Well I am huge em head and I have never been on board with playing my favorite SNES/NES games on my phone. The virtual game pad feels impossible to me. Like whats the point of dying and being terrible at SMB3? If I had my game controller I would be way better. I hated other 3rd party crap controllers that feels off,cheap and is just terrible. So I just stuck to my roms on my Wii or my 1st gen PSP which are both pretty good but my psp is huge and my Wii is well my Wii.

I gave up on any hope on a controller until now...

Its beautiful isn't? But is it functional? OH YES IT! 8bitdo did a amazing job with this thing. Such an amazing job I can't believe they haven't been sued into outer space. It feels like a real NES controller. From the rubber start button to the amazing but plastic d pad. I have carried this thing everywhere with me and even used it during boring trainings which now fly by as I don't pay attention to my job but play Super Castlevania 4. I have had random strangers come up to me in public and ask "is that what I think it is?" "Are you playing SNES on your tablet or phone?" They love trying it out and want one of their own but when I get into explaining Emulators and roms they look at me like I'm talking Spanish. Which I don't understand its not that hard. It also has some great features like being able to use it with the Wii(which I haven't yet),wall charger and being able to update the firmware. So how does it play?

NES Games

I've played a lot of different NES games with it and they play without a hitch. No lag and very responsive. I will say the set up was a bit confusing as the instructions didn't really help with how my devices(Note II and Nexus 7 Tab) hook up. I was pretty pissed that I could connect my controller to the device but the emulators were not picking it up. Well after searching the 8bitdo site I finally found a app that you download that helps do that. No where in the manual did it say that or what the hell I wasn't doing. Maybe it was just me being dumb and my user error but wasn't very clear how to get this thing rolling outside of connecting it by holding "Start" for 3 secs.
Back to the games. They all tested great and the lag was zero. I mean zero. I was playing Contra on my phone with no lag of any sort. It was amazing. I use Contra to always test out these things since the game mashing is so crazy and it just passed with flying colors. Mapping out the buttons was very easy. My only real gripe is the space of the "Y" and "A" button as they are farther then the real "B" and "A" button which makes sliding your fingers over a bit of a adjustment. But after a 30 mins that goes away the problem isn't much of one anymore.

SNES Games
I was worried about some lag with this one since SNES just demands more but again it preformed with no flaws. NBA JAM TE and MK3 played amazing. No button lag or screen. Lets talk triggers for a bit. This is basically a SNES pad put into NES form and the trigger work and push great but the straight corners can cause some pain after some extended playing where the original SNES pad is rounded and feel much better to the hand. Really if I had my choice I would want a SNES pad over the NES pad for that very reason. The triggers don't cause any issues in the playing but just in your hands.

So buy it?
Yes!! GO BUY IT NOW!  If you are a Em Head like me then this is a must for $33. Plus I know my kids down the road will be all over this when they are a bit older. I plan on buying a 2nd one before they get sued.. I hope not but damn I'd be shocked if they didn't. I don't leave home without this thing and it will make you the coolest kid err..adult at work.

Pros
-No lag
-Authentic feel
-High quality
-Works with the Wii
-Charges with Micro USB
-20+ hours of use

Cons
-Set up is a bit tricky
-SNES trigger pain

Check out Retro Collects review of the NES30 since its more technical and they are just better writers then me.

cool crap, nes, snes, video games, bits, 8bits, 16 bits,