Review — 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ game controller
An excellent third-party game controller for Nintendo Switch, particularly if you play a lot of 2D games.
I’ve been playing a lot of 2D Mario on my Nintendo Switch lately, particularly because Nintendo just brought Super Mario All-Stars to the Switch’s SNES virtual console. This is my favorite release of the NES Mario games. It just looks and sounds great with the updated SNES-style sounds and graphics. But the challenging thing about playing 2D Mario games on the Switch is that the Joy Con controllers just aren’t well-suited to 2D gaming. I actually think the Joy Cons were a pretty brilliant idea, but they’re just not well-suited to every game type. I wanted something with a D-pad. I ultimately settled on the 8BitDo SN30 Pro+, as seen in the photo above. I had watched several review videos online while trying to find the right thing, and in particular found Bob Wulff’s review really thorough and helpful.
Design-wise it’s a bit of a mashup of a Super Nintendo controller and a Sony PlayStation DualShock controller. Perhaps the official Nintendo controller it’s most reminiscent of is the Wii Classic Controller Pro. You can get it in one of three different color schemes. The one I got is styled with Game Boy-colored buttons and a Game Boy-sytled D-pad. You can also get it in the SNES controller’s color scheme, and also in an all-black edition.
It really gets the job done playing 2D games. It feels great in hand thanks to the chunky grips. What really surprised me though was how well it works for 3D games as well. Although the joystick placement isn’t ideal for joystick-based games, it’s close enough that it doesn’t feel like you have to stretch you thumbs too far to reach them comfortably. It even works great for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, something I wasn’t expecting, mostly again due to the joystick placement.
In addition to the Nintendo Switch, you can also use it with Android, Windows and Mac. Curiously they don’t list it as an iOS or tvOS compatible device. But on a whim I tried pairing it to my Apple TV and it appears to work just fine. My Apple TV saw it as a DualShock controller, which makes some sense due to the layout. It paired right up and seems to work just fine, though I haven’t put it through its paces on Apple TV. I haven’t tried pairing it to an iOS or iPadOS device, but presumably that would work as well. And you can have it paired to the Apple TV and the Switch at the same time. You just use the right button combos to switch between the two. To power it up and connect it to the switch, you hold down Y and Start. To switch to Apple TV, you first power off the controller, and then hold down A and Start. Super simple.
There’s also a pretty extensive software tool for Mac and Windows that you can use for button customization and programming macros. I haven’t tried that since my needs are fairly simple, but could be really useful for power users.
The biggest thing I can’t review yet is durability. I’ve only had mine for a few days now. But I’ll be watching to see how it holds up over time. So far I’m absolutely in love with this thing. At $50 it’s cheaper than Nintendo’s official Pro Controller, and is much better suited to my needs due to the layout. I can’t recommend this controller highly enough.
