There Are Some Caveats Though
Japanese peripheral maker, Hori, has heard the cry from Nintendo fans everywhere. In July, the company will release their very own Switch Joy-Con with a proper old-school D-pad. But before you start tossing away the ones you have now, you may want to keep reading.
As you may have already gathered from the image above, Hori’s Joy-Con is flat-out missing the face buttons. That means you won’t be able to use it during single Joy-Con play in games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Hori is also ONLY designing a left-side one too because that’s where gamers are used to having a D-pad. It can only be used in handheld mode, is lacking the SL and SR buttons, and is missing the accelerometer, gyro sensor, and vibration features. Did you throw away your Joy-Cons already? Well, pick them back up!
Despite these omissions, the accessory should still find its use. Hori says its controller is “ideal for retro games and fighting games” but we think there are more uses too. Playing meaty single-player games on the go would benefit from having a standard D-pad over Nintendo’s own arrowed solution. The undocked Joy-Con controllers need the separate buttons so it can be functioned as a standalone controller.
According to 4Gamer, It will be priced at 2,678 yen, or around $25.36, when it releases in July. That is significantly cheaper than buying even a single Joy-Con from Nintendo. There are no plans for an international release.
What do you make of Hori’s solution? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.