I am an avid fan of 8BitDo’s Ultimate controllers. I’ve used the original Ultimate Wireless, have enjoyed using the more budget-friendly Ultimate 2C controllers, and have had a number of Ultimate 2 controllers as my daily drivers since they launched last year. They’re consistently solid options that deliver on every feature I happen to care about. With the 3E beckoning in a new era for this line, is it one worth checking out?

A Box of Goodies

Inside the box you get more than you’d usually see with an 8BitDo controller. The first thing to greet you is actually a fairly hefty case that houses not just the controller, but also the dock and a number of notable extras. Outside of this you do also get a relatively long USB C to USB C cable, but that’s nothing special. The case features a fairly interesting design, with a large flat base that allows the controller and dock to sit upright when stored. It’s a solid case that can certainly take a hit, which is nice if you happen to be taking both your controller and dock travelling with you. 

The most interesting part of this package is what sits under the dock in the case. Pulling back the hatch along the bottom reveals an assortment of analogue stick replacements, alongside an additional D-Pad and set of face buttons. It’s a pretty impressive collection, but we are somewhat getting ahead of ourselves here. Before we talk about customising it, we should probably talk about the controller itself. And the controller is pretty nice as it comes. 

For those who have seen an 8BitDo Ultimate controller before, a lot of this is going to look pretty familiar. You’ve got those same asymmetrical sticks, with that fancy TMR tech under the hood to reduce the odds of them drifting, alongside a fairly tactile D-Pad, some soft face buttons with a nice bit of travel to them, trigger-lockable triggers, bumpers with something of a muted click, and four mappable buttons. Two of these mappable buttons are nestled within the bumpers and triggers, while the other two sit comfortably on the controller’s grips for you to easily reach. Everything you’d need for a modern gamepad is here, as well as a few extra niceties. It’s a solid package. 

When it comes to those extra buttons, they’re all completely remappable on the controller itself, with the square button being used to assign and unassign them on the fly. It’s simple and familiar; it works well. What is a bit new here, as far as I know, is the ability to swap almost any button on the controller with any other button using that same square button. Some are excluded, like the D-Pad, the triggers, and the various small buttons like Share and Menu, but it’s still pretty great. What’s substantially less great is the star button. With previous Ultimate controllers it’s driven the turbo functionality, and that’s exactly what I expected to see here. Unless I’m missing something very obvious, that just isn’t the case.

Instead, it controls the lighting for the rings under the analogue sticks. For some reason. It feels like a waste of a button if I’m being honest, with the lighting features that are available being pretty limited either way. The lack of turbo functionality isn’t entirely unexpected though. If the Xbox logo and the review’s intro didn’t give it away, this is an officially licensed Xbox compatible controller. It’ll work wirelessly with these ever-appreciating assets we still call consoles, which is great for the Xbox fans out there. What is less great is Microsoft’s somewhat strict set of standards to gain such an accolade. One of which limiting the use of turbo inputs and macros. 

It’s something of a shame to me that 8BitDo couldn’t figure out a way to get these working at least on PC. The controller features a 2.4G mode that connects to the dongle inside the dock, and a wireless Bluetooth mode for that extra bit of flexibility. It would’ve been nice to have seen that Bluetooth mode cordoned off with some extra functionality for those who might be picking this up for PC gaming. I will add here that I don’t have access to the PC software for the controller with it not being available to download at the time of writing. It’s possible that some of these things might be made available through that, though with the features page not mentioning them, I’m not holding out too much hope. 

Looking to the back of the controller, I do also find myself a little mixed on the trigger stops used this time around. Much like with the Ultimate 2, there are only two options available, with the trigger stops either being off or on. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, with the Ultimate 2 having some of my favourite trigger stops to date. Despite there being a surprising amount of deviation between Ultimate 2 models, each one managed to take the trigger and make it feel like a button with no compromise. I was seriously impressed. The 3E doesn’t quite reach those heights for me. 

The triggers themselves feel smooth, with a soft bottom out that’s comfortable to hold. With the trigger stops enabled, it feels like that same trigger, just bottoming out much sooner. I do understand that this is fundamentally what trigger stops should do, but it’s a much less transformative experience when compared to its predecessor. Still perfectly comfortable, still perfectly serviceable. Just not quite as good in my mind. 

Rounding out my look at the hardware, we have the dock. I will stress this from the beginning: I’m glad we have a dock. It’s a great value add for any controller, really taking away any kind of battery anxiety for your longer play sessions. If your controller is always ready to go, it just becomes something you don’t have to think about. With that out of the way though, I do have to say that the dock here is a marked downgrade from what we’ve seen with the previous controllers. 

This primarily stems from one decision to move away from pogo pins as a means of connectivity to the admittedly more modern approach of wireless charging. On paper this is fine, but this move does kill one thing I really liked about the original dock in automated wake up. Before you could just pick up your controller and it’d immediately power on. Now you’re stuck holding the Xbox button for a few seconds. It’s a small bit of friction, but one you notice significantly more for it not being present in other models. 

My second point admittedly may not be universal. It’s very difficult to know with Windows being what it is nowadays, but I do feel it worth bringing up all the same. To use the dock at all with my PC, I have to disconnect and reconnect it every time I start up my computer. If I don’t, the controller just won’t be found. It’s bizarre. The system clearly knows something is there since it gives the usual disconnect sound when being initially unplugged. For the entire time I’ve been using it this has been a problem. It’s worth saying that I don’t have an Xbox to say whether it persists there. 

Customisation is King

Where the 3E really aims to set itself apart from those that came before it is in its customisation options. It does a good chunk well here too. I touched on this right around the start of the review, but this controller comes with a decent assortment of replacement analogue sticks, alongside an additional set of face buttons and a separate D-Pad. All of these are easy to swap in, with the controller’s faceplate only being held in place by magnets. You pull it off, and everything is open for you to play with. No tools needed. 

In terms of the sticks available, you get two tall ones, one that looks very much like a GameCube’s particularly grippy analogue stick, and a final spare one that looks much like the ones that come with the controller as standard. It’s a healthy assortment, though I would love to see it built upon by 8BitDo down the line. It would be great to see a small ecosystem for these kinds of parts, particularly for those who might just want a second GameCube-style stick. At the time of writing, there’s no word on whether these will be sold separately, but I do remain somewhat hopeful. 

The extra D-Pad, though not necessarily changing how the inputs feel, do at least give people a choice. I know some weren’t all to fond of the change when Xbox released their updated controller for the Series consoles. The default circular option is a great choice if you just like to have more surface area for your thumb, or want to roll from one input to another easier. The lower profile one by comparison does feel a touch more precise, and maybe looks a little more aesthetic if that’s something you care about. 

The face buttons are probably the highlight though. This is the first time we’ve seen something like this from 8BitDo, letting you choose between some softer more traditional buttons and your clickier mechanical switches that’ve become more popular in recent years. Swapping them out is a fairly simple task, again requiring no additional tools. If I had to find one point of disappointment here though, it’d definitely be in the lack of Nintendo-flavoured buttons. I do understand that this is probably another casualty of it being an Xbox-licensed controller, but it does feel like a missed opportunity all the same. We could’ve done away with the confusing names and just had one controller that could be it all. I do hold out some hope that we’ll see more modules released in the future though. At the very least I’d be happy with seeing a Switch-flavoured 3E if its button module was at least compatible. All of this is yet to be seen though. 

A Surprise Bluetooth Win

One area I want to shine a particular light on with the 3E is its Bluetooth mode. And it’s for a reason this community in particular will probably be interested in. To sum it up in a word: DirectInput. Unlike the somewhat restrictive XInput protocol the 2.4G mode uses for fairly obvious reasons, DirectInput is the controller equivalent of the wild west in these modern times. You don’t necessarily get guaranteed compatibility with games out of the box, so what do you get? The biggest thing in my mind is extra buttons. Though the L4, R4, PL, and PR buttons can be remapped in the 2.4G mode, they can only be remapped to other buttons on the controller. Handy for avoiding the dreaded claw grip, sure, but less handy for those wanting hotkeys in their emulation setup. DirectInput though? These are all free to use. 

Four buttons really can go a long way in this kind of setup, and it’s great to see such an option be available on a controller like this. That isn’t all though, with the Bluetooth mode also giving you access to gyro functionality. It doesn’t work out of the box with emulators like Citra as you might have seen with the Switch Pro Controller, but it is at least recognised in Steam without issue. It’s a nice bonus, albeit one I would rarely make use of for regular PC gaming. 

A Solid Contender

At the end of the day, the Ultimate 3E is a solid controller. At £125 though, does it do enough to justify its price? It’s a distinct probably. There’s clearly a markup here for the Xbox compatibility, and for the Xbox players out there, I do feel this price point is much more attractive for that wireless support. For the PC players there is still value to be found. It’s a great controller with ample customisation, along with a solid DirectInput Bluetooth mode. If you’re happy to pay the price of entry, it’s a controller that I don’t think will disappoint you.