Hope You Don’t Have To Go This Route

I was lucky enough to snag myself a SNES Classic, one of the hardest gadgets to find over the last several months since its initial release. I was unlucky enough to have one of my official Nintendo SNES Classic controllers die on me for no reason; I didn’t drop or harm it in any way.  It just stopped working.  No idea why and I am super bummed about it. Since Nintendo does not offer official replacement SNES Classic controllers, I had to turn to a third party.

What the hell color is this?

On sale for $9, this Old Skool Super Controller for the SNES Classic looks pretty much exactly like the official Nintendo SNES controller from the outside box art. Since it looks the same, was under $10, and outfitted with a 10 foot cord, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.  Yup, that was a horrible mistake. Remember kids, assumptions are the mother of all eff ups.

Look at the picture below.

Yeah, something looks a bit off, doesn’t it? In fact, that super awkward gold color is so wrong, there should be a class action lawsuit again Old Skool for false advertising.  You can’t Photoshop the boxart to resemble the official Nintendo brand controller, then open it to find a completely different looking item.  Seriously, I have no clue how this is even legal. It is a night and day difference and is unacceptable. This pukey gold color looks like caramelized piss from a diseased stripper.

Besides the different colored plastic around the face buttons, this Old Skool controller is the exact same shape and size of the official controller, dog bone design and all. Obviously lacking the Super Nintendo logo found in the top middle of the official controller, the Select and Start text is also written in faded gray as opposed to the easy-to-read black text of the official model.

Unlogoed controller

Looking beyond the false advertising of the cosmetics, this controller also functions as well as a drunken two-legged cat after an all-night bender. The dpad, face, and shoulder buttons are composed of this cheap, hallow plastic and lack any type of tactile feel.  Worse yet, I was unable to pull off a single hadoken when playing Super Street Fighter II. I actually got smoked by Dhalsim playing on the easiest difficulty simply because I couldn’t control Ryu. Two rounds. Two losses. Zero super moves. The shoulder buttons feel weightless so it is difficult to know if you depressed the button or not too.

Let’s play a game. Which one is the real controller? Which one if the ghetto controller?

The only positive feature of this cheap replacement controller is the included 10 foot cable.  Significantly longer than Nintendo’s design, this extra length is a most welcomed featured as players do not need to crowd around the TV any more.  Unfortunately, the cord is composed of a darker, plastic material as opposed to the softer, gray design of the official branded controller. Just like the buttons, this cord also feels cheap and not as durable by comparison.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options out there when it comes to purchasing new SNES Classic controllers. There is no denying how cheap and crappy this controller is when compared to the original model.  If you play Street Fighter II with this junk controller, you will lose every time. Even pulling off Sabin’s Blitz attacks is way more challenging than it needs to be with the lousy, and unresponsive dpad. Since I was in a bind, I needed something and I thought this was going to be a quality, low-cost option.  Boy was I wrong.  If Nintendo offered official replacement SNES Classic controllers for $20, I would rather pay that instead of this $9 piece of junk. You do not realize how great the first party controllers are until you experiment with knock-offs.  Only buy this if you are absolutely desperate, like I was.

On Par With: those ghetto N64 controllers you bought to fill out the four player roster
Not As Good As: the original
Also Try: buying an extension cable and using your Wii Classic Controller on your SNES Classic

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz