Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThey sure did remake the click-stick, I'll give them that
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2023
I've been waiting for a successor/modern alternative for the NEO-GEO CD pad for a good while, and hearing that 8Bitdo were working on one really scratched that itch for me. And hearing that they were boasting about how they were remaking the click-stick mechanism definitely had me curious, since (from what I hear) SNK skipped out on the click-stick in their NEO-GEO mini. I haven't personally played the mini, but I heard its stick is like using a regular analog stick.
Picked one up, picked up the regular one (honestly didn't know how to feel about the special editions), and at first, I thought it felt pretty nice. It was way bigger than I was expecting, the buttons felt big and kinda hard, the addition of shoulder buttons is always nice (the M30 shoulder buttons felt really nice, glad to see them come back here), and the stick... definitely clicks. I'll give 8Bitdo this, they definitely remade the click-stick mechanism.
This is definitely what got my opinion mixed at first. Sure, the stick clicks, but the activation is super close to the edge of the stick's gate, which felt off to me at first, and especially feels off now. And it's a square gate like an arcade stick, which I feel could be good for some games; just not most of the ones I played using this (only used it on PC).
I tested a decent handful of games with this, mostly games I thought would benifit from a controller like this. And a lot of my tests didn't end very well, I don't think. (
- LETHAL LEAGUE BLAZE: works surpisingly well
- SOULCALIBUR VI: plays pretty good here
- MEGA MAN X2 (Mega Man X Legacy Collection): uhh (why does the start button turn off the controller after five seconds and why wasn't it the select button?)
- STREET FIGHTER III: THIRD STRIKE: wait a minute-
- DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ: okay, no, this is kinda falling apart
- RAIDEN FIGHTERS JET: could be better
- FATAL FURY - MARK OF THE WOLVES: oh, lord
- MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 2: okay, this is getting ridiculous
I don't have an original NEO-GEO CD pad, so I don't have a definitive point of reference. But I ordered a NEO-GEO Pad 2 for PS2 from Japan to compare the two side-by-side. It was made by SNK themselves, so I was pretty confident this would be a good enough reference. It may have 6 face buttons like a 6 button Genesis controller, but the older face buttons are in roughly the same places.
The NGP2 arrives, and switching from 8BD's pad to the NGP2, it's like night and day. This pad is definitely what I expected out of 8Bitdo's efforts; the buttons have a softer press, the addition of L1 and R1 on the face is just neat, the clicky-stick actually activates about half-way through the tilt! And the gate's circular this time. I dunno, I just think it's neat. Made playing Android 16 a bit easier in Super Dragon Ball Z, though
Overall, this is a neat controller, but I feel like it could be better. Hoping for a version 2 that spruces up the click-stick a bit. Pretty sweet Lethal League controller though