Thursday, September 7, 2017

Moto Mod Gamepad


So I came across this online and was VERY excited to see an official gamepad for my Moto Z Play phone. Finally, no touch screen controls. And it was on sale after just coming out!!! I'm game.




What you get:
Comes in a long box with the controller, hand strap, and a couple of pamphlets. An app accessing play store games the work with the gamepad.

What about it:
It connects directly to the phone using the Moto Mod connection. No Bluetooth needed. BAM and you are good to go.






The good:
The feels. It feels light and snug in my man hands just fine. And with a nice "clip" sound when connected to my phone, it holds on tightly.

The lights. It does have built in LEDs that lights up the buttons. However, this seems more of a novelty than a function. Also, mine only let up as I pushed the button. Making things blink all the time. So just turned it off.

The battery. The gamepad does have a built in battery. However, it seems more to be for the gamepad than the phone to me. My phone drained like normal while playing. Would have been nice if it charged it at the same time. But good to know that I, at least, have a backup.

The buttons. These feel great. Not cheap at all. They have all of the possible buttons covered. Even the joy sticks click.

The bad:
The buttons. The layout could have been better. I don't think that we really needed a home button. The left joy stick seems a little far when pushing it up. When playing a fighting game it just did not feel right jumping. And the D-pad, while feels good, is just not responsive. I played a number of games and you could here the click of me pushing the button. But nothing happens. On the right side it feels a bit too cramped. My thumb covers over all of the standard push buttons. And when reaching to push on the top one, I'm hitting the right joystick. Then you have the shoulder buttons. These are just way too close. Also, there are NO instructions for this.

Button mapping. Seems that a lot of games will work with the gamepad, you can't change the layout. Even the left joystick would click while I was moving making me jump. And in games that allowed me to map, they did not know what button I was pressing. Something I am sure can be fixed later but really should have been addressed before launch.

No case. The gamepad is pretty cool, but long. This thing is in real need of portability. You are, after all, playing a portable game on a portable device. It is real NEED of folding up or snapping on like the Nintendo Switch to make this work. Also, you don't get a case for it. Good luck getting this to fit in a pocket or something.


NO CASE. And this by far the worst part. You cannot have a phone case on when you want to use the gamepad. It simply will not fit. For me, this is a deal breaker. I use my phone for a LOT more than gaming so it is on me all the time. But when I do want to play a game, I do not want to go through the hassle of removing my phone case. This seems to me a simple resolve on their end when designing the gamepad but was missed. And since this is a pricy device, that is a big issue. Not to mention adding wear and tear to the case.

In the end:
I ended up taking it back to just get a standard Bluetooth controller. Just make sense. The Moto Mod Gamepad is a good step in the right direction, but needs a little more R and D to be a must by. Fix the D-pad, make it collapsible, it's own app to assist with mapping, and allow you to connect without having to remove the phone's case. Once these issues have been addressed, you've got a winner in your hands. Until then, just not in mine.