3DTV

Arkanoid DS spinner

I have to say I love the feel of it. It has a tiny bit of ball-bearing resistance, and if you let go of it while spinning it, it'll keep spinning a bit. It makes playing the game a whole lot more arcade-like. It makes the scroll wheel on my mouse feel amateurish in comparison

And yes, the irony of me buying a DS game for the gimmick despite hating DS games for being too reliant on gimmicks instead of actual gameplay, is not lost on me.

Oh this game is awesome, it has the gran turismo effect.
You get money for playing which you can use to buy items, like backgrounds.
Some are of bubble bobble, others lost magic and exit.
You can get different frames/borders, and different tile sets for the bricks. Including one of the space invaders aliens.
You can also buy different paddle looks, and music.

Nice job Taito. Not many developers can make a DS game worth paying for.

OMG, it even manages to impress me on a technical level. The music has vocals. Low quality audio, but still better than Nintendo does in their own games. making it even more impressive.

Not only does it have a stage mode (like star fox for n64) but it has challenges (ie: get all the red blocks in 30 seconds) versus computer, and versus other players via wifi. Even online. Easily the best DS game I own.

Assault Rifle

The good:
It has a speaker to make gun noises, the box shows they put more effort into the packaging than a lot of companies do. And the gun does look nice.

The bad:
Like most low-quality third-party controllers, this one uses a dongle instead of just using bluetooth. It also uses batteries (of course, not included) instead of using a battery pack or even telling us to get a PSP battery pack for it. It also has no SIXAXIS compatibility. The box claims it's solidly built, to which both I and the person next to me responded "no" when I read it out loud. It feels very cheap. There is a cap to cover the hole where you insert the removable stock, and when the cap is off you can look inside the controller and see all the exposed circuitry. The removable and useless scope is very hard to insert/remove. The trigger is extremely low quality and will probably break with time. Some of the buttons are no where near where your hands will be most of the time.

If they really wanted to make an FPS controller, they should have made something like the FPS Master where the face buttons are moved to the grips. Or the XFPS where they use motion sensing for the right analog stick. Or the SplitFish where they use a mouse for the right analog stick. Overall, this doesn't improve your game at all. In fact, you'll probably play worse with it.

BattleTag

The minimum requirements for Vista/Windows 7 are 512 GB of RAM... GB... That's some typo. They're off by a factor of 1024. They somehow managed to fill over 500 MB for the interface...
The software apparently requires Aero to be enabled on Vista/7 (or so I've heard, but that makes no sense since it runs in XP. Surely compatibility mode would get it to work) runs in fullscreen, and doesn't support multiple monitors. I'd recommend they make PS3/360/Wii versions of the software available for download. Though Wii doesn't even have enough flash, so a DVD would probably be better suited, plus PS2 could get it as well. The UI is very flashy. It's also got an announcer.

The UbiConnect base lights up, and acts as a target. It would have been neat if you could use one of the guns as a mouse/wiimote to control the UI, but no such luck.
All it would have needed was an infrared camera in the base instead of just a simple diode.
Both the base and the guns have upgradable firmware, and of course don't come with the latest version installed.
The kit is also, not portable. By the time I got home from carrying it from the mall my entire arm was numb. Which means I am also unable to bring it to a friend's place to test it.

And of course, batteries not included. Each gun takes 4 AAs. $192 (w/tax) and they couldn't throw in batteries.
And given the cost, it's unlikely you'll ever play with more than 1 other person. The fun of lasertag is directly proportional to the amount of players.
People on the forums are already saying the extra gun kit is a ripoff, you're better off splitting the cost of a full kit with someone.

Big Button Pad

Where it goes right:
-It's wireless. There are wireless Buzz controllers as well, I just didn't find one
-It has more buttons than the Buzz controllers, those being Start, Back and the Guide button
-The big button is actually a big dpad. A big, bad dpad, but still a dpad. Pressing in the middle also acts as a center button
-The back half is color-themed like the big button
-The bottom edge of the B buttons have a little dot sticking up (like the F and K keys on a keyboard) to make them easier to find
-The A/B/X/Y buttons are proper buttons like those on actual controllers. The Buzz controllers use microswitch buttons which suck

Where it goes wrong:
-It doesn't use the existing XBOX360 battery packs
-It doesn't use Xinput (like every other XBOX360 controller must use) or USB HID (which Buzz controllers use)
-The dongle is unnecessary. XBOX360 has a built in infrared port. They could have just went through that, and cost even less
-The Start/Back/Guide buttons are a bit out of the way/hard to reach
-The A/B/X/Y buttons are smaller than the BUZZ buttons

Chameleon X-1

The packaging is well designed, with an opening to see the mouse.
It comes with a driver mini CD which is completely unprotected and unnecessary with modern OS's, but appreciated. It shows up as a mouse, game controller, and keyboard (for remote mode)

The receiver is tiny! It's properly designed though, it's got a lip to it for easy removal. The USB connector inside is red like the outside. Nice touch. What I love is that the receiver can fit inside it for storage. It's even held in place with a magnet

It switches between modes via holding the Select (remote) or Start (game) button for 4 seconds. Coincidentally, when held upside the red LED will blink once per second (once you switch modes it shuts off, of course) The buttons have icons to indicate what mode they switch to, and every button has an icon to indicate what button they act as in remote mode.

The mouse itself is comfy, and looks pretty. It is made for righties, due to the thumb cradle
If you have a rechargeable battery, there is an inconveniently placed USB port inside of it to charge the battery. This should be on the nose/tip outside. I doubt it can be used in wired mode since the connector is inside.
The cover has these tiny pegs that will probably get broken. It does come up easily (not so much for putting it back), and is not attached so it can get lost.
It only takes 1 battery, which they included. Unfortunately they didn't make it rechargeable. Oh well. Better than nothing like some companies (MadCatz) The manual does warn you that trying to charge a no-rechargeable battery wil make it explode.
The scrollwheel feels nice, you can feel it click as it turns unlike the new MS mice. It does not tilt though.
There is a second smaller wheel to lock the mouse buttons in place when in gamepad mode. I didn't realize it was locked at first and thought it was the worst mouse ever since they didn't click. But they do click nicely.
There are 4 shoulder buttons, but they are on the right side making them hard to hit when in mouse mode. In mouse mode, they act as back/forward and DPI switching. It also has a proper power button, unlike a lot of wireless mice I've seen recently.

The buttons have a comfortable amount of travel click, which is odd considering it's a low-profile controller (like DS/GBA SP/PSP go)
The holes around the buttons/dpad are large enough that I'll probably be able to use it with long nails.
The biggest problem, is that each direction of the dpad is pretty far apart. It uses the split/PS kind, and it looks like there is almost a full centimeter between them. It's still usable, but not ideal.
The start/select buttons are ok, better than PSP go's. There are 2 tiny, really hard to hit buttons but that's ok since they put your PC to sleep in remote mode.
The analog nubs are really tiny and flat. Which is surprising since they tried so hard to be better than PSP go but they failed in this regard. They also don't have much travel to them. Like the dpad they feel ok, but not ideal.
L1/R1 are easy to hit even with my small fingers, L2/R2 are a little difficult but ok.

Overall it's ok, but I would make some changes

Classic Trackball

It's actually pretty big, almost a foot wide. The ball is like 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Buttons on either side and turbo. It works as a standard PS1 mouse.

The ball has no spin to it, I think I can even feel it scraping against the sides inside. I prefer a smooth spin, like the arcades or the arkanoid DS wheel.
EDIT: The trackball from my first purchase attempt arrived and it does not suffer from this flaw. It has a smooth spin, but no inertia.

It's got a nice heft to it, and rubber feet so it won't move on your table. I'd kill for a version of Rampart that uses it

Dragon Warrior/Quest Battle Road Victory Controller

This thing is huge, shipping cost me almost as much as the controller!
Despite the classic control scheme in the front, it's not meant to be handheld. You have to leave it on your lap.
The buttons are nice and big.
The hilt turning aspect is weird, it turns just the hilt when it should turn the whole sword.
I find it odd/stupid that the controller is so big, but offers no place to store/hold the Wii controller.
It also comes with a code to unlock some avatar items for the game, but you have to pay for the program to read the code, and it only works on DSi!

Dragon Warrior/Quest Slime Controller

It's not as big as I thought. It's about the size of a grapefruit. I was worried it would be too big for my small hands but it fits me fine. Its like a smaller, OG XBOX controller, but rounder

This thing beats Wii's record of hurting my wrist, I started to hurt after 2 minutes! (Wii took 15) Luckily since they are guns and not a remote, I can hold them with my arms flat against my legs, so I managed to play FF-X2 for about 45 minutes before I had to stop. And my wrists still hurt.

There are 2 triggers per gun, the main/normal trigger acts as L1/R1, while the secondary trigger below it acts as X/Triangle. There are 2 buttons (1 on each side) of each gun at the top (like guncon) for L2/R2 and O/Square. The left gun has a dpad, the other has an analog stick. Yup, only one analog stick, there is a switch on a base station that switches which one the stick controls, along with the analog light/button. The base/grip of the gun has start/select underneath. Awkward? Yeah, I thought they were for ejecting the plugs that fill the holes of where you plug them in when not in use. There is no light gun or motion sensing tech in here to replace the other analog

They are not wireless Though I'm partially glad because that means no batteries.
The triggers are made of metal, the rest all plastic. The cables are abnormally thick. And the plugs abnormally big (think S-video*2, or really old keyboard ports) They feel heavier than guncon/wii, not as heavy as the SilentScope rifle (thank god) but since they are held with one hand each they are probably just as bad. There is some weird writing (klingon?) on the barrels of the guns. And weird quarter-circle things that clip on to cover the dpad/analog stick when on display. The display has a soft (rubber?) covering to prevent scratching I guess. It's nice how they fit into it.

There is a peice of paper detailing what button does what, which of course I didn't find till AFTER I was done playing with them. Also some cute icons showing what not to do with them (beat people with them, drop them, put in a suitcase and go on an airplane, harass cops) and a piece of paper which I assume is warrantee information. They do not look exactly like the drawings on the box though. The box is big, not Steel Battalion big, just a bit longer than a PS3 box, and not as tall. About the same thickness. Though the shipping box was the size of Steel Battalions box

I tried it in FF-X2, could not figure out how to use it to trigger her special attack though. I like how battles consist of me holding down the left secondary trigger teehee. The dpad and analog work great, though the analog stick is closer to cube's c-stick than a normal analog stick. Plays great with FF-X2. Killzone on the other hand, it was nigh useless with since it only controls one stick. I didn't check if I could switch the controls so movement would use the dpad.

Guitar Hero DS Fretster

My wrist started hurting after about 1 minute, I finished one venue and my whole arm is sore. The DS lite is simply too heavy to be held by one hand.

I like that it's only 4 buttons. It makes it much easier without having to move my nigh-useless pinky finger. It includes a Guitar pick-shaped stylus that you use to strum the touch screen. The Guitar pick even fits inside the Guitar Hero controller, let's call it the Fretster for shortness sake. Annoyingly, the game doesn't come with a standard DS game case. It does come with a mini one, just a bit bigger than the game card itself. It would have made more sense to have the game fit in the Fretster as well. The Fretster also has a velcro hand strap, and mine came with headphones for preordering. I figured being a music game they would have been good headphones, but no. They sucked. I'll stick with my Zune premium earbuds. It also includes an adapter to use the Fretster on old-style DS's. (I refuse to call them "Phat" DS's like some retarded gangster wannabe) The Fretster itself does not fit very well into the DS lite, it's somewhat loose and can come out easily if you shift your hand. The top 3 buttons are comfortable, but the last one isn't. But that's due to the uselessness of my pinky finger. I keep having the urge to lift my fingers after strumming a note.

The Fretster's faceplate is removable, and you can insert a new skin. While it's off you can also remove the hand strap (nice touch). 2 sheets of stickers are included as well. There is no tilt sensor, you have to yell into the DS microphone like a retard, or push a button. It would make sense to let you push the L shoulder since your finger is right there, but no, that button doesn't work. You have to actually stop strumming notes and push ABXY or select. As you can guess, I am not please with how star power is triggered. Luckily, they planned for me and either turning the micrphone sensitivity up while watching TV just triggers it, or it triggers automatically once it's full. So my complaint is negated. I like when complaints are negated.

The buttons give about 3 mm, and a little tactile click as well. They are quite spongey.

The box is neat too. Has a little transparent part to show off the Fretster. Opens easily without breaking. The Fretster, adapter and game came in a plastic shell that just pops apart and back together quite easily, not like that crappy blister packing that requires a laser cutter and surgery to fix your wounds (like the PS2 Retrocon came in).

As for the game itself, most of you know what to expect. It's Guitar Hero. You start with one venue, 4 unlocked songs, and you get 1 encore song once you beat them. And then another venue once you're done that. Your multiplier increases as long as you don't miss notes. Notes come down the "highway" and you have to hold the corresponding button on the Fretster and strum the touchscreen at the right moment. You get paid like $2000-3000 a song, but it's brought down to like $75 after expenses (fired extinguisher, torn clothes, noise violations, shattered instruments, etc) You can use the money to buy new guitars and outfits. There is a lefty-switch mode. No way to just listen to the music, the music in the menus stop after like 10 seconds and starts over. I'm hoping Dragonforce is in there somewhere. Everything is very expensive, like $1500 for the first thing I unlocked. So it'll take a while to get anything, I assume you get more money for playing on harder difficulties. Thankfully, the audio quality is rather high for a DS game. Albeit still not as high as even Twisted Metal on PSP, but it gets the job done.

There is also local-only multiplayer, which I will probably never get the opportunity to use. But you can play against the AI.

They have also, annoyingly, started to put Wii-style warnings at the start of DS games. And finally, if you buy the game off of RedOctane's website, you get a case for the game.

HKS Racing Controller

The packaging gets a zero. They used clamshell packaging that has to be destroyed to open it, and risk slitting your wrists. The controller itself is beautiful. The front half is shiny red, the back half is a flat black. It's also got logos on it like a racecar. I don't get why they spelt Hyper incorrectly though.

As for the interface, it's wired. In this day and age I expected wireless, but zero third parties have gotten it right yet so I suppose it's better that they don't even try (Hint: Built in battery, standard USB port, syncs to a PSP Go, and doesn't use a dongle, like Dualshock3/SIXAXIS is doing wireless right) At least it works on PC. Though they shouldn't have edited the wire out of their pictures...

The shoulder buttons are the same shape as Dualshock3, but the L2/R2 buttons just click. No travel. I'm going to have to check if my RealTriggers clip onto them (EDIT: They don't). The blue player indicator lights, unlike Sony's, are actually partially on top of the controller. I'm surprised they didn't order them left to right because of this. The Start/Select/Home buttons stick out nicely and are easy to press. The Home button is like the Select button, unlike the DS3 so the wireless keypad won't really work with this controller especially since it'll block the speed readout.

I expected the wheel to work better if you moved left to right with it. But it's actually more comfortable moving up and down. I was hoping the red things surrounding the speed readout would light up like an odometer, but they're just painted on. The speed readout goes from 0-100. Which is odd since the analog buttons go from 0-255 which means it's not that accurate. It shows the pressure of the X button, and blinks if you're holding Square (I assume brake?)

The foot pedal buttons (X and Square) have more resistance to them than other buttons or even triggers. And you won't be able to hit one and a Triangle/Circle button at the same time very easily. There are 2 switches on the back. One controls which stick the analog stick maps to (left or right) and the other switches the foot pedal buttons to act as Square/X or L2/R2. There's also a macro button that lets you remap any button to act as another. It is not SIXAXIS compatible.

Jet Fighter

It's shaped like a stealth bomber (only SNES grey instead of black), which isn't ergonomic. At all (hint: corners do not belong on a handheld controller). But it does give you a little more of a handle than regular controllers. There is a switch on the back, completely out of the way, to switch between SNES and Genesis mode. It could have worked as a 6 button Genesis controller, but I guess it was made before that as it only works as a 3 button one according to the Genesis button labels in brackets next to the SNES ones. It has 2 turbo speeds and a slow motion (turbo for the start button) The triggers flat out suck. They are completely squishy, no click to them. And small. It used a hybrid Genesis/Intellivision/SNES dpad, where it's a hovering disc thing with Nintendo's cross on the top. I hate disc dpads, crosses rule. It's cable ends with a Genesis controller connector, and includes an adapter (that only works with it as it uses the switch) to convert it to a SNES connector. It says it's model number 70850 for anyone who cares. The switch on the back says Super NES/SFC and Genesis/MD. Neat seeing both the english names and japanese acronyms (Super Famicom/Mega Drive respectfully)

Keyboard Controller

The cube controls are exactly the same as a cube controller, right down to the shape of the handles. The whole thing is about as wide as my normal keyboard. The keyboard part is a shiftkey-less wide as the QWERTY part of a regular keyboard. So the keys are actually slightly smaller than keys on a regular keyboard. They aren't as tall either, more laptopy. And they aren't clicky either, more spongy (which is bad). The upper half is white, the lower half is cube purple and shaped to angle the keyboard slightly upwards when rested on your lap with your legs together. And it takes 2 controller ports.

Kuro Wii Classic Pro Controller

The top half (face) is shiny black like the original PSP, the bottom half (back) is matte black. The analog sticks feel weird since they don't click in. The whole controller feels very cheap/light, many times worse than a SIXAXIS. There are no slots on the back for a wiimote clip like the original classic controller had. There is no rumble support. And worst of all, it uses PS2-style L2/R2 buttons instead of Gamecube style clickable-triggers. The one thing Nintendo invented of all the things they claimed to have but actually didn't, and they choose not to use them. It is comfortable to hold, moreso than a dualshock actually.

LiveView

I like it more than my old Suunto n3 and n3i MSN SPOT/SMART watches.
It's battery life is about the same (about 3 days) and charges with a standard USB cable, instead of the "Shark" clip. But I have to remove it from the strap to plug the cable in.
It's screen is a bit smaller (I think. It's been a while since I used the n3), but it's full color.
I get entire news stories instead of just the first 128 characters. And if I want to see more, I click a button and it opens the web browser on my phone.
Even the "app" launcher/selector screen is better. It's animated with a scaling effect like the XMB.
Since it's reception is dependent on the phone, it should actually work properly at work.
It has more "buttons", what sucks is Sony didn't program the app on the Android side of things to stay loaded (by putting a notification up) so the OS will actually unload it from memory. There's a program to get around it, but still Sony, did you do any testing?
It'll check RSS feeds, calendar events, missed calls, text messages, etc etc but NOT EMAIL! WTF? Someone made a Gmail plugin but I have yet to get it to show my email. Even my n3 got (128 characters of) my email.
I cant wait to get it working in Basic4Android though. The first thing I'm making is Solitaire

I have to add this to the list of things I specifically warn against buying. The disconnects are horribly too common. And 3 day battery life is barely 1.

Logitech MX-1000 laser mouse

I've actually had this thing for years (since when I ran this site off my own computer actually) The mouse has no actual novelty which is why it's not listed here. I was given this as a gift for all the computer work I do for one of my friends. And given that I tend to put up with more issues the lower I paid for an item this review will say a lot.

It's a wireless mouse with an infrared/invisible laser, a built in rechargeable battery with a charging dock/cradle. The scrollwheel is tiltable horizontally and of course clicks. It also has a button above and below it, with 3 more on the side of the mouse and the 2 standard ones. It also has power indicator LEDs that turn off a few seconds after you stop moving it. It even has an on/off switch if you want to bypass its power saving techniques. It even came in a cool box.

I pretty much hate this mouse. Every so often it will fight with me. I will try to push it one way and it will resist my efforts, making the movement very erratic. The scroll wheel is difficult to click. I have to stack about a foot of items on top of the mouse to get it far enough into the dock for it to actually recharge. The only reason I use it is cause my Microsoft Intellimouse optical (my first optical mouse) died.

Mini D.D.R. Fingerpad

Let me start of by saying it was a gift from SharkieGamer. Being free (well I traded her my spare DragonPlus one controller) it does affect my judgment. The less I pay for things, the more I'm willing to put up with it's faults. Conversely, the more I pay the more I expect of it.

There isn't really much to review. It's pretty basic. A flat piece of plastic with 14 buttons. Their is no brand name on it anywhere which you'd think would mean it sucks, but it doesn't.

The face has 3 sets of buttons, 4 big ones for the dpad that light up, 4 more big ones in the corners for X/O/Triangle/Square that don't light up, and 6 small ones for the L/R buttons and Start/Select.

The buttons that light up, only do so in 2 points, the opposite ends of the buttons, along the axis the buttons are. It would have been better had the light been diffused so it lights up the entire edge and the arrow icon in the middle, but it's still more effort than most controller makers put into theirs. 

The big buttons don't work perfectly, in that you have to push them straight on if you want a perfect button press. Pressing lightly or on the edges may or may not work. Depends on how hard you push and which corner of the button.

If you press 2 opposing directions on the dpad, at least in Windows, they cancel out. I'm not sure if D.D.R. games take this into account or not.

The small buttons are curved outwards, and are better than standard Start/Select buttons.

I actually want another one to use as a giant dpad in another project lol.

Move + Navcon

What I hate: (aka: Why I resent not being a beta tester)

• The face (X, O, Triangle, Square) buttons are microswitches. I hate microswitches. Let me explain for the readers who don't know what this is. Take a Wiimote, the A button is a normal button with rubber underneath to make it spongy. Take the - and + buttons, those are microswitches. They have less travel and just click. They suck, and aren't analog either. Only the Move button itself is a proper button. 
• The Select/Start buttons are out of the way, and game devs are still stupid enough to make you "Press Start to Continue" instead of any button 
• PS3 has built in support for USB mice, when in the XMB it's mapped to the dpad. When in the web browser it acts as a mouse. Sony was stupid enough to not use this code for Move. So it always maps to the dpad (and only when you hold T in, which isn't very user-friendly to begin with). Meaning the web browser doesnt even use it as a mouse.
• Why are there no player indicator lights? 
• Still no way to wirelessly sync with a system
  
• PSEye+Move+Navcon take 3 USB ports total, new PS3s have 2. And we still cant charge when the system is off 
• Why does the NavCon not have Triangle and Square? Why make up new names for buttons (T and Move) when you have R1 and R2 unused? Stick to a common naming scheme! 
• Why are PSEye owners punished? We don't get a demo disc. We don't even get to download all the demos either. And one demo in the Move section of the store (Mini Golf) says Move controls are disabled in the demo. Well then why is it in the Move section? I wanted the Time Crisis demo damnit! 
• Why are the triggers on the Move and NavCon different? They should be the same.
  

What I love:

• It is indeed many times less laggy than a wiimote, and far more accurate. Especially at farther distances when the wiimote gets jittery
• It is many times more ergonomic than a wiimote. It's as if Nintendo learned nothing from NES's boxy controllers
• Built in rechargeable battery, charged via USB! A huge step up from wiimote's bring-your-own-battery solution.
• The NavCon will sync with a PSP Go

NEScade

I've wailed on other people's work, I guess it's only fair I do the same to my own.

I've wanted a mini arcade system ever since I saw that mini NeoGeo arcade someone else made out of a PS1 LCD. I eventually designed my own based on the NES theme, and got to work.

The painting isn't professional. There are places where lines aren't completely straight, the squares surrounding the A/B buttons don't match the light grey used elsewhere in the system. The lines of the logo aren't straight either. The LCD itself seems to be squished, as the front panel isn't perfectly against itself making the buttons non-responsive unless the panel is pushed as well (though the remote control works perfectly). The front edges of the wood aren't perfectly smooth either. The logo is obviously 2 separate pieces of plastic, as the middle is poorly joined. The front panel opens smoothly enough, I wanted it to stay open via a hinge but no such luck. It doesn't open very far either, now that there is a joystick sticking up. The inside of the unit hasn't been painted, well it has, but more like that it's just what was missed when trying to paint the outside. Though you won't see the inside very often. It also would have been neat to have the sensor bar hidden inside the unit.

Since it only has 1 joystick and 2 buttons, it's use is pretty limited. It can be used for all NES games, as well as the occasional Wii game that lets you hold the wiimote sideways (like in Dr Mario). You can play other games like Starfox 64, but you won't be able to do things like boost/brake, as the stick also acts as the analog stick on the Classic controller. The Start/Select/Home/Reset buttons are the wrong shade of grey, and rotate when they shouldn't. They are also hard to push. Luckily they aren't critical. The joystick while not a dpad, is quite nice, and the A/B buttons are perfect as well.

Novint Falcon

I've only been using it for like a day, so there will be more info later on. So it finally arrived, a month late, but I can't complain cause the unit was given to me for free. I am the only one in Canada with one.

But anywho, the box it came in is roughly the same dimensions as PS3s box, but twice as wide. I don't know why, but I kept expecting this to be some amateur development, as if put together by a group of college students. However everything is extremely professionally done. The box, the manuals, the install programs, even the discs have proper professional labels. Not just labels overtop of a blank CDR. I am extremely impressed with the quality of everything I have received. They are even individually numbered. I have #372 of 5,000 according to my certificate.

The unit itself (as seen above) consists of a big egg, with a curved foot/base, and 3 arms which join together at one end with a connector for grips.
The egg is rather heavy, as it has to be considering how much force it uses, and you use on it. The foot is made of metal and has a novint logo engraved on a tip, for a very nice touch.
You can't really see them in that pic cause they are inside ATM, but the arms are curved, and go in/out to push/pull the arms that you do see in that pic. And they can use a surprising amount of force against you. There are also 2 internal lights behind the Novint logo in the front. While not in use, all 3 (red, blue, green) light up making it look like a prop from the original star trek. If it ever loses calibration, it will glow red and kill all the humans. I mean, you have to bring the grip back, it'll turn blue and you can keep going. I haven't had this happen yet. It plugs into your PC via a normal USB cable, and includes an AC adapter.

To use it, you grab hold of the grip (d'uh) and just push/pull/etc, similar to the Wiimote, only more ergonomic. I've used it for a few hours with no pain at all. The included grip has 4 buttons, and games also use the keyboard for extra buttons. The system requirements state you need like 512 MB of RAM, a 1 GHz processor and 128 MB of VRAM, but I'm using it on a somewhat weaker system with little issue. Though after using it, going to a mouse feels, funny. If not archaic. Like using a wheeled mouse after using optical for years. The Falcon will even be usable as a mouse once they finish (or I myself) the program for it, and a dev kit will be made public soon (again, if I don't do it myself first)

Installing is a breeze, though it wants me to reset my PC and I don't do that for weeks at a time, so I was forced to use it on my UMPC. Which oddly enough worked fine despite being less powerful. I have spoken with Novint, and the DRM for the games is tied to the unique ID code of the unit itself, so I'm allowed to use it and it's games on a million and one PCs if I want to. Grips also have a unique ID, so games will be able to tell I have a limited edition unit.

As for the games, I installed the unit late at night and didn't get to try much. But I have so far tried the bowling game, and the tutorial. I'll start with saying that they claim the unit will let you feel texture, which I was skeptical. All it does is apply force against you, how can it make you feel texture? Well it does surprisingly enough. The tutorial goes through a few things, the first being textures. A ball is in the center of the screen and 3D space you can move the grip around. If you push the grip towards the sphere, it will react in different ways. For example, the ice texture will make it slip around the sphere. Rubber will resist your force a little, and increase resistance as you get closer to the center. Ice will make you slip around the surface of the virtual sphere. There is a jagged one, which will make the grip move in and out as if pushing an object over hills/valleys. And the sand paper one will do it over even smaller hills/valleys. The honey one will resist a bit, and when you try to pull back it will try to pull you back in a bit. There were a few others but I forget them

The next part of the tutorial has you click a button to make a robot throw you a ball and you have to catch it. And when the ball hits your virtual glove, the grip will push against you with appropriate force. Another tutorial has you pulling it back like a slingshot, and the farther back you pull the more it pulls forward. And you have to let go (by pushing forward a bit, you're not supposed to let go of it when it's pulling/pushing hard) and shoot cans.

The other game I played was a simple bowling minigame. I only played for a minute and I know I'm missing out on some of the deeper elements so don't take this as the full game. But all I did was push a button and a ball was picked up automatically, then I pulled back, then pushed forward to throw the ball at the pins.

it comes with a driver to use it in Half Life 2. From what I've read it makes a big difference. Like using a shotgun will affect your aim as it'll have a big recoil effect and so forth

Nyko Perfect Shot

Now this is what deserves to be called the wii zapper. It's far more similar to the actual zapper than the real wii zapper. I wanna mod one into a NES zapper. I played Link's Crossbow training with it and it improved my score, the Wii zapper had the opposite effect (versus stand-alone wii-mote) I want a Wii classic controller and the Mario Kart wheel.

P5 Glove

It sucks. It's as bad as the Power Glove.
It's 3D sensor is inaccurate, specifically on the Z axis.
As for X/Y, lets just say its minimum requirements are a 100 mhz PC, thus it's expecting like an 800*600 screen, so if you have any larger, its hard to reach to the edges in mouse mode.
It jumps around a lot, and I just discovered why. They were stupid enough to either disable the finger sensors/buttons when it's not detected with the sensor bar, or use the infrared LEDs to transmit the data (which is retarded cause it uses an s-video cable to plug into the sensor bar)

The sensor bar is huge, like a big Metal Gear exclamation mark.
The games it comes with (Ive only tried one) appear to be demos, for like Win95. And they crash, a lot. And don't work very well. I couldn't get Beachhead to shoot. The AirLock demo was extremely hard.

PiStol3

My only complaint is that it's 2 separate pieces, which makes the smaller bit losable. I expected it to plug into the EXT port, but it wasn't needed.
Well, that and it's stupid name. I refuse to call it the Shooting Attachment.

The good:
-The handle is textured to make it easier to hold onto
-The trigger is nice and thin, but has no click to it
-It even fixes Move's bad Start/Select buttons by putting bigger ones over top of them
-Unlike Wii controller shells, it actually takes the wrist strap into account
-It is by far the most ergonomic 'lightgun' since the NES Zapper. It puts all the Wii controller shells to shame. Even the Nyko Perfect Shot feels bulky and uncomfortable in comparison. And the Wii Zapper is just horrible to begin with

Pocket Pokemon Pikachu II

Has a 3 color LCD, an infra red port for GBC linking and a pedometer that converts steps into points which you use to either gamble with Pikachu by guessing if your card is higher or lower than the one Pikachu is showing (the first PPP had a slot machine, which I prefer) or transfering them to Pokemon Gold/Silver to give you items. This could have been awesome, where you feed your Pikachu and have the pedometer count as taking it for a walk to lose weight. But no. Nintendo did nothing of the sort. It's nothing like Tamagotchi.

Pokéyboard

It's chiclet style. And does not work very well with long nails...
Batteries are included (2xAAs)
It takes about 6 seconds to realize it's off before pausing the game
It's kind of weird using a wireless controller on the DS.
The game is completely voiced, which is probably a first for the DS.
It also has this folding stand to prop your DS up on, and a slot on the back to hold the game card
It works on all models of DS/DSi/3DS since it doesn't use the GBA slot.
Nintendo says the keyboard also works on other things (Wii/PC/Android)
The game is import friendly though the Pokemon names are not the same as their English ones. And offers no DSi/3DS enhancements. Which ironically is a good thing since that means it's actually usable on DSi/3DS. Bloody territorial lockout...
The game itself is your standard typing tutor fair. Letters fall down the screen similar to Guitar Hero and you type them. The score builds up in the same way and resets your combo if you miss a letter.
Each button on the KB has it's own level, and they unlocked as you beat others. The level select screen is a picture of the KB with unlocked levels lit up, and ones where you got a medal show up bronze/silver/gold.

The lack of Windows-specific keys (ie: context menu) are annoying, as well as some of the keys not sending the symbol of their label.

PokéWalker

This thing is a huge step up from the previous Pocket Pikachus in all but one way. No color. Why such a step backwards? Well the answer is, to keep costs down. So on one hand I hate going back to 4 shades of grey, on the other hand it was free with the game so it's more than most games come with. Moving on.

Hardware wise, the screen is a much higher resolution than PocketStation or the Pocket Pikachus. I can't even guess, but it's DPI seems to be better than even the original Gameboy.
The buttons, aren't that responsive. But for the most part they don't have to be. Only one game in it really depends on speed. The battery is supposed to last like 3 months, using it for 30 min a day. It comes with a belt clip, but you need a small screwdriver to put it on.

Software wise, it is very complex, this could have been a full Gameboy game decades ago, and would have been better than most of it's games. It's more like the FF8 Chocobo World minigame for PocketStation than Pocket Pikachu/Tamagotchis. Annoyingly, they still haven't taken my suggestion of having you feed your Pokémon to make it gain weight and having you walk with it to make it lose weight. The watts you earn from each set of 20 steps does a lot more than the previous PPs. In this system, you can buy the chance to play 2 minigames. 1 gives you 4 bushes, and a random one will wiggle. You have to click a certain amount of bushes in a row quickly enough to earn the chance to do battle with a random pokemon. Unlike the games, you only have 4 HP, and 3 actions (attack with the chance of doing a 2 HP critical, dodge which attacks if successful, and throw pokéball which works if the Pokémon has 1 HP left) if your pokémon faints you lose up to 10 watts (so if you have 1 HP left, just dodge till your enemy runs away) the other game gives you 6 bushes, and 2 guesses to find an item in them. It tells you if it's near or far away, so if you choose the center left/right one first, your odds are 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 of getting an item. The watts you send back to the DS game let you unlock new areas in the PokéWalker, which like the game have different Pokémon and items (In April, Nintendo is holding a WiFi event to unlock a secret area so look out for that) You can put any Pokémon from your PC into the PokéWalker, and after a long walk it can level up when you send it back to the DS. Which brings me to another complaint, it's not usable out of the box. You have to play the DS game for about an hour first (Another complaint, setting the clock. My DS unlike every other device I own, is DST unaware, my PokéWalker is now an hour behind as a result) Graphically, it's pretty impressive for a "gigapet". They really put the "high" resolution to good use. It pretty much is using the same Pokémon graphics from Diamond/Pearl, just in monochrome.

What's really retarded is it has space for 3 found items (and 3 found Pokémon, but that's ok), but space for 10 items received from other PokéWalkers. Since you're more likely to find items yourself, it makes more sense to give you the space for 10 found items, and 3 traded items. Or pool them together. Unlike Chocobo World, you cannot battle other players. What you can do, is Mystery Gift (receive random item) and trade your current Pokémon team (like in the original Gold/Silver, so you could battle a copy of the other player's team in a certain area)

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with this device. I wouldn't have bought yet another Pokémon game (I want out! I already own 20 Pokémon games!) if it weren't for this.
What's sad is Nintendo announced they are making a new Pokémon game even before HeartGold/SoulSilver even got out here. I hope to God they finally add 3D Stadium battles.

PowerA 3-in-1 Remote

Normally I don't collect or count media remotes but this one does triple duty as the name implies. It's a keyboard (backlit too, better than Sony's official one!) a retro game controller, and a DVD remote. I would have preferred it use bluetooth as well though with its dual inputs I think that might be impossible. And unlike most crappy third party controllers it even has a built in battery that not only charges via standard USB, but includes a cable. I am impressed. Though the home/PS button is a little stiff.

I have gotten the keyboard functionality working on my PC. The dongle is like 2 inches long making it inconvenient for UMPC use, especially since you cant hide it in the controller itself.
Though the manual claims it will turn off after so long automatically, it hasnt really happened for me. I can unplug the receiver and the controller stays on.

Power Shovel Controller

Its smaller than the ps1 flighstick and the saturn/dc twinsticks

The orange is an odd color but fits the construction vehicle theme for the game. Apparently there is a black version out there

Ill try it with the game when i get home

Its got every button a dualshock has right down to l3/r3, even though the game doesnt use them all

Which means its not optimized, in that it wont make the game any easier to play. Which is sad since its controls are very convoluted. At least i can do what i did for the ace combat flight stick and tape the control scheme to it (the stick nor the game or manual gave it)

Pro Gamer Command Pad

It's pretty neat. I was HOPING but not expecting it to just act as a keyboard. I didn't expect it to work as a standard game controller since it used it's own software to map the buttons to a keyboard. But to my surprise, it works as a game controller, with 24 buttons and an analog stick. I didn't even need to install any drivers, I just use Xpadder to handle the mapping. Technically it only has 21 buttons, but there is a 3 way switch to choose which profile to use. So you can have 3 different keyboard mappings depending on which position the switch is in. Pretty nifty. Quite comfy too. It's backlit, and the light changes color depending on which position the switch is in. Though the wrist light stays blue, and there is a red backlit Saitek logo along the front edge distorted by a curved piece of plastic. I got the thing for like $40 (CDN) with shipping off ebay. And with Xpadder you can set it up to have the stick act as your mouse's scrollwheel, have buttons control any media player, etc. I don't even want to bother with it's official software. Xpadder is perfect!

PSP Go

Apparently they've been selling so poorly that the guy didn't believe me when I said I'd take it. He took it from me and put it back behind the counter.

Man was it a pain setting up via hotel wifi, during a once a year event with thousands of people sharing the connection dragging it to sub-dialup speeds. Thus proving why going download only is a bad idea.
It took 30 min to redownload Super Stardust Portable.
I gave up for the big stuff and tried copying it via USB from my other PSP. Didnt work. Invalid copy protection data.

The bad:
-The shoulder buttons suck. There is no click to them, just, sponge. Its easy to accidentally hit them. The old big clicky buttons were perfect. Nerds pay through the nose for old clicky style IBM keyboards, controller makers should know this. Tactile feedback is king, its why touchscreens suck.
-All the other buttons and analog nub are low profile and smaller, which isn't a good thing. And they are inside a ditch, which means when I have long nails the Go will be nigh unplayable. And I dont cut my nails for months at a time what with being a girl for petes sakes. Why dont people test for this crap? GBA SP had the same flaw!
-It lets you pause your game to a savestate now, but only 1. Why not 1 per game? And if you have a savestate already, it wont remind you when you try to save another. It'll happily overwrite it. I was taught in HIGH SCHOOL to prompt the user before destroying data. What monkey did Sony hire? Oh but it warns you before you start the game, its not like you'll ever play for a few hours and forget, noooo.
-Still no background downloading/queuing/resuming broken downloads, on a download-only system
-Worse, I plugged it into my PC while it was downloading, it aborted the download and switched to USB mode.
-Still cant charge via USB unless its in USB mode. Even though plugging it into an AC adapter will charge it at any time via the same cable/port. There's no excuse for this
-Games that made you hold the system sideways are no longer playable that way. Nor is 3D mode for MGS Acid 2, assuming its even on PSN
-When downloading things from PSN, it now asks if you want to save it internally, or on memory stick, even if no memory stick is inserted
-Battery info in System settings is gone, the battery is also unremovable
-Bluetooth is nigh useless. It uses an obsolete cell phone profile, doesnt support keyboards, doesnt let you remap unused inputs on a controller to used ones and games cant use them (to be forwards compatible with PSP2 for example)
-Yay for buying all new peripherals! At least since Go is selling so badly you can get them all pretty cheap
-A sliding screen? Aren't those known for breaking down really fast? Yes, from personal experience (A UMPC with one, hell even DS's are known for being fragile) I say this is a bad idea
-If the hold switch is on and you open the Go, it will do nothing, ignoring it. If you close it, it wont ignore it. Selective holding?
-Nintendo still makes a better portable AC adapter with the folding plugs. The least they could have done was put a PSP 2000/3000 TV out port on the adapter, so we could use old cables, since now you cant charge and use TV out at the same time without buying a dock
-It's nigh useless when closed. Had they thought this through, they would have mirrored the Home button on the right side with a user definable button, which would have made a lot more games playable. Even pinball games are hard to play since you cant pause. The home button should have paused games like it does on PS3. Even that would have helped
-The extra 32 MB of RAM added with the Slim for UMD caching, is now completely unused. They could have added things like custom soundtracks, or at the very least in-game manual reading. But no. PSP Go's motto should be "wasted potential"
-The lanyard/wrist strap hole is in an uncomfortable place for small hands. By uncomfortable, I mean so sharp I want to file it down
-If Sony really wants to emphasize downloads, they need to make it convenient to store large amounts of games on this. That means adding: Subfolders to the XMB, sorting/grouping options other than by expiry date, better management from a PS3 (ie: The ability to copy games and save data from a PSP) a way to search/sort your download list, more ways to view the store (ie: By cost)
-Sony announced they'd be giving free games to Go owners, to those who bought it the day after I did. Way to give me the finger Sony. Congrats. I knew what I was getting into for the most part before I bought the Go, but I found it cheap so I grabbed it. But you already have me regretting it after 1 day. *claps*
-Bluetooth cannot be turned on/off in-game
-It doesn't show the battery status of Bluetooth devices
-Bluetooth and USB mode cannot be used at the same time
-When syncing a PS3 controller to a Go, there is no feedback on the PS3, only the PSP
-The PS3 controller is underused (surprise) the right analog could have served as things like Square+dpad, and L2/R2 as Square + L/R in the web browser. They could have let new games use the extra inputs and rumble, like later PS1 games could use dualshock, but they didnt. This would have also made said games forwards compatible with PSP2s added controls
-Games, game data and save data must all be saved in the same place (ie: System Storage or Memory Stick)
-When using a Bluetooth headset, it uses it for all game audio instead of just voice chat. And the audio sucks. It wont let you use the speakers for game audio. And wont support the PS3 headset high quality mode
-The volume/note/display buttons are now both harder to find (completely hidden when the Go is open) and harder to press (smaller)
-Even though the adapter uses a USB port, it won't let you use other USB cables to charge things like a PS3 controller
-If you use a Bluetooth headset for audio, then disconnect it, audio on the system will be muted till you hold the note button down for 5 seconds
-The microphone is blocked when the system is closed
-The adapter should have had a PSP 2x/3x style headset port on it to use old PSP A/V cables. It would have been easy to add the A/V wires to the USB cable and just lead them to the port allowing all Go owners to use TV out and charge at the same time.

The good:
-its small/light, it makes the DSi XL look like a netbook
-it lets you have 2 players in PS1 games, an it lets you do 1:1 control mappping and rumble (using a PS3 controller, L2/R2/Right Analog work as they should)
-In RemotePlay, there is also 1:1 controller mapping
-You wont miss that 1/2 inch from the screen, though there is enough room in the bezel for it...
-The screen lacks the interlacing artifacts from the 3000
-The ridges on the back do make it more comfortable than the flat Slim models

I also bought Coded Arms 2 for $10, which I then had to play on my other PSP... Yay for Sony making a PSP that needs a second PSP if you want the full experience!

PSP Go A/V dock

Let me start out by saying there are 2 kinds of Go docks. Both are labeled as PSP-N340
Type 1 (T1): This is the normal one, it has 2 ports on the back. An 'old' PSP 1x/2x/3x AC adapter port, and a PSP Go dock USB port
Type 2 (T2): The one I have, it has 3 ports. 2 AV ports that look like normal headphone ports, and a standard USB port like the good PSPs use. The packaging it came in advertised all the features T1 has/doesn't have, none of which applied to the T2.

T1 can charge and use USB at the same time. It can charge and use TV out at the same time. It can not use USB and TV out at the same time.
T2 can not charge and use USB at the same time. It can charge and use TV out at the same time. It can use USB and TV out at the same time.

T1 requires PSP Go proprietary A/V cables.
T2 uses standard composite and component cables, which plug into breakout cables included with the dock (the ones in the picture I linked to above)

T1 requires you to have/buy an old PSP adapter to use the charging capabilities unless you use the USB docking cable and Go's adapter.
T2 requires you to use the USB port to charge the PSP, and includes a USB cable to fit the PSP Go adapter. Go's adapter cannot be used to charge anything else (ie: PS3 controllers, the wireless keypad)

T1 automatically detects which cable type you have connected to it when you switch to an external display.
T2 has a switch in a hard to reach place on the back, and you have to tell it what cable type is connected. And if you want to use the internal speakers, you have to turn the switch to Off.

Even though the PSP automatically detects when you connect a dock or AV cables, and switches off it's internal speakers, it will not switch to the external display automatically

Had I made this dock, I would have included:
-The switch in an easier to reach place
-a headphone port on the front
-a port for the old AC adapters on the T2, a standard mini-B USB port on the T1 to let it charge and stay connected to a PC at all times
-Instead of using the PSP Go dock connector for TV out on the T1, use either the PSP 2x/3x headset connector or the PS2 Multi-AV connector
-either an infra red port to use with PS2 remotes, OR media buttons on the front (Play/Pause, Stop, Volume +/-, Prev, Next)
-a USB port to charge other devices such as PS3 controllers, the PS3 headset or the PSP bluetooth remote
-Let PSP Go act as a USB Host device. Having USB hard/flash drives show up in the XMB, and letting it sync to PS3 controllers without the need for a PS3

PS3 Wireless Keypad/Keyboard

The good:
The mouse/trackpad feature actually works perfectly after you calibrate it by holding it's 2 shoulder buttons down
It works with any bluetooth PC/device that supports the keyboard profile, and uses it's own battery
It will go into standbye mode if you leave it untouched for a while
The battery is user-replaceable

The bad:
The web browser doesn't use it to scroll up/down the page so you still have to use the right analog stick
It blocks the lights on the top of the controller, not a big issue but still.
The start/select buttons are now a bit harder to press
The USB port sticks a bit
You now need 2 cables to charge your controller and the keypad
You do have to move your hands up (and off the controller) to use it unless you have big hands
You have to turn it on/off with a switch, unlike the bluray remote.
No backlight
Has 2 buttons to access your friends list, but no multimedia functionality
It fits perfectly with the contours of the dualshock controller, making it somewhat less useful/ergonomic to use with anything else. Though you can use it one handed.
When coming out of standby mode, it will ignore any buttons you press
Does not work with long nails

Conclusion:
360's chatpad is superior in almost every way. It's button size/spacing is perfect, has a backlight, fits in the most logical spot in the controller, doesn't need a separate power source or block any button/light on the controller. The only advantages PS3 has is that you can use it on other devices, and the trackpad feature. Sony needs to start using the products they imitate.

PS890

Since a bunch of people are finding my site by searching for "PS890 review" I figure I should actually review it

Physical:
The shoulder buttons are worse than 360's, they have less travel but are more clicky. One of my PS890's (I only opened one) shoulder buttons feel broken, in that it's pushed in a bit.
The triggers are flatter than 360's and are about a millimeter shorter
The face buttons, analog stick and dpad all feel the same
The overall shell feels almost the same, the bottom edge of the wings are a bit pointy/sharp but your hands aren't usually there so it doesn't matter.
The start/back buttons were moved, shaped like tic tacs, a bit smaller and don't have an arrow on them. They are easier to press though.

Visual:
The shoulder buttons and triggers are black, where 360's are white. The start/back are also black. The dpad is also the wrong color. There is also a slight indentation on the top where on 360 there is none. The X logo is gone from the big button for obvious reasons. It's also now a red led instead of green (so now PS3 can get the RROD effect!) The plastic is smoother and brighter, and the grey part on the bottom edge is gone. They just used 2 parts instead of 3 like 360. These differences are odd and most should not have been made.

Overall:
Assuming my shoulder buttons are like every other PS890, I wouldn't recommend getting one. They could ruin your game

RetroCon

I used the Retrocon to play Astro Tripper on PS3. Works pretty well. The stick is nice, the buttons are nice, the game doesnt use the shoulder buttons, though the Dpad doesn't stick out enough. It's a pretty neat game too. The controller has a nice texture and curved back to it. The glow is really neat too, and oddly enough is still glowing even though my PS3 is off...

SCPH-1110 PS1 Flightstick

Suprisingly enough it works as a standard controller on the PS2, I'll have to try it in a dual shock game, but in analog mode the right stick worked in the menu as the dpad.

This thing has 2 analog sticks, making it a HOTAS flight stick. It apparently works with PS1 Ace Combat and Armored Core games which I will have to obtain later on.
On both sticks are 2 buttons on the top for your thumb, a standard trigger (slightly wider than the Dreamcast ones, but clicky/not analog/less resistant) and a little button for your pinky finger.
The right analog stick has a thumbstick on it that works as the dpad. It's more like N64s thumbsticks than the dual shock, in that it is plastic with rings rather than that rubber thing dual shock uses.

The two thumb buttons on the left act as L1 and R1, the trigger is L2, the pinky button is R2
The thumb buttons on the right act as X and O, the trigger is Square and the pinky button is Triangle.
I find this odd as the triggers should've been L1 and R1, the pinkies L2 and R2.
The buttons are redundantly placed on the base as large buttons like what you'd see on a fight/arcade stick. Also with Start and Select.
There is also a physical analog mode switch, not a button like on dual shock.
There are no L3/R3 buttons

The analog sticks are also a lot more ergonomic than the Saturn Twinsticks. They also have rubber pads. The sticks are also farther apart.
The base also has a neat rubber, guard/skirt thing which I like (less dust can get in) and the sticks themselves feel stronger.

And if you thought you were going to get away without me bringing up the fact that this both came out before and was announced before the N64, you don't know me very well. As everyone should know how much I hate that Nintendo gets credit for stealing, but Sony derided for it.

I just played a game of SuperStardustHD, using the PS1 analog flightstick, and it was awesome. I'll start from the beginning.

So I'm playing SSHD with Sixaxis, and I'm sorta pinching the right analog to get better control, and pressing the controller against my leg cause I can't hold it correctly one handed. And I'm thinking to myself, I've got the world's largest controller collection, surely I must have something to solve this problem. So I look to my left and there sits the PS1 analog flightstick model SCPH-1110 which came out before the N64

So I grab it and my PS1/PS2 to PS3 USB adapter and plug it in. Luckily the flightstick is dual shock compatable. Not only did it work, it but it works awesomely. I was playing perfectly up until the snake boss when my arms started going numb

All in all, it was very enjoyable, to the point where I'd say I have an unfair advantage. The L1 and R1 to switch weapons are where my left thumb would be. Turbo/boost is the left trigger, bomb is the left pinky finger.

In case you're wondering I scored ~10 million. Which is pretty good considering it's the first time I've played since I got ~27 million about a month ago. And I had to relearn the controls.

SCPH-1150 dual analog "Proto-Shock"

Oh the extended wings are awesome. It is the single most comfortable controller there is. Going back from SIXAXIS's triggers to the button-style shoulder buttons is kinda weird. The concave thumbsticks make it easier to use and reduces slipping. The longer analog switch button is much better. In short, it makes DualShock 1 and 2 seem, a step backwards. DS3 one-ups it with the trigger style shoulder buttons and wireless+battery. But I'm seriously considering obtaining a second Proto-Shock and another DualShock 3 and putting the DS3's innards into the PS (EDIT: People have tried, the circuitry doesn't fit).

Sharp Shooter

The build quality is a huge step up over the CTA Digital ASSault Rifle.
It's kinda heavy, you won't be using this one handed.
The button redirection works on all existing Move games (So you can use the redundant triangle/square/Move/shotgun)
The shotgun action mechanically presses the trigger of the Move
The Start/Select buttons are just as bad as the PiStol3 attachment
There are holes for the wrist straps to fit through while still attached to the Move/NavCon. It also has a hole for it's own strap (not included)
There is a lock for the redundant Move trigger, which I see no use for
The lock, as well as the mode switch and triangle/square buttons are on both sides of the gun
The stock has a release button, it slides out with almost no resistance annoyingly, but the button needs to be pressed for it to go in.
Unlike the PiStol3, it has no opening for you to charge Move/NavCon while inserted, so they need to be removed to do so.
There is no redundant PS/Home button...
It has a rail for a scope, but none was included. I HOPE they intend to sell a PSP dock for a Silent Scope clone, given a real scope is useless since pointing at a spot on your TV doesn't actually point at that spot in the game.
I would have preferred the spot for the NavCon, be filled with a NavCon clone built into the gun so it doesnt use 2 batteries, and have to start 2 controllers. It would have cost more though, but it would have been more useful/convenient.

Despite being advertised as Dead Space Extraction/TimeCrisis compatible, the controls are not optimized. While this is more the developers fault since they didn't use the NavCon properly... You have to use the X/O buttons on top of the Move controller itself.
The redundant Move button does help, since it's one less button you need to go up top for, which specifically helps in Killzone 3. Sony could easily fix this problems by letting the NavCon pretend to be the same controller ID# as the Move, and let you map it's buttons.

Sifteo Cubes

The packaging screams high quality. Like, better than "pros" like MadCatz.
It's embossed with pictures of the "cubes", it's got a transparent bit so you can see the cubes.
The instructions are written on pieces of foam, which is something I've never seen before.

I've already gone over the software, it's simple, elegant.

The charging bay is nice, it even has a little clip on the bottom to store the tiny dongle.
What's weird is it doesn't use USB to charge them, it has an AC adapter. I would suggest switching to USB, and having the dongle built into the dock.

The cubes themselves are neat. Tiny. One of mine seems to have a drop of fluid under the glass, which is annoying. They have a good click to them but no travel.

The games so far are aimed at kids. Nothing at all of interest to me. Though it'd be easier to tell if they had more demos.

You have to install games to the cubes before they'll run, which tells me they actually run code on them and just send events back to the PC. Makes sense, that's the only way to get a decent framerate (of which the demos I've tried have a framerate of 1 anyway) though I was hoping for more direct access. The SDK lets you code in C#.
Even the mini package (for a single cube) screams high quality. It too has a transparent region to see the cube, and a piece of foam protector inside. When the cube is removed, looking through the transparent region reveals instructions on how to connect it. Nice touch.

SLPH-00060/ASC-0509BH ASCII BioHazard controller

It has nice long wings. The right one feels like the handle of a tiny gun complete with a trigger-style button. The left one is a cylinder with the oddest grip ever and no button making it feel unsymmetrical and leaves you searching for a place to put your finger. Had they both been the gun-style wings like the right one, this would be more comfortable than the Proto-Shock.
It has a dpad, and 2 diamond-formation 4 face-button layouts. One being in the middle of the controller, making it awkward to use. The trigger is the square button, I think (cause I can't find any button labelled as square, and the trigger has no label) and a turbo switch for the square button. Where the square button normally is on the right diamond-formation, is R1. The middle diamond-formation is L2, R2 (on the top) and L1 and R1 on the bottom. L2 and R2 have a sqaure with arrows pointing inwards above the buttons. L1 has a counter-clockwise arrow, L2 a clockwise one. I assume these control the crappy tank rotation in RE and looks very awkward to use being so far from your thumb. This should've been where the left analog stick is in DualShocks.

Slide Adventure: Mag Kid

All it is, is an optical mouse + rumble attachment that fits in the GBA slot.
You play the game as a magnet, and you use your DS like a mouse to ram enemies to stun them, then again to attach them to yourself. Each level tells you to collect different items, bring them somewhere, etc. And the world is a house, different things like books or bags will warp you to different parts of the house like a counter top or a bed.
You may find it ironic that a touchscreen gaming system, got a device to turn it into a mouse. But this actually works a lot better than touchscreen controls could have. Touchscreen controls are limited to the size of the touchscreen itself, this thing is limited to your desk's/table's surface area

Space Invaders 25th Anniversary Controller

This thing is really neat. You stick a Dualshock (From PS1 or PS2) in it, run the cable through a hole. And the nob and buttons on the outside, push the buttons/dpad on the inside. It looks like one of those coffee-table arcade units. The bottom frame is made of metal, and the top part is on a hinge, and simply screwed in. I want to make a replacement top that holds one of those portable PS1 LCDs so you can actually play on the thing.

Sphere 360

It comes with a training CD, which would not boot on a PS2 (it said a condition in main.c was false, press start and select to reset, and would not reset. The PlayStation logo wouldn't display either) It also wouldn't boot initially on a PS1. It would freeze at what should have been the PlayStation logo but only showed SONY. After a bit it started playing music with the PlayStation noise, it was weird. It says it's a licensed disc, but it acts like it isnt. After a minute of random music, it boots. It has 2 tutorials, one where it shows you want direction to move the sphere to do an action, and asks you to repeat it. It's not very good cause it's using a 2D graphic to show a 3D movement, and it doesn't map very well. The other is a little flight sim training, where you fly through rings like the training mode in Star Fox it would have been neat if they added a dog fight. Maybe there is one later on. After a while I realized I can use the dpad to steer so I just used that. The on-screen "helper" robot even insults you if you can't figure it out (The academy always sends me the slow ones)

ASCII really went the extra mile with the packaging. The front has transparent plastic with the controller name written on it, the sides have holes in them to look like a grill. It's somewhat bigger than a GameCube. The back of the box has one of those PS1 supported-feature icons that says "Six Axis Controller". Heh. There's even a sheet of thicker plastic that holds it up on an angle, and a piece of cardboard to hide the cable behind for display. It comes with a long list of games it supports, a lot longer than I expected. Pretty much every PS1 game works with it, just some better than others. I'll have to grab a copy of Descent.

The controller itself feels like a Dreamcast controller. In that it has angular wings, that make your wrists angle inward too much. It has a 9 different modes (like how Protoshock can act like the Flight Stick) and even comes with a sticker to help you remember them all which is nice cause I usually tape a piece of paper to my controllers to label the controls. But there is no flat surface on the controller to stick it to. The rubber sphere itself feels exactly like the one on the SpaceOrb 360. I think I read somewhere they are made by the same people, and that people prefer the PS1 one because it has more buttons. It doesn't have much give to it, it will only let you move slightly in any direction. I would have liked some sort of free-floating trackball but I guess that'd be a bit difficult to attach, but I digress. The buttons have a nice click to them, circle has a little less than the others. They're wider than PS1's regular buttons, but more spongy. The dpad is like XBOX360's, in that it's a sucky disc, though they did put a cross shape on top and it's not as inaccurate as 360's.

Tactical Assault Commander 3

The "keyboard" half:
It came with button label stickers, to make it easier to remember custom button reassignments. And it stores these settings even without power. It has an LED at the top for each button to indicate it's ready to be reassigned. Pressing Start+Select disables the reassignment. I can only switch the L//R/face buttons. I can't swap L3 and Walk... Only 1 of the 3 switches on the top edge are actually labelled.

Moving is done via the WASD layout. It acts like the left analog speed at 100%, and there is a walk button which reduces it to either 30, 50 or 70% depending on what you have a switch set to on the top. The walk button is not in a good spot (it's where R would be on a keyboard, but should have been where Shift would be/L3 is)

It has a detachable wrist pad. I say detachable instead of attachable cause it won't stay attached. It also requires a flat surface, or it could break. The cable is 3 meters, and the manual warns you the controller can't turn the PS3 on. Nice one Sony. It came with a crappy/flimsy HORI mouse pad. I'll stick to the hard one I got with that other FPS mouse controller I have.

It also has a concave cross-style dpad. Which feels nice. The keyboard buttons don't have a hard click to them, just a soft one like those silicone keyboards.

The mouse half:
It's a weighted, right-handed, 6 button mouse. 2 standard, 2 for the thumb, and 2 in the middle where the scroll wheel normally is. It also has no label on it. Thankfully it is optical. The second middle button is a speed modifier, which should make looking faster. The 1 labelled switch on the keyboard half is for the normal speed setting of the mouse (60, 100, 140%) The wire for the mouse is only about 1 foot, which feels a foot too short. It''s so short I'm considering cutting it open, and adding more wire to it. The side buttons on it are very thin.

The package is also HORI-standard high quality. It has a flip open front which reveals a transparent region.

Terminator Grenade

It's really well built. Hard plastic that actually feels like it could be a grenade, along with faux-rusted metal parts (the stick and the handle) The so-called joystick is only like an inch long sticking out of the top. And the whole handle acts as one big button, neither do their job very well. The button especially, as it jams quite often. It looks cool, that's about it.

TiltFX

It doesn't work. It's flat out a waste of money.

First, it doesn't fit in the remote port properly, and even then it won't fit with any case on your PSP. It's very small/loseable. It comes with no way to store it, not even a strap to attach it to the wriststrap hole on PSP.

It says to select a profile, press start to load the inserted UMD. Pressing start does nothing. It does not work with games on the memory stick.

It stops sound from working!

It comes in "Demo" mode, which means you have to enter a license key. Which is retarded since it's hardware that only they sell.
Meaning if you have multiple PSPs, it will only work on one of them. If it ever breaks/gets lost, you must buy a new TiltFX.

The program they have to detect your PSP to register it, does not detect PSPs properly. Which is ironic/infuriating cause somewhere else in the program, it does detect PSPs properly.
I managed to get it to work by restarting the program.

It adds yet another folder to mess up your memory stick's root directory, instead of just using it's Game folder.

Then it says to enable it by pressing R (shoulder) and Home in game, which does not work.

The tilt sensor does work within it's own application, but it's slow to scroll through the list. And I see no way to create/delete profiles.

Do not buy this product.

Top Shot Elite

They went the extra mile on everything about this controller.

I'm going to start by saying I got the PS3 version. I'd imagine the 360 version is on par with the PS3 one. The Wii one, is not. It's just a standard controller shell. My first TSE didn't work, I don't hold it against Activision. This sort of thing happens. I went back to the store and got a new one that works fine. I also kept the batteries from the first one. Yeah, that's right. Batteries are included for once. Thank you.

Let's move on to the packaging. It's a nice big plain white box with an artwork slipcover. The slipcover is embossed, in that the image has been pressed into it to give it a 3D feel. It's a very nice touch. The picture of the gun on the box has been flipped horizontally for some reason.

Like the LCD TopGun (that Wii copied), it uses a sensor bar. Unlike anything before it, this sensor bar is wireless. To turn it on you just press a button on the side, and again to turn it off. Even better, it has a sleep timer. You can set it to 1, 2 or 3 hours. This is an awesome touch that ensures you don't leave it on till it dies. I was already impressed at the bar being wireless, but the sleep timer blew me away. It's the little things that go a long way.

I'm not sure if the 360 one uses a dongle, but the PS3 one does. On one hand I don't like them cause it should just use PS3's bluetooth and not waste one of my USB ports. On the other hand I do like them cause it makes it easier to use on a PC. This thing is so tiny that it actually has a hidden compartment in the stock to leave it in.

The next part is the gun itself. It's similar to the PS3 Assault Rifle in that the stock and scope are removable, and it's got PS3's buttons/analog sticks/etc all over the sides. Unlike the AR, the part that the stock connects to isn't a gaping hole that exposes the internals. Both the stock and scope are actually adjustable in length/position. The scope has a red filter that I assume is supposed to make a certain scope in the game easier to see. Nerf's second version of their gun had the same thing on it.
The trigger and reload pump appear to act as shoulder buttons, which means it's missing 2 so it won't work with all games. The gun does work on PC, but not the pointing device. Just the buttons/analog sticks/etc. My quest for a proper PC lightgun continues...
Unlike the AR and Wiimote, it lacks rumble and a speaker. The speaker is not missed, rumble on the other hand (or some sort of force feedback like the Silent Scope Rifle or LCD TopGun) would have been nice. The gun itself is very comfortable and light.
In short, it makes the AR look like a joke. Activision has put CTA Digital to shame. This thing cost me only $20 more than the AR did and came with a game. The only downside is you have to sit farther away from the sensor bar than you would have to with Move or Wii.

Speaking of the game, it too is really well done. I was expecting it to be as bad as those old Deer Hunter arcade games, but it's not. The graphics are awesome (considering it's a light gun game), there is a story mode with actual plot that doesn't feel thrown on like Time Crisis does. Even the voice acting is worlds above Time Crisis. There are other modes like Survival, Trek, Classic, and it supports up to 4 players. Levels have to be unlocked by getting medals in other levels. Even more surprising, it supports the Move controller! The controls aren't that optimized for it (reload is the Move button, and doesn't have an equivalent on the NavCon which makes using the PiStol3 a little harder)

I've noticed a few people searching for my site for calibration problems for this controller. I am having the same problems actually. For some reason during the calibration process it wants you to sit really far back. Farther than the dimensions of my room. Otherwise it just claims the sensor bar isnt visible. The only solution I found was to have it actually ignore the calibration data. Thus letting you sit closer. I hope that helps.

Minor complaint: The game warns you when a Move controller isn't within the PSeye's FOV (and even pauses cut scenes...), but does not warn you when the sensor bar is not within the gun's FOV (which happens when the sleep timer goes off for example)

Twin Stick EX

It's pretty big, so big it's going to be a pain in the arse carrying home. The controller itself is bigger than the Saturn/Dreamcast twin sticks, but not as big as my arcade sticks. The base is made of metal. It's pretty plain, no artwork at all. Just black, and they use octagonal screws so you can't replace the faceplate with artwork of your own. Although it has button labels, not that you need them. The buttons, suck. There is no click to them at all. They are also not conveniently placed, in that the Start button is used more often in the game, but the Back button is in a more prominent location. It's like they don't know rule 1 of user interfaces; what's used most often should be the easiest/fastest to access.

The joysticks feel different from other twin sticks, like they don't have as big of an angle to them.

The stupid thing is, it has the version 2 of the 360 headset port, so older headsets won't work. But if they used the original port (which Hori makes many controllers that do) both headsets would work. I can't really complain since I don't use/have a headset.

Gameplay wise, it makes the game a LOT easier to play. At least for me, since I'm so used to twin stick controls. I couldn't even play the game with 360's controller. The game detects you're using the controller and locks you into the twin stick control setting. But it's still not optimized for those controls. Selecting a profile for example, you have to use the A button on the base instead of a trigger. Again, see rule 1 of user interfaces. They should have just made a trigger act as the A button. The Back button doesnt even work in some of the menus, they respond to B though, so another 2 mistakes right there. Either make everything respond to the Back button, or put B in it's place. X/Y are useless, though it's probably for other games. But if that was true, where is L3/R3?

uDraw Game Tablet

I had high hopes for this. But I'm pretty disappointed.

Let's start with the hardware. I will be comparing this to WACOM tablets.
-The stylus is about twice as thick as W's. And it's not round either. Meaning it's not as comfortable as a proper pen. It does clip in the back nicely for storage.
-The stylus, unlike W's, is not wireless. Fine, the thing is for kids afterall. They probably don't want you losing it. Except I've read twice in the manual that cutting the wire renders it inoperable. The wire isn't that long either, but shouldn't get in the way.
-The pressure sensitive tip, unlike W's, moves. You're physically pushing it in to register pressure. And you have to push quite a bit which makes drawing difficult. The lower button on the stylus can be used instead, but it's not the same as drawing.

+The back of the tablet itself is curved to make it easier to hold, which is ironic considering 99% of the time it will be resting on your lap. It's not meant to be held in your hands.
+Since it plugs into the Wiimote, it uses it's buttons for things like switching zoom factors/brush sizes/tools/ and undo/redo

Now onto the software. I will be comparing this to MSPaint, PhotoShop (within reason) and Mario Paint.
-There is no custom soundtrack option, which is sad considering I've made a PSP game that supports it. Which means you have to put up with either silence or their looping track.
-There are no selection tools or clipboard. Meaning you can't take a part of the image, copy/paste/flip/scale/etc. You can flip the entire image, but that's pretty useless. You can't even import part of another image.
-It is not Anti Aliasing friendly. For example, the coloring book. The images it gives you have edge AA. The only tool you have available is the Fill tool. When you fill a region, it does not overlap the AA. Meaning you have unclean edges that stick out like a sore thumb..
-There are no layers.
-There are no vector options.
-You have no choice in the resolution of the image. (What is this, Windows 3.1?)
-When you save your image, it doesn't put it in the folder Wii's built in image viewer uses, but rather '\\private\Wii\app\SUWE\uDraw Studio'. Which is oh so easy to find on your own...
-There are no pixel-art options. (ie: for 8-bit/16-bit styles) Which given the low-tech of the Wii you'd assume they would have at least added show/hide grid options.
-You can't make your own patterns for the stamp tool.
-There are no animation tools (see Mario Paint, or the episode of Futurama where Fry makes a comic book on an iFad) or music tools (again, Mario Paint)
-The UI ignores the design paradigms of mouse-based interfaces. Meaning there are no drop down menus, you must press a button (B or the upper one on the stylus) to call up the tool sets.
-No minigames (ie: Gnat Attack from Mario Paint)

+You can save your image to an SD card, it supports both JPG and PNG. The lack of BMP is odd, but not needed.
+It will replay all the steps you took in drawing your picture.
+It has rather extensive color pallet selection tools.
+While drawing, it will apply edge AA. But not while erasing.
+While in-game, the tablet will control the Wii 'Home' menu.

Seriously guys, when you make a game/device for a specific market, you should at least have people from that market test it. In this case, artists. And for pete's sakes, try to do better than what's actually on the market already (Mario Paint in this case)

uDraw Game Tablet II

The device is lightweight. The buttons are the same kind the PSP used. Transparent, a little on the thin side but otherwise perfect. Unlike other third party controllers, the PS button is actually the same as the ones Sony uses. It unfortunately uses the same kind of stylus as the mk I. It's round this time though, but just as fat and uses that same annoying pressure sensitive tip where it actually pushes inside itself. They stupidly removed the button from the stylus, and the cable is too short. It also uses a dongle, which I hope means I can use it on my PC. The dongle can be stored inside the battery compartment and held in place with a magnet. It's a bit big but who cares. It also uses 3 AA batteries, not included of course. And it won't report how much power is left to the system. The touchpad itself is now touch sensitive, whereas the mk I only responded to the stylus. And I really hope launching in November kills off Ubisoft's Drawsome tablet coming out next month.

The software itself is not much better than the Wii's. Parts of the menu can't decide if they're going to work with the stylus or let you use the dpad. And it doesn't know how to handle you actually touching it in the menus. There's no custom soundtrack support, so you will want to play it on mute. It supports trophies, probably the easiest you'll ever get. It doesn't cache thumbnails, so the gallery mode takes forever to load. It comes with some minigames, including one that's pretty much a direct ripoff of Mario Paint. Instead of exporting to an SD card, it uploads it to a website now. And like the Wii's, it's nigh useless for actually drawing. Like I said about the first one, it makes Mario Paint look like Photoshop.

Wiimote Plus

A review for this would be pointless as it's almost the standard controller.
A controller which I've used very little of, to the point where I have no baseline to compare to. Although the fact that it doesn't come with a similarly themed nun chuck is annoying. And the silicone skin it came with also detracts from it's attractiveness. Thankfully, batteries are included.
The white buttons (and nunchuck wire) also stick out like a sore thumb where other colored Wiimotes don't have this issue.

Wii SNES controller

Or rather Wii Super Famicom controller. You'd think there wouldn't be much of a difference but there is. Being based on the Japanese version of the SNES controller, the buttons are convex only, and multicolored. The US version had 2 shades of purple and a mix of convex and concave. Nintendo just treats US customers like idiots (the differing shapes were to help us feel the difference. Even though we could feel it by the relation of other buttons) no big deal. It makes it more unique from the SNES controllers I still have anyway. For all intents and purposes it is a perfect replica of a SNES controller.

I compared it to the Hori Digital/Retro GCN controller, and the Hori's D-pad is actually like a millimeter smaller. Thank you Nintendo for finally giving us a decently sized D-pad after all these years. Unfortunately, the Hori is more comfortable due to the curved backing, made to simulate the handles first found in the PS1 controller. BUT I can't complain since I bought a SNES controller replica, not a Hori replica. (Though I'll keep complaining the Wii Classic controller doesn't have the curves)

My complaints?
1) I'm not even going to bother using it simply cause Nintendo's NES/SNES emulators for Wii/VC suck. They suffer the same flaw the emulators Zelda Collector's disc had years ago (meaning Nintendo's had since Wind Waker came out to know about and fix this). If you play over component, the screen is cut in half vertically and each half has one interlace field (meaning each odd frame plays on the top, each even frame on the bottom) I don't want to switch cables depending on the type of game I play on the Wii.
2) The same flaw the Wii Classic controller suffers from, it has to plug into the Wiimote via a wire. Yea, a wired controller that uses batteries.

Wireless PS3 Street Fighter Fight Pad (Chun Li)

Laughingly called a Collector's Edition despite the fact that it comes in clamshell packaging that must be destroyed to open it. It's a joke compared to the PS2 Street Fighter controller I have that came in an awesome box with a certificate of authenticity and a hologram. Didn't even include batteries. It feels so cheap despite costing 2.5 times more than the PS2 one. It also has 360s crap-style dpad. I dislike that it doesn't use bluetooth, it just includes a receiver dongle. Though it's nice cause I can use it on my computer. No rumble or SIXAXIS

Wireless PS2/PS3 Gene Simmons Axe Guitar

I hate that it's only 3/4 scale. Why gimp out? Go 4/4. Just make it come unassembled like Steel Battalion or the Ace Combat Flight Sticks. The neck strap doesn't stay on, it will fall of mid-game and screw you up. Batteries are included. Again doesn't use bluetooth, but it had to use a dongle to work on PS2 as well. It has an ugly picture of Gene Simmons on it that I'll probably remove one day. I know I said I wouldn't collect music controllers but this one was so unique I caved.

WonderSwan Color

Let me start by saying this thing is tiny and light. It uses a single AA battery and apparently can last like 15-20 hours. It has the same kind of LCD as the GBC and first GBA (meaning, not back-lit). Now I never had a problem with those LCDs but I know some people found them hard to see. What's odd is that for such an old system, it has the same size LCD as the Nintendo DS which really puts the DS to shame. Well, more shame than what PSP put it to... Instead of a battery compartment like what we're used to in the GBC/GBA, it has a removable battery holder. There are rechargeable batteries that you can put in place of that holder, as well as an AC adapter I'd imagine. But neither are sold anymore. Sort of like how GBA had no real AC adapter port. It also has no real headphone port, like GBA SP. You need a headphone adapter like the GBA SP, which again is not sold anymore.

Graphically, it's in between GBC and GBA. Or rather, if you removed all the 3D/scaling capabilities (ie: mode 7) from the GBA.
The dpads, suck. It's one step above 360's dpad though. Each direction is actually a separate button. And unlike other systems, the buttons have some wiggle to them. They don't go straight in/out.
Why 2 dpads? So you can hold the thing horizontally AND vertically. The thing is practically made for vertical shooters. Of which it has only like 2, and 1 costs $200!!!!

It has some really neat novelties which I hope to have one day.
-WonderWitch: A homebrew software dev kit!
-WonderBorg: A remote-controller robotic bug (check)
-WonderWave: A device to allow communication with PocketStation (check)

And one I don't want to own:
-HandyRadar: To aid in fishing...

XtendPlay

-I dont have a PS3 controller at the moment (I didn't get it shipped to home) so I cant really test it, but I like the feel of it

-I know why they went with foam, to keep it lightweight. It's also not a sweat magnet.

-It's got a hole/ditch on the back for your fingers to go into. I thought for a bit that it wasnt comfy cause my long nails were hitting the back, and I figured they just probably didnt test it with girls. But I wasnt holding it right. I was holding the bottom instead of the top.

-I really like that it's one of the ideas I submitted to multiple manufacturers and was rejected. I'm not saying they copied me, cause my idea was a silicone skin, and I never submitted it to them. I just like that I got what I wanted. So screw you DreamGear!

-My original idea also included built-in RealTriggers. But that'd be impossible with this material. Plus I have RealTriggers anyway

-It doesnt look like they left enough room for the PS3 wireless keypad. But I think I can just dremel out a little bit. I'm waiting for word from Xwerx about that.
From Xwerx: Regarding the PS3 Wireless Keypad, if you have the Sony version it should work no problem

-The odd thing is they left the Sony/PS logos in tact on the box. Most third parties blank them out, which looks amateurish

These things come disassembled. And any part attached to the base, shows up in the game. So you assemble your robot in real life how you want it in the game. A cool box.

The joints of the mechs have a 1 channel headphone jack, which serves as both the data interface and the attachment. 
Then a device which plugs into the PS1's memory card ports (and depends on the distance between them being the same as the original model's, thus it doesn't work on a PS2 or PSone) has a headphone cable which plugs into the back of one of the four mech chassis. There are 2 headphone cables so both players can have their own mech (assuming there is no fight over the parts)
I'm assuming either the game doesn't save at all, uses a password to save, or the device has a built in memory card.

The interface only detects major parts (arms, legs, chassis) not the greebles such as weapons and the head. 
The feet (and underside of the hovering mech) actually have metal parts.
The box is rather large, has a handle, and is annoyingly blank on the back.
I'm quite thankful the guy I bought it off of assembled most of the stuff for me.
It also came with a few cards showing characters and mechs from the game.