Gaming to go and gaming at home can be played with the same controller, and there’s even one that looks old-school retro for classic gamers.
Whether you’re someone who loves to game using your phone, plays games on your computer, or uses one of the few recent video game systems made to go — that would be the Switch, since it’s the only new portable made in the past couple of years — there’s a good chance you’re probably reliant on different ways of controlling them.
On your phone, it’s likely the touchscreen that gets touched and prodded, while on your computer, it’s the mouse and keyboard. And on a Nintendo Switch, the controls are pretty obvious.
But what if you could grab a controller and play on either device using the same gadget? That’s not exactly a new thing, but a different take on the hardware that harks back to the good ol’ days of gaming is coming out in Australia, allowing gamers on phones and computers to use something familiar yet modern.
It’s coming from the relatively recent entrant of 8BitDo, which is bringing its retro-themed SN30 Pro 2 controller to Australia through Bluemouth Interactive, offering up a classic black, plus styles that hark back to the old-school PlayStation in grey, and even one that looks like a GameBoy, the old one that can get the Tetris theme stuck in your head all too easily.
The controller is unique in how it looks, but also can talk to software on a phone, allowing buttons to be mapped, plus sensitivity for the stick and triggers, and even just how much it vibrates when something happens.
The 8BitDo SN30 Pro 2 controller also pops up with a 20 hour rechargeable battery, and plays with Android phones, Mac, Windows, and Nintendo Switch wirelessly, thanks to it being a Bluetooth controller, compatible with Steam and even some of the Raspberry Pi models, making it ideal if you’ve turned a Pi into a game system of sorts.
One thing it doesn’t appear to come with is a way to clip your phone to the controller, as that’s an optional extra, but you may not even need that if you’re gaming to go, and might just need to stand the phone up, propping it against a wall or something else.
Locally, the 8BitDo SN30 Pro 2 controller looks sort to be available across Australia from May 6, priced at $90.
