NES-30 Controller

The NES30 is a Bluetooth controller that taps into this nostalgia. It’s a shameless rip-off of the controller that came with the Nintendo Entertainment System, one of the most iconic pieces of electronics in history and, for many, their very first taste of video games.

But Chinese manufacturer 8BitDo wasn’t content to merely copy the original: in addition to a Bluetooth connection, battery, and a little software to make the controller play nice with mobile and PC games, they added
two extra face buttons (X and Y) and two shoulder buttons to boot. This essentially makes the NES30 into a copy of the Super NES controller, but crammed into the size and shape of the original NES form factor. This makes it much more practical for playing modern games, especially on mobile.

The NES30 is a carbon copy of the original NES controller. Except where it isn’t. The unofficial Bluetooth controller uses almost exactly the same rectangular shape and dimensions (122x53x16mm) as the plastic controller from the 80s, right down to the seam in the
casing about two thirds of the way down the edge. The color of the grey plastic and the ornamental, wear-resistant sticker on the top are more or less perfect. Well, perfect in the sense that they emulate the look and feel of the original: objectively, the NES and its controller were pretty ugly, even by 80s standards. But that’s kind of the point.

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