Hands on with the Nintendo 64 Controller for Nintendo Switch

The first batch of Nintendo 64 Controllers for the Nintendo Switch was dispatched late last week, and they’ve started arriving for some lucky few. We were able to get some snaps of the controller in real life and see how it compares to the original.

The most obvious change is to the area where you would normally slot in a Rumble Pak. It’s gone filled it in with probably the battery. The analogue stick, love it or hate it, seems to have remained unchanged, with the mechanism seemingly the same but the stick with a slightly different design (there’s no hole in the top). It will be interesting to see how it holds up.

Oh one thing, you can’t actually use them yet – seems a firmware update will be required as the controller wouldn’t connect to the Switch.

Aside from the addition of the USB-C charging port, the player number indicator, home and capture buttons – it’s mostly the same controller. It’s also heavier than an N64 original, the inbuilt rumble no doubt causing that.

Thanks to Tori for providing the pictures and letting us ask so many questions, and somehow defeating Australia Post.