Sony Standard Controller reviewed on www.vidgames.com

Sony Standard Controller
Reviewed by Nils Jacobsen

Initial Impressions

When I first saw it I had serious doubts about this controller. Four buttons on top? Individual directional buttons? (BTW, they are not, they are connected under the casing.) Looked like a mutant SNES controller on steroids! Anyways, got it, plugged it in, and we were instant friends! Yes, love by first touch, call it what you want! I instantly enjoyed using this controller. It seems the Sony engineers knew what they were doing afterall!

Playing the Games

My initial concerns were quickly resolved once I started using this controller. It feels great! (Luckily, the controller was slightly enlarged as compared to the Japanese version before it was released over here.) It fits my hands fine, the buttons are placed were they should be.

All games play great using this controller. Just a couple of exceptions. When playing MK3 I sometimes have problems pulling off some of the moves. It seems to be related to the directional buttons being disconnected on top. (Circular movement especially). And in Tekken the kick/punch buttons seems a bit close. Not biggie, I just put the controller on the floor and pretend it is a joystick... (Not a long term solution!) Anyways, both these problems are with fighting games, and can be easily solved by doing the only right thing, BUY A STICK! :-)

Quality/Durability

Have had it for close to six months now, no problems so far. Excellent design, excellent quality. As always, 6 feet seems a bit short for the cord, but a 6 feet extension cable fixed that problem.

Conclusion

An excellent first design by Sony. Feels great, plays great. Won't get full score because of the slight directional pad problem, and the fact that it doesn't have any of the extras like auto-fire, slo-mo, etc. 4 out of 5 stars.

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