For retroheads who want to show off their love for old consoles, there are plenty of retro-style controllers available for the Switch. However, they are usually limited to livery and old school button colors.
They often lack modern features. With the Warrior Bluetooth Controller, NYXI hopes to appeal to GameCube fans as well as people looking for a fully functional Switch pad modeled after Nintendo’s Pro Controller.
With decent customization options and some impressive features, this pad is a love letter to the GameCube pad and it does a lot right. But does it tick enough boxes for enough players? Is it an alternative to the original Pro Controller?
Let’s see what’s up.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller: Design
Before NYXI kindly sent us a sample to review, we were asked which variant we would prefer. We went to the classics Indigo Purple, but the pad also comes in black or orange — unfortunately, no silver. As you can see from the photos, it matches the original console quite well.
In terms of look and feel, NYXI has done a decent job of capturing the spirit of the GameCube controller without completely cloning it. It’s a mite wider than the GC pads and heavier, weighing in at 241g. It’s a kit that feels quality, it should also be priced at $69, but given the features here, you’re getting decent value for money.
The pad comes with Hall Effect sticks, analog triggers (whose spacing can be shortened independently using a switch on the back, effectively turning them into flat on/off buttons if you want), six-axis gyroscope, HD rumble, and programmable button background and turbo functions . Compared to the Switch Pro Controller, the only thing missing is an NFC reader for your amiibo. Not a bad package.
In the box you’ll get two USB-A to USB-C cables (one extra short, used to connect the GC receiver to your computer — more on that later), a wireless receiver to plug into your ‘Cube’s controller port (styled similar to the one you included with the WaveBird), plus some on/off components to your liking, including another C-stick that duplicates the shape of the left stick and replacement circular stick frames if the octagonal variant isn’t to your liking. Replacing the sticks and frames involves turning them counterclockwise, which takes a bit of work, but there’s no way they’ll pop out on their own.
On top of all that, you get a swappable back panel if the programmable buttons on the back bother you – unlikely to be a problem for casual gamers, but perhaps useful for tournament environments. Those rear paddles/buttons sit nicely, naturally under your middle fingers. If you’re the type to ignore these extra bums, they’re unobtrusive, but nice to have.
Otherwise, everything is present and exactly where you would expect. If you’re coming from a GC pad, the buttons on the front immediately feel very different, as the ABXY and D-pad use ‘clicky’ microswitches here. They’re not particularly loud, but swapping from the OG controller to this modern facsimile, that’s probably the most noticeable difference.
The Warrior’s rolling D-pad makes smooth changes between directions a breeze — great for fighting games — though some might prefer the old-school ‘cross’ variant. In any case, it’s an improvement over the original GC D-pad which was unusually small; again, we don’t remember using it very far back.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller: Performance
Before we dug out our GameCube, we fired up the Switch. The Warrior was quick to pair with it and with the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons, plus screengrab and ‘Home’, it works almost exactly like a Pro Controller (and is recognized as such). Unfortunately, you don’t get the Pro Controller’s levels of battery life, but NYXI’s estimate of 10 hours on a single charge was in line with our experience. Compared to Nintendo’s Switch pad, only the ABXY layout is different, and this is the Achilles’ heal of this pad.
You see, when we fired up Tears of the Kingdom to give it a good workout, hundreds of hours of Hylian muscle memory kicked in and we repeatedly forgot that ‘Y’ was the top button here, with ‘X’ shifted 90 degrees clockwise. Now, this isn’t an insurmountable obstacle — and you could remap the buttons via the Switch’s system menu if you really wanted to — but while we were crash testing, we could never get used to using this button layout on our face while playing our Switch game library.
Which was a shame considering how the sticks, shoulder buttons, and gyro worked perfectly in every game we tested. For some games, this won’t be a problem — and you might adjust to the button layout on the GC’s face more quickly — but not being able to perform Link’s acrobatic moves immediately feels odd. Mileage may vary and all that.
We fire up Mario Sunshine in 3D All-Stars to see what it feels like to play a real GC game on the Switch, unfortunately the analog triggers don’t work like the official GameCube when connected to the adapter – the Switch registers the NYXI Warrior as a Pro Controller, remember.
Moving on, it was time to test with the original hardware, and the Warrior performed as advertised. By plugging a dongle into one of the GC ports, the pad paired easily once we found it online video and I got both devices flashing fast (as opposed to flashing not so fast). After we connected, we started doing business.
We played on an LG OLED TV with our GameCube connected via HMDI (using one of EON’s GCHD Mk IIs). Switching between the wired original GC controller and the modern wireless pad, we hardly noticed a difference in terms of responsiveness. Diehard Melee players would certainly notice, but for anyone who enjoys the convenience of a wireless WaveBird over a cable, the Warrior feels like a slightly chunkier version of that in the hands. Of course, it also works on first generation Wiis with GameCube ports. Gone are the days when a third-party controller put you at a disadvantage. The Warrior is a quality piece of equipment.
Also versatile; you can also connect it to your computer, either wired via a longer USB cable or wirelessly using a short guide to connect the dongle to your computer and your pad to it, and Bluetooth is also an option. It’s recognized by Steam as a Pro Controller via Bluetooth, and it works exactly as you’d expect, with decent wireless response that improves when you plug it in. We also connected to an iPhone with RetroArch and it worked as expected.
And that’s the story with Warrior. It does what it says on the tin, and it does it well. Its only real flaw comes from its allegiance to a bloc we love but which seems less relevant than ever these days. For pro melee players or when Nintendo puts GameCube games on NSO, this could be a godsend. Otherwise, it’s a great pillow with one big flaw.
NYXI Warrior Bluetooth Controller – Verdict
For anyone looking for a feature-packed Pro Controller alternative with a retro feel, the NYXI Warrior delivers on its promise. It’s a solid, great-looking controller that pairs well with Switch and PC, but also bodes well for GameCube fans looking for a wireless pad but balking at the price of a used WaveBird.
The only real obstacle to this is the GC style ABXY layout which is incredibly difficult to adjust to after so many years. In a way, that’s not the Warrior’s fault — it’s completely faithful to the GameCube’s layout — but given the customization elsewhere on the pad, the ability to swap out the face buttons for a more standard, modern configuration could have made this essential.
As it is, it’s a very good pad with one quirk that could be a problem if you plan to use it with your Switch.
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