One of the things I actually like about Switch
Online is that Nintendo has provided wireless replicas of their old controllers that can
connect to PC as easily as Switch. The controller is an often overlooked part
of emulation; most people just use their current gen favorite and that works well most of the
time, but for some platforms it’s not possible to have the original experience without the
original hardware. I would say the N64 is one of those cases. It was one of the most revolutionary controllers
ever made, bringing us into 3D with the analog stick and camera control while also standardizing
rumble. Unfortunately it did all of it in some really
awkward way and it’s hard to adapt its scheme to modern pads. Putting the C buttons on the right stick seems
obvious but repeatedly flicking to move a camera just doesn’t feel right. A lot of games also used the C buttons for
actions and using a stick to fire arrows or swing a sword is terrible. I came up with a layout that I think works
really well for Zelda, but that goes out the window when playing the ocarina. Even though I tried to keep the arrows in
logical places, the buttons not being clustered in a diamond makes it really unintuitive. Nintendo’s default layout may be garbage
but the truth is that it’s hard to translate N64 controls in a way that will work across
every game. This makes the 64 controller far more important
than the previous reissues, but there were a lot of questions about whether Nintendo
would improve the design or not. Knowing what we do now, there are plenty of
clear ways to make the N64 pad better and several companies have gone all in on that
idea. I’ll be comparing the Switch controller
to these alternatives so you can make an informed decision about the thing that you won’t
be able to buy for another year. As with the previous reissues, the new controller
matches up the original very closely. I did a full cleanup of my best original to
get it as close to new quality as possible and the Switch version is still better, with
a smoother stick and snappier buttons. The new Dpad is especially crisp while I remember
the original always being mushy. Nintendo may be using the same parts as the
SNES reissue, because it feels similar to that pad. There are new controls at the top for navigating
the Switch menus and the home and ZR buttons are surprisingly accessible. But you simply are not going to be hitting
that screenshot button while your hand is on the middle grip. The rumble motor is housed as close to the
original port as it can be and it is massive; I had forgotten how powerful the rumble pak
was until breaking it out to do this comparison and the new model matches its character very
well. Star Fox in particular has arm-numbing vibration
and going back made me realize that I miss that type of intensity. The new controller is just as powerful; there’s
no effect being applied to this video, the controller was shaking the entire copy stand
and wobbling the camera. I was worried that Nintendo wouldn’t bother
with rumble, which would have made the controller an immediate non-starter. You can’t sell an authentic retro controller
without including one of the features it pioneered, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how far
Nintendo went to not only include it but to recreate the same feel. The analog stick was the other main area of
concern. Until the joycons came along the N64 had the
worst stick I’d ever used on a first party controller. You can hear how bad it is- and the worst
part is that I’m not pushing the stick. This is all dead zone. Taking an old stick apart will reveal a large
amount of plastic dust in the bowl; the components attack each other and grind away until they
can no longer suspend the stick in place. This leads to a loose stick with a major loss
of range; out of the ideal 85, my worst controller has dropped down into the 50s. The dust you’re seeing here is actually
from my best stick, and I was stunned that even it had lost this much. One of the common solutions is to apply silicone
grease to the components to prevent grinding, but this only helps if the stick is still
new. Once that plastic is gone, it’s gone. Upgraded parts have been manufactured but
the prices and availability vary wildly. The cheapest and easiest to get are prone
to the same basic wear over time. Considering all of this hassle, it’s kind
of a shock that Nintendo repeated that same design again. The only clear upgrade is that they’ve lubricated
the bowl this time. I’m conflicted because on one hand it is
surprisingly faithful to the original. I wouldn’t have blamed them for just dropping
a modern ALPS stick in and being done with it. But it’s faithful to the very worst thing
about the original stick. And it isn’t faithful to what was best about
it- the optical sensor. The original mechanism was similar to an old
ball mouse; these wheels fit into a slot in the sensor and infrared light is shone through
the notches. As the wheel spins, the notches are counted
and that determines the output. The advantage of this sensor is that it doesn't
change or degrade much over time. The Switch version just uses potentiometers,
which do. So in addition to grinding down it could also
now take on the drifting that every modern controller seems to be struggling with. The wear is a hypothetical problem that can’t
be confirmed in the short term, but I can at least test how it works right now. The stick does feel pretty good to use, and
it definitely offers a more natural ramp up to Mario’s full speed than the Pro controller
or joycon in the online app. It basically functions like I’d expect a
new N64 controller to, if not better. Nintendo added support for 3D All Stars recently
and it’s equally good there; the only problem with these games is that the stick is too
sensitive and leaves some wasted range at the end. Based on how the original responds, Mario
shouldn’t break into his full speed until the very end of the tilt. The best way to do a more objective test is
to use a homebrew ROM which can work on the original hardware or an emulator. This lets you see the values games are receiving. I started with my best old controller using
Raphnet’s usb adapter, which has a direct access plugin that lets the game talk to the
controller just as it would on real hardware. The results were pretty close to what the
test displays as an ideal response, losing just a few digits. The Switch controller through Mupen64’s
plugin yielded the exact same shape, but a max output of only 60. It was not possible to reach full speed in
any game using Mupen and the stick was basically unusable, but that doesn’t mean there’s
a problem with it. The N64 stick had a lot of quirks and emulators
have various ways of forcing modern sticks to behave the same way. Though the sensors were capable of delivering
a range of 0 to 128 in any direction, the tilt was physically limited to just 85 by
the octagonal gate around the stick. As a result, 85 is the maximum value an N64
game expects to see. The gate also led to an octagonal range shape;
meaning that if you rotate the stick at it’s full tilt, it will draw an octagon. Most modern sticks have a circular range instead,
and in some cases, a square, which can lead to a much different response. Because of that, input plugins tend to default
to 66% range. This reduces your max output from 128 to 85,
so that a full tilt on your stick matches the output of the original. Otherwise, you’ll reach full speed too early
and have an oversensitive response. Most emulators also offer a “real n64 range”
option that tries to adapt modern shapes to resemble the old octagon better. You can see this in Ares, where the circle
the Switch Pro draws is squished into more of an octagon. So I think what’s happening is that Nintendo's
stick was designed to output the same shape and 85-ish range as the original. Mupen only expects modern sticks and forces
the range to 66% by default, and my results happen to be about 66% of 85. Project64’s plugins allow you to set the
range manually, and at 100% it works and feels about the same way it does in the Switch online
app, but the test ROM doesn’t boot in project64 so I can’t confirm what the plugin is doing. If you want to use the controller with N-rage
you should keep range near 100 and not use the real n64 option, as the shape is already
accurate and the setting would distort it. For Mupen and Ares, you have to use a betterjoyforcemu
fork that extends the output to 128 so that the emulators will scale it back down to the
correct 85 again. Those emulators should really be updated with
manual range controls. Getting rumble to work didn’t seem possible
on Project64; I was only able to get it when using betterjoyforcemu with Mupen. Dolphin also needed betterjoyforcemu for rumble
to be recognized. But, once you get it set up, it works perfectly
for the collector’s edition. The Mario PC port required betterjoyforcemu
and some customization, but it’s pretty easy to handle with the game’s built in
remapping. Rumble worked and was even adjustable in the
menu. The stick sensitivity is way too high, though,
and I don’t know if that can be changed; my build of the port is pretty old. I assume that within months there will be
better tools for connecting the controller to PC and making most of this easier. I can’t deny how great it is to have a modern
64 controller; the games really don’t feel the same with any other pad and Nintendo mostly
did a good job with this, but the analog stick is its achilles heel. If you buy this thing, you have to be aware
that it may be a disposable controller that could wear out after a few years of use. And it’s way too expensive to be disposable;
the price I paid with shipping was $60, and if you don’t have Switch Online the cheapest
fee you can get away with is 4$, so oddly enough the total I paid was $64. That’s about as much as a Switch Pro or
Dualsense, and while those controllers aren’t as good for 64 games, they still work and
are much more fully featured and better for everything else. So I think I could only recommend the 64 controller
to die hard fans of the original who have a lot of nostalgia for the design AND burnable
income. People who aren’t picky and just want the
button layout for 64 games could get by with one of the cheaper options. The brawler64 was kickstarted to bridge the
64 controls with a modern form factor. It’s been successful enough to get several
versions and the one I’m reviewing is their brand new wireless USB option. My first impression was that the controller
was feather light- it weighs about as much as the wireless SNES controller. It doesn’t feel cheap, though, and I have
no doubts about its durability. Part of why it’s so light is that there’s
no rumble or pak slot, and that is a big disadvantage right up front. The grips are much more comfortable than the
others in this shootout and the shape is somewhere between the Switch Pro and the thinner Wii
Classic Pro. It’s a wider spacing than the original and
I really like the way it fits in my hands. The Dpad is accessible from the main grip
and it’s surprisingly good; retrofighters didn’t skimp on the quality in spite of
so few games using it. A lot of their design decisions seem to be
oriented around flexibility rather than accuracy, with the idea maybe being that the controller
can be used for more than just N64 content. The C buttons were oversized to make them
more usable as standard buttons and they make for a decent XYBA diamond, so the brawler
also ends up also being a competent SNES controller. The B and A buttons are my only complaint
about the face inputs; they’re very close together and seem to slant away from the C
buttons, resulting in more thumb stretch than feels comfortable to me. I can’t use the B button without thinking
about how much better it would probably be higher up. The Z buttons are digital triggers on a hinge,
similar to the Wii U pro, and they feel great to pull… but the L and R bumpers are some
of the mushiest I’ve used. Most N64 games won’t need these but it’s
still, they don’t match the quality of the rest of the pad. I started with project64 and adjusted the
stick to match the original but it was always too sensitive, so then I tried going low and
nuding upward until games barely worked. For example, somersaulting in Star Fox requires
a full stick pull and I found the exact percentage needed to reach that threshold. But even with the range set as low as possible,
the stick still responds too aggressively and feels overly sensitive. Mario and Link reach their full run too early
in the tilt and small movements result in big cursor jumps. It was also hard to do small adjustments when
going for shortcuts in Mario Kart, although it feels fine when making wide turns. Perfect Dark was a jittery mess, and boosting
the dead zone size couldn’t fix it. I also had a harder time aiming in Zelda and
Winback than with the og stick. Piloting in Star Fox felt fine, but it was
noticeably harder to place the cursor precisely; a lot of sequences ended with friendly fire
on my squad. It’s easy to write the original stick off
as being trash, but its response is far more precise for these games, especially near the
dead zone. The Brawler’s stick itself feels great;
it’s got good tension and smooth movement, and the material for the cap is very comfortable. It just doesn’t feel remotely suited to
N64 games, which is a big problem. The controller test revealed a perfectly square
range shape, confirming that this is the least accurate stick of the three. Even the Switch Pro and Dualsense offered
more N64-like results. The test also confirmed that the stick reaches
100% too early and leaves some dead space afterward, and that small movements ramp up
to high values too quickly. At this point I started wondering if there
was a mistake and someone put a stick meant for a different pad in. At the time of this review the Brawler was
not usable for Switch Online- the mapping can’t be changed in the Switch menu and
the default layout leaves no way of using C right or C up. All Stars was also a dead end; the face buttons
both jump and two of the C buttons punch.It’s possible to use it for games that don’t
need C buttons, like Yoshi’s Story, but most N64 titles will be missing critical actions. Retro-fighters has been working on a firmware
update to fix this, so it may work by the time you watch this, but right now the only
real Switch support is that the turbo and clear buttons become select and home, which
is helpful. I was disappointed by the Brawler because
the first impression was so strong. I love the look and feel of it, but the lack
of rumble and the odd stick response make it the hardest to recommend of the three. It’s a hard no for shooting games, but you
could still get by with platformers, and it’s surprisingly useful for other retro systems. ...But so are a lot of other controllers;
if you want something for 2D, you’d probably be better off with something from 8bitdo. And for N64 stuff, you’re better off with
the other controllers in this review. If Retro Fighters does another version, I’d
really like them to add rumble, move the A and B buttons, and use a much more faithful
stick. If they did all of that, it could become the
very best option. In its current state, I want to like it but
I don’t really know what it’s suited for. The Tribute64 is similar to the Brawler but
instead of aiming for a modern feel the pad is based on an old Hori design. The thin grips are unmistakably modeled after
the actual N64 handles but the way they merge into the body is less comfortable to me; in
fact, almost everything about the controller is less comfortable than the other pads. The face buttons are fine but all four triggers
are spongy on this one and the D-pad is tiny and awkward to use; it’s not quite as bad
as the GameCube but it’s definitely in that vein. It’s handily the cheapest feeling controller
of the three. There are a lot of redeeming features, though. As with the Brawler I’m using the newest
model and it comes with both a USB and N64 receiver, so you can also use the controller
on old hardware out of the box. It also has built in rumble; it’s noisy
and small, and difficult to set up in 64 emulators, but it’s a big advantage over no rumble
at all. No Project64 plugin was capable of supporting
the rumble but Mupen64plus worked once again; the reason it works is that it uses SDL2,
which is great at detecting features. The battery is listed as lower capacity than
the Brawler but the claimed life is significantly longer even with rumble on. I didn’t run the batteries down enough to
know, but it seems like a plus for the Tribute. It also has more modes programmed into its
firmware; you can switch between X and Dinput like the Brawler but you can also enable Switch
specific modes, including one for 3D All Stars... It works pretty much exactly as expected,
rumble included. It also has select and home buttons at the
top to make navigating the Switch easier. The biggest asset the controller has is its
analog stick, which gets closer to the real N64 shape than most modern sticks. It has a rounded octagonal range by default
and the real n64 option wasn’t needed, as it made the diagonals too slow. In fact, even without the option the diagonals
are a little slow. With the maximum range set the same way as
before, Mario and Link break into a full run only at the very end of the stick tilt, just
as they should. I also found it very comfortable to aim in
Zelda and had no trouble getting a perfect score on my first test. It’s still a little jittery for shooters
but it’s workable. Switch online initially had some problems;
the controller started violently rumbling when a game was selected and wouldn’t stop. Retro bit has released a firmware update to
fix this and to add an expansion pack button mode, so if you choose this controller be
sure to install it first. Once it’s set up for the expansion pack
it works pretty well; the only issue is that the stick has a more sensitive response than
it should, but that’s a problem with the emulator itself. I also had an issue getting all the modes
to work; swapping R and ZR is supposed to be possible according to the manual but it
requires that a nonexistent “RL” button be held. The only reason I tried to do this was to
get a layout for the expansion pack, and that’s been fixed anyway, so this wasn’t really
a problem. The Tribute is kind of the reverse of the
Brawler64; the first impression was negative but it actually functions very well in-game. I’m also impressed with how quickly Retro-bit
supported the controller with a firmware update. I couldn’t imagine it being useful for anything
other than N64 games, but that’s the whole point of a controller like this. If you want a cheaper alternative to Nintendo’s
pad without sacrificing any features, this is really the only choice. There is one final option, which is the old
N64 controller itself via an adapter. I chose Raphnet’s because it was not only
one of the best regarded but also has a direct access plugin that allows native support in
emulators. Raphnet claims that this reduces latency and
it eliminates all fiddling with stick ranges and pak types; the controller and its accessories
work exactly as on real hardware. It’s amazing but certain games have major
slowdown issues that are very weird; Goldeneye runs slow but Perfect Dark seems fine. The adapter can also be used with standard
plugins to play those titles, or if you just want to keep the ability to remap things. You can’t use it at all on Switch; it’s
not recognized in any way. I consider the fact that it prevents you from
using Nintendo’s emulator a good thing. If you have an N64 controller in good shape
then this is cheaper than the other options, but it’s not a great value; it cost about
$33 all together, compared to getting an entire controller for $10 more. The odds of your stick being in good shape
are low, so you’ll also probably have to spend on parts. I tried the Kitsch-Bent replacements and the
initial results were usable but not great. The first set of gimbals was prone to sticking
and I barely hit 80 in the range test. I had read that might happen so I ordered
two, and with the second set the stick was totally smooth; it actually feels just as
good as the Switch version. Unfortunately it still only registered 80,
but that didn’t seem to cause issues in anything I played. It still makes me uneasy to have such a razor
thin margin, though. It’s possible that if you order enough parts
you’ll get good ones that can hit 85; they only cost a few bucks each, so you can easily
do that, but testing all of these is a big waste of time. So I wouldn’t go the adapter route unless
you’re willing to install a series of parts or already know for a fact that your stick
works. If you’re happy using modern controllers
to play these games then you don’t need to buy anything, but there absolutely is something
missing when playing that way and for me it does seem worth it to shell out for one of
these options. Of the three, I think the Switch version is
the best. If the stick concerns weren’t there, it
would be just about perfect. The Brawler is a good controller, just not
as specifically good for N64 as it should be in my experience. The Tribute isn’t as premium-feeling as
the others but it’s a perfectly good alternative to the switch pad if you can’t find it in
stock or don’t want to pay as much. And with that, I never want to see a fucking
N64 controller again. I’m putting all of these in the garbage
and growing up and getting a real job... selling NFTs on craigslist. This one is Crabb E. Leggz and it’s starting
at $10,000. I’ve set the price low to get word of mouth
going, but then Splish Plash will have to go over $400,000 to help cover the blockchain
expenses. The hardware used to mine these takes a lot
of fuel, and it mostly runs on baby seals, so I need profits to start rolling in so I
can keep the business growing. I also think it’s torn some kind of ozone
hole open or something, so I’m going to need to move and find a new area rich enough
with resources that I can list Butter Putter for auction. If anyone knows of land where I could draw
some serious juice- hopefully seal adjacent- I’ll give you a small cut of the Douggcoin. Oh look at that- someone just bought SIMP
CHIMP for 3 billion dollars! These things are going fast and they are a
hot, HOT investment, so get in on the ground floor while you ca-
