Gamester Bandit Review

You know what has to happen? Some young gamer has to inherit a boatload of dough and invest it into starting a company that makes high-quality peripherals and accessories. Sure, the company would operate south of even for a long while, but once the word got out that someone actually got it right -- even if the products were pricey, as I like to think that gamers are smart enough to spend a few dollars more for the good stuff -- they'd be golden. As things are, even the good companies are totally hit or miss, with emphasis on the latter. I understand that no matter how perfect a controller might feel to person X, person Y might think the same controller is good for nothing more than a paperweight. But still¿

Today I would like to present to you yet another exhibit in making my case: the Gamester Bandit. Gamester, part of the Radica Empire, is no stranger to console heads. Most recently, I took a look at their Pro Racer, an innovative and impressive steering device for the Xbox. The Bandit, which is the company's first stab at a GameCube controller, is unfortunately neither innovative nor impressive. Though there are a few niceties about the Bandit, the lows far outnumber the highs. And if you're in the market for a worthwhile alternative to the official GameCube controller, you'll have to stay on the prowl, because this most certainly ain't it.

Gamester took the basic design of GCN controller and fattened it up, which is funny, as one of the characteristics that differentiate the official version is its sprightly feel. This wouldn't be so bad had Gamester not screwed with the overall geometry of the controller. Your hands are slightly, and very naturally, angled inward with the GCN controller, which makes it easy to hold for almost any amount of time. The outer sides of the Bandit are close to parallel, which makes your hands feel as if they are angled outward. You don't notice this initially, but after a bit of play my wrists felt somewhat fatigued. After picking up the GCN controller I picked up on the difference immediately.

The button configuration, as you can see, closely resembles the official's. The Z, Y, and X buttons are similar in shape and size. However, the A buttons sits at roughly the same height as its neighbors, while on the GCN version it is noticeably lower. Gamester took the liberty of making the B button bean-shaped. I don't really like this, as I like having the two main action buttons similarly shaped. (The size difference gives me enough tactile feedback.) As for feel, all of these buttons seem looser and cheaper then their official counterparts. While I wasn't crazy about the buttons, they were hardly offensive, and were generally responsive and fast.

I greatly disliked the choices Gamester made for the triggers. The official controller has nice, wide shoulder buttons that have nice, smooth travel and a comfortably scalloped shape. Gamester shrunk these buttons considerably and took out much of the contour. The travel is still smooth enough, but the triggers themselves feel much, much less comfortable then the original ones. Why they screwed with something so good is beyond me, especially since Nintendo's design is superb. They ripped off the Z button, why couldn't they have done the same for the shoulders?

The low point of the Bandit, and good grief is it low, is the D-pad, which goes down as one of the worst I've used. Firstly, they scrapped the cross design and went for four countersunk directional pads. A change of design I could live with, but this thing is atrocious. The D-pad is unresponsive, slow, stiff, and totally uncomfortable. After spending a good deal of time on THPS3, which I feel is the best test if a D-pad, I almost declared this little nightmare unplayable. Almost. I got a tiny bit used to it, but it is still terrible. For fighting games it would be very difficult to use, as it takes quite a bit of effort to move it diagonally at all.

Fran demanded that I plop in Super Monkey Ball as a test of the analog stick. And as much as I hate to admit it, he's right. Some of the advanced levels are complex enough that you really do need a solid stick. Now, I have to say that the official analog stick (the left one) is my favorite. I spend more time with the Dual Shock, but the GCN stick is aces. Happily, the Bandit's left stick is pretty nice stuff. It is clearly not on par with the official one, but it is far superior to the InterAct controller's. The stick offers less resistance than the GCN's, and is not as precise, but feels natural enough. It does, however, have a "less analog" feel than the GCN version. The movement feels more binary then the extremely smooth motion of the GCN's.

As opposed to the nice hat-shaped top on the original, the tip of the Bandit's stick is hollowed out. This design might be more popular, but I think it is much less comfy than the GCN's. The only problem I had with the left analog stick is that movement is choppy and uneven around the periphery. If you push hard in any direction and then try to rotate it, you notice that the edges are not smooth. I have a feeling this comes from shoddy build construction. (You can actually see a small gap between the base of the stick and the body of the controller in the fifth screenshot. Enlarge it and you'll see what I mean.

The right analog stick might look like the original at first glance, but look closely and you'll see that the top half is much fatter. This wouldn't be so bad if they had made its socket larger as well. As it is, there is not nearly enough movement, which makes for very imprecise tracking. And, again, the build quality is not so great, so the rotation and travel are both dodgy.

Lastly, Gamester lengthened the cord. It is a whole four inches longer than the GCN's. Awesome.


I don't know how the hell this one got by the testers. There's no way any right-thinking person could approve the D-pad. The official one might be small, but that is far more preferable than this little thing. And while the left analog stick is good compared to other third-party attempts, it is by no means a worthy substitute for the GCN's. And that's the real problem with the Bandit: Nothing improves at all on Nintendo's design. It's like a band doing a really bad cover song. If you've got nothing to add, then you best keep quiet.