A limited-edition Nintendo Switch Pro controller will be released with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo announced this week. The controller will be bundled with a special edition steelbook of the long-anticipated Switch game, as well as sold separately. The special edition Super Smash Bros. Ultimate steelbook case features a simple black background and fiery Smash logo. The controller has a white-and-translucent-grey color scheme and features a white Smash logo. The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pro Controller will retail for $75; that’s $5 more than MSRP on the standard Pro Controller. The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Limited Edition bundle, which will include both the steelbook and Pro Controller, is priced at $139.99. Pre-orders are available at Best Buy and GameStop. Nintendo previously announced that it will release a Super Smash Bros Ultimate GameCube Controller, which is currently available to pre-order for $29.99 from Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy. Update: This piece has been updated with additional retailers and pricing information.<doc-sep>The initial appeal of the Nintendo Switch had a lot to do with the way it put expansive, console-quality games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on a portable console for the first time. But since then, I’ve been spending a lot of my time with the system on less technically advanced titles. I find that I’m more likely to want to play immersive 3D games on my TV screen or PC monitor, while the Switch is the perfect system for kicking back with indies and 2D games. Well, apart from one problem: the Switch actually kind of sucks for playing 2D games. The Joy-Con controllers don’t have a proper D-pad because you need to be able to detach each of them from the system and use them as standalone controllers with four face buttons. Nintendo’s own Pro Controller seems to have been afflicted by this, too. It has a D-pad, but it’s a really bad one that’s hamstrung by the apparent need to be able to press all four directions independently of one another. The result is the worst D-pad in living memory from the company that invented the concept, with constant unintended inputs. Hori, the venerable Japanese third-party controller maker, is trying to fix that. Its new product, the D-Pad Controller, is an officially licensed left Joy-Con replacement that substitutes an honest-to-god D-pad for the original four-button solution. It’s out now in Japan, it costs $25, and it’s coming to the US soon with Zelda- and Mario-themed designs. There are a few caveats. The D-Pad Controller only works in portable mode. There’s no wireless support at all, so you have to use it attached to the Switch tablet. Hori has also omitted motion control and rumble functionality. It feels (and is) cheaper than a Nintendo Joy-Con, and the buttons are a little off; the L bumper is clickier, for example, while the - button is mushier. Basically, you really need to want a proper Switch D-pad for this thing to be worth it, even at $25. That describes me, though, and I would say this is money well-spent if you’re anything like me. I’ve been using the D-pad with technically challenging Switch games like Hollow Knight, Celeste, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, and so on, and it’s hard to convey just how much it improves the experience. No more missed inputs or accidental diagonals. The Hori D-pad is responsive and accurate, if not quite up to the clicky precision of some of my favorites. If you die due to botching a downward attack in Shovel Knight, you’ll only have yourself to blame. The Hori D-pad is a responsive and accurate battery drain The missing functionality isn’t a huge deal in practice. Most games that use motion control rely solely on the right Joy-Con, so you can still use gyroscopic aiming in Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2, for example. (But not Fortnite, oddly.) I didn’t miss the lack of rumble much, either, since it isn’t disabled on the right Joy-Con — though it does feel a little weird only to have one half of the system buzzing along to the music in Lumines Remastered. I would happily use the Hori D-pad exclusively when traveling with the Switch except for one glaring flaw: its battery consumption. The Switch is already a power hog, but attaching the Hori D-pad causes the battery to drain between 8 and 10 percent an hour in standby mode, in my testing. With regular Joy-Con attached, it takes about three hours to drain by a single percent. This is obviously less than ideal because it’ll seriously limit your ability to take out the Switch when the mood strikes you on a long trip. The Switch’s battery life is bad enough already without having a third of it chewed up in the time it takes for you to get onto a plane from your house. Hori says it’s aware of the issue and will have fixed it in time for the US launch, but it’s unclear whether it’ll be possible to fix Japanese units that are already on the market. I can’t recommend this product wholeheartedly, then, and I might not use it as much as I’d like. But it’s still the best way to play 2D games on the Nintendo Switch, and I’ll no doubt be using it the next time I get stuck on a Hollow Knight boss.<doc-sep>
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrives for Nintendo Switch this December, and we learned earlier this month that Nintendo will release a limited edition bundle of the game in Europe. The company has now confirmed it will likewise offer a special edition of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the US, but this one will come with a different assortment of contents. Nintendo has updated the official Smash Bros. website with the first images of the US Super Smash Bros. Ultimate special edition. Unlike the European equivalent, the US bundle comes with a copy of the game housed in a black steelbook case with a fiery Smash Bros. logo emblazoned on the center. Additionally, the bundle includes a Smash Bros.-themed Switch Pro Controller, which features white grips and a white Smash Bros. logo on the face. You can take a look at images of both below. Gallery The US special edition will release on the same date as the standard version of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: December 7. It retails for $140; as of this writing, it's only available to pre-order from Best Buy and GameStop. The Smash-themed Switch Pro Controller can be purchased separately for $75 and is likewise available to pre-order from Best Buy and GameStop. Europe's special edition packs likewise launches on December 7. It retails for £90 and, along with a copy of the game, packs in a GameCube controller plus the adapter needed to use it on Switch in a big collector's box. Both the adapter and a new line of GameCube controllers will also be available for purchase separately later this year. Those who already own the adapter released alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will be able to use that with Switch. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features the largest selection of playable characters and stages to date, with more than 70 fighters and 103 stages. Nintendo hosted a special Direct presentation dedicated to the game earlier in August, during which it revealed five more playable characters, including Simon and Richter Belmont from Castlevania and King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country. You can read more about the game in our roundup of everything we know about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate so far.