I personally love rhythm games, whether you play them with your voice, hands, or feet, I love most of them. Today’s review follows a series I’ve had ongoing about different custom made controllers for at home rhythm games. You might remember that in the past, I wrote about the Pop N Music controller from YuanCon, you can read about that here. Today’s review is about a custom controller from Born to Lead. The controller is made specifically for playing DDR on your PC, via StepMania or other games using Spice Tools. I’ll be using StepMania to test it on since it’s been around for at least 15 years now. So let’s groove!
Description:
Introducing the DDR Controller – The Ultimate Arcade Gaming Package!
Experience the pinnacle of arcade gaming with our DDR Controller package. It includes top-of-the-line features to elevate your gaming sessions to new heights.
Effortless Connectivity: The high-speed USB cable, measuring 1.8 meters in length, ensures seamless data transfer and efficient charging, keeping you in the game without interruption.
Sleek and Protective: The Acrylic cover adds a touch of sophistication to your gaming setup while providing reliable protection for your equipment. The ABS housing offers excellent shock absorption, safeguarding against impacts while exuding a sleek and stylish design.
Precise and Tactile Feedback: Our high-quality arcade buttons, specifically designed for gaming enthusiasts, deliver unrivaled precision and reliability. Each microswitch button offers tactile feedback, allowing you to feel every press, enhancing your gaming performance.
Seamless Compatibility: With a standard size of 33CM, our arcade buttons effortlessly integrate into arcade cabinets, ensuring easy installation and compatibility. Additionally, our package supports popular games such as STEPMANIA,ITG, GRAND PRIX, SPICETOOLS, ETC
Minimal Input Delay: Powered by Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) , our controller ensures ultra-low input delay, providing highly responsive gameplay and allowing you to execute moves with precision and speed.
Unlock the full potential of arcade gaming with the DDR Controller package. Immerse yourself in the captivating world of gaming and enjoy an unmatched arcade experience like never before.
Features:
- High-speed USB cable enables efficient data transfer and charging. (1.8M length)
- ABS provides excellent protection against impacts and shocks, with a sleek and stylish design.
- High-quality arcade buttons designed for arcade gaming enthusiasts
- Gateron MS-2 Series Microswitch buttons deliver precise and reliable performance with tactile feedback.
- The standard size of 33CM for easy installation and compatibility with arcade cabinets
- Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040)PCB minimizes input delay for highly responsive gaming performance.
- Stepmania / SPICE TOOLS compatibility allows seamless integration with the popular rhythm game software, enhancing accuracy during gameplay.
Pros:
- Footprint. First off, I want to dive into the size of this controller. You would think that it would have some substantial weight to it. But honestly, that just isn’t the case. The website lists it at 5KG, but that just is not accurate. I can lift it up with my pinky and thumb on one hand, so it can’t weigh over 10 pounds. I would think that it weight 1KG aka 2.2 pounds at most. It does feel like it has some weight to it but it for sure is not very heavy. I don’t have a scale handy at home, otherwise I could definitely tell you the exact weight. Now, with regards to the size of it. It’s a great, lap sized controller. Think of the size of a fight stick that you would use at home or take to competitions. This is portable enough to load into a backpack, but it is substantial enough that it can sit across your entire lap. The rough measurements are 13″X7″X3″ and 35cmX20cmX8cm. I think this is the happy medium all around, but I would be super pumped if they made one that was large enough to put on a desk, but too big to transport. Something like the size of Pop ‘N Music buttons sounds absolutely perfect to me.
- Setup. There is very little that you have to do when you’re playing on a Windows computer. Unfortunately, I do not use Mac or Linux machines, so I’m not sure how difficult it is to setup on one of those operating systems. For those who use Windows, here’s how simple it is. First, you take the world’s THICKEST cord that comes with the controller and plug it into the back of it. Then you’ll plug the other end into a free USB port on your computer. It does not need to be USB 3.0 or higher, I found success even using an older USB 2.x port. I didn’t see any kind of driver notification show up when I plugged it in. The controller buttons showed lights when I tapped the buttons on the left side, so I knew I was in business. I then pulled up my copy of Stepmania and went into the keybindings section of the settings. I completely replaced the keyboard’s controls for playing in game. Unfortunately, there is no “Start” or “Back” buttons on this controller, so you will still have to use the keyboard for that. But then, you’re off to the races! Born To Lead has a controller setup video for Stepmania, I’ve linked it here.
- Timing. I played this using songs that I’ve played for well over 15 years. Songs that I knew literally forward and backward (reverse mode). I started with easy songs that I’ve even AAA’d on my feet like ‘A Stupid Barber’. This let me know how well the accuracy and timing is for the controller. This is likely the number one thing that rhythm game aficionados are going to be wondering about. After confirming that there is no lag (or maybe minimal lag), I also used it on songs that I’ve never played before that had a lot of “chaos” steps in them. Because, sure it may work when you press them slowly and one button at a time, but what if there’s a lot to press in succession or even simultaneously. Well before I knew it, I was getting AA and higher on Stepmania. These scores are congruent with what I was getting playing them on a keyboard and using a PS2 controller. I’m not a perfect player, but this controller just gets out of the way and lets me try to do my best. It doesn’t bog anything down or affect your score. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the timing and I couldn’t find any lag that the USB-C cable introduces either. I made sure to try a handful of USB-C cables. I still noticed no perceived lag and instead had a great time.
- Build Quality. This thing is built like a truck inside and out. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico (as so many great things are). The only thing that I dislike about this is the rubber strips on the bottom. They just get too dusty and that renders them ineffective at keeping it in place. I just put on four rubber feet in four corners and they work great. This is, of course, when I’m using it on my desk. If I decide to play with it in my lap, it doesn’t really matter. As I’ve mentioned before, the USB-C cord is absolutely *thick* and has metal plugs at the end. This is likely there to prevent fraying from all of the movement (if you travel with this controller). The cord itself is 3ft long and the USB-C port holds the plug tightly so it doesn’t come loose during play. It uses ABS plastic to not only only it’s great shape but also to help absorb some of the shock. Brittle and cheap plastics are nowhere to be found on this product. The buttons themselves are durable Gateron brand MS-2 Series microswitch buttons. So you get the tactile feeling of microswitches all while you’re getting the precise timing we talked about before. Inside is an organized symphony of cabling. Each cable goes from a custom driver board being controlled by the Pi Pico and then goes to each button accordingly. I mean just look at these pictures, everything is so clean and optimized!
- Introduction. Have family or friends that are too nervous or embarrassed to try learning how to play DDR on a dance pad? This is the perfect way to get them into the game. The controller is far lower embarrassment level and an easier method to get someone used to how the game is played. Maybe then, it will be a gateway drug for them to attempt it on their feet. The same could be true if you have a friend that’s only into Pop ‘N Music or JuBeat where they prefer to play rhythm games with their hands. Maybe this whole time they’ve avoided DDR for one reason or another. Now they have a good reason to jump into the game. This controller literally changes the dynamic of how the game is played. What I mean by that is that you can indeed just use two hands to play with four buttons, just like using 2 feet on a 4-panel pad. But if you want to play like I do, you can use the left four buttons for your left hand and the right four buttons for your right hand. It gives you way more space because two adult hands have a very hard time playing over one set of four buttons.
- Cost. I personally find the cost of this device to be very well positioned to be a top contender against other options. That is unless you’re just someone who uses a Playstation controller plugged into the PC. But at only $120, I think it’s a flat out steal. For the design, the Pi Pico inside, the software, the sturdiness, everything else I’ve mentioned, I think that that cost is spot on. Especially since it mentions that there is free shipping.
Cons:
- Lighting. If you watched the unboxing video, you’ll see that these things are packed inside of two boxes. Double boxing is great for helping insure that the item arrives in one piece. Furthermore, they put a plastic covering on the buttons to keep them from scratching and depressing too much. Once the video was over and it was time for me to test the controller, I noticed that the LED lights didn’t work on the right four buttons. I played on it for an hour that day, hoping it would wiggle something inside and the lights would begin working again. Unfortunately they did not. The next time I came back to it, I unplugged it and plugged it back in, hoping for the lights to come back and they didn’t. I reluctantly took the base plate off and made sure all of the plugs were seated on the bottom of the buttons.
Pushing buttons on both sides, only the buttons on the left side illuminated.
So, that still did not fix the issue, so I put it back together and began to wonder if it simply wasn’t meant to. Maybe the right buttons were supposed to be accept and back buttons as well as other button assignments other than DDR pads. However, upon my third hour playing, they did indeed come back to life. Funnily enough it was when I wasn’t playing, I stopped to look at discord and when I touched the right buttons again, they worked. And they’ve worked ever since then. So I’m going to attribute this to shipping as it clearly isn’t an assembly issue. If it isn’t from the tossing within the shipping environment, I couldn’t begin to speculate the cause.Finally, one last points about the lights that bum me out is that you can’t really see them when playing. Watch my YouTube short up above and you’ll see that the lights are not very bright. Nor are the buttons very large. This means that your hand covers the lights and you don’t really get any fun arcade vibes. Your lights would have to be off entirely. I would prefer that the lights are always on and when you tap one it changes color. This would show them always on and give light. Then when you hit it, it’s like a disco dance floor. Of course, they’d still have to increase the intensity of the lights when they’re struck.
- Cutting. There is a bit of shotty cutting on the back around the USB-C port. This looks to have been resolved in their newer iteration of this. So if you buy one based off of this review, they have made a custom plastic bit to surround the USB-C port. For mine, I just took the piece apart and filed it gently to just take off the residual plastic that was uneven on it. I didn’t go crazy and make it look professional as I was afraid of hurting something.
Final Thoughts:
With all of the great things about this, there is one thing that I have still hanging over my head about it. I can’t test the longevity of the item and since it’s assembled by hand, I’m not sure about how long it could last. I’ve already put dozens of hours on it, but I can’t tell you if it will last 3 months, 3 years, or 3 decades. That is the only true warning I can give you. Despite just how brilliantly it’s built, it may not last forever…or it might just outlast us! My recommendation is to buy it and then have as much fun with it for as long as you can. If it breaks down in 5 years time, you can likely just repair it. But if not, the cost is so good that you’ll have gotten your money’s worth by then.