The NYXI Wizard is a retro Switch controller without stick drift

How many joy-cons have you gone through? I think I have like three with some degree of drift, and I am not that hard on my Switch. That’s why I’m pumped that NYXI has jumped on the bandwagon along with Gulikit and 8BitDo, announcing a retro-styled Switch controller called the NYXI Wizard Wireless Joy-Pad that features drift-free Hall effect sensors.

If you are like me, few things fill you with a berserker-level rage like a broken controller that you shelled out 70 bucks for a few months ago. It can feel like a cop-out to say that “they don’t make them like they used to,” but when it comes to controllers, this is absolutely the case. The quality of goods is getting worse, and this absolutely should not be an issue.

Luckily, the issue of stick drift was more or less solved decades ago in console controllers. Instead of using potentiometers, which will inevitably drift, Sega used what are called Hall effect sensors first in the Sega Saturn 3D controller and then in the Dreamcast controller. Hall effect sensors use magnets, meaning they are not prone to the same physical wear that is plaguing the last five or six joy-cons you have purchased in a three-year span. Nothing lasts forever, but Hall effect sensors will last you far, far longer. Flight sticks use them for a reason! On top of that, Hall effect sensors have the benefit of having next to no dead zone, which can make a massive difference for some players.

Now back to NYXI. Not only does their latest controller use Hall sensors, but it is also styled after one of the greatest controllers ever made: The WaveBird Wireless Controller for the Gamecube. I love the WaveBird (as do our friends at Gizmodo). And if you are also someone who loves the WaveBird enough to buy a similar controller, you’re almost certainly a Super Smash Bros. freak who needs extra durability on your sticks. What’s more, both sides of the Wizard are dockable, making your Switch resemble the Gamecube ASCII keyboard controller (one of the most depraved-looking and, thus, greatest controllers ever made).

I have not had hands-on with this controller yet, but if you are the kind of person that plays Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and constantly hulks out, this looks tailor-made for you. It also appears as though you can easily swap out the joystick gates, swapping between round and octagonal, another feature that I am overjoyed to see people embrace.

I can’t attest to the build quality of the NYXI Wizard without fully testing it, but I can promise you this: as long as I am able to blog, I will relentlessly bully every hardware manufacturer on the planet into making Hall effect sensors and basic repairability an option. You have my word, as well as my multiple defective controllers that I don’t have the heart to throw away or fix.