Heads up—the following ‘8BitDo Arcade Controller for Xbox’ sample unit was provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.
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My trusty fighting game pad for years was a DualShock 4. Sometimes I’d jump between that and the Xbox Series controller and, all though Microsoft had finally figured out how to ship a somewhat decent directional pad (for once) I often ended up falling back to my trusty DualShock anyway. And when it wasn’t that, I was either borrowing a friend’s HORI pad or using the cute little 8BitDo M30 I got a year and half back. I’m not pressed for controllers is what I’m saying (good news if the cat ever decides to be cheeky), but after trying out 8BitDo’s latest arcade controller, I’ve been rethinking my position on these Hitboxes and how I game across fighters.
Well, they’re not Hitboxes, right? The company’s latest ‘8BitDo Arcade Controller for Xbox‘ (a non-Xbox variant is available, too!) is actually a “leverless controller”. I’ve just taken up the term in a more “derogatory” sense as people who typically used that company’s leverless cons were essentially “macro kiddies” and, in a way, kept me from ever considering such a controller for fighting game and arcade usage. At most I’d use the control scheme if I had to, as part of a game’s cabinet, but not for home use and not when I have all these other pads at my disposal.
I bring all this up because I just want to emphasise just how much I love 8BitDo’s leverless controller. And over the past two weeks with the unit, I think I can safely say that this unit has to be the company’s best controller yet.
Like all 8BitDo controllers I’ve come across thus far, the Arcade Controller came packaged to the teeth, offering that bit of signature premium feeling they usually go for even with their lower end units. There’s quite a bit of foam here alongside plastic bags that, unfortunately, can’t be recycled. Thankfully, the box can be and away it went, right into the blue bins outside. Once we’re free of the required junk, we’re left with the Arcade Controller, a USB-C cable and manual, a month of Xbox Game Pass, and lock caps that can be used to replace the larger bean-shaped buttons on the unit if you prefer not to push those buttons.
The first thing that came to mind when I opened this thing was “Wow, this is tiny.” The leverless controllers I’ve seen in person tend to be the kind that could be used to trigger pressure plates, but 8BitDo’s measures just about the size of a cutting board and nearly as thin as one, too. The outer shell is a matte surface finish and the bottom features rubber padding across the board, lined up with the company’s signature brand markings. The buttons themselves are quick to respond, being mechanical switches, firing off crisp “tack” sounds that get louder the harder you mash them. Everything comes together to make for a controller that not only feels good to hold but sits perfectly on your lap. Nothing about the unit feels loose and I’d gesture that weight distribution largely places emphasis on the sides of the controller, but on its own it’s no heavier than a 96% mechanical keyboard.
The Arcade Controller can be used across PC and Xbox consoles, both wired and wirelessly. The wireless receiver can be found behind the device and the controller keeps it in place with the right amount of magnetic force. It’s easy to pull out and simple to snap back in. Of course, if you’re playing fighting games, ideally you want this plugged in, but I had no issues playing relatively close to my Xbox Series X and PC with the receiver being directly in front and visible. But inputs can still be picked up from a relatively decent distance even if the receiver isn’t in view (I’d be careful around 180cm, for input integrity)—if you do plan on sitting far out, consider grabbing an extension cable. The controller can also turn on the Xbox console wirelessly even from the powered off state which is great to see. Oh, and 8BitDo have learned from their prior controllers, with this unit having its USB-C port at the surface of the mold as opposed to sitting within a concave that makes it harder to use cables not shaped accordingly. I’m happy that’s not an issue this time around!
And a side note: this thing works on Android over a physical connection! I didn’t really get around to messing with it on here, but I got it working with the likes of DuckStation; it’ll come up as a generic Xbox pad, so you might be able to get it to work with other games on your tablet or phone.
Now just like 8BitDo’s other controllers, you can hook the Arcade Controller up to the “8BitDo Ultimate Software X” to adjust mappings, RGB lights, update the software on the device, and some other miscellaneous stuff. The Arcade Controller has four tabs and each one can be accessed over a physical connection or wirelessly:
- Mappings
- Here you can adjust mappings for all the available keys on the board. No macros are available for use here.
- RGB
- You can adjust the lighting on all buttons across a total of nine colours.
- SOCD
- Here, you can adjust what input priority is preferred when certain combinations are pressed (i.e. up and down equals up on press).
- Updating
- Self-explanatory, but the device appears to support updating over the receiver which is nice to see.
The Arcade Controller only has one profile mode and that can be swapped to at any time by pressing the 8BitDo heart on the top row by the Xbox Nexus. Default mode keeps the lovely shade of green apple the Xbox has donned itself with since its inception, so you’ll always know which mode you’re on. The star over here can also be used to map keys to the P1 and P2 buttons without needing to load up the software, which is nifty for on-the-fly adjustments. The button right by the View option also lets you toggle through a series of built-in RGB effects like waves or on-press, complete with a variety of colours. Something interesting to note is that the other variant of this controller does support macros if you so desire—but that isn’t compatible with Xbox.
The controller also has a Share button, volume knob for the 3.5mm jack located face-forward, and a tournament lock switch that locks out input to all the top-row buttons. Nifty, shame the only tournaments I’ll ever engage with are against the CPUs and lower rungs of ranked.
This being my first leverless controller, I’m going to be straight with you lot: I still don’t have my legs with this thing yet. Coming off the simple yet conventional d-pad on every controller known to man, just wiring my brain to the way the directional inputs are placed on this controller took me quite some time. But I had an excellent time just using it—especially off my lap! It never felt like I was going to suffocate with this thing sitting on me and my palms fit exactly onto the unit as I mashed away in the likes of ‘Street Fighter 6’, ‘TEKKEN 8’ (balance, am cry), and even a bit of DJMAX (5B works surprisingly well on this)—because I could—and it works wonderfully. Even off my lap, the rubber pad keeps the controller in place, and you can even incline it a bit with the little stands if need be.
Something the manual won’t tell you is that the switches beneath the buttons must be removed if you’re to put on the lock caps. That’s fine and dandy, but the unit does not come with a switch and cap remover which can be frustrating to anyone without said tool. You might be able to pry out the switch with your nails, but I highly recommend grabbing a switch tool off of Amazon especially if you think that any of the bean-shaped buttons will come to be a nuisance.
Besides that, I can’t tell you how to wave dash on this thing, it might take me a good month to really fix my fundamentals with a controller like this. But this is easily one of the best 8BitDo controllers I’ve ever used. The build quality is excellent, there are a solid number of features beyond the fundamentals and what’s expected, and most importantly: it feels great to use, be it on your lap or on a table. I think the crazier thing here is that this is exactly a hundred bucks when it feels like it could easily be double that for what it offers. ∎
The 8BitDo Arcade Controller for Xbox is available for purchase from 8BitDo’s official website and Amazon.com, retailing at $99.99 USD.
