What goes in to a Good Controller?
It starts with love — a love for the game we played when we were kids,
a love for the competition, hype, and community it’s bloomed into.
That’s what pushes us to demand the most out of our conches.
Good controllers let the hype flow.
The first step is to bring these ever aging controllers up to par for competition.
Every T3 board (unless stated otherwise) has been fitted with an adjustable snapback fix module, optimized triggers, lubed stickboxes and factory new sensors (courtesy of FIRES). These sensors are the soul of the controller, they decide how well the controller responds to your movement.
Factory new sensors means:
– Precise, accurate inputs
– Perfect pivots
– Longest lasting consistency
– 0 PODE
PODE is the umbrella term for several symptoms that come from the sensors degrading. It can be good, but more often that not, it will cause common problems such as wrong way aerials, lingering light shields and drifting directional inputs.
When it’s good, it adds a delay on the x-axis, which allows you to ledgedash easily with a diagonal down and in to the stage input. The delay makes sure you drop from the ledge first, while already moving towards the perfect wavedash angle to get on to stage.
Any controllers with beneficial PODE will be labelled accordingly in the store when they do show up. Good PODE is lightning in a bottle, it won’t last, so any controllers sold here with PODE will have a solid replacement warranty for when they inevitably transition into the problematic forms of PODE.
More information on PODE by Kadano here
Quick guide on temporarily resetting your PODE here
Essential Mods
Snapback is an issue with nearly every gamecube controller, in Melee and Ultimate, that occurs
when you let go of the stick, let it return to neutral, and it snaps
back across to the other side, far enough to create an input that can
cause unintentional turnaround neutral B’s, empty pivots, fast falls, and double
jumps.
The modules add what’s essentially a low pass filter to stop that very
small input from being read, so you can move precisely and aim neutral
B’s perfectly. They’re adjustable, because the strength of the snapback
changes as the controller wears down. Typically it’ll need adjustment
around every 6 months or so depending how much you play, and I’ll be making a guide on how to adjust the modules soon™
There’s a few versions:
Regular Module – This legacy version introduces drift when plugging into consoles (emulators are almost always fine). You’ll need to hold X + Y + Start for 5 seconds every time you plug in to a console.
No reset module – The latest tech avoids the drift flaw with some added circuitry, this makes it a HUGE quality of life upgrade if you plan on attending tournaments.
Single axis – The above options cover both horizontal and vertical axis. Single axis modules have the drift flaw, but make for a good budget option if your character doesn’t mind snapback on one of the axis
Triggers have a lot of moving parts, so we aim to make them consistent, satisfying, soft on the hands, and optimally functional. To accomplish that we have to add quite a lot of small details:
1) Trigger plugs – These change the actual function of the triggers by adjusting the travel distance. They take some getting used to but are an absolute GAME CHANGER. There’s two types, and it’s recommended to have one of each, for the most functionality and least hand pain.
Tall plugs get rid of ALL the travel, transforming the trigger into a simple button, meaning instant powershields, wavedashes and most importantly NO ADT. The analog (lightshield) to digital (hard shield) transition actually leaves you vulnerable WHILE YOU’RE HOLDING SHIELD for a couple frames, so being able to shield without that vulnerability is a HUGE UPGRADE. These are functionally equivalent to removing the spring except they retain the full height of the trigger.
Short plugs reduce travel by 50%, making it easy to find lightshields, L-cancel, and increase response time.
2) Perforated button pad – The piece responsible for the “click” at the bottom of the triggers can be softened to further reduce hand pain.
3) Snipped and annealed spring – By cutting the spring to around 60% strength and heat treating it, we let the trigger glide with minimal force while still staying responsive and snappy. The strength can be adjusted to preference anywhere between 30% – 150% with either OEM snipped springs, or aftermarket springs.
4) Rubber dampeners – Precisely placed rubber pads get rid of the clacking noise that happens when the trigger returns to full height, and make for a super satisfying press.
5) Low friction bearing tape – Added bearing tracks reduce the plastic on plastic friction and reduce the wiggle room of the trigger, for a consistently smooth motion.
6) O-rings at the base of the spring keep it in place, to help reduce the springy sound and vibration
7) Lots of lube
FOR ULTIMATE I recommend all the same steps, except using only the tall plugs and digital input rewiring.
Full guide on this process here
These are a simple but MASSIVE feel upgrade. We sand down the ABXY buttons until they’re rounded, smooth, and void of the engraved letter that always catches on your nail. Perfectly satisfying to press, and easy to glide from button to button for rapid multishines, or general mashing.
They come in a few flavors
OEM – There’s no true replacement for the original color and feel of OEM plastic that everyone’s used to.
Black dyed OEM – Retain that magical feeling but get a little custom.
Custom Resin Casted – With a small compromise of texture (still fantastic but alternative to OEM) we can unlock infinite customization options to put a magic touch on your custom build.
Notches
Shield drop notches are the normal southeast and southwest corners of the gate adjusted to specific values to be able to easily perform a shield drop while dashing. They’re made less relevant with UCF, but some controllers will still need adjustment.
Placing the corner values in vanilla shield drop range has the added benefit of letting you walk forward and f-tilt, with crouch cancel being a tiny movement away.
Shield drop notches are included with the other options.
Max wavedash notches are the biggest game changer for nearly every character. They allow you to quickly find the perfect angle for the longest wavedash, and almost more importantly, help lock you out of inputting a fully horizontal air dodge that’s easily punishable. They also offer help with one of the strongest recovery angles for certain characters.
Full notches completely level up the recovery options for Fox, Falco, Shiek, Pikachu, and Mewtwo. Powerful mix ups are unlocked and made easy to execute; with added benefits of easy turnaround up-tilts, maximum and minimum wavedash lengths, and quick shield drops. They also feel pretty damn cool.
Additional Upgrades
By replacing the stick box spring with a differently shaped spring + washer, we can reduce the overall strength needed to move the stick around with minimal losses to the snappy responsiveness of it. It also gets rid of the uneven resistance coming out of the deadzone, making for easier tilts and other small precise inputs.
Full resin c-sticks are the perfect combo of function and aesthetics. OEM and casted Rubber tops are bound to fall apart with use, and the grip it offers doesn’t make as much of a difference for melee, since you’re mostly just slapping the stick quickly in one direction. Full resin offers infinite aesthetic options, at a low cost, while being durable enough to last the whole life of the controller.
Paracord doesn’t offer much functional difference, but it is nicer to wrap up, and less likely to tangle.
All of our paracords are swappable, meaning you only need a triwing to completely change the look of your controller, or replace an alcohol soaked cable mid tournament – no soldering necessary.
All of our paracord have the OEM copper shielding fully intact.
With the same low friction bearing tape used for triggers, we can reduce the wiggle room on the ABXY buttons, creating a smoother, more satisfying press.
This mod makes a relatively small difference for the cost, not recommended if you need to stick to a budget.
Full details on it here
We replace the mushy OEM Z button with a tactile, clicky button harvested from OEM wii pro controllers. Very satisfying to press, and leaves no question in your mind on whether you hit the bumper right.
There’s a lot of options for LEDs, the main differences being static or reactive to inputs, and whether they’re on the front or back.
Here’s a video displaying the most high tech reactive LEDs available
The stock rumble pack isn’t perfectly accurate at relaying information, because it has a high amplitude that winds down slowly. It’s also suspected that the strong vibrations can damage the stickbox and sensors, but it’s hard to find exact data.
By replacing it with a small vibration motor like you’d find in phones, we create a much more tactile rumble effect, that turns on and off rapidly to give you perfect feedback.
One of the coolest things about Steam games is you can see a definitive count of how many hours you’ve put into a game, and that’s something smash can’t really have by nature until now. We place a playtime tracking counter that is active as long as it’s plugged into a console, or emulator with rumble enabled. Ideal for new players that want to put numbers on the board and show their work.