My first influence of the Gulikit Elves 2 Professional wasn’t in particular sure. Now, after I say ‘first influence’, I’m speaking concerning the second I laid eyes at the factor in a couple of press pictures on-line. I believe that a few of you testing the pictures on this overview could be considering the similar factor. Sure, the most obvious throwback to the Sega Saturn is excellent, however does a controller of this design in point of fact dangle any weight within the fashionable age?
Neatly, fortunately, the solution to that query is a hearty “Sure.” When the controllers arrived and I unboxed them from their translucent instances (a pleasant contact so as to add additional coverage when travelling), I right away fell in love. The colored ‘Unfashionable’ fashion particularly, in accordance with the ‘Fashion 2’ Eastern Saturn, is basically beautiful and a stupendous homage to Sega’s Mega Force successor.
The black variant is in point of fact great, too, with the one trace of color being the blue sync button in between the 2 analogue sticks. This, once more, is a nod to the ‘Fashion 1’ Eastern Saturn, despite the fact that the jet black casing is possibly extra similar to the Western design. Bring to mind it like a mix of the 2, then. The one drawback with the black model is that mud is of course extra noticeable on darker surfaces, so it presentations up much more than the ‘Unfashionable’ model.
Protecting the controller unearths simply how well-made it’s. It’s were given a hefty weight to it: 190g to be precise. That is lighter than the Transfer 2 Professional Controller and the 8BitDo Final 2C controller — either one of which weigh in at 235g — however the Elves 2 Professional is so much smaller than each, so the burden/dimension ratio balances out properly. It doesn’t really feel affordable, let’s put it that approach.
As for the form, sure, it’s just a little unorthodox through fashionable requirements and also you’re missing the longer grips important to ‘hug’ it together with your arms, however the curved design feels delightful. It’s simple sufficient to transport from the face buttons and D-pad to the 2 analogue sticks within the heart due to the offset positioning, despite the fact that the previous setup does really feel relatively extra herbal.
Certainly, you’ll use this controller for nearly any recreation on Transfer or Transfer 2, despite the fact that to mention that it’s absolute best suited for unfashionable titles or combating video games wouldn’t be misguided. The form, the colors, the D-pad design: all of it feels completely suited for unfashionable gaming. For combating video games particularly, purists may lament the loss of the six-button setup at the Saturn’s controller, however I felt no fear when checking out it out with the likes of Boulevard Fighter 6 and Surprise Vs. Capcom Combating Assortment: Arcade Classics. The D-pad particularly feels nice, however extra on that in a while.
Having a look on the analogue sticks, they utilise Corridor Impact era, so that you’re theoretically having a look at a protracted lifespan for the Elves. You’ll additionally simply take away the caps for alternative if important; I say ‘simply,’ however they do take just a little of effort to take away, and it is a excellent factor – you don’t need them coming off all through common play. They’re relatively smaller than your reasonable analogue stick – perhaps a fraction smaller than the ones discovered at the Transfer 2 Pleasure-Con – and the textured grip across the edge is solely begging to select up dust out of your thumbs over the years, however general, they’re in point of fact great.
The similar is going for the ‘floating’ D-pad, too. Actually, I’d say the sensitivity for that is lovely spot on: keeping down and rocking the D-pad backward and forward yielded completely 0 unintentional inputs when checking out it within the Transfer settings, and the similar may also be mentioned in unfashionable titles like Streets of Rage 2 and Contra. It really works precisely as meant and as you’d be expecting. If you wish to cross one step additional, you’ll if truth be told trade the D-pad setup between four-directional and eight-directional, relying at the recreation you’re taking part in.
The face buttons and shoulder buttons all really feel great: pleasingly ‘clicky’ with out generating quite a lot of noise. Once more, an enormous shoutout is going to the ‘Unfashionable’ fashion right here: the gray, inexperienced, blue, and yellow ABXY buttons glance beautiful, and I’ve grown in point of fact reasonably keen on the cranberry-coloured shoulder buttons and sync button. Just like the D-pad, you’ll mess around with the settings to reassign inputs – lovely excellent if you happen to’re now not fussed about doing it at the Transfer itself.
Actually, there are a lot of various settings you’ll mess around with. You’ll alter vibration depth, analogue stick sensitivity, lifeless zone modes, movement goal assists, turbo mode, APG recording (which mainly means that you can document particular enter combinations and repeat them at will), and extra.
That is all accomplished by means of the ‘settings’ button positioned within the centre of the software (excluding APG recording, which has its personal button slightly under). Protecting the button down and urgent a corresponding button adjustments a particular surroundings. So, as an example, ‘settings’ + ‘R3’ or ‘L3’ adjustments the sensitivity of the selected analogue stick. There’s so much to be informed, so it’s price studying and memorising each and every surroundings mixture indexed within the handbook, however it’s great that there’s no separate app to fret about.
You’ve additionally were given gyro reinforce, 3 other rumble modes (together with its personal ‘HD Rumble’, which feels nice), stressed out reinforce with the incorporated USB-C cable, and a seize button. However what’s lacking?
Neatly, there’s no ‘C’ button for GameChat, no headphone jack, no NFC reinforce, and no talent to wake the Transfer 2 from sleep mode. Those are all arguably ‘great to have’ purposes, and to be fair you’re by no means going to get a third-party pad that does completely the entirety. In case you’re in particular involved concerning the loss of ‘wake-up’ reinforce, alternatively, Gulikit has showed that it’ll quickly be the primary third-party producer to provide such reinforce, despite the fact that how and when this happens has but to be published.
In any case, even though the controller does flip off by itself after quarter-hour of state of no activity, there’s a teeny, tiny button at the again to show it off manually. It is a great little contact that numerous producers don’t in point of fact believe. In fact, whether or not it’ll if truth be told be of use to you could be very a lot dependent by yourself cases, however good day, it’s a excellent factor to have. The pad can be used with PC and iOS, with a three-way toggle positioned simply above the off button to change between the 3 modes.
All in all, despite the fact that, I might say the Elves 2 Professional is most probably absolute best fitted to unfashionable video games and combating video games somewhat than your go-to controller for on a regular basis use. It is an exceptionally well-made pad, and a marvelous choice to Nintendo’s personal SNES and Mega Force NSO controllers. If you have got an affection for the Sega Saturn, the ‘Unfashionable’ variant particularly is a superb throwback; simply do not be shocked if you happen to get started glancing all the way down to respect it while you in point of fact will have to be protecting your eyes at the display screen.
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The pattern used on this overview was once equipped through Gulikit.
