
You want greater customization than the first-party pad The Hori Horipad Pro is inconsistent, and those squishy triggers come to define the feel of the pad more than the smooth sticks. Still, we recommend one of the best racing wheels for any remotely serious driving game fan. The one situation we can think of where this mushy feel might fit is as a ‘brake’ in a racing game, because that's what these feel most like: a brake pedal.


Perhaps some will like them, but this approach seems at odds with all the first-party console pads, and those of the true high-end pads we’ve reviewed. There is no tactile feedback when you reach the end of their travel. The actuation on the left and right shoulder buttons is very soft, and the triggers are flat-out mushy. We’re not sure what Hori was aiming for with the Horipad Pro triggers, though. The pad D-pad offers no positive feedback as you hit each of the directional sensors, but its corners are rounded, smoothed off, making repeated 180-degree movements much more comfortable. Some of you will also appreciate Hori’s D-pad approach. They are silky smooth, perhaps slightly more so than Microsoft’s. The analog stick feel is a highlight of the Horipad Pro. In the Microsoft pad, the stick guard is part of the main shell. However, this only happens because you are pushing against a separate ring of plastic. When you first start using the Hori Horipad Pro, you’ll notice pushing the analog sticks to their limit results in a perhaps cheap-feeling high-pitch click. The grips just use a brick-like texture etched into the hard plastic, and it does the job fine. There are no rubberized parts aside from the analog stick caps but the shell is fairly tough. The low-profile triggers just don’t affect your grip in the same way.Īll the plastics used here feel fine too.

Relatively flat triggers and non-aggressive contouring make this a great pad for casual play.įor a game like Slay the Spire, where there’s no need for lightning-fast reactions, we prefer the Hori to the Microsoft pad. We’ve used the HoriPad Pro for the last few weeks, and switching back to the Microsoft pad highlights quite how relaxed the Hori grip is. However, there are some elements to like. If you read the introduction to this review, you may not have come off with a great impression of the Hori Horipad Pro.
