The Nintendo 64 had many great, memorable games: Mario 64, GoldenEye, Ocarina of Time. Some of been remade or ported to modern consoles. Otherwise you need to fire up that old N64 to replay those games. Well if you need a new controller to help you with your platforming or aiming, Retrobit has you covered with their new N64 controllers.
What you need to know
The controller comes in three colors: green, blue and red. My favorite is the transparent blue controller. The buttons are really tight, in a good way. They feel like the keys on a mechanical keyboard. While playing they felt responsive and my mind was thrown back to the good old days of playing on my CRT with a short cable connected to the N64.
It’s not an exact replica of the N64 controller. You’ll see in the images that it has just two grips instead of three. This does feel easier to use than the 3-grip design of the original controller. The d-pad has been moved to the bottom-center of the controller, which is a little hard to use. It does include the rumble pack port, which I was unable to test. The Z-trigger has been doubled and moved below the left and right shoulder buttons. I had to get used to these buttons. It felt like if I wasn’t deliberately pressing them they wouldn’t actuate.
The controllers come in two flavors: an N64 compatible controller and a USB-powered, PC compatible controller. I was able to get it connected to my Switch but I didn’t really find it in any way better than a Switch controller. Without a second joystick I wouldn’t recommend using it on Switch or PS3.
Wrap up
I love seeing Retro-bit’s new gear. If you need a replacement controller for your N64 or you’ve, um, found a way to play N64 games on your PC, these controllers are a great fit for you.