Last week we at the Mobile Phone Tips and Tricks Head Office in sunny England got a nice large box sent to us from “PhoneJoy Solutions†the people behind the “PhoneJoy†controller. The control which resembles the Dual Shock control from the Playstation line of home gaming consoles is one of a handful of Bluetooth based gaming controls that can be used to play games on Android phones, though how good is it?
Firstly we had to set the control up for the phone, to do this we followed the very straightforward guide on the PhoneJoy website (click here to read that guide) and with in 10 minutes the phone and control were paired by bluetooth and we were ready to go . Next we had to find something we could test the control on, for us it was obvious, we were going to use the emulators we had on the phone which allowed us to test a lot of the control such as its flexibility and its re-activeness.
After booting up N64oid we quickly mapped the N64 controller to the “PhoneJoy†and we were ready to go
with games such as Goldeneye, F Zero X, Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie. It didnt take long at all (30 minutes tops) to get used to the control and it soon became second nature. As soon as we got the hang of the control the racing games were a real joy to play, it was smooth, responsive and incredibly easy. F Zero X had become the game wed all loved from the 1990s, Diddy Kong Racing was the same ludicrous fun that we all knew and loved...and then we got to Goldeneye and this was where we had one of the few niggles we had. The analogue stick just seemed a little bit too jumpy for the accurate shooting sections in the game and instead of allowing us to get clear head shots we were really having to rely on the auto-aim far too much for our liking. Weve read that this is actually down to the software or the emulator rather than the control though it is incredibly irritating who-ever we are to blame. Im willing to give the control the benefit of the doubt (due to how well it works with the other N64 games) though it is still worth noting for people who are big FPS fans. Weve also had issues using the “Analog†setting of the control though at the moment Im still putting this down to the software more than the actual controller, hopefully we will see this sorted out in the future as this is really the only issue regarding how it works.
The second, much bigger issue we have with the control is its portability. We know its based very blatantly on the Dual Shock controllers used by Sony in their Playstation consoles though whilst its a good design and its very easy to hold and use...its also rather large. The control wont easily fit in your average pocket and for something that is trying to make gaming portable thats not a good thing. What also doesnt help is that the control cant be “bracketed†or physically “connected†to the phone like a number of the other devices on the market. Instead the control comes with a stand that the phone can sit on whilst you use the control and in some environments this is fantastic (at home, at a friends or even on a train) in other environments however this is difficult (think sitting in a car or a bus). Its a sort of weird pay off, you get a very usable and natural controller that youll be used to using though its not the most mobile or one you can use in ev ery situation.
Now weve gotten the big issues out of the way well be honest we really like it. We think it helps you get a lot more out of emulators and some Android games (though we mainly used it on emulators). It has got its issues and its not perfect though were not going to have a “perfect†control for a while yet and this does what it needs to do wonderfully well, the battery is incredibly long lasting and easy to charge the stand has a number of uses outside of just gaming and the control is a joy to use. Its made playing games from my our childhood much more enjoyable than using the poor on screen controls and really brought to life what the Android can do with the right kind of accessories.
At around $35.00 each they are worth the price if you play emulators on your phone (we advise using a top phone though such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation XE, as most others will struggle with the better emulators). The pros certainly outweigh the con s and when you think of all the games you really open up as a result of the control its easily the worth. If you want to think of it in another way a working N64 alone costs about the same price as the control and the control can play a lot more games than just an N64.
Official website:
http://www.phonejoy.net/
Pros-
Very affordable
Easy to use
Easy to set up
Long lasting battery
Useful Stand
Bring Android Gaming to a whole new level
Cons-
Does seem to have some issues with accuracy*
Analog doesnt seem to have been perfected*
Not the most portable of devices
No "bracket" fitting
*We think these are software issues
Firstly we had to set the control up for the phone, to do this we followed the very straightforward guide on the PhoneJoy website (click here to read that guide) and with in 10 minutes the phone and control were paired by bluetooth and we were ready to go . Next we had to find something we could test the control on, for us it was obvious, we were going to use the emulators we had on the phone which allowed us to test a lot of the control such as its flexibility and its re-activeness.
After booting up N64oid we quickly mapped the N64 controller to the “PhoneJoy†and we were ready to go
with games such as Goldeneye, F Zero X, Diddy Kong Racing and Banjo Kazooie. It didnt take long at all (30 minutes tops) to get used to the control and it soon became second nature. As soon as we got the hang of the control the racing games were a real joy to play, it was smooth, responsive and incredibly easy. F Zero X had become the game wed all loved from the 1990s, Diddy Kong Racing was the same ludicrous fun that we all knew and loved...and then we got to Goldeneye and this was where we had one of the few niggles we had. The analogue stick just seemed a little bit too jumpy for the accurate shooting sections in the game and instead of allowing us to get clear head shots we were really having to rely on the auto-aim far too much for our liking. Weve read that this is actually down to the software or the emulator rather than the control though it is incredibly irritating who-ever we are to blame. Im willing to give the control the benefit of the doubt (due to how well it works with the other N64 games) though it is still worth noting for people who are big FPS fans. Weve also had issues using the “Analog†setting of the control though at the moment Im still putting this down to the software more than the actual controller, hopefully we will see this sorted out in the future as this is really the only issue regarding how it works.The second, much bigger issue we have with the control is its portability. We know its based very blatantly on the Dual Shock controllers used by Sony in their Playstation consoles though whilst its a good design and its very easy to hold and use...its also rather large. The control wont easily fit in your average pocket and for something that is trying to make gaming portable thats not a good thing. What also doesnt help is that the control cant be “bracketed†or physically “connected†to the phone like a number of the other devices on the market. Instead the control comes with a stand that the phone can sit on whilst you use the control and in some environments this is fantastic (at home, at a friends or even on a train) in other environments however this is difficult (think sitting in a car or a bus). Its a sort of weird pay off, you get a very usable and natural controller that youll be used to using though its not the most mobile or one you can use in ev ery situation.Now weve gotten the big issues out of the way well be honest we really like it. We think it helps you get a lot more out of emulators and some Android games (though we mainly used it on emulators). It has got its issues and its not perfect though were not going to have a “perfect†control for a while yet and this does what it needs to do wonderfully well, the battery is incredibly long lasting and easy to charge the stand has a number of uses outside of just gaming and the control is a joy to use. Its made playing games from my our childhood much more enjoyable than using the poor on screen controls and really brought to life what the Android can do with the right kind of accessories.
At around $35.00 each they are worth the price if you play emulators on your phone (we advise using a top phone though such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation XE, as most others will struggle with the better emulators). The pros certainly outweigh the con s and when you think of all the games you really open up as a result of the control its easily the worth. If you want to think of it in another way a working N64 alone costs about the same price as the control and the control can play a lot more games than just an N64.
Official website:
http://www.phonejoy.net/
Pros-
Very affordable
Easy to use
Easy to set up
Long lasting battery
Useful Stand
Bring Android Gaming to a whole new level
Cons-
Does seem to have some issues with accuracy*
Analog doesnt seem to have been perfected*
Not the most portable of devices
No "bracket" fitting
*We think these are software issues
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