The Nintendo Switch 2 is still a bit of a desert when it comes to third-party wireless controllers, but that desert is just a little less sparse now with PowerA’s announcement of a wireless version of its officially-licensed Advantage controller for the console. And it looks like it’s the same controller in nearly every way, for better or worse, as its wired sibling that IGN reviewed in June.
First, the differences. Obviously, it’s wireless – PowerA says this controller will get up to 30 hours of playtime on a charge. The company also added motion controls, this time around. Around the back, it’s missing the Audio button, but still has one labeled “PRGM” for remapping the two AGR buttons it sits between. At $69.99, the new wireless Advantage controller costs quite a bit more than its $39.99 wired predecessor, but it’s also a fair bit cheaper than Nintendo’s $89.99 first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller.
Returning features include Hall Effect joysticks and those mappable back buttons. The controller also still comes with a generous 10 feet of USB-C cable, should you want to play wired. And like the wired version, this officially-licensed controller comes in three options: black, a pinkish “Mario and Friends” one, and a “Pokémon: Mega Evolution” one.
Also returning are a couple of trade-offs, one being that this controller has no haptic feedback, HD Rumble or otherwise. The other is some pretty unhinged button placement. The standard ABXY buttons, d-pad, and joysticks are where you’d expect them to be, but for some unholy reason, PowerA decided that the plus and minus, home, screen capture, and GameChat buttons should all exist as a row of identical rectangles at the bottom of the controller’s face. The first thing I thought on seeing it was that there’s no way I would have a 100 percent success rate at tapping the home button when I want to, and the IGN review of the PowerA Advantage Switch 2 controller sure seems to back that up. Oh well?
The PowerA Advantage Wireless Switch 2 controller is compatible with the Switch 2 and original Switch consoles. It’s available in preorder now from PowerA’s website or Amazon, and shipping later this month, according to PowerA’s announcement, although when I went through the checkout process on the PowerA site, it gave me ship dates as early as next week.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom’s Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn’t be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
