Hori Making Joy-Con With Proper D-Pad
Ever since the Nintendo Switch released over a year ago, many of us have wanted a traditional d-pad option for the left Joy-Con. Not all games are suited to having four separate buttons as a directional input, although I’ve been surprised at how well it does work with many games. I had always figured Nintendo would put out its own d-pad Joy-Con when the Virtual Console appeared – and perhaps they still will.
But, in the meantime it looks like Hori will beat Nintendo to the market with its own d-pad Joy-Con this summer in Japan. At first glance this thing looks like a great idea and one that I’d almost consider picking up. But, after reading the details of its limitations, I think I’ll have to pass.
You see, Hori’s left Joy-Con can only be used when attached to the Switch system, meaning you can only use it in handheld mode. That’s because it doesn’t include any type of wireless functionality. On top of that, it lacks HD Rumble and of course since it’s not designed to be played off the system there are no SL or SR buttons. So much for “sharing the joy”! In addition there is no accelerometer or gyro sensor, so I’m not sure if it would even work well in games like Super Mario Odyssey or Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
When you add up all of these shortcomings, I’m just not sure it’s worth the sacrifices. I’m hopeful Nintendo will release its own version with all of the functionality intact.
[Source: Hori]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
