When it comes to modernising controllers for retro consoles, Retro Fighters are leading the charge. You will no doubt have seen my recent review of their spiritual successor to the WaveBird, the BattlerGC Pro, and we've put many of their other controllers through their paces over the years, like the Dreamcast D6 Fighting Pad and the Hunter Xbox Wireless Remote. Now, they've brought the newest evolution of their PS Defender series to Kickstarter, the Defender Pro, and it's already become an instant success, more than doubling its backing target in just 24 hours!
The Defender Pro controllers come in four colour variants (Black, Grey, & Translucent Red or Blue) and look more like the old-school PS1 controller with the addition of dual Hall-effect analogue sticks. And the best bit is that they're 100% wireless, giving you untethered 2.4 GHz Wireless or Bluetooth compatibility whether you're playing on PS1, PS2, PS3, PS Classic, Switch or PC. They boast pressure-sensitive buttons and an enhanced D-Pad (good news for Croc fans), as well as customisable triggers.
Adjust feedback strength, take advantage of motion sensing controls when playing PS3 games, programme back buttons, and game from up to 30 feet away - if you regularly play early PlayStation games, then it looks like Retro Fighters have saved you from swapping remotes altogether when switching consoles. Plus, with 1000Hz Polling rate and low latency, I might finally be able to beat Baron Dante without tearing my hair out.
Each controller will come with Retro Fighter's trademark collectible pin too, pleasing the '90s kid in all of us. And if two stretch goals of 100K and 200K are met, which with 19 days to go and just under $40,000 raised seems highly likely, we'll get two new translucent Smoke and Lemon colours. Head to the official Kickstarter campaign to back the Defender Pro controller for $68!
