There’s only really one thing that might bother you.
Nostalgia should not be enough to give any tech a passing grade. But let me come clean. I wouldn’t have dropped $65 on the revitalized GameCube controller for Switch 2 if I hadn’t spent my preteen years beholden to Nintendo’s boxy console. With improved buttons, the new version is better than anything from 2001. After so many years, I’ve come to see the gamepad as a unique device that’s enhanced by its limitations. Instead, it’s constrained by Nintendo’s own restrictions on where and how you can use it.
The Switch 2 GameCube controller is exclusive to Nintendo’s online storefront, and its availability keeps fluctuating to the point we can’t tell when or if it will be back in stock. You can find plenty of recreations that try to emulate the look and feel of the 24-year-old controller all the way down to the nubby, yellow “C” button. Nintendo still allows adapters to connect up to four GameCube controllers on Switch 2. So why would you want the official recreation? Because it works as seamlessly as a Joy-Con or Pro Controller, and compared to many third-party emulations, this is the most pitch-perfect accurate device in terms of raw feel. The big problem is, you can’t use it for any other device but the Switch 2. Sorry, you won’t be emulating GameCube games with Nintendo’s own tech (at least until somebody inevitably hacks it).
I have hung onto the same original black GameCube and wireless WaveBird controller from my childhood—the joysticks so mangled with caustic adolescent fingers they were worn down to nubs. I’m amazed at how much attention Nintendo paid to improving the new controller while keeping the same feel as the original. I’m comparing a brand-new device to one that’s nearly as old as I am, but it appears that Nintendo replaced the squishy rubber pads of the original controller’s face buttons with something that’s far more snappy and clicky. The switches on the D-pad are far better than on the 24-year-old controller. That directional pad is still small, so I won’t be using it for a fighting game anytime soon, but it’s a better option for some retro titles.
