Tech Reaction

These Microkingdom USB Game controllers are reminiscent of ye olde PS2 controllers, but specifically designed for some classic gaming on your PC. You can substitute these for pretty much any generic controller, no brand in particular is really necessary. For about $10, you can pick up a pair of randomly named controller brands, which is pretty cheap. Several stores sell them, and these are pretty much identical knockoffs at the bottom of the rung. Let’s look at the actual design differences.

Official original:

Generic:

Aesthetically, they’re nearly identical. Well, almost. The famous Triangle, Square, Circle, and X have been replaced by numbers. This is used for identifying which key you’re pressing when remapping controller buttons. Unfortunately, the keys for Select, Start, and the Triggers are also identified by numbers (5,6,7,8,9,10) which makes it confusing when figuring out those as they’re not labeled in any fashion (The triggers are labeled one, and two respectively, but show up as numbers 7-10 when mapping. Helpful aren’t they?

The Directional and number pad they created is quite solid in construction, and though slightly bigger than the average PS2 controller, they’re very effective at their job. No stuck buttons, and they have a correct-ish (hm, maybe more of a feels right) feeling when pressed. The start, select, and analog button are actually not as well built. You have to really press inwards to access their functions, and not convenient when trying to pause at an important place in the game. Now, for the analog sticks, I have to say, they’re terrible. They stick, they don’t do diagonals, unresponsive, and well frankly, they suck. Best to stick with the classic D-pad. Oh yes, when analog mode is one (red LED turns on right below the button), you cannot use the D-pad anyways, it has to be turned off. Inconvenient? Maybe a little bit.

Official original:

Generic:

The backside is essentially identical to its official counterpart. The only difference as you can see is the Sony logo implementation.

With these controllers, you’ll need to have a USB port open, and be running Windows XP or higher. It doesn’t work on Windows 98.

As for usefulness, I would recommend a pair if you plan on some serious game emulation with a couple of buddies. Controllers give that ancient, classic feel of playing games, despite them being emulated. This controller has worked for every emulator I have tried to throw at it (from NES, Mame, SNES, N64 to PS2). If you have a couple of original, non-USB controllers, you can always buy adapters if you have a lot of them. Besides, it’s a few bucks; what do you have to lose?