The best Nintendo Switch 2 (2025) controllers, tested and reviewed

The launch of the Switch 2 brings with it a selection of old GameCube games for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. As it did with the NES, SNES, N64, and even the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive when games from those platforms joined the library, Nintendo has released a perfect recreation of the original console, allowing you to play those classic games as authentically as possible.

For anyone who was playing when the GameCube first came out, it’s a bit surreal that you now have a perfect recreation of the original wireless controller but… no The larger WaveBird model. However, this is not a bad thing, and decades-old muscle memory will soon begin to show. Younger players may find the unusually shaped controller strange at first, with its small C-stick and large round shoulder triggers, but after a few turns the F-Zero GXyou’ll soon realize how perfectly designed the console is for its gaming.

For the recent update, Nintendo has tweaked the design a bit, consolidating the Switch 2’s controls — the Home, Screen Capture, and C buttons — at the top of the pad, and adding a new small ZL button on the left shoulder. That helps make this GameCube pad broadly compatible with some recent Switch and Switch 2 games, though it’s not a perfect match — the start button here mimics the Switch 2’s plus (+) button, there’s nothing to replicate the minus (-) button, and it lacks newer features like a clickable joystick.

However, availability is an issue for this console. It is only available directly from Nintendo’s online store, can only be purchased if you have an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription, and is limited to one unit per account in the US, and two units per account in the UK.