NeoPancho's corner

A blog mainly about videogames and other interesting things

8Bitdo NeoGeo Wireless controller (Mai Shiranui)

| 0 comments

Time to talk about the NeoGeo CD look alike new controller from 8BitDo, out of the box it works with the NeoGeo Mini (finally, a decent pad for the system!), Android and PC, so sadly it doesn’t work with any of the consoles or the NeoGeo Stick Pro… it’s possible to make it work with the Switch and possibly other systems using the 8BitDo USB Wireless Adapter 2, it works fine but it can’t wake up the console and right now there is an unused button that could work for taking pictures/videos, maybe eventually they add that function.

The NeoGeo CD Pad is one of the most comfortable pads in my opinion, reason more than enough to be popular, but the real reason is its “clickyness”; the original pad used micro-switches for the directions just like the arcade sticks (or the NeoGeo Pocket consoles), which made it very accurate… and noisy!, but that’s part of its charm.

NeoGeo Mini Pad, 8BitDo
NeoGeo Pad 2, NeoGeo CD Pad

Not so long ago SNK released a new NeoGeo CD style pad for the NeoGeo Mini, and now we have the 8BitDo one… even if at first they might look the same, just one wired and the other wireless, it’s quite a bit more complex than that… oddly enough, SNK messed it big time when making their controller, in one of the most nonsensical decisions related to videogames i have seen, they used an analogue stick instead of a good old digital pad, so not only it doesn’t have the classic “clickyness”, it makes ALL the games feel way off since they were created with instant digital controllers in mind instead of analogue.

Thankfully, 8BitDo knew what they were doing and we have a wonderful digital gamepad that uses micro-switches just like the original one (and other different iterations for Saturn, PS2, PS3 and PC), i have to say that the sound is a bit different, but that’s about it, the important part is that it works like a charm and is super comfortable to play with.

The original one had the direction pad, select, start and 4 face buttons, the 8BitDo add some extra buttons to update it for nowadays standards, so aside from the 4 face buttons it adds L and R making it a wonderful SNES controller too and 2 extra buttons (Star and Options wich works like Home), in the back there is a switch to change between bluetooth and 2.4G (for the included USB receptor).

When wired it works with all the compatible systems, bluetooth is intended for Android (or when using the 8BitDo Adapter 2) and the included 2.4G receptor for Windows and NeoGeo mini… i guess that bluetooth would also work with Windows but i haven’t really tried it. Sometimes 8BitDo release adapters so that classic consoles (SNES, Saturn…) can use their new controllers, sadly they haven’t released one to use with the NeoGeo AES or NeoGeo CD, but it’s possible to make it works with the Neo BT, i don’t have it so i can’t really say how well it works.

This is the Mai Shiranui edition, but there are a few extra versions: Terry, Iori, Kyo and Black (just like the original).

It’s a controller that is superb for what is intended, NeoGeo and retro games, but if the game needs analogue sticks or more buttons obviously you have to look somewhere else, with that said, you can make the directional pad work as any of the 2 analogue sticks by using a combination of buttons so if for whatever reason while using the NeoGeo Wireless controller you need to use a analogue stick, it’s not ideal, but you can get by.