AFTERPAD

Yeah the Mad Catz gamepads were viable-- those issues I was having were enough to be problems for me but I could see someone getting by just fine with them.  I really liked how it had the iPhone mount.  The Horipad just felt great and worked perfectly though, to the point that it clearly beat all others for me, for the types of games and experiences I'm going for.  It was like 'ahhhh, finally'.

Also of note, for every gamepad, I had a series of MFi games (apart from also my own prototypes) that I would test in the same progressive order.

1) Halo: Spartan Strike (top-down action shooter)
2) Shadowgun (3rd person action shooter)
3) Final Fantasy VII (classic 3D RPG)

The above were done systematically on each gamepad.  The thinking was to test each one against progressively more console-like experiences, even though all of them were in general.  Other test games included Bastion, Oceanhorn, Lilly, Metal Slug, etc... but those were done just out of curiosity.

Playing these on a TV with a gamepad really changes their feel dramatically-- they really feel like full-blown console experiences at that point.  Pretty amazing this all can run on our phones now!

Thanks for your insight guys!  It was helpful!  Also nice to share my testing process and experience here. 😊

Quick update-- so I did the nuclear option and got a second Stratus XL, a Stratus, a Mad Catz CTRLi, and a Horipad.  The results?

The Stratus XL's Left Stick had problems AGAIN.  This time it would randomly fire all the way to the left.  This at least made gameplay playable (whereas the first Stratus XL I got would fire to the south and make you reverse direction abruptly and continuously!).  So I'm pretty convinced SteelSeries generally failed on the Stratus series.

I didn't even try the normal Stratus as a result.

(Also of note, this is actually the THIRD Stratus XL I had purchased in a week.  I bought the first one directly from SteelSeries with rush 2-day delivery.  They did not ship it on time or notify me of any delay.  I had to contact them directly by replying on my invoice-- you can't contact them on their contact form because they require a serial number.  If you don't have your product yet, you can't even raise a flag that they failed to ship it!  I got fed up and ordered the second one off Amazon Prime with next-day delivery.  Later that day Amazon confirmed shipment and SteelSeries still had not even replied to my message to their ZenDesk nor had they shipped the controller, three days late now and a day past the 2-day delivery I paid extra for.  Finally they did reply and it took them a day to confirm they were having warehouse issues and could stop my shipment from now going out.  They caught it just in time at the last minute, and then issued a refund per my demand.  It was a pretty bad experience overall... especially then to try out two other Stratus XL's and find them defective!)

Then the Mad Catz CTRLi.  It felt lightweight, cheap, flimsy, but no random firings-- so it was already ahead of SteelSeries.  However, firing the RT was unreliable and moving the RS was difficult, making fine aiming in a shooter impossible at times.

So I was holding my breath for last but not least-- the Horipad.  It was definitely the best.  It looks and feels the nicest, has some good weight to it.  In terms of design, it's like if the DualShock and an Xbox gamepad had a baby.  The RT was the most responsive and effective of any of the gamepads, as reliable as mapping shooting onto a BAXY button like X.  The twin sticks felt good.  And it was the only gamepad that allows you to charge it via USB-- no batteries!

So I managed to get returns on all other gamepads and keep the Horipad.  That should tie me over until trying the Nimbus, hopefully the same day the new Apple TV comes out and not delayed.  At least the Horipad is a solution that fully works, the only one in my experience with these.

Thought you guys might find this useful info.

PS: after reading the Steelseries CEO interview on VentureBeat and learning Apple and Steelseries developed the Nimbus together, that's very encouraging that the Nimbus might end up finally giving us an MFi gold standard after all.  We can only wait and see...

http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/11/steel … -apple-tv/