NYXI Wizard Review – Joycons For Gamecube Nerds

I’ll be honest NYXI is a company I had never heard of before they nicely got in touch to offer a review sample to show Retro Dodo readers.

This is quite simply a Nintendo Switch wireless Controller that looks like an old school Gamecube controller which can also attach to your console called the NYXI Wizard.

Over the last few weeks it has received some serious hype across social media, and for good reason, this thing looks incredible, and many retro gamers have been asking for it for years, but no company has had the balls to go for it, because… well Nintendo are usually very strict with this kind of thing.

But here we are, wireless joy-cons that look like a Gamecube controller. It was only a few weeks ago when I reviewed the Gamecube switch controller from RetroFlag, which felt amazing, but this here allows you to go all out wireless.

Controller Design & Layout

The NYXI Wizard packaging is very simple, you’ll find your controllers, a USB-C charging cable and two interchangeable joystick rings. These rings replace the rings around the analogue stick, allowing you to choose between the classic smooth circle, or the nostalgic Gamecube octagon effect.

This is a very neat feature, although changing them feels kind of unnatural, as the easiest way to do it is by pulling off the analogue stick itself, but hey, it works and I love it.

In terms of design you have to give it to NYXI Wizard, it looks just like the Gamecube controller, and feels like it when in the hand, the button design, the button locations, and the grips makes it feel incredibly nostalgic.

In the hand I couldn’t help but notice how light the controller is, especially when you have one in each hand, the lightness makes me consciously feel like it’s cheaply made, to a point where I think if I accidentally threw it at a wall, the chances are it will probably break.

It feels far better when attached to the Switch, but the unfortunate low quality of the material used makes it feel a little fragile at times.

Many of you are probably thinking, wow, that makes the Switch incredibly, not portable, and i would agree, these controllers make it wider than the big boy Steam Deck. Put wheels on this thing and you could call it a skateboard. These are controllers for the house, not necessarily when you’re travelling.

The Buttons

On the face of the NYXI Wizard you will find a wide selection of buttons, all laid out and coloured just like the Gamecube controller.

These feature hall joysticks which eliminate the chances of joy-con drift and can be replaced if your grips start to get damaged.

On the right hand side you will find that your action buttons actually light up, giving it a nice modern effect and have plenty of travel to them making them responsive and easy to press.

That said, every other button on the controller sits incredibly close to the contact, making everything super fast to press.

This is good for fast paced games and NYXI even promotes it as “instant triggers or instant buttons” across their website, and although it is useful, I much prefer buttons that have a bit of travel to them.

The instant triggers on the shoulder buttons makes it very easy to miss press should you be squeezing your fingers slightly for grip.

It’s a double edged sword because yes they make you incredibly fast at Super Smash Bros for example but when you’re moving around in portable mode I will often press the triggers or the extra buttons on the back of the grip quite often.

The shoulder buttons are located perfectly and are of a nice size to give you fast paced control. And then on the left side you have a pretty bad D-PAD.

I can actually press the down button while slowly moving my finger to also press the left and right buttons at the same time. This is a shame because the sensitive buttons everywhere else are bearable, but an over sensitive D-PAD is just incredibly annoying.

This should have been changed in production as a short quality check or product testing would have shown this issue in the first few seconds.

The Switch home and the capture button are on the face alongside + & -, the Wizard also has profile buttons for each joy-con allowing you to change up the back buttons, alongside a turbo button at the bottom which allows you to turn on certain buttons as turbo, a quick hold and press will sort this for you, it’s very simple and effective.

The two small LED indicators at the top of the control help with this.

At the bottom you will find a USB-C port that allows you to charge your controllers individually.

Don’t Go Wireless

On the side, you will find your slider that attaches to your Nintendo Switch alongside the SL and SR buttons.

You could use the controller this way when playing with a friend but I advise against it, because of the controllers design and the incredibly sensitive buttons, it’s almost impossible to play with the controllers individually, to a point where I would rather sync up my normal joy-cons on instead when playing with a friend.

So please, don’t buy this if you intend on using it often with friends, this is a controller dedicated to one player only, even if it has the features possible for two players, its just not designed with that intent.

Installing the controller to your Switch is easy, and so is the setup process. They lock into place, and can be removed by pressing the small detach buttons on the back of the controllers.

The screen is… angled?

At first I didn’t notice how angled the screen is when the controllers are attached, but after a few days I found myself tensing my wrists to pull the screen forward slightly.

This is because the controller is slightly angled and forces an awkward viewing angle, so I would find myself relaxing when playing games but the screen would drift further and further down due to my play style.

Because of the sheer size of the controller I also noticed a lot of flexibility in the hinges when attached to the console, not that I bend it often, but i wanted to share this with you because i can imagine if kids use this controller, with a bit of force it could snap the hinges.

The Wizard controller comes to life when attached to the Switch, the added weight gives you more control, the Gamecube design makes it incredibly comfortable and it transforms your console into a long, ugly but nostalgic skateboard that I can’t help but love looking at.

The button layout took me about an hour to get used to and the battery life is pretty good too, the controllers take charge from the console itself when connected to the device and last a few hours when playing wirelessly.

It does have motion controls, albeit not super accurate, but enough to get by playing games like Pokemon Let’s Go and so on, but again, using this controller with one hand is just… not ergonmic.

Overall Opinion

The NYXI Wizard is for those of you that want a nostalgic way to play your Nintendo Switch exclusively in portable mode, even if it makes it… not portable.

it’s not the best Nintendo Switch controller on the block, but its a good start for NYXI and i hope they iterate over the coming months/years.

I had the most enjoyment from this controller in that mode, yes it can go wireless, but it feels incredibly light in the hand, and i’m honestly scared to drop it due to the average build quality.

But that said, I do keep coming back to this controller, it’s fun, it’s different, it catches attention and it’s comfortable even if its not officially playing the best Gamecube games.