Retro Fighters Defender Next-Gen PS1 - PS2 - PS3 - PS Classic - Switch & PC Compatible Wireless Controller, Grey

Easily the best third party ps2 controller I’ve bought, it feels great although it’s closer to Xbox’s controller form, and it’s very lightweight. The pressure sensitive buttons work very well too. If there’s any latency, I personally couldn’t tell. Battery life is long and doesn’t take too long to charge. The only complaint I have is that both triggers are super sensitive, they respond with such light pressure that I’m unable to lightly rest my fingers on them as I normally would a modern day controller. Some people say it gets better over time so I’m hoping that’s the case but it took a couple hours to get used to not having my fingers touching them while resting.

Pros: + Plug and play. + Feels great, reasonably sturdy - just don't throw it out a second story window. + Holds a charge for a good bit of time, comes with a charger which is USB-C. As it should be. + The analog triggers (L2, R2) feel especially nice + Compatibility is generally impressive, even worked with my iPad using the USB receiver. Neutral: ~ Others seem to report concerns with how Turbo works for this controller, though I cannot speak to that as I haven't used the Turbo function so I cannot verify. ~ Playing with this on a Switch can be disorienting button-wise if you don't know the Switch controller button layout by heart. This is intended for Playstation games afterall, though. Cons: - No Bluetooth support

My singular complaint is that L2 and R2 are sensitive enough to sometimes accidentally trigger them without realizing just by resting your fingers on the L2 and R2 and gripping them just enough to trigger them. Light touch is ok and most of the time it's not a problem, so they're not THAT sensitive, but accidental triggering can happen, as other reviewers have stated. These are just minor nitpicks and preference, but I wish the joysticks were a little more convex. Additionally, I wish clicking in L3 or R3 aka the thumbsticks and pressing in a direction just felt a hair more organic. The buttons triangle X square circle feel good and responsive and satisfying to press. if they were just a bit bigger and more spaced out they would be perfect. As is, they are very very good. I wish the D-pad was separated. It is functional but not ideal. also, the edges of the directions are not exactly entirely sloped so sweeping your thumb across could be a little smoother. What I mean is I should be able to sweep my thumbprint in a full circle around the D-pad without my thumb detecting any corners. They are rounded, but not sloped, so your thumb kind of has to navigate the terrain to do half/quarter/full circle sweeps, which is not ideal for fighting games. If the D pad plastic itself was sloped on all sides so that I could sweep smoothly, it would be a 9/10. As is, it's like a 7.5/10. It gets the job done and the problems I described are not such that it's particularly annoying. it just.. could be better. The grip is great, everything feels premium. I like this controller a lot. Its main feature to me is its utility in the sense that you can use it with many devices without setup. I really hope Retrofighters sees this feedback, because if the changes I notated were addressed, along with a couple other minor tweaks, it'd be a perfect controller.

As I was interested in reviving my PS1 and PS3 this controller came on top of the choices as the option that checked all the boxes. I unpacked it, and the first feeling that I got when I grabbed it was that the fit and comfort was amazing, and all the buttons had a quality feel to them like I have rarely felt (actually I prefer it to my series x controller). I have tested it so far with the PS1 and the pairing is instant, the vibration is solid, and analog sticks work without issue. If anything, the back buttons, the d pad, and the analogs are a bit sensitive, so you could accidentally trigger certain unwanted commands if distracted. Otherwise fantastic choice.

I am a game collector and recently have been looking at wireless controller options. There are a bunch of bad ones out there this is not one of them. This think has worked great and the fact that I can use it with my PS3 and PS2 as it came with 2 receivers is a great addition. If your looking for a good quality wireless controller this is a great budget option.

I'm gonna start off by saying I'm EXTREMELY picky when it comes to controllers for the PS2/3 and I look at every detail. - Build Quality: Great, it's a 9/10 when it comes to the materials feeling robust like a genuine branded controller similar to the official ones you get for the newer consoles. - Lag: It's pretty amazing. I'm not gonna say it doesn't have any, but the truth is there isn't any NOTICEABLE lag, and trust me I'm extremely sensitive to it. - Vibration: Feels alright but I did not test enough to see how progressive it is vs. the DualShock2/3. - Gyro: Non-existent. Apparently there's a PS3 only version coming out with SIXAXIS support so you might want to wait for it. - Button Pressure Sensitivity: mostly works pretty well: ALL the buttons except for START + SELECT are pressure sensitive. Yes, including the D-Pad!! (which, funily enough, is way easier to modulate than the analog sticks... more on that next) . Full presses don't take too much effort, and even though feather presses are a bit harder to pull off, with enough practice you can do them consistently (like smooth acceleration in Gran Turismo/GTA, or pulling up your weapon without shooting in MGS2. The latter is even easier than with my original DS2 controller, which is saying something!). However, they are not perfect: my controller does this weird thing that if I maintain a certain pressure level in X for example and I press any other button simultaneously, it increases the pressure level in X without me physically applying more pressure. It adds about 30% more pressure and it happens when I combine a face button with any other button (except the analog sticks). It isn't a deal breaker but something to keep in mind. - Triggers: Deadzone for max input is far too high. However, the biggest problem is that the deadzone for minimum input is conversely, way too low, making them very easy to accidentally press, so you can't really rest your fingers on them comfortably. - Analog Sticks: Let's start with the good part: the feel of the plastic and L3/R3 button presses is pretty good and don't have that weird clickiness you usually get with 3rd party controllers when pressing down on the analogs (L3/R3). Now comes the bad: in terms of functionality these are a catastrophic failure for Retro Fighters in my opinion, and they completely ruin the experience in games that require fine analog stick modulation. I'm talking absolute rubbish analogs, only matched by the ones on my fake DS3 controller (which goes without saying, are also terrible). For one, the travel is slightly reduced when compared to the DS2/3 (which is OK, after all, most analog sticks today are like this), but compounding that effect, and the first dealbreaker here, are the massive deadzones both inner and outer. And to add insult to injury, they added this weird interpolation on top which makes your analogs want to follow the orthogonal directions. E.g.: if you hold your stick fully to the right and then start moving it up a little bit at the same time, the controller does not register this slight change in movement because it is biased and wants to stay in orthogonal directions) my god, for a controller that does so much right this is such a disappointment. Hopefully this can be fixed with a firmware update, but I'm not counting on it. Now, I don't know much about electronics, but if I had to bet, I'd say both the deadzones and the orthogonal bias are "hard-coded" into the potentiometers, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Conclusion: All in all, this is an otherwise amazing controller that is ruined by the terrible analog sticks. I cannot recommend this controller over a genuine PS2/3 controller. For the PS1 though that would be a YES, provided you mostly game with the D-Pad, not the analogs, and don't mind the overly sensitive triggers. Also, analogs don't work with the PlayStation Mini.

These controllers are awesome! 🎮🍻🤘

Worked great a month in using it on my PS2. Lately it has been disconnecting while playing ( I sit less than 4 feet away from my retro setup.) Also, when its not having connection issues its not reading inputs (dropped alot of inputs doing the God Of War qte's both on the buttons and left analogue stick.) Ive actually had no issues with the generic wireless PS2 controllers that I got from ebay months before buying this one. Really wanted this one to be my go to controller. Either get the 8bitdo adaptor and just use a ps4 control or wait for the updated Defender controller that Retro Fighter well release some time soon. Hard to rate this. When it worked it was a good. But having connection issues and misreading inputs wipes that away when youre really into the game youre playing. 2 out of 5. Hopefully with the next revision they'll iron out the kinks.