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Hori’s new Grip Controller replaces your Switch’s Joy-Cons with full-size gamepads

Hori’s new Grip Controller replaces your Switch’s Joy-Cons with full-size gamepads

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What if Joy-Cons, but beefier?

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Do you find your Switch’s Joy-Con controllers too small? Well, Hori may have the answer with its new Grip Controller, which takes advantage of the Switch’s modular design to replace Nintendo’s smaller options with controllers that hew much closer to a traditional gamepad (albeit, one that’s been split in two).

Like a traditional gamepad that got split in two for the Switch

The Grip Controller is technically meant as a tie-in for the upcoming mech shooter Daemon X Machina (complete with themed colors and a subtle replacement of the X button with that game’s logo), but it should work for nearly any Switch game. Along with the larger design, the Grip Controller promises a few improvements on the regular Joy-Cons: there’s a traditional D-pad, larger triggers, a third rear button on each half that can be programmed as any other button on the controller, and a continuous fire “turbo” function.

Unlike the Joy-Cons, though, there are a few features missing, including the gyro sensor, HD rumble, accelerometer, NFC, and the IR sensor. That means that you won’t be able to use motion control aiming in games like Breath of the Wild or Splatoon 2 with the Grip Controller. And the Grip Controller halves will also only work when they’re attached to the Switch — they don’t have any wireless capabilities, so you can’t use them detached like you would a Joy-Con.

The new Grip Controller isn’t Hori’s first attempt to improve on Nintendo’s Joy-Con design — last year, the company released a replacement left-hand Joy-Con that swapped Nintendo’s face buttons for a traditional D-pad. (That controller suffered from battery issues at launch, but they have since been addressed, which bodes well for the Grip Controller.)

The Grip Controller is set to launch in September 2019 in Japan for 4,780 yen (roughly $44), and according to an Amazon pre-order listing, it will release in the US on September 30th for $49.99.

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