Old Skool Double Shock 3 Review

For the last 3 years, I have been using an ugly Urban Camo controller for my Playstation 3. While it functions just fine, I really do not like the army man dude bro look of it. I would have loved to have just a plain black Dualshock 3, but unfortunately this is what came bundled with my console.

Decided to finally go ahead and get a second controller for the system. Searched on Ebay and much to my chagrin, what I found were overpriced official controllers and an absolute flood of chinese bootlegs. So I decided to instead try my local game store. Was disappointed when they informed me that they were completely out of Dualshock 3’s, but they did have some brand new third-party ones available. Now I generally don’t buy third-party controllers, but I had a few bucks to spare and thought, ‘What the hell? Let’s do it!’

My initial impression of the controller after taking it out of the packaging was fairly positive. It didn’t feel like super-cheap plastic, had some decent weight to it, and it was actually quite comfortable. Each of the handles has a nice texture, and the sticks are concave, which is the way I definitely prefer my analogs. I would have preferred they use more trigger-like buttons for L2 and R2 instead of copying Sony’s mushy button design, but not a big deal.

Decided to test this out with one of my favorite games of all-time, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, and some problems immediately made their presence felt. The first issue was that the analog sticks had massive dead spots. When you use Sony’s official PS3 controller, the slightest movement of the stick will register and move either the character or camera. The sticks on this controller don’t register until you move them about 25 to 30% away from the center position. I actually could have lived with that though. The majority of stuff I play on PS3 are PS1 RPGs, Ratchet & Clank, and Gran Turismo. RPGs wouldn’t be a problem, Ratchet & Clank doesn’t really require precise, subtle movements (although it can help), and I play Gran Turismo with the D-pad.

A much bigger flaw quickly became apparent though. One that pretty much renders this controller useless for any kind of action game. Brought up the weapon wheel on Going Commando so I could choose something different, and the stick would not register the lower left diagonal. No matter how I tried, that direction just does not exist on the analog stick, even though all other diagonals work just fine. Figured I would try it on the D-pad instead and guess what? It doesn’t fucking work either! Not only is this a problem for changing weapons, but I would often try to evade gunfire and Ratchet would be frozen in place until I moved the stick all the way down or all the way to the left. How the hell do you have such a fatal flaw on the analog and then repeat it on the D-pad? Gotta love how the packaging mentions ‘precise D-pad functionality’.

If that wasn’t enough to scare you off of this controller, you should also know that the shoulder and face buttons work about 90% of the time. So yeah, any kind of action title or anything that requires precise timing won’t really work out too well on this thing. Well, unless you like additional challenge or hate yourself.

Oh yeah, this thing also has a Turbo function, but I never tried it. Turbo is something that can work wonders for certain genres like shmups, but only when all the buttons and directions work properly.

I also find it funny that they went to the trouble of mentioning an included USB cable on the back three times, when there wasn’t one in the package. This seems to be a common complaint, as all the reviews I’ve seen online mention that the USB is missing. Gotta love that quality control!

I have heard that Old Skool’s Double Shock 4 is actually a decent option for a second PS4 controller, but stay far away from the PS3 version. While it is possible that I got a defective pad, this thing has so many issues that I won’t ever buy one of their products again.