For several months now I have been using the Hori Split Pad Pro product for the Nintendo Switch. When I first got it I was asked by some of my friends to write up a review and it has taken me several months to actually get around to doing that. Since September I have exclusively used these “joycon replacements” with my switch and as a result I have some things to say. This is not a paid product review as I shelled out the same $50 for these that anyone else would have to, and in truth I had to wait a freaking long time for them to finally get back into stock. My pair is an import from Japan and they released in early October here in North America.
My Eternal Problem
I have stupidly huge hands and that fact makes most controllers fairly uncomfortable for extended play sessions. The above image is something that I took this morning and is me gripping a knock off Xbox One controller that I had handy. This has been a subplot in my life for years, trying to find something big enough to be reasonably comfortable and I think in part why I shun controllers so often over keyboard and mouse. One day I will write a post about my favorite big hands controllers, but for now you have to realize that my hand absolutely engulfs the joycon and there is no way in hell that is actually ever going to be comfortable. For awhile I used the Satisfye grip, which does a good job of making the joycons work well enough, but it also makes the entire package extremely heavy and not exactly ideal for playing for example while laying in bed.
Weird Controller to the Rescue
The setup itself looks nonsensical as compared to the original joycons, but in practice it feels pretty good. Imagine if someone took a pro controller and chopped it in half and then put one half of it on either side of the switch’s “tablet” screen. What I did not expect however is how much lighter it makes the overall unit. The joycons themselves have quite a bit of weight to them, and the Split Pad Pro is pretty much just a plastic shell with the necessary PCB and buttons and has removed the rumble motors (which is a positive to me, I hate rumble) and also lacks the ability to use Amiibos (which I only really use when playing Breath of the Wild for free stuff). It also trades the four individual directional buttons for a proper d-pad that while a little squishy feels perfectly fine for fighting games on the go.
The first oddity you encounter however is that the controllers themselves are roughly twice the height of the tablet screen, leaving you with an awkward lip as they opted for the tablet to sit flush against the back of the controllers for better ergonomics than flush with the face. It looks a little odd but once I got used to it never really bothered me. One of the problems I have had with the base joycons is that the clips that attach them to the rails on the side of the tablet portion have never felt amazingly solid. This might just be a side effect of the weird manner in which I have to grip them in order to play, due to the aforementioned stupidly large hands. However it always feels like if I gripped too tightly at the wrong moment that I could snap them off.
The Split Pad Pro connects way more tightly to the sides of the unit and has these little blocks that extend out over the tablet and then out from the back allowing you to set the unit down without placing stress on the joint. The overlap however also has the side effect of making the entire connection feel much stronger than it does on the traditional joycon setup. When holding the unit with a single hand it feels like it is a single fused piece and doesn’t have any of the natural sway that the joycons tend to have when doing the same thing. There are mappable buttons on the backside of the controller, but as there is no wireless connection between the two you are limited to only mapping functions that exist on a single side, making the paddle on the left side a little useless.
The unit still docks perfectly fine with the Split Pad Pro attached, allowing you to flip between playing on screen and in handheld mode easily. The funny thing is that while I have owned these joycon replacements I have spent way more time playing in handheld than I have docked. Previously I had almost exclusively played the Switch through dock with a Pro Controller I would say 99.9% of the time. It is funny how having a comfortable grip that does not add significant weight to the unit has changed the way I actually use it. Whereas I used to use my Tablet exclusive for a little gaming before falling asleep, I am now also using my switch and have taken to charging the unit in the bedroom as opposed to the dock. I really should get one of the Best Buy docks for the bedroom, since they are much cheaper and appear to have solved the issue that bricked so many units previously.
The Negatives
Now that I have gushed about how much I love this controller at length, I guess it is time to talk about the negatives. First off while I personally call these a JoyCon replacement, they are not really that at all because they are not wireless. You cannot use them independent of the tablet unit and in order to keep the price and weight down they sacrifice all of the internals that allow for RFID, Rumble and Gyroscope functionality. This means that in Breath of the Wild for example you will be unable to complete any of the puzzles that focus on rotation things with your JoyCons. Additionally any sort of aim through moving the controller functionality is likely not going to work if they rely on the JoyCon gyro instead of the one build into the tablet (which most games seem to).
The only thing that really bugs me at any point is the fact that because they are not wireless they also do not support the ability to wake the console with a key press. This is a dual edged sword because on the positive this means you won’t be accidentally waking the device up while carrying it around in a bag you will however be required to press the recessed power button any time you want to turn it on. You can also tap the screen, but I seem to never actually do this because I more or less forget that the Switch is touch compatible. Another negative is that they have used cheap rubber buttons for +, -, Home and Capture and they feel awful to push. They function fine but they just dont have a satisfying click to them. Similarly most of the buttons feel a little mushy and are not as satisfying as I would like them to feel, but personally this has not bothered me too much because I got used to the Hori FPS Plus controller on the Playstation 4 which has very similar buttons.
The Rundown
If you have large hands and struggle with the size of the switch Joycons… then I would highly suggest you check this controller out. If not this then at least check out the Satisfye grip, which will give you some of the same benefits but also make the unit significantly heavier. If your preferred method of play is to detach the joycons and set the tablet somewhere, then this is squarely not a product for you. If you prefer the Playstation style controller pattern of having the thumb sticks in line with each other, then it is also probably not a product for you as this is the Xbox style staggered stick design. If you are on the fence, this makes it feel like you have an actual controller attached to your switch, and with that the sticks give you a much better range of movement making almost all games i have played with it more comfortable to control. Skyrim for example felt awful to play with the limited range of movement that the default joycon thumb sticks have, but is rather enjoyable with the Split Pad Pro.
I would love to see Hori release a version of this product will full joycon replacement support, adding in all of the missing features. However I think I would probably still be using the ones I have currently as the reduced weight of the total unit makes a big deal to me since I am playing it while laying on my side in bed so often. Holding the default configuration in that manner always ends up with one of my hands getting tired, and with the Split Pad Pros I don’t even notice the weight of the unit. I am super happy this product exists, and after roughly 3 months of play I am not sure I could go back to the default joycons at this point.