Razer has made a well-deserved reputation for itself as being a designer of stellar and highly engineered gaming peripherals. From keyboards to precision mice, they are beloved by PC gamers everywhere. And now with Razer venturing forth to the realm of console game controllers, I couldn’t wait to see what they could come up with.
While at E3, I had a chance to give Razer’s new Xbox 360 controller, the Onza, a test-drive. Razer had a few surprising features that I think will certainly give them a competitive advantage over the various other third-party 360 controllers currently on the market. The controller’s design still has a revision or two ahead of it, so what I experienced was just a prototype, so keeping that in mind I was fairly impressed.
The Onza has redesigned directional inputs
One of the things about the official Xbox controller is that as much as it tries to be “the” console for first and third-person shooters, the analog joysticks leave a lot to be desired. Razer has made an admirable attempt to address this in the Onza by giving it adjustable tension on the joysticks. By rotating a plastic ring that goes around the analog sticks, the joystick will require more or less force in order to move it around. This leaves plenty of room for a default setting for personal tastes, as well as the ability to change it up on the fly. For example, if you need more pinpoint accuracy, increasing the tension allows for more careful aim — something I’ve always had troubles with on the classic 360 controllers. To paraphrase another Icrontian that was with me, “This may get me to try first-person shooters on the console again, something I haven’t done since Perfect Dark on the N64”.
Another thing that the original 360 controller has always done poorly was the directional pad. Unlike Nintendo and Sony, the 360’s D-pad is a sad, poorly designed “bowl” that offers poor tactile feedback and frequently gives bad input, causing it to be a poor choice for fighting and shoot-em-up genres. The Onza has made a fine attempt to improve upon Microsoft’s design with a very different design from the 360’s D-pad. The pad itself is still a “bowl”, but each button fits through a discrete opening. Unfortunately, it’s not significantly better as it still has poor tactile feedback—the best way to describe it is to call it “muddy” or “mushy”, as it’s hard to discern by touch alone when you’ve pushed it enough to trigger a response. Fortunately, the Razer employee I spoke with that is on the Onza’s production team admitted he feels the same way, and the D-pad is still being worked on. I have high hopes that they will make do on their promises.
The remaining changes are relatively minor compared to the new design, but are still worth mentioning. The “back” and “start” buttons have been moved below the D-pad and right stick, as well as enlarged. Also, the left and right triggers have been given a slightly different design. It’s hard to tell in the official image, and harder to describe, but the triggers have been given almost a “banana” shape, where they protrude away and up from the controller. It’s certainly different, and I’m not fully convinced that I’ll like it. Perhaps it’s something I would get used to over time, though similar to the D-pad, I was told that it is still subject to revision.
Overall the Onza is certainly a good step in the right direction. The controller felt comfortable and relaxed in my hands—updated without feeling too foreign. Razer took a look at the original 360’s design and pinpointed its weaknesses, and attempted to build upon them. I can say personally that I will highly consider picking up one of these, which will be made available later this year around August or September. Plus, with development time left for a few minor tweaks, this very well could be the controller to have for those disappointed by the original.
The Onza is shaping up to be a quality entry into the 360 controller market
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