For retroheads looking to show their love for old consoles, there are plenty of retro-styled controllers available for Switch. Usually they’re limited to a livery and an old-school colour scheme on the buttons, though.
They're often missing modern features, too. With the Warrior Bluetooth Controller, NYXI hopes to appeal to GameCube aficionados as well as people looking for a fully functional Switch pad along the lines of Nintendo's Pro Controller.
With decent customisation options and some impressive features, this pad is a love letter to the GameCube pad and does an awful lot right. But does it tick enough boxes for enough players? And is it a genuine Pro Controller alternative?
Let's see what it's got.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller: Design
Before NYXI kindly sent over a review sample, we were asked which variant we'd prefer. We went for the classic Indigo Purple, but the pad also comes in Black or Orange versions — no Silver, unfortunately. As you can see from the photos, it's a pretty good match for the original console.
Look and feel-wise, NYXI has done a decent job of capturing the spirit of the GameCube controller without turning in a total clone. It's a mite wider than a GC pad, and heavier, weighing in at 241g. It's a quality-feeling bit of kit, as well it should be given the $69 price tag, but considering the features here, you're getting a decent bang:buck ratio.
The pad comes with Hall Effect sticks, analogue triggers (which can have their distance shortened independently using the switches on the back, effectively turning them into straight on/off buttons if you like), six-axis gyro, HD rumble, and programmable back buttons and turbo functions. Compared to a Switch Pro Controller, the only thing missing is an NFC reader for your amiibo. Not a bad package.
In the box, you get two USB-A to USB-C cables (one extremely short, used for connecting the GC receiver to a PC — more on that later), a wireless receiver to plug into your 'Cube's controller port (styled much much like the one you got with a WaveBird), plus some components to switch in/out as per your preference, including another C-stick that duplicates the form of the left stick, and replacement circular surrounds for the sticks if the octagonal variety isn’t to you liking. Swapping the sticks and surrounds involves twisting them anticlockwise, which takes some doing, but there's no chance of them popping out on their own.
In addition to all that, you get a backplate to swap in if the programmable buttons on the rear bother you - unlikely to be an issue for regular players, but useful for tournament environments, perhaps. Those back paddles/buttons are nicely, naturally positioned under your middle fingers. If you're the sort to ignore these extra doohickeys, they're unobtrusive, but it's nice to have them.
Otherwise, everything is present and correct where you'd expect it to be. If you're coming from a GC pad, the face buttons immediately feel very different, as ABXY and the D-pad here use 'clicky' microswitches. They're not particularly loud, but swapping from the OG controller to this modern facsimile, it's probably the most striking difference.
The Warrior's rolling D-pad makes smooth changes between directions simple — great for fighting games — although some may prefer the old-school 'cross' variety. Either way, it's an improvement on the original GC D-pad which was curiously undersized; then again, we don't remember using it much back in the day.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller: Performance
Before digging out our GameCube, we fired up the Switch. The Warrior quickly paired with it and with the '+' and '-' buttons, plus screengrab and 'Home', it functions almost exactly like a Pro Controller (and is recognised as such). You don't get Pro Controller levels of battery life, unfortunately, but NYXI's 10-hour estimate from a single charge was in line with our experience. Compared to Nintendo's Switch pad, it's just the layout of ABXY that's different, and this is this pad's Achille's heal.
You see, on firing up Tears of the Kingdom to give it a good workout, hundreds of hours of Hylian muscle memory kicked in and we repeatedly forgot that here 'Y' is the top button, with 'X' shifting 90 degrees clockwise. Now, this isn't an insurmountable hurdle — and you could remap the buttons via the Switch's system menu if you really wanted — but in our time testing the pad, we could never get used to using this face button arrangement while playing our library of Switch games.
Which was a shame given how the sticks, shoulder buttons, and gyro functioned perfectly with every game we tested. For some games it won't be an issue — and you might adapt quicker to the GC face button layout — but not being able to execute Link's acrobatic moves instantly felt odd. Mileage may vary, and all that.
Firing up Mario Sunshine in 3D All-Stars to see how it felt to play a genuine GC game on Switch, alas, the analogue triggers don't function as the official GameCube ones do when connected with an adaptor - the Switch registers the NYXI Warrior as a Pro Controller, remember.
Moving on, it was time to test with original hardware, and the Warrior performed as advertised. Plugging the dongle into one of the GC ports, the pad paired easy enough once we'd found the online video and got both devices blinking rapidly (as opposed to blinking not-quite-so-rapidly). Once connected, we were in business.
We played on an LG OLED TV with our GameCube hooked up via HMDI (using one of EON's GCHD Mk IIs). Switching between a wired original GC controller and the modern wireless pad, we struggled to perceive a difference in terms of responsiveness. Diehard Melee players would certainly notice, but for anybody happy to take the convenience of a wireless WaveBird over cables, the Warrior feels like a slightly chunkier version of that in the hands. Naturally, it works on first-gen Wiis with GameCube ports too. Gone are the days when a third-party controller put you at a disadvantage. The Warrior is a quality bit of kit.
A versatile one, too; you can also connect it to your PC, either wired via the longer USB cable or wirelessly by using the short lead to connect the dongle to your PC and your pad to that, and Bluetooth is also an option. Steam recognised it as a Pro Controller over Bluetooth, and it works exactly as you'd expect, with decent wireless response that improves when you plug it in. We also connected to an iPhone with RetroArch and it performed as expected.
And that’s the story with the Warrior. It does what is says on the tin, and well. Its only real drawback comes from its faithfulness to a pad we love, but one which feels less relevant than ever these days. For pro Melee players, or for when Nintendo puts GameCube games on NSO, this could be a godsend. Otherwise it’s an excellent pad with one big quirk.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller - The Verdict
For anyone looking for a feature-laden Pro Controller alternative with a retro feel, the NYXI Warrior delivers on its promise. It's a sturdy, great-looking controller which pairs well with Switch and PC, but also brings the goods for GameCube lovers looking for a wireless pad but baulking at secondhand WaveBird prices.
The only real mark against it is the GC-style ABXY arrangement which is incredibly hard to adapt to after so many years. In a way, it's not the Warrior's fault — it's totally true to the GameCube layout — but given the customisation elsewhere on the pad, the ability to switch out the face buttons for a more standard, modern configuration could have made this essential.
As it is, it's a very good pad with a quirk that could be a dealbreaker if you plan to use it with your Switch.
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Comments 21
Hm...I'll have to get this later down the road. It'll be a great addition for my Gamecube when the controller goes out on me. Since the cord looks like it could easily be pulled out.
The Z-button on the original GameCube controller must be a strong contender for worst Nintendo button of all time.
Thanks for the review, not sure if I'll ever get one myself but still, pretty cool controller between its quality, features and versatility!
I’m primarily an 8BitDo main, with a splash of PDP on the side, but when/if we get round to GC stuff in NSO, I’ll certainly give this a shufty.
If I may ask, how do the Gyro controls feel in Splatoon 3, @dartmonkey ?
The D-pad sticks out like a sore thumb, should have added some colour in the circle part
@CaleBoi25 Can’t say for 3, but 2 feels great.
@Lofoten
Wrestling for space with the worst Analog stuck Nintendo ever made and the worst D-Pad they ever made 😆
Not being funny, that’s f**king vile. The D-pad is horrendous, the plastic looks cheaper than the original, clicky buttons is a bad bad idea with that button placement. Way too wide too, horrid looking controller.
This controller looks like it will feel incredible.
That’s a good shout making the face buttons hot-swappable like the gates on the sticks. Maybe this functionality will come in the future.
You don't know pain until you try playing Mega Man X on a Gamecube controller.
That last con is at least half the reason the GameCube controller is the most overrated controller ever made. GameCube game play fine with a standard button layout. Games not built for the GameCube controller suck with it.
I have one of these. It's my main controller for my Steam Deck. The D-Pad is a lot better than it looks. I only wish there were toggles for mouse, right stick, left stick to gyro modes. On PC that would have been very helpful, especially when using the controller in X-Input mode.
This just looks like the controller you give your little brother because he wants to play a game with you.
Here's your controller bro: Gamecube Edition. The d-pad screams "cheaply made third-party controller", and looks painful to play with.
I have one of these, and it's...mostly good. The biggest issue by far is that the analog sticks are not designed with the octagonal gate in mind. It kills the range of the stick in ways that an actual GCN controller's octagonal gate does not. For example, in Smash, it's super difficult for characters that can crawl to actually do so (you go from ducking to walking if you hold down and try to tilt the stick just enough to crawl). You need to use to the circular gate for moves like that to work properly with this controller. And if you're selling yourself as a GCN style controller, that kind of stuff needs to work properly.
It should be against the law to sell a controller with a heinous d-pad like that.
@AayJay Believe it or not, the d-pad is actually extremely good. Way better than the d-pad on the Switch Pro controller (and way better than an actual GCN controller's d-pad). It "looks" cheap/bad, but in practice it's legit. It's actually the analog sticks that have issues unfortunately (see my post above).
IMHO this looks pretty good.
I find the "A" button on the Joy Cons too small. Playing Mario Kart with the "A" button smashed down with my thumb makes my thumb hurt after a while. That's what's nice about the Game Cube button layout. A big thumb-friendly "A" button. LOL.
So I've been using an old PDP Wired Fight Pad hooked up to an 8BitDo GBros adapter. But the PDP controller, although it has ZL, -, +, home, etc . . . doesn't have clicky sticks.
Recently I got the 8BitDo NGC modkit to convert on old broken Game Cube Controller I had to Switch / wireless compatible. It has clicky sticks, but missing ZL and -. (Home is obtained by pressing Start and down on the dpad at the same time.) Even with the missing buttons, I know the next time the gang comes over, everyone is going to be grabbing for this controller.
But this NYXI Warrior controller looks like it checks all the boxes. It's Switch compatible, wireless, has all the buttons and it looks like a more thumb-friendly dpad! And it has the big thumb-friendly "A" button.
@dartmonkey
Perhaps I missed it, but how does it know which console to pair with? Is there an off switch on the GC bluetooth receiver? Or do you have to unhook the receiver (which could be slightly annoying for storage).
@Thomystic There’s no off switch on the GC receiver, but it only gets power when the console is on. Otherwise you just pair over BT like any BT device by holding down the pairing or home button, lights flashing etc.
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