I've heard a lot of people say that the Xbox 360 controller
is their favorite controller ever. It's certainly up there for me,
and in its generation, oh boy, did it ever kick the PS3 controller's butt.
First generation Xbox's revision control,
the S, kicks the PS2's butt. I don't like the GameCube controller.
You don't like having a good analog stick on the right side?
No, I'm used to it. The idea of this controller, as you can see,
is to bring back 100% the Xbox 360 controller.
It looks, feels, smells,
and this one smells old. It's definitely a little bit lighter. That being said, they are only producing a wired variant,
which at first kind of seems like a bit of a shame, but then I realize how much trouble wireless can be.
It's nice just to like plug it in and have it work.
Let's see what's else is in this box. Come on, to that end,
there's what seems to be a very long USB Type-C cable.
Proprietary stuff always sucks, but USB-C is definitely a huge win.
This is long though.
I'll go down, it's 10 feet. It might not be long enough if it's your living room PC,
and you have to kind of plug around the back or run around some stuff,
but for most scenarios, especially if you're right around your PC,
10 feet is more than enough. Thank you for not cheaping out on that hyperkinx.
Outside of that, we get a sticker, quick start guide, and a little purchase cardboard.
I'm bringing in my actual 360 controller.
It's a little beat up, but it'll give us an idea of the comparison.
It's the same, cool. Hey, video's done. Thank you for watching this video.
Before we even compare, let me give you just kind of general hand feel.
First impression is it's fairly light. It almost feels like it doesn't have rumble in it,
but it does, and it actually has rumble triggers, which is a cool little update,
bringing it up to par with the Xbox One and Series X controllers.
The plastics feel pretty convincing in terms of almost feeling as good as the Microsoft's ones.
They feel a little bit cheaper. They're stiff and rigid,
but the texture on it is a little bit off. I might just be used to 15 year old controllers
and the touch of that. The screw layout looks pretty identical.
I almost wonder if they got the exact moldings for Microsoft. This is actually an Xbox branded product,
and so it wouldn't surprise me if they got the official molding from Microsoft themselves.
If you didn't tell me that this wasn't a first party controller,
I would have a hard time saying it's not.
It shares the same strengths, which was the great triggers for the time,
good analog sticks, very comfortable shape, and it shares the ultimate weakness,
which is the worst D-pad of all time.
Different sound. I don't think they feel quite as good. I think the original ones feel a little bit better
in terms of analog sticks. They feel fairly light.
I use mostly a dual sense and a third party Xbox one controller,
and both sticks feel a little stiffer than this. Not the end of the world.
I know some people like that really snappy feeling,
but I find they feel a little cheap. These are potentiometer based sticks.
They're not Hall Effect, unfortunately, but in a product such as this, I'm not super surprised.
The clickiness of the sticks actually feels a little bit better on the Hyperkin
than the decade old 360 controller,
but I don't love the plastic finish.
Feels okay, certainly not as good as the Xbox one and Series X controller.
In terms of buttons in the middle, it has basically the same things,
start equivalent, select equivalent, and then also a little share button.
I believe that's what that is. In an absolutely valiant effort
to redeem the worst D-pad of all time, Hyperkin has made it slightly more clicky,
so it gives a little more tactile feedback on the direction you're pressing,
but when I do my street fighter moves test,
you know, the forward down, quarter circle forward, I could not tell you what's being pressed at that moment,
whereas on a like a Super Nintendo controller, on a Saturn controller or a PlayStation controller,
you can like, you can feel each part of the press that's going down.
On the top of the controllers, we have the same right bumper, left bumper, that trigger type C versus the original port.
It has the Hyperkin inching versus the Xbox one. Another little upgrade on the bottom
is instead of this proprietary accessory port,
we have just a 3.5 inch jack. And I think that's one of the greatest improvements
we've made to controllers over the last 10 years. Although my dream for the Elite series
and the Edge series on PlayStation is that they would put a good DAC in there
because I find when I plug good headphones into my PS5 controller, it just sounds like doggie doodoo.
All right, that about does it for the physical exploration. Let's plug this bad boy and test it out.
Look at me, I was about to plug this in without even showing off the other
and clearly superior colors. Let's do that.
That is a really nice red. Ooh, with the gray accents too.
It's usually hard to beat pink, but I found myself surprised
by my color choices these days. Amazing experience.
I don't like the pink. It's cheap. So far, red is in the lead.
So better than the white. Almost no plastic in this box,
which I appreciate, this is like a cardboard. The only plastic is around the cable,
which although it's a shame, pretty acceptable by most packaging standards.
So nice job, Epican. All right, so now for the David Goche official color rankings,
what I would buy. I think I would do red, black, pink, white.
Whatever texture they're using on their plastics makes the pink look really cheap in third party.
Okay, so each color actually comes with a different color cable.
So pink comes with pink and red comes with red.
Okay, it's the details. If you were bringing back the 360 era,
yeah, you probably want it because you like this controller,
but you also like the aesthetics of it, you know, that retro aesthetics,
which is pretty crazy to think the 360 is starting 18 years old this year.
Old enough to vote.
I think the general rule is 15 years, but I've heard some people say no.
One of the strengths of using the Xbox controllers,
even since the 360 era with the red adapter on a PC
is that it's instantly designed to work with everything.
It works with Windows, it works with all the games, Steam can figure it out right away.
And even older games, even if you use a PlayStation controller on the PC,
we'll still have the Xbox button prompts. Traditionally, when I play PC games with a controller,
I choose Xbox controllers because it's just a tiny bit easier.
And that's enough for me, tiny bit easier. I need all the wins I can get in my life, guys.
I need every single one, okay. First impression, it's way too much rumble.
Like it's really intense. It's like making my hands feel tingly.
There is both vibration in the controller body
and the impulse triggers, although the body is so violently shaking
that I don't feel the triggers at all. It might also be that this game, as it's a Sony game,
isn't designed to use Xbox controllers to their fullest.
The trigger feels pretty similar to the 360 one. It's a little light for my tastes
compared to modern controllers, but it feels pretty good.
Let's see the shoulder buttons.
The Hyperkin has the better shoulder buttons. It feels a little more inconsistent on the button press,
like how much I have to press down on each part.
But that was a big problem I had with the 360. Like when you press here, it's such a short travel,
but when you press here, it's like a freaking inch, man.
I feel like the sticks are tall. The Hyperkin one, the shaft is a little thinner.
And it looks slightly more elevated from the controller.
Yeah, definitely. And I don't know if I love that.
There's sometimes where it's kind of cool to have the extra precision
that a heightened analog stick can give you.
Definitely not a deal breaker, but that's something I've kind of generally found
with Hyperkin controllers. They're generally like pretty darn good,
especially because they're coming generally at a value price.
But there's usually like one or two things about them
that are almost too much of a compromise.
I have like the Hyperkin Scout, which is their cheap Super Nintendo controller.
And I really like the D-pad on that, it's very clicky. But then the shoulder buttons are weird enough
and the whole shape of it's just like a little bit wrong. And that's what I'm finding with this,
is that it's really close to a 360 controller.
And if I wasn't holding a real 360 controller in my hand,
some of these things might not bother me. The resistance feels more similar to the 360 one,
but it's definitely clickier. And then when you compare it to the modern Xbox controller,
these things have like almost no feedback. Like it's kind of really easy to press.
And it makes me sad that that's the direction they went. These feel so much better to me.
This is slightly too clicky. That's a pretty normal Hyperkin thing.
I think with a bit of wear after about a year,
these would feel more similar to the 360 one. The Hyperkin Xenon is a pretty good approximation
of the 360. Getting used stuff is always a roll of the dice.
You might get lucky, you might get a good deal, or you might get one that's not super worn,
or you could get one that you open up and has a family of cockroaches living inside.
Being able to buy a new version of an absolutely beloved and classic controller is really nice.
The few compromises are a bit of a bummer, especially the sticks.
Seems like a strange one to me to get so wrong.
But everything else is a pretty good experience, as long as you can turn down the rumble.
And so if you really wanna relive the 360 glory era
with a modern controller, this is a good option, but is it worth the $50 they're asking for?
I probably would spend the extra $10 and get a modern Xbox controller.
I think they feel more comfortable, they're more premium.
Yeah, the face buttons and the shoulder buttons are a little bit less good,
but the D-pad is clicky in the way that you need it to be. And it's just an overall better controller.
And you can use it wired right of the box, or you can buy a wireless dongle for it.
And so I have a hard time recommending the Xenon
in less you specifically want the 360 feel, which you might want.
And in that case, it's pretty good, just like the segue to the conclusion is pretty good.
Thank you for watching this video. Please like and subscribe. If you wanna check out some more controller review content,
why don't you check out my video where I unbox the DualSense Edge
and have some strong opinions.