Have any feelings on the impending 8BitDo Pro 2 release? Only just found out about it myself and I'm looking forward to it.
The luster is slowly wearing off on my 8BitDo SN30+. Iām starting to run in to small little issues Iām not really happy with.
For example, Iām not sure if itās a dead zone issue or what, but starting on my Android tablet and now sometimes even on the Switch itself, Iām starting to get phantom inputs. So far I havenāt gotten any real analog stick drift, but every now and then the controller will register me pushing down or to the right at random. I donāt know if itās on the left stick or the d-pad.
8BitDo has configuration software to set deadzones, but you can only save it to an optional profile that must be enabled manually. You enable and swap between profiles by clicking in both analog sticks, which really sucks because thatās the macro RetroArch on my phone uses to open the menu. Also, the fact you have to save it to a separate profile and canāt just tell the controller āno, adjust the deadzones for the entire controllerā is a bit dumb. And Iām not even sure itās a deadzone issue!
I know what deadzone problems feel like -- Iāve had the deadzones fail on PS2, 360, and Gamecube controllers. This isnāt like that. When the deadzones start to fail, you can pick up the controller and shake it a little to get the stick to register a bad input, and thatās not what is happening with this 8BitDo. I can set the controller down and not touch it and itāll suddenly register a directional input. But then, I can pick up the controller and shake it violently and the sticks stay perfectly centered. Doesnāt make sense to me.
There are also Switch games it just doesnāt work right with? Like, if I use it with Downwell, the controller vibrates, constantly, all the time. It never stops vibrating. It doesnāt happen with the Joycons, it only happens with the 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ and it only happens with Downwell. The only thing I can figure is that maybe Downwell is constantly polling HD Rumble -- not necessarily using HD Rumble, but sending it small amounts of impossible-to-feel rumble that the Pro+ then converts in to full controller shake. Itās not great. I canāt really play Downwell on the Pro+.
A different problem cropped up recently: I bought Gear.Club Unlimited on the Switch recently because it was $3 and for the longest time it was the only āseriousā racing game on the Switch. In this tweet thread (with video) I talk about how the controls arenāt very good, because you constantly āoversteerā a little too much. If you watch the video, itās clear Iām pinballing around the track a lot because Iām struggling to keep a handle on my car.
But then I played the game a few times in portable mode, and I came to realize something: Gear.Club Unlimited plays better on the Joycons. That oversteer problem I describe that has me slamming in to the barriers constantly? It doesnāt exist when Iām driving with the Joycons. Itās a problem with the 8BitDo SN30 Pro+.
It happened while I was streaming the game to a friend over a Discord video call, actually. I got stuck on a particular race and realized the weird, laggy controls I complained about werenāt there in portable mode. So I literally said to him āOkay, check this out.ā, unplugged the Pro+, and after losing the race three times in a row, went on to win it by a significant margin on my first try using the Joycons. With the Pro+ it was a fight to stay on the road, but once I went back to the Joycons it wasnāt a problem.
Something with how Gear.Club Unlimited picks up and handles analog input from the Pro+ gets mucked up. Itās another game I can only play using the Joycons.
At this point Iām starting to wonder if I should just invest in that adapter that lets me use my Dualshock 4 on the Switch. Then again, thatās also made by 8BitDo, so who knows! If itās a software issue, all of this stuff might happen there, too!
Iām very curious if the Pro 2 will correct any of these problems, because from the outside, it mainly looks like the Pro+ with a physical switch to toggle between Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo modes. Which is useful, donāt get me wrong, but I bought this thing because I liked where the sticks are placed and now that itās registering phantom inputs and not working right with all my games, Iām starting to view it a bit differently.
