Ipega Arcade Joystick Review: Playing Together Everywhere

POSITIVES

✓ Compact Size

Not much longer than a Nintendo Switch

✓ Take it Anywhere

Not a lot of portable arcade solutions like this

✓ Two Players

Makes a great experience for children

NEGATIVES

✘ Cheap feeling

Feels more like a toy than a tech product

✘ Mushy buttons and joysticks

Feels like a child's toy

✘ Some awkwardness

ZL and ZR located in a line

Purchase Price: $39.99

Buy on Amazon

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Playing the Nintendo Switch anywhere with a friend is a cool aesthetic and all, but when it comes to multiplayer gaming, nothing beats a fight stick gamepad. The sight of an arcade style joystick accompanied by six buttons is the epitome of gaming with a friend. Many of us spent most of our childhoods with our friends at the arcade furiously hammering the mechanical switches while trying to pull off combos on Street Fighter II or Metal Slug. Now imagine being able to emulate that sensation of arcade gaming with the portability aspect of the Nintendo Switch. That’s what we have here with the Ipega PG-SW002 arcade gamepad! Two player arcade goodness wherever and whenever you want to lay down a challenge to a buddy.

How it Works

Sold on Amazon for about $50, this portable fight stick is far from what most people are looking for in a fight stick gamepad. It isn’t built well, nor is it a quality performer, but it does one thing exceptionally well which is to allow two gamers to play together on an arcade simulation within the confines of the Nintendo Switch’s body. When it’s stored away neatly, the Ipega really isn’t much longer than the length of a first-generation Switch. You simply pull out the two gamepads in opposite directions and they extend to the edges of the Switch’s 6.2 inch display on a plastic rail. The distance between the two extended controllers are at a comfortable enough distance where the two players aren’t rubbing elbows.

The Switch can then be mounted on a USB-C dock after folding up a protective cover which also doubles up as a support rail to prop up the back of the console. There are plenty of third-party Nintendo Switch gamepads and docks on the market, but I haven’t found anything that quite replicates what this thing does. On the back of the gamepad, there’s a micro-USB and USB-C slot that can be used as a power pass through as well as a means to connect the Switch to a Switch dock hooked up to a TV. The gamepad does not require its own source of power as it draws from the Nintendo Switch to operate.

Build Quality

There’s a total of ten rubber feet stickies on the bottom side to attempt at preventing slippage during button mashing sessions. On a wood surface, it actually does a decent job of retaining traction so that the controller isn’t sliding left and right. While the gamepad is clearly not made of high quality materials, I did enjoy using it for what it was. This Ipega in particular is quite hollow sounding and extremely lightweight. My unit hasn’t been damaged yet, but this reminds me more of a children’s toy than a piece of gaming tech. The joysticks themselves scream cheap the second they’re operated. There’s absolutely no feedback or resistance of any kind when twiddling the joystick around. It’s a seamlessly fluid experience which isn’t actually a good thing when it comes to joysticks. Quality gaming on arcade sticks should have a click in any of the directions they’re operated at. This helps the gamer retain a better feel for the input in which is needed to pull off a specific moveset. It’s actually quite hard to do here as this really isn’t modelled as an arcade joystick we’re accustomed to at all.

The six buttons that share the Y,X,L,B,A and R labelling of the Switch fare a bit better than the joystick in terms of user experience. They aren’t the mechanical switches on actual fight sticks you’ll see on Amazon, but for casual gaming, they do suffice. The buttons are sized at just about a finger’s circumference due to the compact nature of the Ipega. They’re clicky in a plasticky sense, but once again, it’s more of a toy feeling sensation than a cheap arcade stick. A top row of function and trigger buttons are assigned for the Switch’s Home, ZL, ZR and + and - use cases.

Thanks for the memories

There are plenty of single gamepad arcade sticks on the market that have actual mechanical switches for a cheaper MSRP than this product. Then again, the highest gaming quality isn’t the point of this gamepad. This thing is good for one purpose and that is to bring two people together to game side by side. As innovative as the Switch is for local multiplayer, the joycons and even the pro controllers don’t emulate the competitive comradery someone feels playing with or against another player that arcade units have made us feel for decades. This unit does a great job of bringing people together. My niece and nephew spent a good amount of time on this with their parents and aunts playing the silliest of games (Untitled Goose Game). New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe co-op also makes a perfect companion to this gamepad. Essentially if the game doesn’t require quick dedicated input from its controller, you’ll have a fun time using this gamepad with a Player 2. I could even play Cuphead relatively comfortably after configuring the button layout at my nephew's behest. As long as you go into this with an expectation that you won’t be attempting any speedrun records or flawless victories and simply just want to enjoy spending time playing a game casually with someone, you’ll grow to enjoy what this little guy can do.   

This is what I’d call an experience product. It isn’t something I’d normally recommend by my quality or performance standards, but the hours of enjoyment I was able to get out of it with my nephew and niece at the locations outside of my house were just priceless. As someone with actual arcade units at home with what I’d deem as acceptable gamepad quality, I just wanted to bring a little piece of that experience to different places. I mentioned in my review of the Legends Ultimate that I felt it unified families by giving them a reason to be right next to one another. Playing this way allows people to enjoy the company they have without being physically detached from them. The Ipega PG-SW002 accomplishes that and I’d pay $50 to get those memories with my friends and family anytime.

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