My son and I decided that we wanted to go the wireless route when getting new controllers for our X-Box. His friends are kind of rough on the controllers, and cords were constantly being pulled or tangled mid game.

After a bad experience with the Mad Catz wireless controllers, we decided to spring for the Logitechs that were recommended by Game Stop. However, we purchased the controllers at Wal-Mart for $39.99, since Wal-Mart's price was ten dollars cheaper.

Start Up Use sharp scissors to cut through the thick plastic clam style packaging, and you will manage to get the controller out. It takes four (yep four!) AA batteries, but a pair is included with your purchase. The controller comes in two parts. One end plugs into your X-Box with a War of Worlds Tripod sort of receptor on the end to receive the signal. The controller itself has no wires and is the same size and shape as a regular X Box controller.

Look and Feel of the Controller Both my son and I really liked the dark flat black finish of the controller and the rubber like material of it. It is not a slippery plastic, but some sort of rubber material that allows your hands to grip the controller tight without losing it when your hands get all sweaty from marathon video game sessions. The button layout is identical to the X-Box brand controllers, and it does feature Vibration mode. I did notice that the vibrations in the X box controller are more pronounced, but for me, that was a good point! The controller really feels nice in your hand, and since there's no wires you can bend it left and right (as if that made a difference) when entering those hard left and right turns in Need for Speed or Project Gotham Racing.

How well does the Wireless work?

I will use our recent Need for Speed - Most Wanted: Black Edition as the test example. I do this for one very good reason. A good controller should have responsive analog sticks and a responsive D-Pad. Racing games demand lightning fast reflexes, or your car is going to bounce off the walls. My son uses the Analog control stick to steer, I prefer the D-Pad. Both of us were able to control our vehicles with quick precise turns and braking throughout the mean streets of Rockport. Buttons were responsive from across the living room, and each of our controllers only controlled our own vehicle. My son even demonstrated that the signal would pass through walls, as he stood in another room and clicked through the menus! (I wouldn't recommend this, it helps to see the screen to play!) Neither of us noticed any problems in controller inputs and response of the game.

Freedom! The ability not to have wires all over my living room was awesome. So far we have two of these controllers, and we may well buy a couple more eventually. For now, we can play one or two player games with ease and without wires. It also makes the controllers easy to store and we have no worries about crimped wires.

Only Complaints These are a bit pricey, most places I have seen them, they cost $50.00 each, and even at Wal-Mart they were $40.00 apiece. You also have to add in the cost of FOUR AA batteries per controller, which over time I am sure will add up. At this time, I do not know how long they will last, we just got the controllers last week. I understand that they last for about 50 hours (or the way my son plays if I let him, one weekend)

Summary We are very pleased with the look, feel, and play of these controllers and most happy about NO WIRES! Our experience has been five stars.

Related Reviews:

You Get What you pay for - Review of Mad Catz Wireless X-Box Controller
Test Game Need for Speed - Most Wanted: Black Edition


Recommend this product?