HORI Mini Gamepad (PS4)

For a thirty dollar wired controller you'd expect this latest piece of HORI manufactured hardware to at least perform well enough to warrant the price. The problem is that in some ways it works, and in other significant ways it doesn't. The wired controller, which is shaped much like a retro controller comes in a blue, and black color scheme with a USB docking cord that is quite long for such a small peripheral. Immediately you'll notice the absence of the usual center touchpad which has been replaced with a soft smaller button that unfortunately does not seem to function as it should in games that fully utilize all of the touchpad's interaction points. Furthermore you'll notice the absence of a headset port as well as a speaker, and a light. These are visible key features that a gamer would expect to have in hand, and in control while gaming on the modern-day PS4. At least some of them. Another missing feature is the rumble feature that comes native to PlayStation's DualShock 4 controllers. The HORI Mini Gamepad, for lack of a better word, is retro in every way and seems to take on the purpose of a certain gaming meme where the pictured child gamer in  the player 2 position is given an unplugged controller to make him think he is doing something.

When it comes to button placement some things on the HORI Mini Gamepad are positioned better than others. The face buttons, and DPad are as they should be. Even the tightly placed shoulder buttons work. That being said the dual thumbsticks are close in a front, and bottom-center orientation making for awkward control in the 3D games such as first person shooters. The thumbsticks feel cheaply made like a lot of the controller in regards to plastic construction, and have both tight movement, and hard clicks when pressed in. Going back to the four face buttons they sometimes stick briefly as well, but unstick themselves in less than a second afterwards.

The controller, though intentionally designed for younger gamers, fails to provide the quality controller experience such a pricey piece of low tech hardware should. Thirty dollars still isn't cheap, and in that respect the HORI fails on all the negative points listed above. I feel that even for a younger gamer the quality of the HORI Mini Gamepad doesn't deserve to be excused from said accusations. The fact that the controller with it's awkward thumbstick placement, and awkward overall feeling/functionality in regards to controlling/gripping leaves you at a disadvantage in most games on the PS4 is inexcusable. It leaves a lot to be desired. I definitely have regrets seeking out this controller as a potential alternative, and seeing it's shortcomings play out in my hands.

It is the Inferno's official opinion that you skip out on this thirty dollar controller, and wait to see if anyone else can get it right. We definitely need a budget priced controller with all the key features of the DS4 intact, and in a reasonable working condition.

TouchPad Correction:

Apparently the HORI Mini Gamepad is designed in such a way as to turn the two thumbsticks into the touchpad functions. There are many problems with this. For one it breaks in-game immersion as you have to stop to hold a special button in for two seconds, and then flick/press in the tumbsticks in a certain way to make them operate in-game touchpad features. There's no way to map the functions that I can figure out, and the accompanying instructions are so vague in description it's hard to even get the feature to work properly. Epic failure. I stick with what I said. Skip this badly designed controller.

To HORI:

If you had designed a clickable button that was small/medium sized in design, with three underlying pressure points/button functions (left, right & center with no censors involved) you could have made the single top button work without resorting to utilizing the thumbsticks for the touchpad's intended purpose. Just a little FYI.