ZFY Wireless Controller

Hardware Type: Controller

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Review:

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

When it comes to videogame controllers, it doesn’t get much more gimmicky than making the controller look like something. Over the years, we’ve seen controllers designed to look like a chainsaw, like the Wu-Tang Clan logo, like a full-size katana sword, and like Deadpool’s butt, to name a few. And then there’s the ZFY Wireless Controller, which is clearly designed to resemble the face of a tanuki, and just to be less subtle about it, the controller’s box identifies this as the Dyonder Power Tom Nook Controller, clearly referencing the Animal Crossing series’ shady loan shark.

I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of ideas Tom Nook would get from a Power Tom Nook Controller, but I have to think it would be accompanied with an ominous crash of lightning and thunder.

While the Power Tom Nook Controller (there’s no way I’m not referring to it as that from now on) has roughly the same size and button layout as Nintendo’s own Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, the shape is clearly different, with this being just a bit evocative of the original PlayStation 3 prototype “boomerang” controller. While it might not seem like it from photos, the controller’s shape is not uncomfortable, though there are other elements of the controller that are.

The Power Tom Nook Controller’s two analog sticks (not hall effect sticks, meaning they can eventually suffer from “drift”) are in an asymmetrical layout like Nintendo’s own controllers, and have concave tops which I tend to prefer, unlike Nintendo’s convex analog sticks. However, all of this is aside from the major issue, which is that these analog sticks are significantly smaller than most controllers’ analog sticks, which makes them feel very awkward to control.

This issue also extends to the face buttons, which are smaller than a typical controller’s buttons, feeling very cramped and awkward. And while both the face buttons and the D-Pad are a decent midway point between clicky and squishy, the D-Pad suffers another problem – it is far too close to the left analog stick, meaning you will likely bump into the analog stick while using the D-Pad in D-Pad-centric games.

The parade of irritating design choices continues when we look at the shoulder buttons. The ZL and ZR buttons are fine, being typical digital buttons (which may be a disappointment for those hoping to use this controller’s PC compatibility), but the L and R shoulder buttons are… odd. They’re over-wide, no doubt to make up for the fact that the front of them is bordered by the large “ears” of the controller, which serve no function other than to glow pink when the controller is charging or in use, and obviously to serve the overall aesthetic of the controller. Despite the extra width of these shoulder buttons, the controller still feels cramped because of these ears.

Moving back down again to the secondary face buttons, plus and minus have been shifted closer to the center of the controller, no doubt to make this look more like tanuki spots. However, doing so makes them harder to reach easily. The screenshot button has moved over to where the home button usually is to make room for a turbo button (which acts in the typical way most turbo buttons work on controllers that have them), and the home button has been moved to the bottom-center of the controller, the “nose” of the tanuki face.

Flipping the controller over, we see a pair of small, triangular macro buttons for storing command sequences, like a Street Fighter “hadouken”. Setting these up requires a combination of the button you’re looking to program and the turbo button, and it required a fair amount of trial and error to get it to work right. On that note, I should mention that the entire instruction manual is poorly-written, seemingly translated to English by a non-English speaker.

This controller does include adjustable rumble in place of Nintendo’s HD rumble, it has good gyroscopic motion control, and as with most third-party Nintendo Switch controllers, it cannot scan Amiibo figurines.

Finally, as I mentioned before, this controller is supposed to work on PC as well, only via wired USB-C connection, but while I was able to get my PC to recognize the controller, games didn’t detect it.

So when all is said and done, the Power Tom Nook Controller did the thing that gimmicky controllers like this usually do – it sacrifices utility and function in the name of appearance. So many bad decisions were made when designing this controller, all seemingly in the name of making it look like a tanuki face – the small buttons and analog sticks, the D-Pad being too close to the left analog stick, the “ears” cramping the shoulder buttons, the unhelpful relocation of the secondary face buttons. While this controller may be cute to look at, it is not one you will actually want to use for playing games with.

tl;dr – The Power Tom Nook Controller (that’s what the ZFY Wireless Controller is called on the box) looks cute, but is crippled by numerous design decisions clearly done in service of that cuteness, at the expense of playability. Small buttons and analog sticks, buttons moved to inconvenient locations, cramped shoulder buttons, and a D-Pad too close to the left analog stick all make this a controller that’s terrible to play with, even if it’s nice to look at.

Grade: C-

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