You CAN Do Without This - Hori Split Pad Compact Review

In this episode, we have almost instant buyers remorse as we unbox and test out the Hori Split Pad Compact for the Nintendo Switch and Switch OLED.

Let me be honest with you for a moment, the Nintendo Joy-Cons, while an interesting design, have many many flaws. They're small, they drift, there's no proper d-pad on the left one, there's just a lot of issues that need to be addressed. Many third party manufacturers have tried to invent the better Joy-Con, and one of the first ones was Hori with their Split Pad Pro. Providing a larger overall grip, programmable buttons, and more, many people love this option. I, however, was not a fan. But when they announced the Split Pad Compact, a much smaller and slimmer design than the Split Pad Pro, I figured they deserved another chance.

The Split Pad Compact is available in a number of different colors to suit your desires. For some reason, the different colors are different prices on Amazon. That's bizarre. Hedging my bets, I purchased the least expensive gray and yellow ones, however the cranberry red ones are the ones that I would have gone with if they were in stock and not $10 more.

True to its name, the Split Pad Compact is much smaller than the Split Pad Pro, but it is still larger than the original Joy-Cons. They feature turbo buttons, assignable back buttons, a proper D-Pad on the left side, and more. With all of these features, there are some glaring omissions. There's no battery on board so these can only be used attached to your console. There's no rumble either, so you won't get any haptic feedback. I also feel that while the face buttons are larger, they're also closer together. Compromises were definitely made.

I started out by connecting them to my original Switch, and they linked right up with the system. I went into the menu to see if these worked with Amiibo, and was greeted with the system message telling me to connect Amiibo-compatible Joy-Cons. Well, that answers that.

I do much prefer this overall size and style to the Split Pad Pro, to me, those things were just too massive. The Split Pad Compact does feel better in the hand, but they're still considerably larger than the OEM Joy-Cons. The analog sticks both felt very good I will say, and while I did not show it here I did play some twin-stick shooters to put the right stick through its paces as well. Diving into NES and Super NES online games, the D-Pad performed better than it felt during my bench testing, but it still just didn't feel great in use. For fighting games such as Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, it worked decently, but I had better luck pulling off all of my moves using the analog stick.

I am typically not a user of back controller buttons, even when they are available. I will say that setting up the back button was extremely easy, once I properly read the manual that is. The turbo fire mode also worked extremely well, whether using turbo fire or auto fire.

Why it RoX:
Adds a true d-pad to the left Joy-Con
Smaller form factor compared to the Split Pad Pro
Good feeling analog sticks
Programmable back buttons
Built-in adjustable turbo

What could be improved:
No onboard battery
No rumble support
D-Pad feels terrible (but works well)
Overpriced for what it offers
Different colors are different prices?

Should you buy them?
I will admit I've been extremely critical of the original Split Pad Pro. I know many people love them, but I did not. I feel like I'm going to be in the same camp here with the Split Pad Compact as I don't believe that they offer significant value for the price. At $50 and up, you are getting a larger form factor over the original Joy-Cons, but you're also sacrificing many core features. For the money, these are a hard pass, especially with companies like Nyxi and BinBok providing excellent Joy-Con replacements with more features for less money. I feel like you're paying for the name, and while good, Hori is not Nintendo.

#Hori #SplitPadCompact #NintendoSwitch

The footage used in this review are used under the Fair Use laws