Mumba PlayGrips (Set of 2)

Hardware Type: Grips

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Review:

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

I am the rare example of someone who, while I absolutely think the Nintendo Joy-Con 2 Controllers are a significant improvement over the original Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Controllers, I still think that they’re woefully lacking. It’s not just the lack of a right analog stick and D-Pad, it’s not just the offset analog stick on one controller and offset face buttons on the other, it’s not just the lack of plus, minus, and home buttons on each controller, or the lack of ZL and ZR buttons (an SL and SR button are there in place of the L and R button, and that’s it for shoulder buttons), it’s that I still think the form factor for the Joy-Con 2 Controllers is still terribly uncomfortable.

The Mumba PlayGrips, a 2-pack of Grips for the Nintendo Joy-Con 2 Controllers, can’t solve all of those problems, sadly. But they do aim to make gameplay using these as solitary controllers more comfortable and effective. An identical pair of grips (either one can house either a left or right Joy-Con 2 controller), the idea here is to bring the experience playing with these closer to playing with a standard controller.

As unlikely as it may seem, they do this job surprisingly well. Their size and form factor is much closer to a standard Pro-style controller than the Joy-Con grips. They feel great in the hands with their lightly-textured handgrips and nice form factor, and even though you still need to reach over with a thumb for either the analog stick (on the left Joy-Con 2 Controller) or the face buttons (on the right Joy-Con 2 controller), it doesn’t feel terribly uncomfortable to do so.

The Joy-Con 2 controllers are easy to pop in and out – these grips don’t use magnets, you just push them in, and there’s a hole in the back to push them out. And while the SL and SR buttons on the Joy-Con 2 controllers are a huge improvement over the original Joy-Cons’ tiny SL and SR buttons, this grip does one better by having large, comfortable paddles that push down on these buttons, and they seem surprisingly responsive too.

There are really just a few issues here. Having the Joy-Con 2 in one of these grips means you can’t quickly transition to using them in “remote” position for motion-controlled games, nor can you use them in mouse mode, even though there’s a hole at the top that would seem to allow for this, as it leaves the mouse sensor uncovered – it doesn’t matter, because the grips keep this sensor too far away from anything to properly detect mouse movement. Also, this grip covers up the L and ZL or R and ZR buttons, which makes it more difficult to do things like access the suspend menu in the Nintendo Switch Online retro apps.

The other issue is that the current price of $19 for a pair of these is pretty close to the cost of a third-party game controller, and even a Nintendo Switch 1 controller that you can find at roughly the same price is sure to be more comfortable than a Joy-Con 2 grip, even a really good one.

It’s that price that’s really the main sticking point for me – I’d be far more likely to recommend the Mumba PlayGrips if they were a bit cheaper. They’re a good product, but at this price I think I’d rather just get, you know, a regular controller.

tl;dr – The Mumba PlayGrips are a pair of Grips to fit onto the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con 2 Controllers to make them feel closer to standard Pro-style controllers. They actually do a pretty good job of this, or at least as good as I think you could hope for given the issues and limitations of the Joy-Con 2 controllers. The problem is, for not much more than the $19 price to get a pair of these, you could get an actual good third-party Nintendo Switch controller. I think that in most cases, that’s going to be the better way to go.

Grade: C+

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