Hands On

It's clear that the PS2 controller was a design baseline, and that's a good thing. The d-pad, mini-sticks and four primary buttons all align with my PS2 controller if I put their faces against each other. So the placement and sizes of the controller d-pad, buttons and sticks will be the same as you are used to for the PS2. I've seen some small PS2 controllers in stores but this one isn't one of them. What makes it larger than the stock PS2 controller and others is the handles and rubber gripping area on the sides, as well as the two analog triggers underneath. Also the area below the mini-sticks is not rounded around each mini-stick like some controllers have but instead it is squared off some distance below the mini-sticks as the photos show.

I find that the grip of the controller is very good. I have male adult-sized hands. It feels solid and balanced and isn't too light or too heavy for my taste. I find that my middle fingers are best placed on the two lower front analog triggers. My index fingers rest well on the front L2/L2 and R1/R2 buttons and my thumbs comfortably sit on the d-pad and top (1/2/3/4) primary buttons. If I want to, I can use my index fingers for the triggers with no difficulty and in that position my middle fingers rest underneath, back on the handles. For both grip stances, my ring and pinky fingers stay comfortably back on the handle for gripping.

The triggers underneath take up space and so give less room for your middle fingers to rest under the controller than the stock PS2 controller, so you'll need to either use them for the triggers (works well) or use them for holding the rear grips.

The four primary buttons are rounded and far enough apart that I'm not accidentally pressing two at the same time, but not too far away. The bright circular silver backing helps me to see the buttons and d-pad in a dimly lit room. If you press the edge of a button, the whole button goes down well and it still registers as a press. They stand about twice as high as Sony's PS2 controller's do, which might make sliding from one button to another in a quick move more difficult because you might bump against the side of the button in such a move. The d-pad is the opposite though. The button-like d-pad of the PS2 controller sometimes doesn't allow a smooth roll-around move while I find that the Thrustmaster Dual Trigger 3 in 1 does.

The d-pad doesn't allow an ambiguous press. It will nicely rock into one of the eight directions on a slightly higher center point. If you want to do a half-circle move (Virtua Fighter series uses these), lets say from right to left, going around the top, then it's easy to do. I've used other d-pads where they wanted to signal other directions to the console in such a move because there was no center rocker. I give this feature a thumbs up! Err, I mean 'thumbs pressed!' :)

The two mini-sticks are the exact same distance apart as are the ones on the stock PS2 controller. The actual rubber tops hat on the mini-sticks are a little smaller than my first generation U.S. PS2 controller. Also the mini-sticks' hats are indented. I prefer the PS2's mini-stick's slightly larger size and non-indented (mushroom shaped) rubber tops but it's not a big difference.

The four front buttons (R1/R2/L1/L2) are well shaped for both holding the controller and press nicely, giving good response when pressed. For smaller hands that can only reach the outside of the front buttons, it still registers a press there too.

There is one quirk with the specific controller I got. The R2 button doesn't depress as firmly as the other front buttons. It lands with a squish, and not a more solid feeling as the others and it's also slightly lower in height. The button still works fine though. I think my unit has a slight defect. I don't think most people would have noticed it.

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