Corsair Novablade Pro Fighting Game Controller Review – Tournament Ready

Corsair is the latest institution to participate the warring crippled controller abstraction and they person surely travel retired of the gross beardown with the Novablade Pro. This is 1 of astir diagnostic packed leverless controllers connected the market, implicit with wireless functionality close retired of the box, and 8 customizable buttons (three connected the aboveground of the controller and 5 connected the side). It’s besides a looker with a clump of truly chill lighting modes to play astir with, and an easy removable and customizable faceplate to circular retired the highlights. At a precise competitory and tenable terms of $250, it makes the question of the champion leverless controller a spot much hard to answer.

Let’s commencement with however the controller really feels – successful presumption of size and weight, it's astir instantly comparable to the Victrix Pro KO with the nonstop aforesaid size astatine 13.35” x 9.23” x 0.80”, but it is astir treble the value astatine astir 4.0 lbs. Of course, it’s not a immense difference, and adjacent if it is the heaviest leverless controller I’ve used, it inactive felt ace convenient to transportation astir successful my backpack arsenic I walked implicit to my section tourney and carried it astir arsenic I waited to play.

There are a full of 15 buttons connected the look of the controller, which is 3 much than a modular leverless controller, giving you 3 buttons connected the look to representation nevertheless you spot fit. You mightiness privation to enactment the L3 fastener supra the left, down, and close buttons to springiness you a speedy reset oregon grounds fastener successful grooming mode; oregon possibly representation L2 to 1 of the buttons adjacent to your either of your thumbs and springiness yourself an easy reachable fastener for parries successful Street Fighter 6, conscionable arsenic a fewer examples. It’s casual to representation them to immoderate you request successful case, similar me, you find yourself accidentally hitting them successful a pinch.

The buttons person a truly bully consciousness to them arsenic good – they dependable quieter than modular arcade buttons, but inactive large capable to beryllium capable to perceive the bushed of a combo arsenic you pat it out. If you really want to get into the weeds, the Novablade Pro besides lets you customize the actuation points of the buttons arsenic well. So if you privation a determination to travel retired the instant you travel successful interaction with a button, you tin acceptable it to a 0.1 mm actuation point. Or if you find that excessively sensitive, you tin acceptable it higher, each the mode up to the afloat 4.0mm, which volition marque it little apt to accidentally property a fastener if your digit lightly brushes against one.

Along with that, there’s a accelerated occurrence power that resets a button’s input to neutral arsenic soon arsenic it starts traveling upwards, allowing for adjacent faster presses of a fastener than what would usually beryllium possible. If I’m being wholly honest, these features weren’t ace noticeable for maine successful games similar Street Fighter 6 oregon Tekken 8, but for different games that reward you with other harm the much you mash connected a button, I could spot it giving a spot of an advantage.

One of the cooler features of the Novablade Pro is that it allows you to precise rapidly customize however the controller handles simultaneous other cardinal absorption fastener presses, different known arsenic SOCD. Being capable to property and clasp up and down oregon near and close astatine the aforesaid clip is simply a unsocial diagnostic of a leverless controller, and determination are a fig of antithetic ways those inputs tin beryllium sent to the crippled you’re playing. The Novablade Pro allows you to easy rhythm done each of those options; from the default method of having nary input sent erstwhile SOCD buttons are pressed. Inputs similar “giving up” the precedence truthful you tin clasp down and backmost to artifact debased but besides property up to leap backwards if there’s an opening successful your opponents pressure; giving the archetypal fastener pressed the priority; giving the past fastener pressed the priority; oregon conscionable sending some inputs and fto the game’s ain programming determine what to bash with the 2 simultaneous fastener inputs – these are the unsocial advantages afforded by this benignant of controller.

There are usage cases for each of these, and the enactment to beryllium capable to easy power betwixt them depending connected what crippled you’re playing is beauteous sweet. Some of these, however, are genuine cheats successful competitory play and volition get you disqualified successful an existent tourney if you’re caught utilizing them. Fortunately determination is simply a Game Mode toggle that instantly sets the controller to a default tournament-legal setting.

All of these features are precise easy navigated acknowledgment to the 5 buttons connected the close broadside of the controller, which themselves are mappable arsenic well. It tin beryllium casual to accidentally deed these buttons erstwhile picking up oregon passing the controller along, frankincense inadvertently messing up your settings, but the convenience of being capable to easy set these functions is surely worthy the occasional and easy fixable fastener press.

The Novablade besides has immoderate of the champion lighting effects of immoderate leverless controller I’ve played. There are six onboard lighting effects to toggle between, with my favourite being the 1 that lights up some the idiosyncratic fastener and the colour ringing astir the controller whenever you property a button.

The large competitory vantage of the Novablade Pro though is its wireless functionality, thing that astir of its competitors lack. By popping disconnected the aluminum faceplate, you tin acceptable the controller to bluetooth mode for PCs, oregon you tin acceptable it to debased latency wireless mode and link the included dongle to either a PS4, PS5, oregon PC.