My girlfriend did a nice job chronicling what weâve been up to for the past few weeks. It was quite a journey.
Now that things have finally settled, the regular content will resume shortly.
Good news for international customers: the SteelSeries Stratus XL is now available from Amazon!
This controller has been available from Apple for some time now, but Apple’s distribution is far more limited than that of Amazon. Using Amazon, customers can ship items all over the world, rather than being limited to the territories in which Apple has distribution deals 1.
My full review of the Stratus XL will be live on Monday. Still, for those who’d rather not wait, I will say it’s not a bad controller. It has a few confusingly obvious flaws, but it’s a quantum leap beyond the original Stratus. Supplies are very limited on Amazon, so if you’re interested, act fast.
There is a snowball’s chance in hell this ever becomes a real product, but at least someone at Apple is thinking about gaming. That’s something.
Making good on their promise, TteSports took to CES last week to reveal their upcoming MFi controller, called the Contour.
Just like last time, TteSports gave the big story to the MegaTechNews site.
Superficially, the Contour MFi controller appears to be similar to the Moga Rebel. The analog sticks appear to be an untextured, rubberized plastic with a slight ridge (identical to the Rebel). The d-pad appears to be a circle pad with a slightly textured elevated plus-shaped directional navigator. It features an integrated (and removable) hinge for attaching iPhones.
Unlike the recent Mad Catz and SteelSeries controllers, the Contour will feature an integrated battery. Generally, I’m a fan of integrated batteries, but in this case, I’m cautious: TteSports is only claiming 10 hours of battery life per charge. If this turns out to be the case, it would put this at the bottom of the barrel in terms of controller battery life, and far less than any of the other Bluetooth controllers.
TteSports appears to have refined the design since it was originally revealed at CompuTex last year. The d-pad, buttons, and iPhone grip seem more polished now. Exactly as I predicted at the time, cross-platform compatibility has been pulled, since Apple doesn’t allow MFi certification for Android or Windows controllers.
Despite revealing the controller at CES, ThermalTake hasn’t been particularly forthcoming with information about it. I haven’t been able to discover many references to this controller on their site, let alone a press release or images. That tends to suggest that the release date is still a ways off.
TteSports will be entering a very different market today than they would have last year. Many MFi controllers are available today that do exactly what the Contour do, and appear to do it with nicer analog sticks and (potentially) better d-pads. I’m curious to see exactly how TteSports plans to stand out in this increasingly crowded field.
The Contour should be available at some point in the future at a price of $79; I’ll be picking up a copy for review ASAP.
One of the most ridiculous controllers I’ve ever seen
It seems Mad Catz isn’t content with just having two excellent, and reasonably priced, mobile controllers on the market with the C.T.R.L.i and Micro C.T.R.L.i. No, they decided to go in a much more ambitious direction with the L.Y.N.X.9
Before we get into the nitty gritty details, this is Android only. Mad Catz took a year to port their C.T.R.L.r to iOS, so we may not be seeing this on the Apple side any time soon.
With that out of the way, Mad Catz has opted for a somewhat unique modular controller design. The entire controller can be disassembled and rebuilt to fit better with Android tablets (I’m sure someone somewhere owns one), Android phone, and wireless console control. A keyboard and trackpad module can be attached to the bottom, and a microphone allows for full voice control (wait, don’t tablets and phones already come with mics?).
Oh, and it costs 300 dollars. Yeah, I probably should have lead with that. It’s 300 dollars for this controller. Not Yen, not Pesos; $300 american. The next time someone calls MFi controllers expensive, I’ll have to remember to direct them to the L.Y.N.X.9
Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin to know what to think about this one. It seems ridiculous, but I have to hand it to Mad Catz for their ambition here; this is NOT a rehash of an existing controller design, as their current mobile pads are. This is, in fact, an entirely new design that completely addresses MANY of the problems facing mobile devices. And although $300 seems like too much to blow on a controller, I know me – I’d probably be first in line to grab one of these guys if it comes to iOS.
Assuming this isn’t a very early April Fool’s joke, the L.Y.N.X.9 should be available in a few months. It’s already up for preorder, so the Android gamers out there with $300 to spend on a controller should definitely give it a look.
Itâs almost here. The Gamevice, the first ever controller-case style MFi controller for the iPad, is scheduled to hit stores this March. Even bigger: while the controller was originally announced as an iPad Mini exclusive, Wikipad will also be releasing a version for the iPad Air. This is especially good news in light of the massive performance gap between the latest versions of both tablets.
The Gamevice connects to the iPad via Lightning, and includes an integrated battery, audio output via an integrated DAC, Micro USB charging, and full Extended format MFi controls with an actual Plus-style d-pad. Prices are expected to start at $99, though itâs unclear whether different versions of the Gamevice will retail for different prices.
Interestingly, the iPad Air and iPad Mini will each be receiving two versions of the Gamevice. In addition to the regular version, a new 4G version is also in active development. This version is capable of acting as a 4G hotspot, and includes a 1600mAh battery, as opposed to the standard 800mAh battery. This use of an MFi controller is absolutely unprecedented; to my knowledge, nobody anywhere has attempted to combine a MFi controller, backup battery, and 4G hotspot before. Consider me excited!
Wikipad will be demonstrating the Gamevice at CES in Las Vegas, and Iâll be there on the scene to get my hands on one as soon as possible. Barring some sort of horrible catastrophe, Iâm honestly hoping this will become my go-to iPad controller for the foreseeable future.
Polished, fun, MFi controller supported space shooter Ace Ferrara and the Dino Menace has recently been (re)released on the App Store, and is temporarily free!
Ace Ferrara had previously been published by Bulkypix; as this publishing agreement has now come to an end, the original developer is opting to re-release the game under their own banner. The App Store imposes restrictions on transferring ownership of apps with iCloud support, so the only way to take care of existing customers was for the developer to re-release for free, and give existing customers enough time to switch versions.
Personally, I donât have much respect for Bulkypix as a publisher. They release buggy and unpolished apps, then leave those apps stranded without updates for years. They have a history of inserting pop-up ads into paid games, when those games do get updates. Sleazy, sleazy business; the type of thing that loses people like me as customers. A great game like this being re-released without their involvement is great to see, and makes me a lot more confident about this gameâs future.
Judging by the web activity I’m seeing right now, a lot of people out there just unwrapped their very first MFi controller, and are looking for something to play! With over 500 compatible games available right now, the task of separating the best from the rest can be a little daunting.
This post attempts to provide a starting point. There are a lot of great games not on this list, but I wanted to make a sort of “crash course”, with a wide selection of games across different genres and pricing styles.
Whether you’re looking for something to play with a C.T.R.L.i, a Stratus, a Rebel, or a Horipad, every game on this list will work, and every one is a lot of fun!
This is just a sampling of the many, MANY games available for MFi controllers. For a complete selection, check out the pages below!
The folks at Gadget Love put together a pretty awesome animated gif of the changes Nintendo’s controllers have gone through over time.
It would be fascinating to see some other companies’ controllers given a similar treatment.
The most magical time of the year
Well it’s that time of year again, boys and girls. Apple has closed down iTunes Connect, and game developers are trying their best to pry as much App Store attention as possible from millions of people who will be unwrapping their first iPhones, iPads, and iPods this week.
This means sales. So, so many sales. More directly relevant to this site, it means many of the games on sale support MFi controllers. And this is especially good news, because with the wide selection of great MFi controllers released over the past few months, a lot of people will likely be unwrapping a game controller to use with their iOS hardware.
Without further ado, here are some of the games getting deep discounts to celebrate the holidays. There are some absolutely essential games on this list, including Badland, Bioshock, the Final Fantasy games, Oceanhorn, GTA… don’t miss out on grabbing these classics at a great price!