J W—September 8, 2017
So first things first, YES, the stick is basically an upmarket Mayflash F300. Thats also not really a bad thing. I saw one reviewer say they were charging $20 more for the same stick and thats nuts. They had to add a Bluetooth radio, controller chip, and battery which I'd argue is easily worth an up charge of $20. Sure you lose Ps4 compatibility and Xbox one compatibility but you can think MS and Sony for not letting 3rd party peripherals connect via Bluetooth, it works great fo the switch and it comes down to Nintendo's support of an open standard (which is basically the exact opposite of what you expect to say about Nintendo!). So yes, the box is basically the exact same it's just color coded and themed to give that Retro Nes Feel (not a bad thing) and has the same button and stick arrangement. No the stick isn't perfect, especially if you want something with directional gates, no the buttons aren't springy sanwa. But for $80 you get a wireless stick that works great out of the box but is incredibly modifiable. A screw driver and $30 in parts can turn this into a high level pro grade stick if you want that because all the fittings are standard size so you can change it up to your hearts content. Out of the box hte thing is solid. My two year old loves to grab controllers and just wail on them even though she has no idea what shes doing and shes dragged this thing across the floor, thrown it down, jumped on it, hammered on the stick and buttons and it shows no worse for the abuse. It paired in seconds to my windows 10 laptop, tablet, and atom based TV box. Mame detected it no issue and it just takes a few second to map the buttons how you want. If you don't care about the wireless then save yourself $20 bucks and get the F300, its built to the same quality and modifiable standards and has wider compatibility. If like me you want to be able to sit on the couch and not have wires running across the floor then this is the perfect sick for Mame, Steam, or Switch games. If you are big on maze or fighting games you want ultimately want to switch out the gate. Read more
Customer—August 22, 2018
Quite impressed with this. The top does flex a bit but not really noticeable. The case itself seems sturdy enough to take some slaps when I mash the buttons. I bought 2 of these for my SNES Mini. Found that I could pull off moves more frequently on one over the other. Swapped the joystick with Seimitsu LS-32. Sanwa JLFs can be used but you will have to find a workaround because it comes with a 5pin pcb type connector. The wires are fine when soldered directly to the microswitches but when using quick release connectors, which you will need to connect the seimitsu, you will find the wires going to the microswitch farthest from the control board are too short. Just cut some of the extra wire that connects to the microswitch closest to the control board and use butt crimp connectors to lengthen the wires. Buttons were easy to swap out. 30mm for the eight main buttons and 24mm for the start button. I rewired the buttons to match the Nintendo button layout. It comes with the playstation/xbox button layout. On a side note, it appears this company copied the sanwa jlf design. You can use the sanwa octagonal gate, 2lb spring, kowal oversized actuator and TheLink quick release shaft on this joystick. Can't really recommend modding the joystick over replacing it with a seimitsu ls-32. The microswitches seem to be the issue with these joysticks. I have gotten it to work wirelessly with my NES mini and SNES mini. It seems to connect to my ps3 with bluetooth but haven't had enough time to test it. Works great wired to the ps3 and my Nvidia Shield TV. I'd say if you are going to be playing on an NES/SNES mini then this joystick is great. If you are looking to play on multiple platforms excluding PS4 and XBox One then it should be fine. For PS4 and XBox one the mayflash f300/f500 would be a better option with no wireless at this price range. And as others have stated, I really recommend replacing the joystick with a seimitsu. Read more
amazon_138—June 21, 2018
The good: Pairs easily with Raspberry Pi Great NES look comes with high quality charging cable Feels durable Box doubles as a reusable carrying case! The bad: The buttons and joystick are very sub par. It's a little bit of a project but I would reccomend upgrading to SANWA parts. The buttons are a quick easy swap and the Sanwas feel soooo much better than 8bitdos chinese junk buttons. If you want to put a Sanwa JLF stick it can be done, just solder to the four corner posts of the stick's "Chassis" Otherwise this has a quick connect 5 pin port. If you can't solder make sure you get a stick with the quickchange/quick connect 5 pin port. I believe the Blee stick is like that. Overall I like this thing, was a fun project to upgrade it. For kids, they probably won't notice the very loose stick and poor quality buttons. But if you're a seasoned gamer this thing REQUIRES at least swapping out the buttons, stick also if you want something nice. Read more
