The first is the Arcade Controller – Signature Edition at £79.99 / $94.99, which features a lovely transparent purple colour alongside signatures from professional fighting players Vxbao & Zhen. It boasts pretty much the same features as the original except in one key area: the buttons. Rather than the loud, clicky Kailh Wizard switches, this one contains Purple Glede switches that are practically silent with a much lower profile.
So with a quicker actuation point and a subtle, almost imperceptible cushiony base, the new switches are incredibly responsive with none of the ‘clickity-clackity’ noise that plagued the first model. It’s also much easier to execute sliding techniques now that the buttons sit lower.
So let’s check it out:
Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Original Kailh Wizard Switches (left) and the new Purple Glede switches (right) — Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Now, if you already own the original Arcade Controller and don’t fancy forking out for the Signature Edition, 8BitDo has also released the Upgrade Pack at $29.99 (there’s no UK price from what we can see).
This includes 16 replacement Purple Glede switches to emulate the Signature Edition along with some swanky golden button caps. We weren’t sure how this would look from the promotional images, but it’s really nice in person, and you can mix and match the black and red colours from the original to great effect.
You’ve also got a standard keycap puller and a plain wrist rest. The latter feels a little superfluous since it’s always good practice to keep your wrists elevated when using arcade controllers, but it feels suitably heavy and high-quality.
Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Image: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo Life
Buy 8BitDo Arcade Controller – Signature Edition
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What do you make of 8BitDo’s Signature Edition controller? Do you prefer tactile switches over quieter ones? Let us know with a comment.