8BitDo is a Chinese company that makes high quality peripherals. I've been very impressed with their stuff, at least the few things I've seen.
SNK is a company of nebulous parentage that has made some controllers that were good, and some that were not. Their original Neo Geo joysticks were solid performers with knobs that were almost always cracked and they used brittle plastic on their connectors and stress relief bits which also cracked easily. The buttons squeaked. They did a lot better with the Neo CD sticks, which are among my favourites.
But then they made the CD pad, a tiny, cheaper, much easier to include with a system sort of pad with a unique clicky thumb pad.
SNK Neo Geo CD Pad
SNK's original Neo CD pad
It's unique because it sucks and no one's bothered to do it again. You can read my old review (https://nfgworld.com/snk-neo-geo-cd-pad-review/) if you'd like to see why and in how many ways it sucks.
But then, for reasons, 8BitDo released a wireless Neo CD pad, with new updates like more buttons. And it's wireless.
It's incredibly well made, and they licensed it from SNK and copied the whole thing almost perfectly. They even matched the ugly yellow button colour.
NFG30145.jpg
8BitDo's new Neo Geo CD Pad
But being authentic to the original doesn't mean it's good. Not at all. I have all the same complaints about this pad as I do the original - everything I said about that pad (https://nfgworld.com/snk-neo-geo-cd-pad-review/) applies to this one. The right half is great. The buttons work, they don't squeak or stick, they're nicely sized and reasonably punchy. They feel good. The pad is a good size and it feels good in the hand.
8BitDo Neo CD Pad: Thumbstick
It's a beautiful, well made controller
Moving the thumbstick on the original was a sublime experience. It feels amazing, it slides easily and it clicks satisfactorily. The problem starts when you try to play a game with it.
8BitDo Neo CD Thumbstick Closeup
The offending thumbstick
There's no tactile indication of the compass points, so up and up left and I meant up but was slightly left and the game responded to both but I only meant up and that's the 30th time and I'm still in the menus and fuck this pad into the sea.
Everything 8BitDo added to this pad is great. The wireless is great, the shoulder buttons are great. It charges fast, lasts a long time (not that I played it long enough to test the battery duration, but their keyboards last for weeks, so extrapolate).
8BitDo Neo CD Shoulder Buttons
The shoulder buttons are great
But this is one of the worst pads I've ever used. And it's not even bad like a cheap pad that lets you down with poor quality materials, or a bad design. It's beautifully well made and it's a wondrous design that's just
a bad idea. It's Sega Activator bad. It's Power Glove bad. Neat as hell but you can't play games with it.
And that's too bad.
It looks just like the original. Some external photos are below, you can have a look at the insides of it right here (https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=7600).
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