Earlier this year, PB Tails’ Metal Crush Defender TMR controller caught my eye, with its Fallout-inspired, distressed yellow stylings and glistening chrome sticks. I don’t usually go in for ‘relic’ effects on anything, but this looked a bit special. It felt artful and novel in a market where neon gamer gear dominates, screaming for attention, and ‘cheapening’ otherwise decent equipment. The Xbox face button layout, though, meant it wasn’t specifically relevant to Switch owners.
Fast-forward several months, and there’s a new model bearing Nintendo’s classic button layout. Retailing for $79.99, this is the firm’s familiar Crush pad but with ’50s automotive stylings – specifically, it’s celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Porsche 550 Spyder.
There’s no official licensing on this tribute, but the finish is beautiful, if you’re into that sort of thing. The red light strip along the bottom edge (you can change the colour – more on that later) looks like a tail light, while the decals and details across the face, plus the silver paint job and the ‘grille’, faux-number plate, and red strips on the rear, give the feel of a quality piece of retro memorabilia. The burgundy trim of the D-pad and the shoulder buttons add to the classy, retro stylings, too.
Opinion among Team NL is divided — you’ll need to be a classic car connoisseur or have a thing for mechanical engineering and retro design — but I love the look and feel. It’s a niche aesthetic and the pad won’t suit every gaming purpose, but there’s a luxuriousness to the finish and the chrome accents that gets my motor running. You feel like you should be playing with leather driving gloves when you’re handling this thing (and maybe I did).
In the hands, gloved or otherwise, this Crush pad feels like an old-school Xbox 360 controller, but weightier, and definitely glossier. The metal of the default sticks is just the beginning, and the slickness of the bodywork is probably a dealbreaker if you main games that give you sweaty palms.
Fingerprints were my immediate concern on taking the pad from its black and white case and removing the little foam collars around the sticks, but surprisingly, I haven’t found them an issue. I assumed I’d need a microfiber cloth after every session, but it’s been fine sitting on the side over the past couple of weeks, despite the dust on my TV shelf and my sticky gamer paws.
A braided USB-A to C cable is included for charging (the claimed 30-hour life feels accurate, although that’ll depend on your lighting intensity), plus a dongle for 2.4G wireless connection and plastic/rubber sticks if you want to swap out the zinc alloy pair.
And honestly? If you’re into your online shooters or just want to be competitive in Fortnite, you’ll want to switch the stick covers; channel-hopping in Blippo+ was a dream, a tense shootout in Springfield less so. I had no issue racing in GRID or unleashing ninja skills in Shinobi, but chromed metal just doesn’t offer enough grip for split-second, precision inputs.
The sticks themselves are the TMR variety, so power efficient and offering commensurate performance and protection against drift to Hall Effect. Obviously, it’ll take a year or two of use to thoroughly test their resilience, but there’s nothing to suggest they’ll start wandering. They feel robust and responsive.
Changing the sticks involves removing the magnetic faceplate, which can be tricky if you don’t have decent nails, but gripping the front housing up around the shoulder buttons while pressing down on the sticks with your thumbs will eventually prise the cover away. Swap out the metal ones, clip the caps into the plastic domes, pop the cover back on, and you’re away.
PB sells other faceplates, although it would be weird to buy one of these and then ruin the aesthetic with a clear orange cover. Also worth noting is that the carry case’s foam insert holds the two-part plastic sticks only, so you’ll need to store the metal ones safely somewhere else.
Removing the chrome ones feels like sacrilege, though, like you’ve whacked some cheap rims on a vintage Jag. It functions well, with gyro controls, some very nice rumble (the growl it makes when it connects to the console feels, brilliantly, like a revving engine), and pleasingly springy analogue triggers. The D-pad felt fine for a blast through some NSO classics, and the whole controller has a premium-feeling heft to it.
Even the RGB lighting feels somehow sophisticated here. Holding down the ‘T’ (turbo) button and moving the left stick lets you pick the exact colour of the light strip, while the right stick changes the face and central Home buttons. You can tweak the intensity of the LEDs, too, and I appreciated that it’s all there and selectable via the pad itself, no external software needed. You can’t buy a lightbulb these days without downloading a bloody app.
Face button lighting presets are selectable, as well: Super Famicom-style is the default, but you’ve also got PlayStation blue with the customary hues of Sony’s shapes, or Xbox green and corresponding button colours. There’s also a Dreamcast-style option – at least I think that’s what the orange home button and this colour layout are referencing. Obviously, the Nintendo ABYX labelling remains, but it’s a neat nod to other platforms.
No clicky microswitches is a big plus, personally; all the face buttons feel nicely responsive without the irritating, cheap-sounding click that makes playing in a quiet space irritating. Toggling the switch on the top edge changes from ‘S’ (Switch) to ‘X’ (XInput), and everything functioned exactly as you’d expect when testing with Steam using the included dongle (or wired if you prefer) and iOS over Bluetooth.
While you get added turbo options via the aforementioned button, you don’t get NFC reader for amiibo or a ‘C’ button for easy Switch 2 GameChat access. There’s no headphone jack, either, so headset gamers should look elsewhere, and you don’t get any fancy back buttons, either.
Another minor quirk is that ‘-‘ and ‘+’ here are in the position of the Home and Capture buttons on Nintendo’s controller, so prepare for some accidental screenshots at first. Also, you can’t wake your Switch 2 up with this – not an issue for me as I always turn it on via the console, but some people really like the convenience of grabbing the pad down the side of the sofa and powering on.
This isn’t the kind of pad you’ll leave jammed down the side of the sofa, though. For $80, there are functions missing that you might hope to have. If you only get one controller for Switch 2, look at Nintendo’s own option or something from 8Bitdo. You’re really paying for the style here. The Crush 550 needs pairing with a high-backed, leather-studded chair and a glass of Margaux while enjoying a visual novel or a light puzzler. It’s not what you want if you’re in the midst of a nailbiting deathmatch, perspiring between frantic frags and Dorito downtime. You wouldn’t want to rag this into the ground with twitch shooters.
It really depends what kind of gamer you are, then. I find this a pleasure to play with, and I’ll be using it whenever a game doesn’t demand more performance than it can manage. A classic car is a perfect comparison; this is a fair-weather pad, a beautiful Sunday driver you take out only when conditions allow. If you’re in the market for something for the weekend and value-for-money is less important than sophistication, this will look and feel great in your showroom.
The sample used in this review was provided by PB Tails.
