8Bitdo M30 2.4G Wireless Gamepad for Sega Genesis Mini and Mega Drive Mini and Switch with 6-Button Layout (Black)

I grew up with a Super Nintendo, a PS1 and various Nintendo handhelds before I got a PSP. As someone who never owned an older Sega console(just a Dreamcast I got a few years back), you'd think this wouldn't do it for me, but it has the best D-pad I've ever used and the face buttons are cool and weird.I use it to play Sega Saturn games on my Mister FPGA system, and it's almost perfect for that. I just wish it had one or two analog sticks for 3D games. If you could use this for modern titles like Doom Eternal or even JRPGs like Soul Hackers 2 or Persona 3 Reload, I'd be one happy camper. There are competing Saturn-like controllers with sticks and extra shoulder buttons, but I've heard the D-pads are inferior and there are various quality control issues, so I'm just gonna hold out hope that 8Bitdo releases one in the future.But yeah, this is super light, the battery life is great, it works just as well wired and wirelessly, and it feels incredible in the hand. Strong recommend.

The good: Works great with my PC emulators. It has good build quality and is extremely durable. Buttons don't feel to mushy. It also has a good range. I can sit across the room (28 feet) and use it. Battery life is also good. I was able to use it for 8 hours with out charging.The bad: This pad is NOT Blue Tooth compatible. Needs to be charged after every use but that's not a bad thing. Not couch friendly (Usually I find it AND the TV remote together). 🤣 Uses USB Mini (they should have used USB-C like the Blue Tooth version).

Neat finish, satisfying D-pad, and functional buttons.For $30~, this rocks!

TL;DR: Great controller, but you need to check your Switch system settings. Go to "System Settings > Controllers and Sensors > Pro Controller Wired Communication." Flip that to "On" and it should work.NOTE: I don't have a Genesis Mini, so I can't comment on that. This review is entirely for the Switch.Now for the too-long part:So I've been a gamer for the past ~30 years, and most of my gaming in my childhood was spent gaming on the Genesis. I was a Sega fanboy through-and-through. My hands practically grew to the shape of that bulky 3-button pad, and later conformed to the 6-button pad. While I didn't get my Saturn until I was already an adult and bought it (very) used, the controller felt so great in-hand.Now that 8BitDo has come around, I've grabbed up a few of their products, including the M30 2.4GHz for the Genesis (the other 2.4GHz version of this controller). So I already knew what to expect in terms of comfort and general usability. The controller feels really good in-hand. It's a bit on the lightweight side, but it's reminiscent of older gamepads in that way, I suppose. Weight is pretty close to that of the original Genesis 6-button pad, minus the cord. The texture on the controller feels nice, and there's no sharp edges or anything to cause cramps. Plastic doesn't feel QUITE as high-quality as the original Sega pads, but is darn close. It doesn't feel cheap, and that's a good thing.So as soon as it came in, I practically ran to my Switch to play with it. Plugged the receiver into the dock, fired up the Switch, hit the Start button on the pad and... nothing. The blue light blinked slowly and never made a connection. I thought that was pretty weird. I fiddled around with it some and got the controller to sync up with the receiver. But I noticed that the Switch had come out of the dock. Plugged it back into the dock and... nothing again. The controller was unsynced. "WTAF?" I wondered as I tried to get it working again. Switch out of the dock: syncs just fine. Switch in the dock: fails.At this point I figured it wasn't a point of a broken/faulty controller/receiver. It HAD to be something software-related. I went to update my Switch and, nope, it was running the latest OS version. So while I was in the settings I decided to take a peek, and I found an option under "Controllers and Sensors" called "Pro Controller Wired Communication." This was turned off. Basically this option allows you to use a Pro controller via USB when plugged into the Switch, which... duh? Why wouldn't you want that on? So you could just charge it and NOT use it? The dock only has a single USB port. Why would you want that to be used for just charging your controller and not playing with it?So I turned on "Pro Controller Wired Communication" and voila! The controller synced right up and worked as it should. It's read as a Pro controller by the Switch, and since it has to plug in via USB (since it's not Bluetooth), this option being turned off means you can't use the M30.I reread through the included instructions and this was not mentioned anywhere in there. That seems like it'd be something you'd want to include. I was all set to return the controller.I played around in bundled SNES/NES games from having an online account, plus in Megaman X Legacy Collection a bit. I figured I should go for retro games that would make the best use of the low-latency 2.4GHz connection. My TV is an LG with roughly 10ms of lag (which is absurdly low for consumer HDTVs), so the next biggest source of lag would be the controller. And it worked like a champ. I don't have a rig to test input lag or anything, but at the very least, I couldn't detect any. No hiccups (aside from human error :P). Being able to swap A/B and X/Y was particularly helpful (hold down + select for 5 seconds). The turbo function is nice to have and works well, but is kind of a pain to deal with.I didn't manage to run it out of battery, so I can't comment on the battery life, sadly. But I suppose that means it's pretty decent.Pros:+ Great build quality+ Syncing is pretty painless*+ Turbo functionality is there+ Controller can be remapped to a degree+ Price is pretty low+ Extremely low latency/input lag**Cons:- The instructions leave out highly important details- Micro USB port***- Not compatible with other 2.4GHz receivers***** - Once you figure out that you need to enable USB controllers for Switch. Otherwise, good luck, lol.** - Again, I don't have a rig so I can't get actual numbers, but IIRC their other M30 had about 3 to 5ms of lag (compared to like 25ms of lag on the Bluetooth version), which is pretty much undetectable by even the most perceptive gamers.*** - Other new 8BitDo controllers have switched to USB-C ports. It's kind of odd that they wouldn't update it. It was probably to save costs as the controller looks the exact same as the old M30, but still.**** - This is actually a pretty big problem. I didn't WANT to have to buy another controller. I'd have rather been able to use my existing M30 on the Switch, but I had to buy an entirely new controller. And since the controller and receiver are tied together with no way to sync with a new controller/receiver, losing one makes the other useless.In conclusion, it's a great controller and worth the price, but the instructions leave a LOT to be desired. How many returns here are ENTIRELY due to people not knowing about the USB settings on the Switch?

This works on some websites to play simulated sega genesis game of sonic the hedgehog 1 on chromebook even though it says it is for sega genesis and does not mention chromebookI tried another similar shaped 8bitdo controller made to look like a sega genesis controller that says it was for microsoft and apple products and it did not work on chromebook on any websites with simulated sega genesis games I triedI am not sure if all the buttons work I could not find any games that use all 6 buttons of a, b, c, x, y and z that had websites running properly at the time. Sonic only uses a, b and c and has all 3 buttons work the same plus the direction buttonsChromebook recognizes the direction buttons of up, down, left and right not as moving the mouse but as equivalent to the direction keys on the keyboard when I tried