Random: Nintendo Has A Problem With Its Switch Joy-Con, And We're Not Talking About Drift

Don't honestly care too much, as I boycotted my Joy-Cons when they drifted a month after purchasing.

Complaining about color variation....sheesh. Covid 19 lock down has really done a number on some people!

I have the pink one, it looks pink in certain shades, but red in others. So weird.

@TeamRocket47 ive boycotted joy-cons aswell. What do u use instead of joycons? Just curious.

don't even use joy con anymore after the drift, i'll stick to my split pad pro thanks.

The Switch UI just reads the RGB value stored in the JoyCon, so it's not so impressive. In fact if you swap your shells for other colours from third party manufacturer, you can also reprogram the JoyCon hardware yourself to adjust the RGB value so the Switch displays the custom colour properly in-menu.

This really is an absolute non-issue.

Well they all look different, and I'm sure they all drift the same.

...so they're just Joy Cons?

@Xenjamin The Beboncool Switch Pro Controller. Has excellent rumble and a nice grip (And a Playstation-style setup, if you're into that).
https://www.amazon.com/BEBONCOOL-Wireless-Controller-Nintendo-Control/dp/B07ST1ZCL1/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=beboncool+switch+controller&qid=1614091020&sr=8-4

@Noid colors alter in different temps of light. While your pink might be pink in 5000 kelvin lighting, it would be reddish in 2700 kelvin lighting. Same with daylight or any light. True color is considered around 4100 kelvin which is why they are used in workshops, factories, warehouses etc.

His main point is why not have a few wide color variations that are easier to find. I really liked the yellow and green ones that came with Super Mario Party bundle.

We have lots of reds & lots of blues. Hopefully we get a few more options. Would love a solid black pair similar to what came on the dev units.

i was so glad when they finally released the orange and purple set as those are my two favorite colors. just wish the orange was the left one

50 shades of joy cons.

@TeamRocket47 nice. I use the SN30 pro and im happy with it except that u cant wake up the console with it. So i gotta get my lazy ass out of the couch and wake it up by the TV.

Baby first world problems

Agreed. Happy for there to be clearly distinctive variations - eg. bright Neon Red, darker Odyssey red - but we don't need 50 shades of red. And blue (neon, Dragon Quest, and two for Skyward Sword HD).

Dude nintendo's logo is Red, red logo red joy con even this site has all sorts of read like, come on man.

@kuliddar Wait did they say IGN?!

Where are the black and white Joy Cons when you need them?

"Nintendo, you have too many variations of red Joycon."

Also Nintendo.

I agree with this article. I totally get having both red and pink. The new Mario red is actually my favorite red, but they should have stuck with the Odyssey red to avoid this pickle of a situation. And when I saw the Skyward Sword joy-cons I had a visceral reaction to the colors (though I love them otherwise). They should have done one blue or two different colors like blue and purple.

I hear those who are saying “Oh, waaa, too many colors,” but I think it does something to make the Switch and Nintendo feel like they don’t really know what they’re doing.

I do know one thing. Some odd reason my red joy con looks pretty bright compared to my original one. Does anyone know if Nintendo changed the red joy con to a brighter red?

I'm not a fan of the most recent orange-cast red that comes with the new mario colored Switch console. I'm guessing the orange cast red is from the Mario color pallete of the 80s.

Back in my day, there was only one colour of game controller: translucent atomic purple!

So Joy-Cons with different colour names look different? How is this a story?

Y’all do know red is one of Nintendo’s marketing colors right? Like blue is sony’s and green is MS’s? I think it’s clever. Especially since as a species we are psychologically attuned to color. One shade of red might be soothing to one person, while provoking a different response in another.

The wrong inputs on the Pro controller D-Pad are a much bigger problem than this...

I never think of my "pink" controllers they are just bright red to me

To be honest, I don't care if they release 100 shades of red and pink as long as they release a black and white set on the next Switch that has been rumoured for over a millennia.

I'm in agreement with most of the comments above. The colors are nice; but I would prefer them just to "work".

At this point, I would buy poop brown and booger green joycons if they were guaranteed to never drift!!!!!

I think I'm going to buy them at Best Buy or Target and pay the extra money for the two year warranty....then just take them back to the store when they drift.

I would have to imagine this article would be blindingly confusing for a colorblind person. xP

@Mr_Persona Reds in general fade, have durabliity issues. They are a tricky color. Same goes for any bright neon colors - they will fade and lose their brightness to a degree.

If they are using the same formula for the neon red joycon, newly made ones will always look brighter than ones that are a year or more older because the colors degrade.

Next Nintendo Direct they'll release a new shade. People will whine about an overlooked shade. "Why does Nintendo HATE carmine!?"

I want a left orange joycon.

Does anyone else have an issue where they will disconnect randomly from time to time?

They have 4 reds and none of them are my favorite red!

What's the far right one in the picture please? Seems to be the nicest shade.

AZURE, PEOPLE! WHERE'S MY AZURE! #notnews

The newest Mario set seems like overkill. A custom console design is great, but they should have used the colors for the Odyssey joy cons or instead added a design, a la the Zelda joy cons. A slightly paler shade of red does nothing for me.

I do like the new "Mario Red" one. I also really like that purple one that is out there. However...as much as I look at them I have to remind myself that I simply don't need more JoyCons, and buying them for the sake of colors is stupid since 90% of the time I'm using Pro Controllers anyway. I actually can't stand using the little buggers unless I have to for Mario Party or something. I don't know what it is about Nintendo, but it is so funny how intellectually I know I have no use for them whatsoever, but that part of me just wants to own more of them in cute colors, LOL.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Hi-the 'deep' red Joy con is the Mario Odyssey version

Tbh I dont feel like the joycons have a wide variety of colours, and even those that break the mold dont come as a pair, instead horribly clashing like the purple and orange, green and pink and even the original red and blue.

@Hero-of-WiiU It may be a different issue, but I just had a problem with the right joycon not connecting while attached to the screen. It recognized it, but just as a detached joycon. There are some YouTube videos on this. The first thing to try is clean underneath the ledge where the joycon slides in.

slow news day

@WoomyNNYes so my old red joy con got darker even when its clean then. ok

Some of the variations are so close in color. The pikachu/evee pastel colors are so good, I want more like those

Red is a classic color for Nintendo. Makes sense to make a lot of Joy cons red

I have had my switch for over a year and have not even felt a bit of drift. I must have got lucky

At least we have colors to choose from instead of our options being black, white or some shade of gray.

"Nintendo Has A First World Problem With Its Switch Joycon"

FTFY

I want black xx

Chad Mario odyssey red gang!

I have the Splatoon pink and green set and the pink one looks nothing like the picture. At all.
Maybe the other three really are similar to each other but after seeing a photo make a neon pink joycon appear red you’d have to look at them In real life

@Clyde_Radcliffe Mario Odyssey Red

@rjejr : And to think that there are more Link amiibo variations than there are Mario ones!

I only have Switch Lite, so I never got to have the ‘joy’ of joycons, and i am okay with this, it seems like a money pit.

@LXP8 yep and i enjoy reading most of it, even if it doesnt pertain to me directly. This is a quality written and well supported site, the best Nintendo site around imo.

@Silly_G Link has way too many amiibo, he just does.

It bothers me b/c way back when, when Nintendo was just rolling out the amiibo when Skylanders, Disney Infinity were going strong - Lego Dimensions may have not been out yet - Reggie at E3 went on hsi marketing spiel about how great amiibo were b/c you coudl buy just 1 amiibo and use it in a number of games, but w/ the others you had to buy new amiibo for every game. Which was patently untrue form the beginning, b/c w/ both Skylanders and Disney all the old toys worked w/ all the new games, but then Nintendo started comin gut w/ more and more Link amiibo and each 1 did something different in different games, so amiibo were blatantly worse than the others.

My 2 sosn wer eyoung back then and we purchased almost all of the figures for Skylanders, Disney and Lego, but only a few amiibo - up to about 3 dozen now - b/c I never liked the way Nintnedo basically just lied. 1 Link should do everything in every game. I shouldn't need to buy a Wolf link to unlock the wolf sidekick in Zelda BotW and then another Link to unlock the wheel weapon in HW.

So I suppose I don't care how many Link they release, but from Reggie's lips to my ears, 1 Link should work in all the games, not a new Link amiibo for every game. 😝

If they release a double-orange pair, I’ll get it. Otherwise, I’ll stick with my grays and neon reds. Here’s hoping Splatoon 3 gets a special Pro Controller like Splatoon 2 did, so I can replace the one my kitten chewed on.

My main beef with JoyCon colors is that there's almost none you can get as a matching set. There are a lot of colors I'd like to get, but only if I could get them for both left and right. Mismatched colors makes it look like I was drunk last time I used my Switch.

@rambo_ando don't forget the fortnite wildcat bundle blue too

Was anybody able to get a preorder on the Zelda joy-con? I heard lots of people were having trouble. I wanna get them, but I’ll be afraid to use them. Lol. New joy-cons mailed to me from Nintendo last year over drift... are now starting to drift. And I try to keep them nice and only use them on occasion. And yes. Thats too much red. The only red you need is Virtual Boy red.

EDIT: Never mind. I saw the preorders aren’t even open yet. I think the same for the Monster Hunter Rise controller as well.

All these reds and no Game Boy or NES themed ones.

Pyra Joycons, then stop.

Irrelevant rant alert:

Almost every paragraph in this article has some unnecessary italics.

Yes, italics are fine for occasional emphasis. Nintendo Life, however, use them multiple times in most articles - like this, you see - which I find very distracting and annoying. If the editors read this, please consider toning down the italics and sticking to a more standard house style. This is supposed to be a news website, not a comic.

The biggest Joy-con problem is that there aren't NES and SNES color variants.

@rjejr Link works because he is kinda like James Bond. Everyone has a favorite Bond or Superman and it’s usually the one they grew up with (Pierce Brosnan is Bond to me, full stop. Dean Cain is Superman, fight me) and Link has a similar effect. As such folks run out to buy “their” Link which is ultimately, good marketing. Not even Mario has that level of refresh. Even with putting him in different power up suits he doesn’t have that same draw.

I hate that shade of red. It reminds me of ketchup.

@Bobb @Bobb @Bobb @NikHogan @Xenjamin @TeamRocket47
A lot of comments about Joy-Con Drift. The main issue is debris getting into the controller. Raise your hand if you eat potato chips while gaming? A guy on YouTube fixed 15 Joy-Cons with drift by opening them up and cleaning them. It’s not a uniquely Nintendo problem. It’s the new swallow rubber membrane being used. Apple has the same problem with its keyboards and now Sony is having the same problem with the DuelSense. Could the controllers be made waterproof/debris proof? Maybe. Apple simply stopped designing their keyboards that way. The shallow design just makes them more susceptible unfortunately. We just lost hot water at my house because of a small layer of grime that built up on the pipes. I saw the pipes and 97% of the opening was still unobstructed. Go figure? I know it sucks that we can’t be as carefree with the Joy-Cons as other controllers, but just better to wash your hands and avoid debris. And if you did get Joy-Con drift, there are people that can get them working again. You don’t have to go thru Nintendo if you don’t want.

@Ryu_Niiyama Nintendo can put out as many toys or collectors items that they like, but they shouldn't keep calling them amiibo, which is a toys-to-life line, if they really don't do anything in game. Just charge $5 less and call them Nintendo-Pops. Or make 1 Link do what every other Link does, stop tieing in game dlc to a new toy or 2 every year. You should be able to buy your favorite Link - kid, TP, 16-bit - and have all the benefits. That's how amiibo were promoted "1 toy, many games"; 1toy per game is what they were marketing against.

wait theyre actually diff? not that it matters and my color blindness will help mask it, but why lol

@rjejr but that was the benefit of amiibo. They all do something in any game. That’s why you didn’t have to get stuck with a skylanders game or only have them work in smash. Thats why you can level them up in smash but get drops in another game. That idea that amiibo all have some sort of value that doesn’t require real DLC paywalls such as with skylanders or the other toys to life games. Even better amiibo were dlc shortcuts. Don’t want to clutter your house? You can still buy or grind out the same stuff. And it’s a plus that each some game recognizes each version. Unlocking DLC is an added bonus.

Amiibo has a draw for everyone. You seem to want figurines, so technically they are covering you given their detailed nature. I want the benefits they provide so I have almost all of them (except blyleth because the game that character is tied to is already out and I don’t care to train the smash character. ) The versatility keeps them from being niche because people can buy them for different reasons and still find value.

I get your argument as you have a income that you have to split over your family. Unless you count my student l loans and current tuition, I don’t have extra mouths to feed. But your situation isn’t the only consumer type and neither is mine. If Nintendo does what you want, they cut me off as a consumer and no product wants that. The selling point was always something for every game. They did that. Amiibo work as advertised.

Not to be rude but might I suggest you invest in the knock off cards? I have a few sets (and the physical amiibo) because I can’t pack a bunch of figurines when I have to travel for work. Best of both worlds for me and cheaper for you.

More importantly where are the transparent plastic shells to go with colours like purple or orange, green

We need some Reggie Joy-cons asap
(Sorry if someone's said that already I'm too lazy to look through 80 something comments)

@Hero-of-WiiU
Yes! I rarely ever hear about that issue, but my launch day right Joy Con has now stopped working entirely. If I press a button to connect it wirelessly the LEDs blink for a few seconds and then nothing happens. If I connect it directly it shows up for a few seconds then disconnects again.

The same issue now happened for the first time with my second pair of Joycons I bought in 2018.

Drift cons, that name would fit better.

@NikHogan Love my split pad pro - could never go back after using it.

Problem is not the colors but the fact that Nintendo sells broken Hardware - and they just deny to fix it or stop it.
As much as I love Nintendo - this not only throws a bad light on a whole console generation but also damaged my love to Nintendo strongly.

okay, a side note, is any one else's favorite podcast Nintendo Voice Chat? I have listened for years and love it.

The real problem with switch controllers is how easy the signal drops between the controller and the system if they aren't attached

Joy cons: 3/10 Too many options.

I just want more colour variations for the first party pro controllers.

@dugan
I am not a fan of IGN and their VG reporting so no but I might try it.

Stick with my 8bitdo SN30 pro... My joycon's drift made it unusable. Sadly, no mor portable gaming for me

@Zidentia Good point, i am not a fan either. I almost never go to their site. But I've tried several Nintendo themed podcasts, and this is the best.

First world problems..

@kuliddar no. Covid is okay. It's a short period until humanity can handle it. It's the the dying woods and climate change that should bother us.

I just used WD40 and rotated the stick clockwise and anticlockwise to fix the drift problem, it worked.

@dugan
I did listen yesterday and after a few episodes I started to get into it. I will probably keep listening. Thanks

@Tandy255 just curious, can you use them with ring fit adventure if they drift?

@PortablexombieV2 Yes. I haven’t had any problems using my drifting joycon with Ring Fit Adventure. Of course, it is my left joycon that drifts, but I don’t think it would matter with the right one either. When using the Ring Con, it tracks the Ring Con until you press buttons.

Malarkey? We bomb that these days don't we?

@Tandy255 I may have to pick that up then.