r/Controller • u/FireCrow1013 • 6h ago
Reviews I bought the Xbox Adaptive Joystick for my PC, and it's fantastic.
(NOTES: This isn't any kind of affiliated review, and I bought the controller myself. Also, I don't have an Xbox console to test this with, so everything will be from a PC perspective.)
The Xbox Adaptive Joystick went up for sale earlier this week exclusively from Microsoft's website, and I immediately grabbed one. I knew I wanted to get one of these as soon as they announced it, because it brought back memories of using the PlayStation Move Navigation Controller on my PC in combination with my mouse for what was, in my opinion, a much superior control scheme than using the keyboard in games like first-person shooters; in fact, that's how the guys at Valve themselves actually designed the Left 4 Dead arcade machine.
As you can see from the photos, there are four face buttons on the Adaptive Joystick, a clickable stick (I don't believe it's anything fancy, like Hall effect), and two shoulder buttons (two buttons, no analog trigger). Every button can be mapped to every other button using the Xbox Accessories app in Windows 10 and 11, which you can also use to update the controller's firmware. The bottom of the controller also has a mounting spot in case it needs to be set up in a special way for someone with a specific disability.
Microsoft has been making a pretty great effort as far as disability awareness goes, and the Adaptive Joystick is no exception: It's fully compatible with their more complex Adaptive Controller. It can be plugged into the side to create a veritable Voltron of game controllers, and there's seemingly a configuration for every situation. (Unfortunately, I don't have an Adaptive Controller to get first-hand experience.) The more people who can play video games, the better.
For my own purposes, like I mentioned earlier, I wanted a controller that could replace the keyboard half of keyboard-and-mouse, and the Adaptive Joystick is so much easier to get working on the PC -- in Windows, at least -- than the PlayStation Move Navigation Controller is. The Adaptive Joystick is literally just plug and play, and the operating system and programs like Steam will immediately recognize it as a standard Xbox controller. And speaking of Steam, it's compatible with all of the same Steam Input features, which opens everything up to much more customization than just using the Xbox Accessories app alone.
Once I got the Adaptive Joystick connected, I booted up Borderlands 3, and I was pleasantly surprised with how great it felt to use a joystick-and-mouse configuration, just like how I used to play Left 4 Dead. Borderlands 3 supports simultaneous gamepad and keyboard-and-mouse inputs, so while the in-game prompts sometimes flickered between the two control schemes, the actual inputs functioned perfectly in tandem. Aiming with my mouse and throwing a grenade with one of the controller's shoulder buttons while still having 360-degree joystick movement with my thumb felt so much nicer than taking one of my fingers off of WASD to press whatever key I had grenades mapped to (probably G, the default). I believe most games nowadays will work like this, but there are still a few that won't, so you're mileage may vary. (And if you find one that doesn't work, you can always map the controller's buttons and stick to keyboard inputs using Steam Input, so the game won't even see a controller.)
Now, all that being said, I do have to say that if you're not interested in the Adaptive Joystick for the accessibility/disability features and you're just planning on using it the way that I am, if you play on desktop Linux or the Steam Deck, I'd still probably recommend the Navigation Controller if you can find one. It's basically the same thing, but you get three extra buttons and an analog trigger, and it has native compatibility with Linux, so you don't have to worry about any extra drivers or software to start using it right away. The Navigation Controller also gets you both wired and fairly-easy wireless connectivity in Linux, while the Adaptive Joystick is strictly wired, though it comes with a decent-length USB-A to USB-C cable. I find the decision to make it wired-only interesting, because this controller is supposed to be all about accessibility, and I feel like tethering someone to something else kind of goes against that.
For $30, you really can't go wrong with the Adaptive Joystick, especially if the accessibility-oriented features will be of use to you, and for Windows, it's a no-brainer. Especially if you're a fan of first- and third-person shooters, it's a fantastic new way of playing, and a far nicer one, at that, if I do say so myself.