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JOYTECH Xbox 360 NEO Se Advanced controller (Articles)

As you'll see over the next few days, we took a trip to Joytech and 2K game headquarters in the picturesque town of Windsor. Whilst being famous for burning castles and being ever so posh, it's also home to Joytech, a fine manufacturer of peripherals and accessories for all major console formats and PC.

Whilst beavering away at the likes of Amped 3 and a few previews of upcoming Xbox 360 titles from 2K Games, we failed to notice that almost the entire time we'd been playing using Joytech controllers! It's not like the PR manager to trick us into that sort of thing, but upon learning of this evil deed, we were intrigued to continue to assess the pad.

Can anything compare to the ergonomically designed beauty from Seattle based Microsoft? Is there any need for 3rd party pads? Yes and yes is the answer...

On first grasp of the pad, it feels slightly chunkier than the 1st party version, being more of a mix between the current controller s and the 360 pad. This isn't a bad thing at all and may bridge the gap between the lovers and haters of the 360 pad. Responsive and not at all lightweight analogue sticks a buttons do give you a sense of industrial design that isn't lacking, making the pad feel like a heavyweight player. Speaking of weight, it's incredibly light, comparably so to the 1st party iteration. There is one major difference between the two though, and to explain, let me praise Microsoft for one moment; the guide button is an excellent idea. An innovation in design and branding without a doubt. However, the person responsible for placing the start and back buttons on either side of the guide button needs to be hung by their socks and sung the Latvian entry to last weeks junior eurovision song contest!

Joytech in their great wisdom have decided to place the back and start buttons in their proper place at the left side of the pad. What this means isn't simply a slight layout change, but in essence saving your embarrassment from pressing the guide button instead of the start button. Please Microsoft, take Joytech's lead and change the layout at the first opportunity.
The only other main differences are the reinforced fibre coverings to the cables, giving you that 'can't break this for shit' feel, along with the slightly raised front face of the pad, which whilst different, really doesn't feel any different if you see what we're saying.

All in all, there are no other 3rd party pads available at launch. There's two reasons for this;

1) No other peripheral manufacturer has a design in production

2) There's no need, because this pad is as close to perfect, hence the score.

You really can't go wrong with the NEO Se, and if Microsoft ever decide to let 3rd parties do wireless pads for the Xbox 360 then great, but until then, this is the best you can and will get.

Score: 5/5

For further information on JOYTECH's Hardware line up for the Xbox 360, please visit the official JOYTECH website.

Review by Gareth Williams.

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