Details
- Manufacturer: PowerA
- Pros: Swappable analog sticks; programmable buttons on back; works well overall; low price
- Cons: Feels cheap; wired; weak rumble
- MSRP: $50
Probably the most important thing to remember about the new FUSION
controller is that it is only $50 MSRP.
For that $50 you’re getting a controller with trigger locks, two
programmable buttons on the back, 9.8’ braided cable, 3.5mm audio jack so you can
use any headset with it, and six swappable analog stick tops. It obviously doesn’t quite have the bells
and whistles of Microsoft or Razer’s elite-style controllers, but it costs way,
way, way less than they do and does offer some of those elite features at a
price that is lower than you'd pay for a standard controller. It is extremely reasonably priced for the
features you’re getting.
Those elite-style features work pretty well on the FUSION,
too. It only has two programmable
buttons on the back instead of four, but they can still make a big difference
in the middle of an intense firefight so you don’t have to take your thumbs off
the analog sticks to press a face button.
I am also happy to say that the back buttons themselves are much easier
to press than they were on last year’s FUSION Pro controller, which were way
too stiff. Programming the buttons is
as easy as holding the program button on the back of the controller for a
couple of seconds, pressing the button you want to copy, and then pressing the
back button you want to program it to.
The trigger locks work just like you’d expect since they’re
just physical locks that slide in and out of place so you don’t have to press
the triggers all the way in. They are
dubbed “quick” trigger locks here because they’re easy to slide in and out, and
they definitely work well. The feature
I’m probably happiest with overall on the Fusion, however, is the inclusion of
swappable analog sticks. I didn’t like
the huge stick tops on last year’s FUSION Pro, so being able to put on smaller
tops similar to those on the standard XONE pad was very much appreciated. The FUSION comes with two concave small
tops, two large flat tops, and two small convex tops that you can mix and match
to find what works best for you. They
simply snap into place, so taking them off and changing them is very easy.
The rest of the FUSION controller is pretty standard
stuff. The buttons are all in the same
place as on a standard pad and the overall shape of the controller is almost
the same as the standard pad. The face
buttons stand a more proud above the surface than the standard XONE controller,
but I didn’t mind them. The bumper
buttons are a touch on the soft and spongy side when you press them, but that
also didn’t bother me.
I used the PowerA FUSION controller extensively to play a
wide range of games over the last week-plus and don’t really have any
complaints about how it performed. I
played a lot of Stories of Bethem, Dead Rising, ReCore, NASCAR Heat Evolution,
Pac-Man CE 2, and Halo MCC – a collection of games that couldn’t be more
different from each other – and the controller performed perfectly in all of
them.
The FUSION controller comes in black or a white GameStop exclusive version. It is compatible with Xbox One as well as PC, but I didn't test it on PC. It does not work with Xbox 360.
While it performed like a champ in every game I threw at it, I do have some complaints, too. The plastic feels cheap like a dollar store toy. It is kind of unpleasant feeling at first, to be honest, but I got used to it. I also was somewhat disappointed in the rumble as well. It feels very weak compared to the standard pad. The Fusion also has the haptic feedback rumble in the triggers, but it was also very weak to the point I could barely feel it. I even played the Forza games – games that use the haptic triggers extensively – specifically to test it out and it barely registers. My final complaint is that it is a pain in the butt to use a wired controller these days. The cord is nice and long, so it isn’t as if I ever had problems, but wires just kinda suck.
In the end, though, the positives outweigh the negatives and
the PowerA FUSION Xbox One controller is fairly decent overall, particularly for
the $50 price tag. The low price tag is
directly tied to the cheap feeling plastic and the fact it is wired, of course,
but you’re still getting elite-style features for 1/3rd of the price
and it does perform well overall. If
you want to test drive some of the elite features but don’t want to pay a lot,
or just need a decent extra Xbox One controller, the PowerA FUSION controller
for Xbox One is worth a look.
