I love luxury controllers. Not because I like spending money but I really feel the difference in quality. Bad controllers can result in annoying stick drift, buttons sticking, and other issues that I don’t enjoy dealing with in the middle of a game.
My go-to controller is the Xbox Elite Series 2 when it comes to PC and the Nintendo Switch Pro controller – but can the GameSir Cyclone 2 come close to replacing both of them? Perhaps.
The GameSir Cyclone 2 is not one I’ve tried before – but it markets itself as a multi-platform controller, working for both the Nintendo Switch and the PC. It comes with a number of features including precision hair triggers, wired/Bluetooth and 2.4ghz modes as well as something called ‘TMR Sticks’ which claims to have “precise performance” and “low power consumption”.
So I put my Xbox Elite 2 controller to one side to see whether or not the GameSir would take over as my daily driver. Has it replaced my daily driver? Well, yes and no.
The GameSir Cyclone 2 out of the box looks but doesn’t feel very special – especially when you compare it to more premium controllers but that changes as you look into the nooks and crannies of the device. It comes with two analog triggers which can be customised with adjustable hair trigger adjustment that’s located on the side of the triggers.
Moving it means you can adjust how much you want to triggers to move up and down when you’re playing which is a really neat little feature with one massive caveat – I noticed that trying to adjust the switch was super fiddly, especially with sausage fingers like myself. It’s also not helped with the shiny plastic on the triggers which looks cool. But that means if you’re a sweaty gamer (like many of us are at times) and want to adjust them depending on the game, your fingers slip right off.
But one thing that feels brilliant is the mechanical face buttons. As a keyboard lover, hearing the click of the keys feels great especially with satisfying feedback. GameSir has managed to bring this over to the controller with the face buttons and they feel an absolute joy to click.
When it comes to the GameSir Cyclone 2, it shows its strengths when it comes to the Nintendo Switch more than anything else. One thing that blew me away was the included gyro and motion controllers. It’s a great little addition that also works flawlessly on the Nintendo Switch.
Another thing that blew me away was the customisation – interally but also externally. Along with the hair trigger switches, there’s an included ‘M’ switch which lets you customise the intensity of the controller rumble, Zero Dead Zone Mode and button layout depending if you’re on PC or Switch. As someone who really hates the different button layouts when you go from the Switch to other games, this controller has really eliminated that for me which is refreshing.
And for PC, there’s even more customisation. The GameSir application allows such a huge amount of customisation for RGB, button presses, profiles, motion, deadzones and more. If you’re a controller connoisseur, the Cyclone 2 really does give you everything you could ever want from a controller, especially for customisation.
But how does it game? On both PC and Nintendo Switch, it never skipped a beat. The controller was snapped with no stick drift or issues that I could find swapping from PC to Nintendo Switch on the fly. One of my biggest annoyances was the side buttons attached to the backside of the controller. They seemed extremely sensitive, meaning I would occassionally click it while playing, causing my game to do something that I really didn’t want it too.
I believe this is mostly due to my big hands but luckily, I was able to turn this off on the GameSir app on the PC. Also, I would rather these triggers taken away all together or replaced by the thinner hair triggers that many “pro” controllers tend to have. It allows for accuracy when it comes to knowing what buttons to press and stops big-handed guys like myself from clicking it.
So is the GameSir Cyclone 2 worth your money? Well, absolutely if you own a PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch and don’t want to spend more money getting seperate controllers. It’s a brilliant controller that only retailers at £55 – you’ll probably pay more for an official controller from Xbox or Nintendo.
It also comes with a great charging stand and battery life that hasn’t run out on me yet. But has it replaced my Xbox Elite 2 controller? Well, no but it has become my go-to for my Nintendo Switch controller – and at £50, you can’t say no really. But