ShanWan Bluetooth Gamepad Keychain Sized Mini Controller

Hardware Type: Controller

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Review:

(Note: This product was received at no cost for review via the Amazon Vine program.)

There are a few ways to make a name for yourself in any sort of sales space. The first and possibly the most difficult is to simply be the best. Alternately, you can aim to be the best at one particular thing. You can aim to be the cheapest, or the best value, or you can aim to have an aesthetic so different that it sets you apart from the crowd.

The ShanWan Bluetooth Gamepad Keychain Sized Mini Controller (from here on simply called the ShanWan Mini Controller) does a few of these things – at $15, it’s one of the least-expensive Nintendo Switch controllers I’ve encountered, and its aesthetic is certainly unique. Although this is largely because of the main thing it does, which is to fill a very specific niche in the market. This is because the ShanWan Mini Controller is extremely tiny, as the name implies.

The ShanWan Mini Controller is absolutely dwarfed by Nintendo’s own Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and in fact it is only about 2/3 the size of one of Nintendo’s Joy-Con controllers. This thing is tiny, to the point where the included purple strap seems like more than just a suggestion. The word “keychain” in the name isn’t a misnomer – if you were so inclined, you could absolutely fit this controller on a keychain via the little niche you fit the strap through, although I suspect this would make it more cumbersome to use.

This tiny size naturally comes with significant drawbacks though. First and foremost, both of the analog sticks are gone here, which has a severe impact on which games this controller can even be used to play. The screenshot button is also gone, which is somewhat less bothersome. And this controller also lacks rumble functionality and Amiibo scanning that you get in Nintendo’s Pro controller.

And yeah, to absolutely no one’s surprise, this controller feels extremely cramped to hold. It’s doable, but this thing definitely wasn’t made for comfort or precision. My larger hands kept bumping into face buttons I wasn’t trying to hit, repeatedly hit the plus and minus buttons on the center-left and center-right when I was trying to press the home button in the center, and you have to reach over the L and R buttons to reach the tiny ZL and ZR buttons. You might think that a controller lacking the analog sticks would still work well for retro games and Fighting games, but anything requiring skill and precise button presses is not going to go well with this controller.

Okay, so what is this controller good for, then? Well, primarily, any games that don’t use the analog sticks, don’t require precise or complex button presses. Simple retro games and single-button Arcade-style games, retro-style RPGs, Graphic Adventure games and Visual Novels, Turn-Based Strategy and Strategy-RPG games, Simulation games… when it comes to games like these, this controller shines, and I may actually find it preferable to standard-size controllers in some cases.

In a recent Visual Novel game I played, I spent hours mostly just pressing a single button to progress the text. And it is so much easier to do that when the controller easily fits into my hand. A niche use? Absolutely, very much so! But for those who play a lot of simple and slower-paced games, the ShanWan Mini Controller may make it easier to do so.

It also isn’t without its own surprising features. Despite its small size, it has gyroscopic motion control that works quite well. I’m not sure how many games support gyroscopic motion control but don’t also use analog sticks, but this will work for them. It also wakes the Nintendo Switch from sleep with a button press, which is nice. This is also the first controller I’ve tested that works flawlessly on both Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, both wired and wirelessly. It also works fine wirelessly on Android, and it works fine on PC using a USB-C wired connection… though I couldn’t get it to work on PC wirelessly via Bluetooth, even though my PC could connect to it.

Speaking of features this controller claims to have, but didn’t work, the instruction manual claims that this controller can connect to the Nintendo Switch in place of a single Joy-Con, but try as I might I could not get the controller to do it.

In the end, I think the ShanWan Mini Controller is something that most players will see as a novelty and nothing more, but it does have its uses in a very specific niche. Granted, a few features that don’t work make that niche even smaller than it would otherwise be, but to a very specific type of gamer, this controller will make for an excellent way to play simple games and relaxed retro-style games.

tl;dr – The ShanWan Mini Controller is a controller that is only 2/3 the size of a Joy-Con, can be cramped to hold, won’t work for any games that require analog sticks, and not all of its advertised features work. Yet despite all of this, when playing simple and slow-paced games this can be a comfortable way to control the game. The use for this controller is extremely extremely niche, but those looking for something to fit a very specific set of criteria, this controller is a wonderfully unique option.

Grade: B-

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