a product with such "problems" if it weren't intentional.
@ACK
im glad you liked my comment
Why does Nintendo keep letting things like this happen?
@ACK You're absolutely right, if anything this seems more of a clickbait title than an honest article. This is definitely an opinion-based article, the kind that starts all the badmouthing about "problems". Everyone seems so eager to "fix" absolutely anything to do with the Switch these days!
Meh! I wasn't buying this anyway.
I always had that problem of really deep buttons with the Gamecube's L and R button, but nobody seemed to agree with me. Now suddenly everyone thinks long travel time for buttons is a problem on this. Meh.
Still buying because I love motion controls
Doomed.
@ACK One of my friends bought a tiny USB powered fan that he plugs into the dock and keeps it on whenever he runs BotW docked. I've felt the temperature difference with and without the fan and it's something I'll definitely do when I get a switch, especially for only $10 and no audible difference.
I never played mario kart on Wii with this . Never used the Wii U pad for steering wheel and i ll never use this for mario kart deluxe. I really can't understand how ppl manage to use this as a controler and have fun with it. I just can't
@RedMageLanakyn
I wouldn't worry about overheating, even in the dock. I've played for 8-10 hours straight, and taken it out of the dock and it barely felt warm to the touch.
Tests were done and Zelda peaked at 41°C in tabletop, 46°C in the dock. Fast Racing RMX, which runs in 1080p, got it up to 49°C in the dock (48° and change). PS4 Pro gets up into the mid 70's for comparison. All that talk about bending from overheating, I think, was erroneous speculation because tests show it barely gets hot at all, and both my units brand new out of the box had a slight "bend" on the back panel. I think it just bulges out a tad with everything inside it or something. So they just come like that, doesn't appear to be an issue to be concerned about
https://youtu.be/jfAW5sQSCeg
@RedMageLanakyn fix your lower case 'i'
@JaxonH I'm not worried about bending or overheating at all. It just gives me piece of mind knowing there's some extra air on hot electronic components. It's probably why I have 9 case fans in my PC, and an aggressive fan curve on my 1080
@Dangerous25 See comment 21 for my response to that.
@RedMageLanakyn
9 case fans in my PC
😃
@RedMageLanakyn FIX IT IT! Just kidding. But flip me give them a break, these lot do a great job but yeah, they're human.
@Dangerous25 I thought I was being pretty civil about it. I understand they're human, and mistakes are made. The error I pointed out in this article was fixed. I had just read two articles before this one and found errors as well. I don't hunt for them,
I just see things that don't click together easily. It's a pet peeve and a curse.
@JaxonH They're all on a fan controller too. I set them to low when it's idle and about 75% during gaming sessions. It really does make a difference, by about 7c overall inside the case. I like to tinker!
@Dangerous25 I meant "to low" and honestly if you're gonna keep harassing me i'm just going to click that lovely little ignore button and go about my day.
@RedMageLanakyn fix that 'i'm' please it's upsetting me... 😉 Harassing?!? Lol wise up. Yeah my mistake, see we're all human? Harassing though... chill out, flip me.
@Dangerous25 Well you deleted your last comment, and I had already answered you twice, explaining myself. Yet you keep bringing up things that I'm doing when we've all pretty much moved on and the error was fixed. It's all good, let's move on.
@Kid_Sickarus its gonna be a PC
@RedMageLanakyn deal 👍
Is it just me or is the last sentence of this article a bit snarky?
Ive avoided motion controls since the wii, will be playing mario kart with a pro controller
It's too bad that those shoulder buttons require so much travel, because i like the design of them otherwise.
I'm curious why this is the only mention of this I've seen online. Given that most sites jump at the opportunity to call out the slightest mistake Nintendo makes, I would think there would be hundreds of articles about how terrible the joy-con wheel is. Perhaps...it's not that big of a deal?
Ah... I usually use Wii mote + Nunchuck for Mario Kart Wii & 8. It is a lot easier than using Steering Wheel. Well... for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I will stick on Joy Cons attached on Switch or attached on Joy Con Grip. I need a Focus during steering my racer.
I suspect that this "problem" has been blown completely out of proportion. As @ACK has said, this is most likely something that has been done deliberately to prevent other, more problematic issues.
I'm getting the wheels mainly for the novelty of being able to play with them spontaneously… ANYWHERE!!! Can't wait.
@EternalDragonX "shotty"
*shoddy
Idek if you are in on the grammar policing going on in this comment section or not, but people saying "shotty," which isn't a word, is one of my, how shall we put it, "triggers." It's "shoddy." D's, not T's. Lord, how were you people brought up?
@RedMageLanakyn Sometimes things slip through the cracks, and we don't monitor the comments 24/7. We're only human after all 😉
Any chance you can re engineer the Switch so it plays PS4 games? LOL
This isn't necessarily a problem. It's just a matter of taste.
What a TERRIBLE and MISLEADING headline!
£15 for a couple of chunks of plastic isn't exactly cheap. I just bought a fully working keyboard for five quid less than that, and a wireless mouse for half the price. A pair of these wheels should cost a tenner at most imo. Seriously, it's literally just two chunks of plastic and little else. And, without the "official" label, you can indeed go on the likes of Amazon and get near identical accessories for around a tenner.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scorel-Gamepad-controller-Steering-Nintendo/dp/B06Y5HXNGC/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1492865630&sr=8-20&keywords=nintendo+switch+steering+wheel
Or how about something like this for £8.99:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Controller-Handles-Nintendo-Switch-Joy-Con/dp/B0722CTGX9/ref=sr_1_43?ie=UTF8&qid=1492865189&sr=8-43&keywords=Nintendo+switch+steering+wheel
So yeah, fifteen quid might not seem like a lot at a casual glance, but it is 50% more than I think Nintendo could be selling these things for (and still making a profit).
@HeroponRiki
Long travel on an analog trigger is alot different than ling travel on a digital trigger.
@ACK
I agree it's not a big deal. But your post was a pretty sensational and dramatic response. If you don't agree with someones opinion you can let it go you know?
@Kid_Sickarus: "...and Consoles move even closer to becoming diet-PCs."
@JaxonH: Problem is, depending on quality of components, just a little heat can do major damage.
@RedMageLanakyn: Do you have any of those fans specifically cooling your graphics card, or just your machine, in general?
Why is Reggie obsessed with making the lives of all Nintendo fans an endless cycle of doom and disappointment? He spends every waking moment scheming and lying in order to lead us into his wretched bog of evil.
If you are looking for making the joy-con easier to hold I strongly recommend these: https://www.walmart.com/ip/55551268
They are wonderful!
Every Switch owner should have them!
@Li_Bae Nothing here is about Reggie. What is wrong with you?
Something like that does not have much to do with quality, it's more about design.
Like it or not, but if the buttons are like that, then they are most likely supposed to be like that.
That of course doesn't make it better.
It is something I would like to hear multiple different opinions about before I judge though.
Just from seeing this, I am not sure whether that would bother me personally.
Actually, I think it could even be interesting if you can have a little tension on your finger without actually pressing the button, depending on how much force you need to constantly press it down.
@RedMageLanakyn When you're producing as much content as we do on a daily basis, some errors are bound to get through.
"triggered" Ha. ha. You are true comedian.
The fix is to never buy it in the first place.
@Damo "When you're producing as much content as we do on a daily basis"
That would only hold true if you only had one or two people writing, but you have at least 5 or 6. I would hardly call 5 or 6 articles spaced a few hours apart "a lot" of content. At best that's a poor excuse. There's no reason someone couldn't take the extra 2 minutes to proofread a few paragraphs.
@Capt_N I have one 140mm on the side of the case blowing air on the GPU, the rest are 120mm configured for positive air flow exhausting out the top and rear. Intakes are on the side, bottom, and front.
@RedMageLanakyn: Cool!(No pun intended) You really do like to tinker.
@TheLobster Sorry Professor
We call this cheap crap where I come from. Just don't buy it.
Hurrah, who's up for yet another Switch problem?!
My Joy-Con Wheel Pair arrived yesterday, although haven't unboxed yet as still waiting for MK8D...
I'd be really interested in a comparison of the different 3rd party wheel accessories that are available.
A quick perusal of Amazon shows that there are quite a few and all with subtly different designs, but it's basically impossible to tell from a few pictures how well they each perform in this capacity.
Don't really want to splash out for an additional controller to play this multiplayer, but the Joy-Cons alone are a bit small.
I hadn't considered using the wheel add-ons as we never use motion control steering, but thinking about it, they might actually be a reasonable alternative.
If I do get a pair, then I will definitely be using this trick, as it sounds like a really good idea.
@AlexOlney How are you going to charge those Joy-Con when you leave them in the wheels 24/7?
@Jeronan
Yes was wondering this myself. Have actaully bought a couple of different sets from different people,. Have ordered both Nintendo's own, and also some really cool ones by Orzly that even have proper lights on the front that allows you to see who the players are. For some daft reason. Nintendo's own ones don't show you this without having to take the joycon out, which I thought was a little bit of an oversight, but it should be interesting to see how they compare in terms of actually playing them. I'll post back when I've finally had a chance to play mariokart with them, but at least I know I've covered my bases either way.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...