Manufacturer: 8Bitdo
Current Retail Price: $39.99
Last year we reviewed 8Bitdo’s great take on a wireless Bluetooth Famicom controller, the FC30. This year, 8Bitdo has expanded its offerings to include a similar controller, but this time based on the classic NES controller. Does their NES-style controller live up to the lofty reputation they have established for themselves with the FC30 or is it a quick cash-in on their early successes? Read on to find out a bit more.
Even more-so than with the FC30, the NES30 impresses with its packaging and general presentation. With a very high-end almost Apple-like feel, when you first get the NES30 you’re greeted by a box designed to look like an NES console itself:
You open it up and your NES30 is sitting right there surrounded by a good-quality cardboard shell of sorts:
If you pop that off, you’ll find the helpful and nicely printed (although perhaps slightly less well translated) manual booklet featuring the 8-bit mascot 8Bitdo seems to have made for themselves:
And at the bottom you’ll find the USB charging cable (a much more convenient micro USB this time) and bonus keychain nicely individually packaged:
The USB cable is an additional step above the ones included with the FC30 controllers because it has custom 8Bitdo moulding, but the keychain (while still a nice bonus to sweeten the deal) is unfortunately exactly the same as the ones included with the FC30 and was not customized for this particular release:
The NES30 comes with an Xtander mobile device stand just as its predecessor did and they’re functionally the same with the only difference being the grey colour scheme:
So, did 8Bitdo learn from its missteps during the early days of the FC30? Happily, yes. Very much so. After unboxing the NES30 and using the simple instructions to update it to the latest firmware v2.2, I’m happy to report that we experienced no connectivity issues whatsoever with any of the devices or methods we tested.
Using the following simple directions:
We were able to use Mode 1/Mode 5 perfectly on our Windows 8.1 computer, Mode 2/Mode 5 perfectly on OSX 10.9.4 and Mode 3 perfectly on all of the apps we had handy with iCade controller support. We experienced none of the hiccups that occurred with the launch FC30 units before their firmware updates were released. Better still, the Wii mode feature exclusive to the FC30 and NES30 worked a treat and allowed us to use a perfect facsimile of an NES controller (albeit with more buttons overall) to play NSMB Wii. We tried to connect it to a Wii U out of curiosity and while it did seem to pair with the system, we were unable to get it to actually register any button presses in NSMBU. Perhaps 8Bitdo will work out Wii U pairing in the future to allow for Virtual Console games (or games like Shovel Knight) to be played, but until then the Wii functionality is plenty impressive on its own.
$40 may seem like a lot of money for an NES-styled Bluetooth controller from a smaller electronics company, but even more-so than the FC30, the NES30 is a masterfully built controller and worth every penny. It looks, feels, and functions pretty much perfectly and comes with great packaging to boot. Aside from perhaps a greedy want of Wii U support, there’s absolutely nothing more we could ask from the NES30 and if you have any interest in a blissful stroll down 8-bit memory lane or just want a classic-styled controller to use with your PC/Mac/iOS/Android device, it currently doesn’t get any better than the NES30.
[taq_review]
A review unit was provided to us by its manufacturers.