nintendo switch pro controller monster hunter rise edition

#NINTENDO SWITCH PRO CONTROLLER MONSTER HUNTER RISE EDITION TV#

To do that, I fiddle with the shoulder buttons constantly. The larger size makes it so much easier to hold for long sessions Photo: Jeff Ramos/Polygonįor instance, as a lance player, I need to make split-second reactions to block big attacks, perform counterattacks, and swap through items.

The muscle memory I built up on the Pro Controller didn’t translate as easily as I hoped. I noticed it was a lot harder to keep up with some of the more challenging hunts with the small Joy-Cons. Once I started feeling more comfortable with Monster Hunter Rise’s new mechanics, like the excellent Wirebug system, I wanted to casually enjoy the game on the couch or in bed. With that in mind, I spent most of the first few hours playing the game docked and using my Pro Controller. I have fairly large hands, and I knew as a veteran Monster Hunter player that this game would require a bit of dexterity. In other words, I hadn’t started playing Monster Hunter Rise. Last year, my colleague Russ Frushtick wrote a glowing Hori Split Pad Pro review that I dismissed at the time, but that was before I encountered a game worth slapping two aircraft carriers onto the side of my Switch. I wasn’t sure if the bulkier size was worth the possibility of a more comfortable experience. When I first attached them to my Switch, I felt like I may have made a mistake. (Despite their larger footprint, these controllers don’t have batteries, so they have to stay tethered to your console.) What you get for the added heft is a duo of controllers that mimic the proportions of a Pro Controller, except that they’re hanging off the sides of your Switch. While the Split Pad Pro is large, it’s very comfortable Photo: Jeff Ramos/Polygon The gamepads are also just as wide as the Switch itself. Detached from the console and placed near a Pro Controller, they’re nearly the same size. Each half of the Split Pad Pro mimics the left and right side of a controller layout similar to Nintendo’s Pro Controller.įor a sense of scale, each half of Hori’s creation is roughly the size of two Joy-Cons sitting side-by-side. The Hori Split Pad Pro is a pair of controllers that attach to the side of the Switch just like the Joy-Cons.

#NINTENDO SWITCH PRO CONTROLLER MONSTER HUNTER RISE EDITION TV#

My solution to making Rise feel just as good in my hands as it does paired with my big TV and a Pro Controller is an equally large set of controllers: The Hori Split Pad Pro. It doesn’t have to feel this way, though. It’s a shame because the tiny controllers are the only thing that brings me back down to the reality that I’m playing Monster Hunter Rise on a miniscule mobile device. It’s an uncomfortable grip I’ve never had to adopt for any other game. Since Monster Hunter Rise makes ample use of both trigger buttons, I often had to keep my index and middle finger in an awkward position to hit them both with precision. In handheld mode on the smaller Joy-Cons, dancing around with my thumbs and index fingers felt a bit more cumbersome. I have to adopt a weird grip to constantly use the shoulder buttons Photo: Jeff Ramos/Polygon Shifting between the multiple shoulder buttons, analog sticks, buttons, and the D-pad on the big Pro Controller is easy - especially with years of muscle memory on similar gamepads. The large gamepad makes it easy to manipulate the game’s multiple shortcuts commands, new Silkbind attacks, and complex play styles from the best weapons in Monster Hunter Rise like the switch axe or bow.

In docked mode, the Pro Controller is the best way to play. It’s how I play the game that begged for a change. In fact, Monster Hunter Rise seems to perform smoothly in both configurations, no matter where I play it. It’s not because the game suffers from performance problems between the console’s two modes. However, some games disrupt that magic, and the game that shattered the illusion for me was Monster Hunter Rise. The two sets of controllers maintain the vision that this console can deliver the same experiences when docked to a massive living room TV or held between my hands. I’ve owned a Nintendo Switch since launch, and the combination of the included Joy-Cons paired with a Pro Controller has been enough to enjoy most games.

Nintendo switch pro controller monster hunter rise edition