I’ve been introducing my daughters to video games during the pandemic, and one of the games that they’ve been playing on a weekly basis is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch. I found out that the game had accessibility functions may both help in my eldest daughter’s experience with the game (she’s vision-impaired), and level the playing field for my youngest (she’s only 4).
The game allows up to 4 players on multiplayer, and at the same time offers auto-steer and auto-accelerate functions for individual players which is pretty cool. I get to describe the track and the race ala F1-commentator style to my daughter and she enjoys the experience a lot. Her sister chimes in whenever the older one gets a power-up, and she can decide whether or not to use it. All-in-all family fun for weekends.
Since Joy-Cons are pretty expensive (they go for about USD 87 a pair, check them out here), not to mention the Nintendo Pro Controllers (which go for around USD 80 – USD 130, depending whether they come with a theme or not, check them out over here), I decided to go with a 3rd-party controller in order to race with my 2 girls. Yup, I’ve gotten the 8bitDo Pro 2 controller and that’s like a jack-of-all trades with compatibility across the board for Windows, Android, macOS and obviously the Nintendo Switch.
I’ve been using it to play Mario Kart 8, and the first impressions have been great. The girls have been complaining that they were getting trashed while I’m playing, most likely due to the fact that I don’t need to be stuck with half a pair of Joy-Con. The build is really solid, and it feels somewhere between a DualShock 4 and a DualSense controller.
What’s even better is the price. The 8BitDo Pro 2 goes for about USD 50 (check it out over here), and that’s a total bargain. The next step? To try it out with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
