8BitDo All-Button Arcade Controller for Switch/Switch 2 & Windows – Bluetooth, 2.4G, Wired Connectivity, Low-profile Mechanical Switches, 4 Programmable Buttons, Hot-swappable PCB

Growing up I loved Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES. It was probably one of my most played games as a kid. There wasn’t much in the way of arcade style controls but I was more than content to mash buttons on my gamepad. My love of fighting games would continue on up through the PS1/Saturn to the PS2/Dreamcast era but eventually fell off for unexplained reasons. With the release of the Switch my interest reignited a bit but other than Smash I wasn’t really grabbing anything else. Watching YouTube for various reviews and recommendations on games and accessories I saw creators like Wulf Denn and Nihongo Gamer talking about leverless fight sticks for both fighting games and retro games and while I thought they were neat I didn’t think I had much use for them at first. But then I finally treated myself to a Switch 2 and while looking at games to pick up I saw glowing reviews of how well SF6 ran on the new console my algorithm began to teem with members of the fighting game community and I was seeing a lot of leverless controllers. I own quite a lot of various third party controllers but hadn’t bought an arcade stick since Tekken 4 on the PS2. Suddenly my thoughts were of checking out whether or not this might be for me and honestly there were a lot of options out there of all sorts of levels or pricing, customization options, and turnkey based options. Quite daunting but 8bitDo, whom I knew made an Arcade Stick, had an offering. I’m very familiar with 8bitDo, owning multiple controllers (a well loved Pro2, several Ultimates, an Ultimate 2C, and an SN30 Pro). I’ve bought so many for a few reasons. Build quality and feel we’re always excellent for one. A big, big kicker is they are one of the only (if not the only) whose customization software is available on both MacOs and iOS apart from Windows and Android, something that discouraged me from trying other 3rd party controllers because I didn’t have a PC to run them and most don’t offer manual mapping either unless I wanted to spend the money on something like the FlyDigi Apex4 (which…I did lol). Reviews all praised the construction and size and for the price ($79 on sale for the NES colorway) it seemed like a good entry into a hobby that could get very expensive very fast. I was excited when the controller arrived alongside my copy of SF6 and I hurried to unbox it and get the firmware updated so it would be Switch 2 compatible. Here’s where my review nearly dropped 2 stars. Initially I booted up the Ultimate V2 iOS app (all new controllers being on that, the previous one basically sunset) and the controller did not appear as an option. I did discover I could select the Pro3 and test inputs that way but no access to firmware or profile customization. No biggie, a quick trip to google said I needed to do it with the MacOs version. Fired up my MacBook and downloaded the latest version of Ultimate 2 from the product page (as there apparently 2 versions of Ultimate 2 available). Plugged it into, powered it on, clicked update…and nothing. I tried swapping cables, dongles, switch mode and x input and the controller flat out refused to update. I unplugged it and tried connecting to my Switch OLED just to make sure it wasn’t bricked and it connected just fine. Worse comes to worse I’d keep it just for the OG Switch and SteamDeck but that wasn’t 100% ideal for a peripheral where 2 of the selling points were MacOs software and Switch 2 compatibility. Google and Reddit searches made things seem dire: that 8bitDo’s Mac apps were broken and they didn’t care. But I reached out to customer support and 24 hours later I had an email chain going and within a 2 hours I had the firmware updated and I was playing SF6’s tutorials to test things out. So..why 5 stars? Again build quality is solid with the basic plastic, the matte glass face, and the rubberized bottom with keyboard style magnetic kickstands. The controller itself has some decent heft. The buttons are nice and clacky though this is a take it or leave it preference. I love mechanical keyboards so that’s an absolute win but that’s me. I have small/medium hands to the overall controller profile feels good as far as button size and placement. It has extra customizable buttons (included are caps to replace those to prevent misclicks) that don’t require their software to remap and placement to make a familiar WASD configuration for keyboard players. Buttons have good travel and I found it easy to pull off hadoukens and dragon punches within a few minutes of practice. Tactile switches for Switch/Off/Xinput (an included 2.4ghz dongle sits magnetized on the bottom) and SOCD lock are a nice touch. The former of that is important as one of the other selling points this has over similar controllers it that it can be used wirelessly which while not as good for latency in fighting games is a great option for travel and casual play. Out of the box it works on both Switch and PC and of course with the latest firmware it’s Switch 2 compatible (though no wake from sleep like their other controllers). As a newbie to leverless all these features make this a great turnkey introduction to this realm of the gaming sphere. It’s priced competitively against the competition namely Haute42 (and yeah I bought a C16 to try out as well) though it lacks the same level of customization regarding software/firmware, key cap, switches (especially if you want to reduce the noise), and artwork. However it works as intended and after that it’s up to me to work out the learning curve and my delusions of becoming a SF master. TL:DR a great entry to leverless controllers in a turnkey package for use with Switch and PC/Handhelds (also comes in an Xbox licensed version as well) for under $100.

UPDATE: My primary issue with this was not clearly advertising that stick remapping was not supported. I figured that would be changed at some point and I'd update the review to 3 stars, but what I was not expecting was full left and right stick support in mapping! This is now a much, MUCH more interesting alternative to other leverless controllers and while it does not support the complex stick mapping of some smash-dedicated options, this is now viable to try out for platform fighters and offers significantly more compatibility with games that require the stick use, and it completely resolves all my complaints with this controller. VERY excited to dive back in! Original review below, for posterity. ___________________ I own 30 or so 8bitdo controllers. I've purchased most of their offerings and their kits to convert classic controllers to 2.4ghz, I use a pro2 as my main controller for thousands of hours in mariomaker2 and use a pro C2 as my primary PC controller and stick-focused gaming controller on switch. I play a ton of dpad platformers, and a ton of smash as well. Smash is the only game I still use a first party controller for, and I was really hoping to try out a leverless for smash. If the description clearly covered the fact that this controller is absolutely incapable of inputting any stick inputs, I might not be unhappy with it, or giving it 0 stars. I wasn't expecting a hitbox or similar style controller mapping that gives me really complicated angles. I wasn't even expecting a sliding scale of how much left or right from 0-255 or even a 128 or 255 option for directionality. I was simply expecting I could map full tilt cardinal stick directions to buttons and combine them to get angles. This would be imperfect for smash, but excellent for platformers that use the stick which isn't that uncommon anymore, even in 2d platformers! And it'd be fun to try for smash. I think, personally, that could work in some cases, feathering could give you control in a lot of cases and if you really need a specific angle, well, this isn't the controller for you. But unfortunately, this switch and PC controller is entirely missing an often required input from being supported in any way, which I personally feel makes it useless in all but very, very limited circumstances. I feel that it has not been marketed appropriately and that the dishonest description of the product will hold it back. If you are into FGC and you play a game that is compatible with a pad and does not require any stick input, this could be a good buy for you. There are cheaper leverless controllers on amazon, but this has a nice, premium feel, it's weighty, it's wired or wireless with good latency and it can even connect to your NES or SNES with an adapter, which is neat! There is a lot of really cool 8bitdo goodness here, and even besides that it's an excellent feeling pad overall, the best leverless I've touched with some really neat little bean buttons you can also block off if you don't want remappable buttons or buttons in any specific spot. There is a lot to like here, if it fits your very specific needs and you will never, ever want stick inputs. For me though, this isn't clear in any advertising material or the listing here. For me, I want a modern nearly 100$ controller to offer a full, modern control suite. I know it's buttons, and we can't really do analog inputs, but they could have done something to make this work. When I asked 8bitdo support about this, they gave me a handwaivey answer and implied it was not likely to be a feature in the future. If I hear they do end up rolling it out, I might pick another one up! But this one is going to be returned because it's has extremely limited compatibility with only specific games.

UPDATE: Still goated especially now that I've tested it works flawlessly on PS5 with a Brook Wingman FGC2. You have to get a firmware update with the Wingman and turn on the PS5 with a normal dualshock controller first. Plug the wingman in with the 8bitdo leverless wired and turn on the 8bitdo as a PC controller, NOT switch. It should then work seamlessly. Goated controller for fighting games, platformers, and I even play top down games like 2D Zelda with this. I mainly use this for fighting games specifically street fighter, tekken and marvel vs capcom and the buttons have been feeling perfect. They're mx switches so if the tactile feedback or the respond threshold isn't your cup of tea, you can hot swap them out for something more of your own flavor. The built in software let me remap buttons onto the P1-4 buttons, similar to how pad controllers have paddles and you just map face buttons to them. If you want to go more in depth though to mess around with macros or disable buttons to legally compete you'll need to download 8bitdo's software on your desktop to mess around with the deeper settings. I personally don't care for the extra P buttons at the bottom and luckily you can just replace the caps so they're flush with the face of the controller and you can't even press them anymore; it's been really modular and customizable I really love it. Its price compared to other competitors has made this probably one of the best leverless controllers for tournament play in fgc but its biggest fault is that there's no native PS4/5 compatibility and its other variant is xbox, so you'll need to buy a brook adapter if you want to play on PS setups at events. This one works for switch and PC both wired and wireless, and the wireless connectivity has felt pretty lagless so if you have the balls to play competitively wirelessly it might be worthwhile but just plug it in to be safe. It's perfect for casual play though. Once mixing this with a brook adapter, I don't see any reason to buy from other brands, this particular leverless is a really high quality slab that rests great on my lap and table + it has optional feet to slant it up like a keyboard. Other brands that came out before this including razer's kitsune, any controller from haute, qanba, hori etc, had great designs but they never had exactly what I wanted with the options and shapes of the buttons + their premium prices turned me off. 8bitdo came out of nowhere with this controller and it feels like it blew everyone else out of the water with its quality and customization. If you're looking for a good leverless controller for fighting games, I firmly believe this is the best option. I know 8bitdo has a strong partnership with xbox and nintendo but I hope they can appropriate this for playstation fgc as well.

I've tried several different arcade sticks over the years, this is one of the most impressive ones and my first leverless. The build quality is excellent, it's heavy enough not to move around, the button spacing is perfect for me, it's hard to think how this could be improved on. The software is excellent and allows you to remap any button to any other, you can create macros as well. The buttons are clicky and loud, which some people dislike but I love it, and the switches can be swapped out if you prefer quiet ones. Instantly worked on my PC without issues too.

After a year of enjoying the Haute42 T16 (seriously, what a fantastic product), I decided it was time for an upgrade—and I went with my first ever 8BitDo fightstick. And wow, what a pleasant surprise. The stick feels premium right out of the box. The buttons are satisfyingly clicky, and I’ve been using it wirelessly on PC via the 2.4GHz dongle. Honestly, I can’t detect any input delay, my combos land just as reliably as before. It’s smooth, responsive, and just feels great overall. According to 8BitDo’s website, the battery life is rated at 20 hours with around 3 hours to fully charge. I still need to test that over the next few days to see how accurate those numbers are. A cool bonus: this version supports macros (which you can easily disable by switching to tournament mode). The only downside? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work with the Brooks adapter, so PS5 compatibility is off the table for now. Final verdict: 9/10. A strong entry from 8BitDo into the leverless world.

Not clearly advertised that basically the only thing you can do on switch with it is Street Fighter. The movement buttons emulate the DPad and not joystick so in games like smash you cannot move. It requires a software update out of the box in order to work with Switch 2 and the software does not let you bind movement keys to anything other than DPad input Quality is good but only get it if the only game you want to play with it is Street fighter.

This thing is incredible for the price. The build quaility is good, the switches feel great and the latency over 2.4ghz is noticeably better than my Xbox controller paired via Bluetooth. The mapping software is kinda janky, doesn't even have an MSI or EXE installer. Otherwise 5/5 value here. Very happy with this as a leverless hitbox style controller for playing fighting games on my home theater PC wirelessly.

Ok, so lemme Preface I understand this is for PC and Switch. But generally rule of thumb if you own a brooks converter it works. This WILL NOT work with the brooks FGC adapter on PS5. This DOES however work great on PC. Feels good, and for the price point I'd highly recommend. Silent switches, feels very responsive.. If your looking to get into leverless for this same price point I would honestly go for the haute 32 as it's more universal. This device is comparable to the razer kitsune more or less.

Absolutely amazing! Works very well with street fighter on the Nintendo switch 2! The Bluetooth is such a gamechanger for living room fighting games. PSA: If you have frame drops or input lag on SF6 on switch 2, check your switch's output frame rate. My tv is 60hz but the switch was set on 120hz. This caused a weird delay!

通常モデルがあまり評判良くなかったせいか、このシグネチャーエディションはほとんど話題になっていない印象です。 ただ、正直このまま埋もれるのはもったいないと思ったのでレビューしておきます。 通常モデルで言われていたストロークの深さやクリッキーな軸は、このモデルではしっかり改善されていて、低ストロークの静音軸になっています。 実用面はかなり良くなっていて、別物レベルで扱いやすいです。 ホットスワップ対応で、PCやSwitchでも問題なく使用可能。 無線も遅延は特に感じず、レシーバーを底面に収納できるのも地味に便利。 何よりこの価格帯で、プロが使用しているのと同じモデルを使えるのはかなりコスパが良いと感じました。 クリアパープルのデザインも90年代っぽさがあってかなり好みでした。 一点だけ、追加ボタンの形状は個人的には合わず、普通の24mmボタンでもよかったかなという印象です。

Purchased to use on a switch 2 for Street Fighter which works well. Quickly became my favourite way to also play 2D games and other platformers, made me seek out games to play just to use this. It’s clicky and responsive, the button placement works well and the build quality is solid.

I am sure there are a lot of video reviews out there by now, but I would still like to give my 2 cents on this product simply because of how amazing it is. Note all the controllers I bought for my Nintendo Switch (and Switch 2) are 8BitDo and I also have an 8BitDo Retro Keyboard that I use as my daily driver for work! The moment I take the controller out of the box, I can feel the premium in how well it is designed and its aesthetics. The controller is light, but not too light as we need it to stay put when in use. The buttons feel great, I don't have any complaints there, but if you need to change them, you can do so easily. As for the software, I think we need some improvements here. There's two Ultimate Software versions right now and it can be a bit confusing on what controller is or is not supported. Also, I use a Mac so I hope to see improvements in terms of software.

Ich möchte gar nicht viel zur Qualität oder zu den Funktionen sagen. Das Teil ist einfach super verarbeitet und sehr hochwertig! Da gibt es genug Beiträge. Ich möchte nur mal einen Hinweis geben denn da gibt es etwas was mich eine Zeit lang vom Kauf hat absehen lassen. In der Beschreibung steht das es nur für die Switch und Windows geeignet ist. Auch habe ich nichts über eine Kompatibilität zum Raspi gefunden. Weder hier noch im Netz. Da ich bereits Controller dieses Herstellers am Raspi nutze wollte ich es dann wissen und kaufte das Gerät einfach. Und es funzt einfach wunderbar mit meinem Raspi 4 / Recalbox. Aber nur mit dem "x"-Modus. Der "s"-Modus läuft nicht. Egal denn man kann die Tasten ja konfigurieren. Lange Rede kurzer Sinn....das Teil funktioniert mit dem Raspi!