Retro Fighters BattlerGC and BladeGC - Hands On!
23They're finally here! Time to go hands on with the latest controllers from Retro Fighters: The BladeGC and BattlerGC - new wireless controllers for the Nintendo GameCube, Wii, WiiU, and Switch! We'll go over the design, play some games, then give our impressions!
Explanation on how we play games: I usually opt to play by using my tv as a third monitor, setting the capture preview to full screen there. This is because my tv is unable to accept 2560x1440, which some of my 5X Pro Profiles use. I’ve also got an HDMI running from my capture card’s output to my TV on another input just in case it is needed, for situations like this, where latency is large enough to be noticeable.
Update Regarding the Return Situation: the same day that I made the return request to Retro Fighters over the Purple BladeGC, they sent out a replacement - which is projected to arrive in 5 to 7 days. I opted to pay for shipping myself since I was already going to be heading to my local FedEx to ship out some personal documents, however Retro Fighters has verbiage in their Returns Processes that speak to them providing a Shipping Label to a customer, so I would assume they would've provided one had I asked.
Updated Observation: It would seem that when the USB Receiver is plugged into the Nintendo Switch, it will continuously blink as it awaits to pair to a controller. After nearly 48 Hours, it is still blinking. I did not see an option in the Switch to turn off the usb-ports when the console is asleep or anything similar.
-Combine The Observation about the Switch with Update 3 (Below), and you may find that your Blade/Battler could pair to the USB Receiver in an inactive Nintendo Switch before it pairs to a GCN Receiver in a Active GameCube or Wii you intend to pair it to.
Update 2: As a helpful comment pointed out, the Wavebird doesn’t actually have rumble, so the fact the Blade and Battler do is an upgrade vs the first party option!
Update 3: I got the replacement Purple Blade exactly a week after initially making the request. The new one has none of the issues discussed or seen in the video. I did make an interesting discovery. It would seem that any controller can pair to any receiver of the same make. This might be the reason for some of the pairing troubles we had, as the two controllers may have been getting confused as to which receiver to grab onto (the defective Purple one at least) ; I tested this, and was able to pair the Black Blade to the Purple Blades GCN Receiver upon pressing the pairing button. They may be tied to the packed in receiver by default, but the controllers can grab onto any of the other receiver of the same model. I was NOT able to pair a Battler to the Purple Blade’s receiver.
Update 4: I used the Battler to play through all of the original Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime Remastered. For Remastered, the Battler offered the most authentic original control scheme experience. The Battler is definitely the choice for someone who wants a modern feeling GameCube Controller.
-This video is not sponsored by any of the brands featured within -
Information on Retro Fighters: https://retrofighters.com/
Information on Retro-Bit: http://retro-bit.com/
Information on the Retro-bit Tribute 64 Wireless: https://retro-bit.com/tribute64-wireless/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:11 Welcome!
01:27 A Recap on Retro Fighters
03:59 Introducing The BladeGC and BattlerGC
6:00 Box Contents
07:36 A Closer Look at the Controllers
13:42 Having Fun While Playing Some Games
15:39 Issues with one of the BladeGC Controllers
17:55 Having Fun with Turbo
18:50 Our Thoughts
19:49 Issues on Our End
20:02 Pressure Sensitivity Observations
20:41 Analogue Sensitivity Observations
21:39 WiiU Observations
22:37 Switch Observations
24:20 Some Issues Observed
25:41 My Previous Interaction with Retro Fighters
26:49 Wrapping Up
30:12 The End!
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