Insert Credit Seal of Approval Thread for 3rd Party Peripherals

Gaagaagiins

PRICE KEY

$ - Cheaper than 1st party equivalent
$$ - Roughly the same as a current gen 1st party controller (roughly $60-$80 USD)
$$$ - Slightly more expensive than 1st party, but worth the extra cost
$$$$ - An investment piece but is well-made enough or with cool enough features to be worth it if you can afford it
$$$$$ - MILITARY GRADE PRO GAMING with a WEAPONS GRADE PRICE, should last you multiple generations, raises the bar on this type of peripheral, slices, dices, is “like a person,” is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and it’s all out of bubblegum,

Current + Prior Console Generation

Multi-platform

Playstation 4

@Personasama recommends the Razer Raion Fightpad!
“The Razer Raion is an arcade stick reborn as a PS4 controller with a beautifully clicky microswitch dpad and 6 arcade-feeling face buttons.”

Nintendo Switch

Xbox One

Retro Consoles/Emulation

Playstation

@Geoff recommends the Hori Fighting Commander 10b!
“…excellent 6 button pad.”

@Geoff recommends the Namco NegCon racing controller!
“ feels great and works with almost all PS1 and PS2 racing games.”

@Geoff recommends the Namco JogCon for Ridge Racer 4!
“…it adds a lot to the experience.”

Playstation 2

@Geoff recommends the weird and wonderful Namco neGcon racing controller!
“ feels great and works with almost all PS1 and PS2 racing games.”

Genesis

@Kez recommends the 8bitdo M30!
“…has a great d-pad and fairly low latency.”

Saturn

@Geoff recommends the Horipad SS!
“…my favorite 6 button pad for fighting games.”

SNES

@Geoff has mixed feelings about the Hori Fighting Commander (SNES version).
“has a great d-pad and action buttons, but it has poorly position dipswitches… With a little modding and maintance you might be able to turn one of these into a nicer controller then even the Horipad SS.”

General Gear, PC Gear, Headsets, etc.

Dependably Good Manufacturers

While no two peripherals are created equal anywhere, these makers are generally considered to release good gear at a fair price. If you’re looking for something, check to see if these manufacturers make one.

8bitdo
BOTTOM LINE: “Like the real thing, but better” - @Gaagaagiins

Hori
BOTTOM LINE: “…usually somewhere between good and real good” - @Geoff

Gaagaagiins

One thing I hate about game peripherals is that they’re expensive as hell. ESPECIALLY Nintendo shit.

At some point, my Switch Pro controller’s left control stick shit the bed. It’s constantly jittering upwards. This is very disappointing as I generally really like that controller. It has a great battery life and I really like how it feels. Love those chunky sides and the nice feeling on the grip.

I would really like to replace it, as the Joycons are a travesty, and I’m looking ahead to the release of Monster Hunter Rise in March. I am NOT playing that with Joycons.

But I’d also like to save some money without sacrificing too much in quality. Generally, though, I find you can’t trust reviews of anything online. I generally avoid 3rd party peripherals in general just because I don’t trust any review of anything videogame related if it is contained within a youtube video that begins with a guy going “hey guuuuuys what’s up it’s your boi EpicLeonidas69” and I figure if it busts at least I can depend on Nintendo to honor a warranty.

In that case, whose opinions are as good if not objectively better than my own? That’s right, the Insert Credit Forum community. I thought it might be fun if not illuminating if not holding the potential to create a helpful resource for people on this forum to pool together our knowledge and experience of 3rd party peripherals. Or, at the very least, see if anyone knew of any good budget options for 3rd party Switch controllers.

If enough interest is generated in this thread I will try and update the top post with categories and lists. If you have and love any third party peripherals, let me know the type of peripheral, the platform, a rough price level in comparison to 1st party peripherals (cheaper, about the same, or decadent primo pro gamer gear) and maybe a 1 sentence description of why you like it and why you’d recommend it over the 1st party option.

Personasama

I really like the Razer Raion:

The Razer Raion is an arcade stick reborn as a PS4 controller with a beautifully clicky microswitch dpad and 6 arcade-feeling face buttons. There is a slight learning curve because the dpad behaves more like a stick than a traditional dpad, in that you have to roll the inputs around the edge and hold directions a bit longer than you’d expect when trying to execute specials, but it should be a familiar feel if you’ve used an arcade stick before. The buttons are similar in size and feel to the Hori Fighting Stick Mini, which isn’t the greatest but works more than fine for me. I hold it in my lap and play it like a stick with a dpad, and it’s pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve used it exclusively for all emulation and fighting games for the last 2 months (and even recently won a Cleopatra Fortune tournament using it) and it’s a joy to use.

It’s a little expensive at $99 but it’s been lowered to $80 now. I purchased mine refurbished from Amazon for $70ish because I didn’t know whether it’d be good or not, but I was more than happy with it. I feel like it fits between the functionality of a Hori Fighting Mini and a higher end arcade fighting stick, which is also where its price basically lays. Though for myself, I was ready to tear apart a Saturn pad and a Hori Fighting Stick Mini to basically create my own frankenstick that was basically a shoddy version of this, so I’m more than happy the Raion exists.

Kez

Not sure whether this is for current-gen peripherals in particular or throughout history! For modern and retro stuff, 8bitdo controllers are great. The 8bitdo M30 is a particular favourite of mine, has a great d-pad and fairly low latency. I generally use wireless 8bitdo controllers for my retro systems now, I tend to favour 2.4ghz over bluetooth for that application although for modern stuff bluetooth is more practical. The Switch also has a faster bluetooth pipeline so although the connection is slightly more laggy, it performs better on Switch than the 2.4g versions.

Geoff

Hori stuff is usually somewhere between good and real good.

The Horipad SS for Sega Saturn is my favorite 6 button pad for fighting games.
The Hori Fighting Commander 10b for Playstation was another excellent 6 button pad.
The Hori Fighting Commander for SNES has a great d-pad and action buttons, but it has poorly position dipswitches that are easy to accidentally hit your thumbs against making it occasionally uncomfortable. That L switch especially. At this point it would also be hard to find one that has the conductive silicone pads inside intact. With a little modding and maintance you might be able to turn one of these into a nicer controller then even the Horipad SS.

Namco made some excellent racing controllers and lightguns.
The NegCon feels great and works with almost all PS1 and PS2 racing games.
The JogCon is specifically for R4 (Ridge Racer 5 does also support it, but not well), and it adds a lot to the experience.

rejj

I wish I had more to contribute here, but my only dabbling in 3rd party peripherals has been diving slightly off the deep end to customise a fight stick. I found a base I liked, then opened it up and replaced the bits with a hori stick with an 8-way gate, and a bunch of sanwa buttons.

I like that stick, but that isn’t very helpful and other than that I haven’t really grabbed too many extra controllers.

Gaagaagiins

I’ll keep updating when I can!

Gaagaagiins

Hmmm…

I should probably just make this into a Google Sheet.

Gaagaagiins

Yeah I’m gonna make this into a Google Sheet. Stay tuned.

Moon

I just want to say that the discontinued steam controller is actually a pretty interesting unique controller with its “trackpad/ball-ness” and I wish I had picked up a few of them when they were on clearance for like $5.

I still use mine regularly as my PC controller but it’s not a great choice for stuff like competitive FPSs because it’s not great at snap precision as compared to a mouse.

On the other hand I have greatly been enjoying using it to play “hardspace:shipbreaker” because the floatyness of the trackball look action to me better replicates the difficulty of maneuvering in 0g space with six degrees of freedom, which adds something to my immersion.

Fishie

PowerA wired controllers do not really have first party controller counterparts since Wired LOLS but they are good an damn cheap.

altdrifter

I love 8bitdo’s sn30pro+ - a snes controller dualshock hybrid that is better than it has any right to be. I bought this to supplement a switch pro controller, and ended up using it all the way through both Celeste and Hollow Knight - gave that thing’s d-pad a reeealll good workout, and I can confidently say it’s far superior to the pro’s.

yeso

yes very happy with this device as well. Had a bad experience with the N30 however would avoid that one

hellomrkearns

I really like the Logitech PlayStation 2 Cordless Action Controller. There’s a few on ebay.

The joysticks Benj Edwards makes for BX Foundry are excellent if you want a joystick, although I’m unsure if he’s still making them. I grabbed a BX-80 for Atari/C64 and it’s great! Makes 2600 games actually playable.

For PC I’ve been using a 8bitdo SF30 Pro. I’ve also got the phone adaptor for it, but haven’t used it much. I should probably get some of those retro adapters!