If you've ever been unfortunate enough to experience Joy-Con drift you'll know just how frustrating it can be, and one modder has decided to recreate this frustration in the best way possible.
As you may know, the term 'Joy-Con drift' refers to an issue where your Joy-Con will register movement even when you aren't applying any pressure to the control stick. It's thought to be caused by contacts within the stick mechanism wearing and eventually failing to work as intended, and as you might imagine, it can be a real nuisance.
In Rivals of Aether, a Smash-like fighter that's available on Steam, players can create their very own character designs and share them with the rest of the community. One design that's available to check out is simply called 'Joy Con', made by a modder called srPerez, and it very closely resembles the official controllers that come with a Nintendo Switch.
That's pretty cool on its own, but wait until you see how the character behaves. The gif below, created by Kotaku, shows that the fighter actually continuously drifts to the left, replicating the drift issue that has been widely documented over the past couple of years. It gave us a good chuckle, and players who have tried it out seem to have enjoyed it, too.
A definitive edition of Rivals of Aether is actually planned to launch on Switch this year. The last we heard it was planned to release this summer, although we're still to see it appear on Nintendo's platform.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa actually apologised for Joy-Con drift issues earlier this summer, refraining from making any further comments due to an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
[source steamcommunity.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 58
That's downright wrong........ mine drift upwards
Man, you can get everyone in Rivals of Aether.
@Dezzy Mine doesn't recognize when I press the "-" button.
Disrespectful. Joy Cons only drift when owners neglect them and treat them like trash. My day one joy cons are in mint condition.
@sixrings are you being serious or just poking fun of people who say stuff like that?
@sixrings do Joycons feel emotion?! I didn’t realize.
@sixrings That's some decent bait, I almost took it.
Rivals is like modern day mugen, if anyone remembers that
@sixrings Unlike the others, I agree with you. Joy-Cons are fragile, but they only break if you don't take care of them.
@Kalmaro
Does the button push in properly and just not register? Or does it fail to push in properly. The component might have become misaligned.
@Bendu 4 switches. 5 sets of joycons. 4 with drift. The last switch I only use the dpad and play ACA Neo Geo games portable because I gave up on Nintendo's seal of quality this generation. My Pro controllers all work perfect though. Knock on wood.
I've been getting a bit of basically reverse drift with my latest left Joy-Con. It mainly works fine except when you push it straight down it sometimes responds a bit sluggishly.
@sixrings exactly! Day one for me too and work perfectly. Lots of people, generally kids, treat their tech like crap then wonder why it breaks.
@Apportal That's just straight up wrong. You may have been lucky with yours so far but that doesn't mean that everyone who has had issues mistreats their controllers.
The F-+*ing fact that on the menu from day 1 was Joy Stick Calibration is evidence Nintendo knew they were selling us faulty hardware.
Got 4 PS3 controllers that all work as new and probably been used more than any other controller in the house. Wii U gamepad, Wii U pro, 4 Wii nunchuks, 2DS and 2 Switch pro controllers, all looked after and work perfectly. Had older consoles from previous gens, but they've since been sold. The only controllers I've had to replace have been joy cons, despite being as careful with them as other controllers. Simple fact: they're badly designed, and this is clear based on how widespread this issue is. Anyone denying it probably also thinks the 360 red ring of death was an internet conspiracy.
Sick burn mod 🤪
@Apportal I'm not rough with my controllers (and have never had issues with any first party controller previously), haven't dropped them and I've been going out of my way to put my Switch in a case while not in use to stop dust from creeping in while I'm not playing but have still had several Joy-Con experience drift and a few other random issues. I use them a lot because I play the Switch a lot but that's nothing a good controller shouldn't be able to handle. I actually love the design and functionality of the Joy-Con, it's just a shame they have the build quality of a cheap third party controller.
@BenAV lying, ignorant or trolling you're wasting your breath on joy con defenders
@Apportal You're right. Joy cons only break if you put them in a bag to bring them to a friend's house like you can do with LITERALLY ANY OTHER $30 CONTROLLER.
It's OUR fault they are so easy to break, the industry standard of controllers that don't need to be treated like infants in order to work as intended, those wii remotes that last for decades, they are ones that were built wrong.
@Apportal A controller should be able to stand up to regular use. If it can't then that's a flawed controller and the fault is on the manufacturer. Joy-Con can actually drift though without much use at all, just from a random speck of dust getting into the wrong place. There's not really much you can do to avoid that besides leaving the Joy-Con in its box and never using it to begin with. It's just bad luck when it happens.
@Apportal I got the new Switch SKU, and would never mistreat my controllers. I didn't even get the chance to take my console to a friend's apartment, because 2 weeks after purchasing it, using the dock and Pro Controller for most of it, I experienced Joycon drift. It lasted TWO WEEKS.
I repeat, I do NOT mistreat my controllers. Whether I need to or not, I DO treat them like babies. I insulate them when traveling. But I did not even transport these joycons. They sat on my table and were hardly touched unless the pro controller died.
They lasted
two
weeks.
Don't blame this on misuse just because your experience has been different.
3 of my switches all of the new sku never left the house. Still drift.
I owned a nes, snes, 64, GameCube, Wii, Wii u, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, Saturn, dreamcast, xbox, 360, one, and never had a controller issue.
Joy Cons do in fact drift.
Have 3 pairs of Joy-Con, all but one had drift issues, one had the SL & SR buttons and lights just randomly die. I have a grip to protect the Joy-Cons and I'd say I game quite lightly, not too often, but maybe an hour a night on MK8 with the Mrs and the odd games here and there.
I've still got original GC pads working perfectly, my Xbox 1 controller I use for PC gaming is still functioning with no issues after maybe 5 years use, not to mention my old Wiimotes still perfectly working. It's a manufacturing fault, even Nintendo finally admitted the issue in the end.
This Joy-Con character made me chuckle though, a nice little reference
Day one for me too and work perfectly. Lots of people, generally kids, treat their tech like crap then wonder why it breaks.
@Rodan2000 "It didn't happen to me, therefore it doesn't happen - at all!"
No personal attack I can launch on you would be enough. I don't know whether your comment comes from malice or ignorance, but please, fellow human - reflect. I'm taking my own advice here by ignoring you rather than giving you the comment I think you deserve.
This is funny and all but, ummm... when’s this game come to Switch? I’ve heard September. NL, can you confirm?
Tsk please, I beat the $#!t out of my joy-cons all the time and they don't drift at all!!
@Big_Fudge what happens when a switch lite drifts. What's the repair process?
@COVIDberry “No personal attack I could launch on you would be enough”.....serious anger management issues going on right there!
defends joycons for no reason even though they're still crap, lol
Mine drifting has gotten me killed on occasion in certain games
I expected drift deniers and I wasn't disappointed.
There's more than enough evidence by this point that these things break with less than regular use, defining regular use as being used in front of a television without excessive force, liquid, food, etc. and stored in a safe location. They're not good controllers. Other Nintendo controllers, other Switch controllers, can at withstand normal usage for years. These can't. Whatever other features they have, they fail at the most basic feature.
To be fair, I'd critique the N64 controller for having a bad control stick too, as well as most third party GameCube controllers.
4 pairs of lovely joy-con and they don't drift <3
It's well deserved let's be honest.
My hardcore character in diablo 3 died due to joy con drift, and on hardcore it’s permadeath . I spent over 400hrs on my barbarian (Zarya). Haven’t been able to play diablo ever again.
@Apportal
Well I “don’t take care” of my dualshocks and Wii remotes too and they are in PEFFECT CONDITION. The joy-cons started drifting after 5 months.
@Big_Fudge exactly just that, it’s luck of the draw.
@noobish_hat of course I read it....you’re another that gets instantly aggressive and abusive, take a long hard look at yourself and your behaviour.
@Dezzy it presses in normally but doesn't register.
I tried taking it apart to see if maybe something was loose but all looks good.
The joycon also likes to loose connection, as in, the Switch thinks there's no left joycon.
@Apportal absolutely wrong. I have always treated my systems and games with utmost respect, so much so that when I did sell a used game at the store I used to work in, they didn't even bother checking if it was complete or undamaged, as they knew I take great care of everything. I have every launch day console I ever had still in working order and undamaged (except for a Wii with a dead disc drive, and my first DS Lite that had a bright green dead pixel right in the middle of the screen, day one, which I obviously returned.
All that aside, it's a handheld, it should be built to withstand being carried around a bit. And it's my third pair of joy cons already, so it's a matter of "luck", not a matter of taking good care. And luck shouldn't be a factor in the quality of stuff you buy of a trusted brand.
@Big_Fudge exactly, I'd take Doctor Hatsworth's word for it, even if I didn't have first hand experience with several drifting joy cons that were handled with great care.
@Kalmaro
Mine occasionally fails to register the right joycon. I've tested it with different joycons and it seems to be the main Switch unit that's at fault. But those cost loads to repair so I've just decided to live with it Lol.
I have 3 or 4 joycons with drift. Poor from Nintendo
@Dezzy Yeah I just use my pro controller usually. That hasn't failed me yet 👍
@Joeynator3000 I wasn't defending them, in fact I think they're too fragile and expensive. I was just saying they drift usually from owners who don't take care of them.
@Tommy-and-Timmy did you read my reply at all? I admitted they were too fragile compared to other remotes. And I'm going to stick by my decision and defend @sixrings cause he has facts.
Thats all from me. Not in the mood for an argument today.
@Apportal
OK, sorry. Have a good day!
@Tommy-and-Timmy wow you’re really chill. Thanks for being nice
The drifting is caused by bad design, not the owner.
Drifting in the joy-cons is a JOKE.
I've bought every Nintendo console and still have most of them. I play with the WiiMotes nearly weekly - I've NEVER had a problem w/Nintendo hardware!
...until now...
I have bought 5 sets of joy-cons.
They all drift.
You can make them drift less by sitting VERY CLOSE to the system.
It's clearly a design problem, and honestly Nintendo should be ashamed and sending out replacements like candy.
Mostly I just play w/my pro controller b/c the joy-cons are a joyke.
I have 4 joycons
Two, one Red, one Grey drifted on day one, within the first hour.
The other two by the end of that week.
All four were sent in to Nintendo and all four came back with WORSE drift!
I would be curious to learn more about how this became such a problem for Nintendo. With this exception, they've had decades of excellent hardware that's held up well under continuous use. What changed between then and now for there to be such a huge dropoff in quality?
I keep forgetting that this game is somehow still not on Switch.
I stopped using joy cons a long time ago. 8bitdos and a switch pro work out pretty well.
@Apportal they drift even if you take good care of them. Happend to me.
Great news day guys!!!
@Apportal it's our fault if it drifts? What are you smoking man??? Cheapest controllers I ever got and I treat them very gently. Stupid drift.
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