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[MTC100]

Rep gave me shit about my warranty expiring soon and how four replacements is unheard of. I told him I will buy a controller in a store and then return my defective one and he immediately filed another replacement.

So, is your final one working correctly? I don't think I will order a replacement as I don't plan on playing much 2D on the Switch anyway and if, then I'll have to learn to play with the analogue instead I guess. I sure hope the other Pro Controller I ordered from a different place will work fine but I fear they are from the same batch and will have the same issues as both shops sent me a notification that they will be shipped at roughly the same time...

That's really dissapointing, my NES, SNES gameboy and DS D-Pads were working perfectly fine, why did they mess this one up of all things?

 

[Persona7]

So, is your final one working correctly? I don't think I will order a replacement as I don't plan on playing much 2D on the Switch anyway and if then I'll have to learn to play with the analogue instead I guess. I sure hope the other Pro Controller I ordered from a different place will work fine but I fear they are from the same batch and will have the same issues...

All three replacements have the same issue and honestly I don't think the next replacement will function correctly either. For me it is fine for every game except Tetris. Really annoying.

 

[MTC100]

All three replacements have the same issue and honestly I don't think the next replacement will function correctly either.

So basically the D-Pad is only good for switching weapons in Breath of the Wild but acutally playing with it is impossible, great. It's even more upsetting seeing how great the Pro Controller feels and how well the Analogue Stick works...

For me it is fine for every game except Tetris. Really annoying.

I see, well I guess fighting games will be horrible too, maybe NES 2D Games will work fine with it though...

 

[Persona7]

Has anyone mentioned anything about the pro controller and street fighter?

 

[me0wish]

The fact that it's the only way to use a dpad on the Switch makes things even worse, it's almost as bad as the left joycon issue.

Maybe make a fuss to make people start talking about it?

 

[MTC100]

Has anyone mentioned anything about the pro controller and street fighter?

I don't know, I don't play these kind of games but I know that you have to make precise D-pad inputs to perform special attacks, at least it's been this way on the SNES when I actually played some Beat'em'Ups... -on the other hand, this issue truly only seems to happen when you press left, then right, how often does that happen in actual games? I guess it's at least good my controller notices UP instead of down, as "D-Pad UP" rarely does a thing on it's own -unless you're playing tetris... -Maybe remapping controls is possible in puyu puyu tetris so up does nothing but it's still not a solution to the problem.

 

[mariosbrother]

This same issue goes back to the Wii Remote Plus for me. Reared its head during Bit.Trip Complete. Couldn't reproduce it with a regular Wii Remote, but it would happen consistently with any of my Plus remotes. Makes a game where you have to hit exactly the right direction at exactly the right time VERY challenging because, for instance, the slightest rock while pressing left or right would trigger up or down. Nintendo obviously changed something internally between the models.

 

[Pokemaniac]

So, for sending my Pro Controller in a 4th time, I got escalated to a supervisor and managed to get a somewhat expedited repair process, so that's nice I guess.

Also decided to order an extra one from Amazon on the off chance that I'd have better luck pulling from a different pool than the local Nintendo repair center. No such luck, though. It's actually probably the worst one that I've tried. I think I'll try sending this one back for return/replacement through Amazon, so I'm not juggling multiple Pro Controller repairs with Nintendo.

This same issue goes back to the Wii Remote Plus for me. Reared its head during Bit.Trip Complete. Couldn't reproduce it with a regular Wii Remote, but it would happen consistently with any of my Plus remotes. Makes a game where you have to hit exactly the right direction at exactly the right time VERY challenging because, for instance, the slightest rock while pressing left or right would trigger up or down. Nintendo obviously changed something internally between the models.

You can get at least some of Nintendo's other controllers to behave similarly, but, from my experience, the Switch Pro Controller is way worse than any of them. For the other controllers, I have to try to trigger it. With the Switch Pro Controller, it can happen during normal use.

 

[Link_enfant]

Is there any chance that the D-pad will be improved/fixed on the Splatoon 2 edition of the Pro controller?

 

[Pokemaniac]

Is there any chance that the D-pad will be improved/fixed on the Splatoon 2 edition of the Pro controller?

Depends on a lot of factors. This issue doesn't seem to have caught on in the same way the left Joy-Con one did, which leads me to think we may be having one of two scenarios.

1) The issue is actually way less common than the multiple people having to send theirs in multiple times suggests, and some of us are just really unlucky.

2) The scenario which I unfortunately think is more likely: Since the issue doesn't manifest itself in as obvious a way as the Joy-Con thing, it may actually be very underreported, leading to Nintendo being potentially much slower to react to it.

Regardless, the multiple replacements that Nintendo is sending out to at least some people can't be cheap, so I have a feeling this will be addressed eventually​, regardless.

 

[Koren]

You can get at least some of Nintendo's other controllers to behave similarly, but, from my experience, the Switch Pro Controller is way worse than any of them. For the other controllers, I have to try to trigger it. With the Switch Pro Controller, it can happen during normal use.

I haven't had much issue in fast gameplay like in Tetris, but it's definitively something I noticed without even plugging the controller. When you push a direction, a 90° direction doesn't need a lot of force, so it's quite easy to get diagonals. It's the case for a lot of controllers, but it's quite noticeable on pro.

No doubt you can measure it, and there probably can be variations on slight differences of springs shape/placement.

I haven't found it annoying on Tetris (setting the hard drop elsewhere avoid any bad effect, in any case)

 

[shouamabane]

The fact that it's the only way to use a dpad on the Switch makes things even worse, it's almost as bad as the left joycon issue.

Maybe make a fuss to make people start talking about it?

http://www.8bitdo.com/

 

[digita1alchemy]

I am fairly certain the issue with the dpad is the actual physical design. There is no center balance point preventing you from pressing the entire pad down at once. This makes it way easier to accidentally hit directions you didn't intend to, especially if you're used to resting your thumb on the center of the pad and tilting it to hit directions.

 

[Pokemaniac]

I am fairly certain the issue with the dpad is the actual physical design. There is no center balance point preventing you from pressing the entire pad down at once. This makes it way easier to accidentally hit directions you didn't intend to, especially if you're used to resting your thumb on the center of the pad and tilting it to hit directions.

The peg seems to be there, but, for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to do its job fully properly.

 

[me0wish]

Depends on a lot of factors. This issue doesn't seem to have caught on in the same way the left Joy-Con one did, which leads me to think we may be having one of two scenarios.

1) The issue is actually way less common than the multiple people having to send theirs in multiple times suggests, and some of us are just really unlucky.

2) The scenario which I unfortunately think is more likely: Since the issue doesn't manifest itself in as obvious a way as the Joy-Con thing, it may actually be very underreported, leading to Nintendo being potentially much slower to react to it.

Regardless, the multiple replacements that Nintendo is sending out to at least some people can't be cheap, so I have a feeling this will be addressed eventually​, regardless.

I've tested more than 8 pro controllers, they all had this issue, even the Wii U Pro controller does, but it was much less severe.

I think it goes unnoticed because:

1- Not everyone slides he's thumb across the dpad, and not all games require it.
2- People that play casually and are effected by the issue will just switch to analog.
3- Not many games on Wii U and Switch require accurate dpad controls, games like Mario Maker won't really be effected by registering extra inputs.

Personally I find browsing the inventory in Zelda using the dpad to be a frustrating task, and both SF2 and PPT to be unplayable.

http://www.8bitdo.com/

Thanks for the suggestion, but 8-bitdo controllers have terrible design flaws that were talked about extensively on the 8-bitdo thread.

 

[adroit]

How do people feel about the "clicky" d-pad on the Old 3DS XL? I really like it but I'm not a fighting game or Tetris player so I don't know how a clicky d-pad affects those games.

Is the d-pad on the New 3DS XL still clicky or did they change to mushy?

 

[MTC100]

Is there any chance that the D-pad will be improved/fixed on the Splatoon 2 edition of the Pro controller?

Honestly I wouldn't bet on it. My Pro controller is from the newest batch and they didn't seem to have fixed anything yet. It's even worse I think. If you press left then right, not even quickly, then it will always also register UP, as seen in my screenshot a few posts earlier...

 

[TheMoon]

Honestly I wouldn't bet on it. My Pro controller is from the newest batch and they didn't seem to have fixed anything yet. It's even worse I think. If you press left then right, not even quickly, then it will always also register UP, as seen in my screenshot a few posts earlier...

how can you tell? serial number?

 

[TheMoon]

NWR has an editorial about it up:
https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/44760/the-switch-pro-controllers-d-pad-dysfunction

 

[Mbolibombo]

I've tried the input test and have absolutely no issues with it, but when trying to play Street Fighter II and mainly Ryu I run in to problems.

When ever I try to make a hadoken - it almost always become a Shoryuken.

Not sure what to take from that but something is off and it isnt showing when I input test it.

Such a shame, I frikkin love the pro controller. It's really comfy.

 

[MTC100]

Update! I've gotten a new Pro Controller from a different shop now and it works much better. The first one of Amazon did "UP" every time I've pressed right, left or left, right(didn't even matter how fast) on the D-Pad.

The new one does that too occasionally but it's rarer and it only happens if I hit left and right very fast.

 

[boyshine]

I have 4 controllers from launch, and no issues. Sure it looks like something is wrong in the test menu, but that's because it only shows four directions. Not had one single issue in-game.

 

[Kilrogg]

Never had this problem up until now, but, now that you mention it, I've noticed that the beetle in Thumper sometimes goes into flight mode (which is tied to the up arrow on the pro controller) when I press left or right.

Never had an issue with my other games. Weird.

 

[TheMoon]

I have 4 controllers from launch, and no issues. Sure it looks like something is wrong in the test menu, but that's because it only shows four directions. Not had one single issue in-game.

what game(s) are you trying it with?

 

[Persona7]

How do people feel about the "clicky" d-pad on the Old 3DS XL? I really like it but I'm not a fighting game or Tetris player so I don't know how a clicky d-pad affects those games.

Is the d-pad on the New 3DS XL still clicky or did they change to mushy?

They are still clicky. Got a new unit two weeks ago and it came with firmware 11.3 so it's pretty much directly off the factory line.

 

[boyshine]

what game(s) are you trying it with?

Pretty much everything. PuyoTetris, USF2, NeoGeo games, I've tested it over and over after people started complaining, and never one accidental hard-drop in Tetris, and Street Fighter controls perfectly.

 

[TheMoon]

Pretty much everything. PuyoTetris, USF2, NeoGeo games, I've tested it over and over after people started complaining, and never one accidental hard-drop in Tetris, and Street Fighter controls perfectly.

thx, always more helpful to know about the test environment.

 

[Filter]

The peg seems to be there, but, for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to do its job fully properly.

Thanks for posting that. Maybe I can mod it.

I'm reposting my reply from the ultra street fighter II thread.

I have those issues with the pro controller d-pad. I even took it into the store and swapped it for a new one, but I have the same issue.

I've been playing street fighter on a pad (and on arcade stick) for more than 20 years. I've played with all sorts of pads and I can't think of a single d-pad that was less reliable. Even the crummy third party ones you'd get stuck with.
The problem, I think, comes from the fact that the centre of the d-pad is not pivoting on a piece of plastic. Instead the entire d-pad can be pushed in at once like a giant button (try this even with the wiiU pro controller, push the center in and you will feel a central fulcrum that the d-pad pivots on. It's not present on the switch pro controller). This is not generally a problem if you are doing quarter circle motions around the edge of the pad, like with a fireball. But when you are charging a sonic boom by holding left, and then quickly rolling your thumb directly to the right like you would with any other normal d-pad, you sometimes push the d-pad in, and you then get a random UP input. Completely screwing you in the process. This is not normal d-pad behaviour. It also will often jump straight up instead of at an angle.

It's a shame because everything else about the pro controller is beautiful.

Sadly I'm currently struggling through using the tiny joycon analogue stick of all things. Which is really ass, but slightly more reliable than the d-pad on the pro controller.

I'm still really enjoying the game, and my Deejay is currently ranked 3rd in the world (not much competition I think), but the enjoyment is more often than not hampered by shitty controls. When my 8bitdo controller shows up, I'm hoping that will be more of a normal street fighter experience.

 

[Waluigilicious]

NWR has an editorial about it up:
https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/44760/the-switch-pro-controllers-d-pad-dysfunction

Finally someone acknowledged it!!

Thanks for nothing, GameXplain!

 

[Waluigilicious]

I have 4 controllers from launch, and no issues. Sure it looks like something is wrong in the test menu, but that's because it only shows four directions. Not had one single issue in-game.

How are you playing Tetris? Can you make sure hard drop is on, and play so that if you are holding left and then you change your mind and want to go right, you do it very quickly, as in don't lift your hand up and slide across. What happens then?

 

[Filter]

I have 4 controllers from launch, and no issues. Sure it looks like something is wrong in the test menu, but that's because it only shows four directions. Not had one single issue in-game.

When you push the dpad in at the centre of the dpad, can you feel a hard plastic pivot that the dpad rocks around on? If you have a wiiU pro controller, pushing it in at the centre, you will feel that pivot. Could you check that the switch pro controller you are using has one?

When playing games do you push the dpad hard or gently when playing intense games?

 

[OryoN]

I think it's pretty easy to perform an up or down input when you're sliding your big thumb from left to right on any dpad. As you're sliding you press the middle of the dpad down which could potentially give you any direction.

This. While reading the OP, the "test process" described sounds like the perfect scenario to create potential input errors. That's just how D-pads work, especially if it becomes a little sensitive over time(or was a tad too sensitive to begin with).

In my experience, this situation seems easier to recreate with Nintendo D-pads, but that's been somewhat of a trademark design. That is; there is intentional (extra) "overlap" between the 4 main inputs, for smoother transition between adjacent directions. It's not a surprise that the Joy-con doesn't have this "issue," since those are completely separate buttons.

OP, it's possible that your controller's D-pad is a bit too sensitive. The ideal case would be to do your own test with another pro-controller, before buying/repairing(difficult, I know, since it's not like our friends & family all have Switches). This group test, however, is bound to produce a variety of results depending how the precise orientation of one's grip on the controller, size of hand/thumb, and just how much pressure each preson exerted on their D-pads while testing(especially near the center). Don't all start panicking now guys!

 

[Filter]

This. While reading the OP, the "test process" described sounds like the perfect scenario to create potential input errors. That's just how D-pads work, especially if it becomes a little sensitive over time(or was a tad too sensitive to begin with).

No it's not. I've used dozens of dpads. This is not a normal construction. There is no central fulcrum that works in the dpad

It's like you have ignored all of the posts and even the tear downs of the controller.

 

[boyshine]

How are you playing Tetris? Can you make sure hard drop is on, and play so that if you are holding left and then you change your mind and want to go right, you do it very quickly, as in don't lift your hand up and slide across. What happens then?

Of course it's on, I play with quick left/right-spin-drop, like most I would assume, except in this case I have TRIED to make it register wrong, and it doesn't. Yes, it's sensitive, so you can make it look bad if that's your intention, but I love how it responds, fits my play style and I have a hard time understanding how you'd play to have it register wrong. I don't argue that there aren't problems with some, I just say ignore the test menu and judge from gameplay.

 

[MTC100]

Never had this problem up until now, but, now that you mention it, I've noticed that the beetle in Thumper sometimes goes into flight mode (which is tied to the up arrow on the pro controller) when I press left or right.

Never had an issue with my other games. Weird.

I would speculate it's because the D-Pad up is only happening for a split second probably and not every game will register that, however it's long enough for Tetris to register it and push the block down instantly for example.

The D-Pad is definitely defective but what can we do, it seems to be an issue with the design of the controller itself, I'm already happy that it isn't happening anymore when hitting perfectly to the left or right anymore with the new Controller I've gotten...