The Nitro Deck+, from Embracer-owned outfit CRKD, follows up on the unique Deck, a well-liked controller choice for the Swap. That one-piece Pleasure-Con alternative sported Corridor Impact sticks, a extra Steam Deck-like kind issue, and an entire line of aesthetics for type or nostalgia. We took a have a look at that first mannequin, however now CRKD is seeking to handle just a few shortcomings with this new revision.
Let’s begin by speaking concerning the new controls! The Nitro Deck+ swaps the place of the thumbsticks, utilizing a symmetrical format. It was apparently an enormous request, however finally it’s a matter of alternative. It’s true that many video games prioritize analog management and all the additional programmable buttons are there to allow you to maintain thumbs on sticks always, but in addition this modification deviates from the Swap’s default scheme and will end in some weirdness. The Swap’s base configuration provides gamers some latitude to carry it in several methods, letting you place your arms to be snug with buttons no matter scheme or hand measurement. The Nitro Deck+ needs you to carry it one particular means, and that’s increased up than you’d like when you have to use the D-pad and face buttons.
There are two new inputs, which CRKD dubs “sidekick buttons,” to the facet of the analog sticks. There could also be a use for them, along with the 4 paddles on the again, and that cell app does allow you to remap them as you would like. Actually, we thought we’d have bother discovering a use case for the brand new facet buttons! They’re in a bizarre place, they usually don’t make a lot sense throughout motion. However mixed with the stick swap on the correct and the Nitro Deck’s normal heft, we discovered it snug to make use of them to button via menus and prompts between bouts of motion.
Whereas testing this, we’ve additionally been engaged on our Tremendous Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble overview, and it’s been an awesome check of management precision. For context, we’ve in any other case been utilizing a Swap Lite and a Professional Controller, each with just a few years of use, so it will not be fully honest to the others to match. That mentioned, the Nitro Deck+’s buttons additionally really feel stiff in a means that might maybe use some breaking in, so possibly issues steadiness out ultimately. Nonetheless, even with out twiddling with the app settings, the Deck+ supplied extra exact and granular management and made navigating boards marginally, however noticeably, simpler.
About half the inputs – A, B, X, Y, ZL, ZR and the menu buttons – are shiny, whereas the D-pad, bumpers and additional keys are matte. It is a choice factor, for positive, however we’re a fan of matte for long-term use. It’s definitely a bit peculiar to see the machine cut up the distinction like this. It was additionally like this within the first mannequin, so it’s one thing CRKD has dedicated to doing.
The Bluetooth operate added on this new model will not be what you anticipate. It’s not going to help you use it as a correct Professional Controller, sitting separate from the console, seemingly within the occasion you wanted one other pad for multiplayer. There’s no inside battery, so that you can use it, however you’ll must plug in with a cable. What it does, although, is enable you join it to the corporate’s app. That is for firmware updates and customizing the management mapping, and with so many additional buttons, that simpler remapping could be good. (There are additionally directions for remapping the buttons with out the app within the on-line handbook, which reminded us of the nice previous common TV distant days.)
Our expertise with the app was a bit shaky — it could lose reference to the machine pretty shortly — nevertheless it functioned for remapping the inputs. After all, to get there, it’s important to push via the corporate’s near-insufferable “assortment” technique, registering your machine to an account and both capturing your “response” to your machine’s serial quantity or saying no to about 12 system prompts attempting to entry your microphone and digicam. Oofa doofa, this can be a alternative.
The Nitro Deck+ additionally provides a “docked mode,” which once more would possibly include some caveats. You’ll want a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter, which the corporate sells individually. And also you theoretically can proceed to make use of the controls whilst you do it? However that’s actually going to rely in your cable size. The HDMI and energy cables must be plugged in always, in order that doesn’t appear superb. And in our testing, even once we nestled proper as much as the display screen, minor hand actions would jostle the cables and briefly lose connection.
In practicality, we’d actually name it extra of “dock mode.” Doubling as a dock alternative, both so you may maintain the Nitro Deck+ assembled or so you may plug as much as a secondary show with out shopping for one other first-party one, may very well be helpful! However in these instances, we’d in all probability nonetheless suggest utilizing a distinct controller. The extra strong kickstand on the again of the unit is a big assist for such a use case, too.
There’s additionally an eject button now? It doesn’t push the system out of the Deck in the way in which you’d need, nevertheless it’s potential that wasn’t one thing they may engineer. As an alternative, it’s a latch you pull to make it maintain onto the Swap much less firmly, so it will probably maintain its comfortable match and enable you get the system out when wanted too. For the reason that machine simply plugs in to the USB-C port and capabilities like a wired Professional Controller as an alternative of clicking into the Pleasure-Con rails, it’s seemingly that CRKD needed to give you some scheme like this to be safer.
The aesthetic selections of the Nitro Deck+ are a bit “the place will we go from right here,” in any case the selection choices of the primary mannequin. There are two colours out there for the brand new machine at launch, with our overview unit sporting a transparent white entrance, stable white again and black buttons. The bases of the analog sticks are additionally metallic purple, for some purpose? These selections might completely give you the results you want, however they’re not the house run of the nostalgia-bait ones or the secure one-color choices.
There are advantages to CRKD’s method, nevertheless it does come at a value: weight. It’s snug for some time, however having spent a lot time lately with the Swap Lite, it’s change into an awesome platform for longer periods. Whether or not it’s the Steam Deck or the Ayaneo Slide, a heavier moveable has remained in our rotation! And this feels loads like these, with good grip and bigger controls. However our wrists usually give out earlier than the battery does. In the event you’re enjoying a sport that places extra give attention to the face buttons, you’ll want to make use of a grip that makes the machine extra top-heavy, compounding the impact a bit.
The CRKD Nitro Deck+ is accessible via the corporate’s website for $69.99, or a bundle together with the HDMI adapter for $10 extra. For extra on the Nitro Deck line of equipment, try our have a look at the unique mannequin.
