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While it may be on its way out, the Ultimate 2 is a worthwhile competitor if you're looking for a decent controller for Switch, Switch 2 or PC.
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look. We're pretty late on this one but we finally have 8BitDo products here on the channel which is fantastic because they make some pretty interesting stuff which usually are very aggressively priced and come with just a hint of retrofuturism that creates a nostalgic kick for a lot of people. This is their flagship controller for now. We're expecting an Ultimate 3 to come out very soon but this is the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 and it has been a favorite for a lot of people for a long time and it's pretty easy to see why. For one, it is pretty cheap. This will come in I think now at like $45, $40 and as you can probably tell, you get a charging dock with it. This charging dock uses simple USB Type-C but inside this little compartment here is a house for the 2.4GHz dongle and it is pogo pins to charge meaning that when you're done with it, you can always slide it into this little dock and you have a handy charging mechanism which just comes with the controller. I think that is really good and really cool like snappy thinking by 8BitDo. Now, the controller itself is standard in some ways but does have some cool bits and bobs here and there. These analog sticks are deceptively simple to look at but uses something called TMR which I believe is for Tunneling Magneto Resistance. Basically, we'll go through it in more granular detail in our written review but the point is that this is a more reliable and more precise method of creating the effect of moving a stick which translates into movement on the screen than Hall Effect sticks so it just basically means that it's more reliable over many years and extended use and should be more precise as well. It weighs 246 grams which I think feels great in the hand. It is slightly longer, almost sort of dual sense breadth which is nice."
"It means that for us that has larger hands, it feels a little bit better in the hand than the Switch 2 Pro Controller and the Switch Pro Controller for that matter which I think is good. It has the regular switch sort of connecting dots or LED lights here alongside a battery indicator which is great and a bunch of extra buttons for you to set up because this supports various formats. There is also locker locks here for the analog triggers meaning that they can be either a click or full travel, also a neat little addition alongside extra PL and PR buttons here so a lot of extra bits for something which costs a lot less. Now, it is a little bit tricky with what you can use it for because this does not support PS5. I don't think it supports Xbox which means that it's PC either through Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz dongle which we've talked about already and Android which I'm not so sure a lot of people use these kinds of for Android. If they play, they probably play with controllers where they can insert their phones in because they play on the move or on the go where they wouldn't be bringing this but it also supports Switch and includes Switch 2 with a firmware update meaning that if you buy this, you will plug it into your computer, you will use a piece of downloaded software that 8BitDo has supplied and it will firmware update the controller and then it works for Switch and Switch 2. But if you use it for Switch 2 or Switch, there are some features missing here and there. For one, as far as I can tell, it cannot auto-wake your Switch like your Joy-Cons in the Joy-Con controller or the Pro controller can do meaning that if you have it inserted into your dock under your TV and you push the buttons on your Joy-Cons or your Pro controller, it will wake the Switch up and you're ready to go just like you would do with any console. Here, this would need, the Switch would have to be powered on, you have to press the button and the signal will have to come through to the TV in order for the console to recognize that there is a third-party controller there. Whether or not it remains that with the Ultimate 3 is too old to tell and I'm not sure if I'm, I hope I'm not committing a massive mistake here but I couldn't get it to work and I found others that said that they couldn't get it to work either. Still though, particularly if you're on PC, this is a lovely little thing."
"It's cheaper than a DualSense in many cases, it's cheaper than an Xbox Series controller, it comes with a fancy charging stand alongside extra bits and bobs that would normally be exclusive to an Xbox Series Elite controller. So for PC users in particular, a very cool gadget indeed. Thank you so much for watching, see you on the next one."
