8Bitdo M30 Bluetooth Controller for Switch, PC, macOS and Android with Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Style

I mainly use this for playing Sonic games on my Switch, but Nintendos controls feel a bit awkward with other games without button remapping so I think its best used as a PC controller if you want to get the full use out of this. I dont play a lot of fighting games but I know its set up very well for that, and the buttons and and controller overall feel quite comfortable.

A great product packed into a small package. I bought this controller as my go-to for fighting games and it hasnt disappointed yet. The d-pad is exactly what I was looking for, allowing for easy quarter-circle and Z input patterns. Also allows for various input modes that can be switched between easily. Pairs well with phones, the Switch, and computers via Bluetooth and USB. Highly recommended.

I never bother to write reviews of products, but I wanted to help get word out about this controller as theres a lot to say. First of all, I never had or played a Genesis, so this controller has zero nostalgic factor for me. Ive never even used a 6-face button configuration controller before, but I wanted something for my Switch which made playing retro and modern retro games more enjoyable. Specifically, the d-pad... as we all know, the Joy-Con doesnt have one, the Pro Controllers isnt great (plus mine had drift issues with the left stick, so I traded it anyway), and there are hundreds of third-party controllers out there with d-pads, but how does one separate the good from the bad? Enter 8BitDo. As youll see throughout the reviews posted here, the company produces some quality products. Ive had an SN30 (dog-bone style) for a while and really like it, but it is a tad cramped, the d-pad does sometimes register an up input when youre trying to hit left or right, and the face buttons are a bit on the clicky side. Nothing serious, and definitely a very good piece of hardware. But I wanted something even more from my d-pad and thats when I started researching the M30. Ive been using it now for a week, so here goes... Lets start with the main feature: the d-pad. Its amazing... it has a floating design which allows for very precise inputs and Ive had no issues with missed commands. Ive read here you can press the entire pad down, which is true and does serve a function if youve mapped it to function as a joystick, but I did not have any issues with that when using it at all. The d-pad itself is not loose or feel cheap, but it is flexible... basically a perfect balance and exactly what I wanted. The face buttons feel very nice... not as clicky as the SN30 or overly mushy; again, an excellent balance. My X button has a little wiggle to it which is only noticeable when putting the controller down -- it hasnt interfered with the use at all. Oh, and the face buttons make a lot less noise than the SN30 when pressed which is a welcome improvement. The shoulder buttons are nice and firm, easy to reach, and never register accidental inputs. The overall feel of the controller is very good... sturdy yet light, it feels a lot like the SN30 in that you can tell its solidly made. I would have loved it if the grips and back had a matte feel to them, but even as it is the controller feels great in the hand. It is also a bit beefier in size, so I dont feel cramped when using it. Id say my hands are probably average size since Im an average-height guy. As for the other buttons: the start button is prominent and centered, which is great, while the Capture, Select (Minus), and Home buttons are quite muted and out of the way. Personally, I think this is great since one of my biggest complaints about the Pro Controller was how easy it was to accidentally press Home when you meant to start Start or hit Capture when youre hunting for Select. I could see if some say these three buttons might even be a little TOO much subdued (maybe have them slightly raised?), but for me they work just fine. I will admit it takes some practice to find Select for those games that actually utilize it regularly (say, for a sub-menu), but outside of that I have no issues. Now, lets talk about that missing fifth star: this is to hopefully let the good chaps at 8BitDo know that their horrendously poor manual is hurting their product. Thank goodness for the Internet or we might never had figured out the controllers lovely built-in button re-mapping feature. Its all over the place in these reviews, so I wont bother re-posting it here, but suffice it to say it works as stated: a simple 5-second press of those key combinations and the controller re-arranges itself in the prescribed way. There is no visual confirmation of this, which would be nice, but at least the option is there. As I said, I got this for my Switch and it does work like a champ. But heres the thing: as easy as it SHOULD have been to turn it on using Y+Start to get the pre-configured Switch layout, thats not how it actually worked for me. What the manual doesnt tell you is you actually need to press Y first (and hold it) and THEN press and hold Start. If you press Start then Y or both together the controller boots in some other configuration (Android, I think? based on the way the lights react and the fact it synched with my phone!), so yeah... you guys at 8BitDo might wanna specify that because this is probably why some people are saying the thing appears to not sync at all. Hopefully this helps someone out there. Let me conclude by saying this controller is outstanding, especially considering the price point. The d-pad is a dream to use and its now my go-to even over my SN30 because I only use analogue sticks when I have to or in certain games like shooters, 1st-person POVs, shmups, etc., but Im all d-pad all the time otherwise, and this d-pad is awesome. Is it great for fighters? I wish I could say... I have a few fighters, but unfortunately I suck at them, so I really cant tell you if this controller would help in that regard. It feels to me like it does. Oh, and Ive had no lag issues with the controller running wireless. None at all. One last thing: the M30 has actually made me want to play Smash again. As fun as that game is, I hate, hate, HATE the fact you cant re-map your controller in-game to have the d-pad be your movement input. If you feel the same way, then this controller is the answer to your prayers because it works seamlessly with Smash! Just use the Minus+left command for 5 seconds to set the d-pad to input as the left joystick and youre good to go. Take that, Sakurai!!! Bottom line: this is another fantastic product from 8BitDo and theres virtually nothing to not like about the product itself. But I just cant give five stars because the lads really need to provide a serious, helpful manual with this thing, especially including the re-map and start-up instructions. Outside of that, you wont go wrong with this controller on your Switch. Now... perhaps we could discuss some button overlays for this bad boy?? UPDATE: I have experienced some significant and noticeable input lag when playing Shovel Knight Treasure Trove when using the M30, but no lag in any other game yet... and my 8BitDo SN30Pro doesnt have this issue at all in SKTT. Interesting...

I initially ordered the 2.4ghz version for my Sega Genesis. I ended up returning it due to the fact it is currently plagued with connection issues. I bought the Bluetooth controller and receiver instead as 8Bitdos SNES & NES Bluetooth controller/receiver combo worked quite well for me in the past. Im happy to say the M30 + Genesis receiver have worked flawlessly since I received them. My only complaint is the use of USB-C to charge the controller instead of micro USB. The M30 2.4ghz uses micro, so not sure why they decided to change it up with the M30 Bluetooth. Its just another cable I have to keep handy.

I love this controller! Its like the Saturn model 2 pad with much better L and R buttons. The Dpad is might be my favorite on any controller ever, and the face buttons have a quick reset time. The feel of this controller is fantastic the finish of the plastic on the shell and the dpad make this product seem very premium. The USB-C port is appreciated as someone that usually plays wired. There are a couple things 8BitDo can do on a second revision to make this perfect. 1 - when pressed hard the dpad makes a loud creaking noise, this is an easy fix by placing a buffer between the top and bottom pieces of the dpad.(thanks Reddit user Styl0s) 2 - the button mapping for x input mode is strange I would love to be able to customize it. Please make a wired version 8BitDo!

This is a long review, and so I’ve listed a TL;DR summary up front here for anyone who doesn’t have the patience to read my whole review. This controller is well designed, feels great, and scratches a nostalgia itch very well. However, the button configuration translates so bizarrely to the control scheme of the Nintendo Switch, that it makes playing games extremely uncomfortable. The layout of this controllers is not analogous to the buttons on the Switch, and while it’s physically well built and comfortable to hold, it’s really very hard to recommend it for anything beyond a very niche set of games that works well despite the button layout. Full Review: Oh man, I have a lot to say about this controller. First and foremost, I want to express that this is more of a first impressions review, and I’ll update it in the future if continued use changes any of my opinions. However, this is a new product, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there like me who depend on reviews before they purchase most products, so I wanted to get something up right away to help those shoppers. It’s also primarily a review geared towards Nintendo Switch owners. I did sync it up to my Mac for review purposes, and it synced up and worked great, but I didn’t put much time into it. First, the good. The build on this controller is everything I wanted and more. It’s like the physical version of an HD remaster of an old video game: it’s all the nostalgia and memories you love but re-built from the ground up with the bells and whistles of the modern day. In other words, this feels like I remember Sega controllers feeling but it’s better in every way. If you grew up with a Sega Genesis and/or a Sega Saturn (which is why, I assume, you’re interested in purchasing the M30), everything feels right at home. The floaty d-pad feels flexible yet responsive, and the buttons have just the right amount of give and “clickyness”. The triggers also fall in the right spot, and the entire controllers fits perfectly in my moderately sized hands. Though a lack of ergonomic handles holds it back in comfort compared to a modern controller, I think it’s the most comfortable retro-style controller I’ve ever used. I’d rank this above the Genesis, Saturn, NES and SNES controllers (including 8bitdo’s SNES-inspired SN30 Pro). For certain games, it works like a dream. I booted up Sonic Mania first and felt a rush of nostalgia. I’m even considering buying 8bitdo’s Sega Genesis bluetooth receiver so I can play the classic Sonic games the same way. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also felt perfectly natural, and I assume any game with control schemes limited to 1 button or 1 button + shoulder buttons would work well. Puyo Puyo Tetris also felt good, though I imagine your mileage may vary based on how much you like the floating D-pad. Obviously any game that requires two analogue sticks won’t work here. That said, the D-pad registers as an analogue stick, so if you don’t need the right stick for camera control, this controller will still work. For reference, it worked for controlling characters in Smash Bros Ultimate (more on that below), though taunts were inaccessible. I even booted up Breath of the Wild to try it, and it does work for moving Link around! Obviously you couldn’t play the game with this controller though. Unfortunately, there’s one major issue that prevents it from being a perfect Switch controller the way, one that other retro-styled 8bitdo bluetooth controllers don’t have a problem with: the button layout. On a PC or Mac, where the buttons can be reconfigured, this wouldn’t be an issue, but the ABC XYZ layout of the Genesis/Saturn 6-button controller clearly doesn’t translate to the SNES layout the Switch uses. For reference, the M30/Switch layout is as follows: M30=Switch -A=B -B=A -Y=X -X=Y -Z=L (I might have mixed these two up) -C=R (I might have mixed these two up) -L=ZL -R=ZR Basically, this means that the buttons match the layout of the Switch joycons/pro controller, which means that button letters don’t match, and the layout is similar even though this controller is designed very differently. This leads to some muscle memory issues, as well as some game controls feeling very bizarre. If you sit and actually think this out in your head, you’ll see that it technically makes sense, at least on paper. While the ABXY buttons might be totally mixed up, they still follow the basic shape of the buttons, while the top-most triggers have transitioned to the top-most face buttons. But this isn’t nearly as elegant of a solution as it sounds on paper, and there is a lot of trouble overcoming muscle memory for any game that requires quick input of multiple buttons. Even if you can get over the fact that A=B and B=a, the fact that the X and Y buttons are different sizes and in different locations compared to the joycons/pro controller really makes hitting those buttons feel awkward. And that’s saying nothing about the fact that L and R are now face buttons, something I imagine would only be beneficial in specific fighting games. Just to name a few examples of the issues I ran into: 1) In Smash Bros Ultimate, using the Z and C buttons for grabs feels very weird, and takes travel time for the fingers. 2) In Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, using rolls no longer feels smooth, since my fingers now have to specifically travel upwards away from the jump buttons to the X and Y buttons. 3) In Celeste, a game which requires extremely precise movements, the swapping of A and B really threw off my groove. I could have re-mapped controls in that game, or used the X/Y buttons, but the former seems inconvenient and the later would have the same problem as listed above with Donkey Kong. The D-pad did work surprisingly comfortably for this game though, as did the triggers. So in summary, this controller is a mixed bag. I really want to love it because it designed very well, and feels great. When the layout works for a game, it feels great to use. Something with only one button like Sonic Mania works great, as do games like Mario Kart which only require one face button in addition to the triggers. However, the layout just doesn’t fit the layout of the Switch controllers and thus every other game feels awkward to control. It’s an extremely niche controller and I’d have a hard time recommending it to anyone without very specific games they wanted to use it for. In fact, I think I would have rather bought the 2.4G wireless version they made for the Sega Genesis, since this one will get very little use on my Nintendo Switch.

All of the 8bitdo controllers are amazing and this one is no exception. Its great for playing classic sega games on the switch. There is even an adapter to use it on original hardware but that is sold separately FYI

I purchased this controller to play the Sega Classics collection on my Amazon Fire stick. It works perfectly and is flawless! There is no lag and the response is awesome. This controller rocks! Pairing it to the Fire stick was extremely easy and took only a couple of seconds. The buttons feel identical to my original Sega Genesis controller and even sound the same as you press on them. Especially the A,B,C buttons. It brought back so many memories. The texture of the controller is awesome as well. The only thing that would make this even better is if the directional pad could be recessed in a bit more in order for it to be identical to the original controller. Dont get me wrong, it feels good and works great. Its just that it sits up/floats up a bit higher than the original. Awesome controller! You will not be disappointed.

Feels like my Sega Saturn gamepad - great for fighting games.

i bought an 8bitdo controller a couple years ago to use on my phone with some emulators. i liked it for the most part, it was a bit small for me but the Bluetooth worked great and there was no real noticeable lag. i was in the market for another one and didnt really want to spend 50+ dollars on a second one, so i decide to try this one out. Right out of the box i liked the feel of it. nice weight and fits my hands perfectly. The Bluetooth connection is great and it doesnt cut out like some other ones Ive had and no button lag. If you are looking for a nice controller that is reasonably priced give this one a try