Nintendo Swap 2 Professional Controller overview: professional sufficient for me

The brand new $84.99 Professional Controller for the Swap 2 might not be your concept of a pro-grade controller — maybe not by a protracted shot. But it surely’s definitely extra of 1 than Nintendo’s $69.99 last-gen controller. It has two additional buttons embedded into its grips (one on all sides), which may be programmed on a per-game foundation, a 3.5mm headphone jack for listening to video games or GameChat chatter, and a extra premium feel and look. It’s no DualSense Edge, but it surely’s professional sufficient for me.

I like that Nintendo stored nearly every thing the identical from its predecessor, besides the semi-transparent smoke black shell that hid a secret message: the Fisher Value-sized face buttons, the snappy directional pad, and the compact kind issue are all right here. I don’t need to generalize, however its dimension is likely to be good for a similar crowd who yearns for small telephones, those that sometimes expertise hand ache from utilizing the controllers that Sony or Microsoft put out. It has the opposite trappings that made the last-gen Professional controller price shopping for, like Amiibo NFC help and movement controls.

When it comes to what’s new within the Swap 2-edition of the Professional Controller, I hope you weren’t holding your breath for eight years ready for Corridor impact or TMR joysticks as a result of they aren’t right here. As a substitute, we’ve got drift-prone potentiometer joysticks once more, albeit a number of the smoothest and quietest ones that I’ve ever used. There’s so little resistance required to maneuver them, but they don’t simply register unintentional inputs. We’ll see how effectively they fare over time. For what it’s price, my unique Professional Controller from 2017 continues to be kicking.

This controller, just like the Swap 2’s proper Pleasure-Con, incorporates a devoted GameChat button. This button launches the namesake function, which is free for all Swap 2 house owners to make use of by way of March thirty first, 2026, when it is going to be gated behind the Nintendo Swap On-line paywall. The excellent news for this controller is, whether or not you need to use GameChat now or ever, you may reprogram the “C” button to do no matter you’d prefer it to do. You received’t lose out on GameChat performance, as there’s a devoted house menu choice for the function.

The brand new controller affords some conveniences not discovered within the predecessor, which can tempt you into upgrading. As talked about, the Swap 2 Professional Controller has a 3.5mm headphone jack, from which it may possibly output sport and GameChat audio to wired headphones or a headset. The flexibility to stream audio wirelessly from the console to the controller is an enormous deal for Nintendo, though it already figured it out within the Wii U Gamepad. Be aware: the LED participant indicator has been moved to the highest of the Swap 2 Professional Controller to make room for the three.5mm jack.

One other, albeit smaller, function is the flexibility to get up the Swap 2 console from sleep with the brand new Professional Controller. This looks as if a sneaky approach for Nintendo to bait gamers into upgrading their last-gen controllers. Wake from sleep is a fundamental function, one which shouldn’t be restricted to this controller. It’s helpful in case you sometimes play your Swap whereas it’s docked to your TV. Wake from sleep wasn’t utilized in most third-party controllers in the course of the unique Swap period, however 8BitDo found out a approach to allow it by shaking a few of its controllers. So, it’s at all times potential that there’ll quickly be cheaper options that determine a approach round this annoying situation.

Each this controller and the brand new Pleasure-Con 2 function what Nintendo calls HD Rumble 2, an improved model of the tactile rumble launched with the unique Swap. I already thought HD Rumble was nifty in some use circumstances, and my opinion hasn’t modified as I’ve performed Mario Kart World and Swap 2 Version of Tears of the Kingdom. HD Rumble appeared novel, if not a bit gimmicky, till the introduction of the DualSense and its sensible haptics in Astro’s Playroom and in a number of different titles since. The brand new Swap 2 haptics aren’t on the identical degree, a minimum of within the launch video games.

The GL and GR buttons are arguably my favourite implementation of rear paddles in a controller. Whereas most corporations put them on the bottom of the gamepad, a spot the place I not often relaxation my fingers, these are curved, wrapping across the grips the place my center fingers naturally relaxation. Urgent them requires primarily no effort — you don’t even must arch your fingers to faucet the buttons. It’s simple sufficient to press them in with the meat of my second knuckle by making use of some downward stress. It guidelines.

If any of the aforementioned additions sound interesting to you, the Swap 2 Professional Controller might be price its value. Sure, I want it had extra futureproof joysticks, and maybe one other function or two to justify its tariff-boosted worth (it was initially $79.99). It’s very possible that third-party controller producers like 8BitDo, GameSir, GuliKit, and others will make choices with most, if not all, of the identical options at a lower cost – so whereas the Swap 2 Professional Controller is the most suitable choice proper now, which may not at all times be the case.