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8Bitdo NES30 on ShopTemp

I would like to thank and for sending me this review sample.


The NES30 comes in a very sturdy high quality cardboard box, if you ever have gotten a high end smartphone before its the same type of box. The packaging design brings a very familiar feeling to the buyer, the packaging is designed to look like an NES console, a very nice touch and something the FC30 packaging lacked. On the front is a picture of the product along with some compatible platforms listed, the sides list the same thing along with USB support. The back features all the information about the product including package contents, product dimensions, product various product features and functions, battery and usb cable information, and environment requirement information. There are also two stickers on each side of the box with the 8Bitdo logo and website holding the box close and ensuring the buyer receives a brand new product.

Moving onto the contents, the NES30 with the Xtander device holder is clipped onto it is the first item in the box which sits inside a cardboard holder. Underneath it an instruction manual is included and is written in both english and chinese which is full of information about the different product modes and operation instructions. The manual is also available for download as a PDF from 8Bitdo's website. Finally there are two more cardboard boxes one which contains 4 foot or 1.2 meter long grey MicroUSB which has 8Bitdo's logo embedded onto it. The other box contains a collectible metal keychain.

The controller stays mostly true mostly true to the original NES controller design adding two extra main buttons and two triggers. Adding these extra buttons enable it to be used for more then just NES emulation, including SNES, Genesis and in some cases N64 and PS1 emulation. The buttons have a nice clicky feel too them, the start and select buttons are rubber just like the original controller. The controller has a nice weight to it also and isnt too lite. On the back we see six screws and a sticker with the product identification, the original NES controller had molded plastic identification information instead of a sticker. Under that is a Nintendo-esque logo with the 8Bitdo name. On the top of the unit there is the MicroUSB port for charging and interfacing with a PC, two activity LED's, one green and one blue, and two trigger buttons.

The Xtander is a molded piece of plastic that is designed to hold your device at 45 degrees or 60 degrees. It has an "X" design on the back and fits snug on the controller and adds very little bulk for easy portability. On the front there are four protruding circles meant to fit into the NES30's screw holes. On each side of it there are indentations to place your device in, one side for the 45 degrees and the other for 60 degrees. With the Xtander on the controller it does not block the USB port or the activity LED's. It does feel a little flimsy however it seems like it should hold up to normal wear and tear.

The last included it is the keychain made of metal. The front has the 8Bitdo name on the top followed by FC30 under it and then the words "For the happy memory of old days" in an italic font and FC30 Anniversary on the bottom sides. On the back we see the 8Bitdo name again and under that is the FC30 controller silhouette and under it the words "In memory of FC since July 15, 1983", The FC30 Anniversary on each side are also present again. Its a very nice add in from 8Bitdo, feels very high quality but I do wish it got a redesign for the NES version, the english could have been worded a bit better.


The first thing you should do before actually using the NES30 is to upgrade the firmware. The firmware is located on 8Bitdo's website and contains a full changelog of what every firmware update added or changed a feature to improve the overall product function. Its a great feature and I do wish more products would have such a function. Updating the the NES30 was very easy, hold down the START button as the two trigger buttons to activate firmware upgrade mode. The two activity LED's will flash confirming the mode, then just connect the USB cable and windows will detect and install the needed drivers. Once the drivers are installed then you can open the firmware upgrade program and hit the USB update program, it will detect the NES30 in upgrade mode and proceed to overwrite the firmware. The process is fairly quick and you will be presentend with a confirmation windows that everything went ok. You now enjoy your upgraded NES30 controller and the new features and fixes it now has.

The NES30 supports 5 different modes (technically there are seven modes if you include firmware update mode and Wii Mote mode) by using different button combs when you start the controller or just by plugging in the USB cable. Mode 1 is just a simple bluetooth controller emulator, mainly used for Android but also works with windows. Mode 2 is bluetooth keyboard emulator, you can assign custom keys to each button if a certain game requires it. Mode 3 an iCade mode, iCade is mainly used for iOS and will emulate one of the miniature arcade cabinets since certain games already have iCade support. Mode 4 is a touch screen emulator, this mode requires that an iOS device be jailbroken or an Android device be rooted before you can use this mode, this will emulate a bluetooth mouse. Mode 5 is just a wired controller, just plug in your controller and it will act as a regular USB controller in windows. This mode will also work on Android using an OTG adapter and a controller program such as USB Joystick Center. As an added bonus mode you can also use this controller on the Wii as it will emulate a Wii Mote.

Now that the modes have been covered we can now sync the controller with our mobile device. I will be using the Android platform with a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2012 tablet which both run Touchwiz UI as testing hardware. After turning on bluetooth and holding down the START button, the blue led starting blinking waiting for it to be paired. I first tried 8Bitdo's own gamepad software for Android, gave it root permission when it asked, however no matter what I kept getting "Connections fails". I was forced to use Androids built in bluetooth syncing to get the devices to pair with each other which worked out fine with no problems. The gamepad software also lacked tablet UI and instead forced phone UI. I tried some other modes trying to get the device to sync when using the gamepad app and was able to on modes 2 and 4. With mode 2 I was able to set assign custom keys to each button, on android this would be particularly useful when playing flash games, the same goes for PC's, on emulators there was a bit of lag between key press so it would be best to stick to mode 1. Mode 4 requires a modded device which I have and was able to enable it however the mouse pointer never showed up on android so it was impossible to tell where I was actually clicking onto too. This might be a problem with the remote or with Samsungs Touchwiz UI but it was rendered useless for the intended purpose.

Once set into Mode 1 I was ready to start an NES emulator first. I will be using Robert Broglia's line of ".emu" emulators https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Robert Broglia for testing the controller functions.
My Galaxy S3 with an Otterbox Commuter case fit well into the Xtander, it feels secure and doesnt seem it will fall out easily, though either side was the same for me as for the angle went. Obviously this was only made for small phones and devices, tablets are way to heavy to sit in the Xtander without topping over, believe me I have tried. Six inch screen devices would probably be the highest I would put in it but seven inch devices might work such as the Nexus 7. The emulator detected the controller immediately I was able to load up a rom fine which was Super Mario Bros. and play it with the controller. You can also map emulator functions to the the unused buttons such as open menu, navigation, back, enter, save state, load state, and a few other nifty functions that you can access right at your finger tips. I tested a few more roms then moved onto SNES and GBA, now SNES in particular will use all the game keys which required me to map them all first. Once done and started playing a game which was Yoshi's Island I noticed it was a bit difficult to operate the L and R triggers comfortably mainly because of the controller size and shape. You can still play the game but its not as comfortable as I would like say to something like a PS3 controller, an optional controller grip might solve this if one were ever offered. I also tested the USB controller function in windows and was able to map controls in an NES emulator just as if it were a standard USB controller.


The NES30 certainly lives up as an improvement over the FC30 based on my testing. While it might appear as a bit pricey to some people compared to regular bluetooth controllers, you are getting a product jam packed with modes and functions along with 8Bitdo's support for future features and product fixes when compared to simple controllers that have no support. The controller along with all the included extra's make it for a very nice package, there are still a few kinks to work out but its mainly just the gamepad software. What lies ahead for 8Bitdo team as far as their next controller remains to be seen but one could guess its going to be the SNES30 or SF30.