Tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect technology is cropping up in more and more controllers, seeking to stave off one of the most hated aspects of modern gaming hardware: analog stick drift. TMR controllers work because the electrical resistance of the material that makes up the controller changes when a magnetic field is applied. That way there is very little wear and tear compared with analog sticks.
A controller company called BigBig Won sent us a new controller to review so that we could check it out. Called the Blitz 2, it’s a gamepad that is around the same price as an official Nintendo Switch Pro which has features you normally see on more expensive game controllers. The Blitz 2 has some interesting additions too, such as a very high 2000Hz polling rate and swappable joystick caps, as well as things like macro recording and complete analog stick adjustments for both inner and outer dead zones.
What comes in the box of the Blitz 2 is the controller itself, a braided USB-A to USB-C charging cable, the 2.4GHz Nearlink wireless receiver, two sets of analog sticks of varying length, and a circular d-pad for those who may prefer the Xbox One controller style directional pads. There are apparently also thumb stick caps that are dome-shaped first generation DualShock controllers, but those are a separate purchase. All in all, given the price point, what is packed in with the controller is very reasonable for its asking price of $75. You can pick up the controller for that very reasonable price for a limited time, which is a great deal if you want to jump into TMR technology.
Once you have your Blitz 2, it easily connects to most consoles like the Nintendo Switch or to your PC. You can use a variety of methods to make sure that you have a good connection.
As far as ergonomics and design go, the Blitz 2 is a bit of a mixed bag. Aesthetically, the TMR version of the controller has gray rubberized grips along the angular handles, non-customizable LED lights on the handles and home button, and various markings that just scream “gamer.” Personally, I think the appearance of the controller is a bit overdesigned and unappealing, as none of the colors mesh well with the bright orange anti-friction rings around the analog sticks or the colors of the LEDs, that change based on which mode the gamepad is in. The grips on the Blitz 2 are slightly longer than those on an official Nintendo Switch Pro controller, and they’re more angular versus the Switch Pro’s rounded handles. The angled edges on the Blitz 2 perfectly grips where my fingers bend, which makes it very comfortable to hold.
The thumbsticks of the Blitz 2 are probably the two most important aspects of this controller, utilizing TMR technology for its analog sticks to resist mechanical wear, which is one of the more common reasons for stick drift. The analog sticks of the Blitz 2 are insanely accurate, boasting a higher stick resolution than an Xbox Series controller with a considerably higher polling rate, reaching 1500-1900Hz in testing. When playing shooters, analog sticks need to be fast and responsive, and the Blitz 2 performs beyond expectations in this regard thanks to the high resolution of the stick modules.
The Blitz 2’s face buttons are clicky and very responsive, requiring very little force to actuate the buttons. They’re a decent size, and you can push basically anywhere on the button to trigger the input, which makes it good for quick, gliding inputs during action games. The buttons are emblazoned with the colors of the standard Xbox ABXY, with A being green, B is red, etc., though it would have looked much nicer if the button caps used gray or orange to match the coloration on the Blitz 2’s shell or anti-friction rings.
The shoulder buttons of the Blitz 2 are long and can be easily pressed on the outside edges, which means these buttons are great no matter how you grip on the controller. The triggers are digital, however, which can be a negative to those who enjoy racing games. Being a Nintendo Switch controller, it makes sense why the Blitz 2 would use digital instead of analog triggers, but considering this controller has the Xbox ABXY layout, it would be nice to have had a trigger lock function included where you could swap between analog and digital. As it stands, if you primarily play shooters, the Blitz 2’s low actuation force buttons and excellent analog sticks would be a great addition to your arsenal, but lacking analog triggers primarily means this controller is dead in the water for fans of Rocket League who have played with Xbox controllers or for fans of racing titles.
The directional pad on the Blitz 2 uses mechanical switches and gives you the choice of using a standard cross type d-pad, or there’s an 8-way circular d-pad should that be your preference. This directional pad is incredibly accurate, performing motion inputs for fighting games to do mid-screen and corner combos with ease. My only complaint with the directional pad is that it’s somewhat on the small side for my liking, which took a little getting used to in order to properly hit diagonals during matches in those titles.
The Blitz 2 features a popular addition to controllers nowadays with some additional buttons you can bind for your favorite titles, with two extra buttons on the back, and two extra buttons on top of the controller near the triggers. The M1 and M2 back buttons are large and textured, designed to be easily pressed with your fingertips during gameplay, being slightly stiffer so as to avoid accidental presses when the action gets heavy. The M3 and M4 buttons are low travel, and my index fingers naturally rested on them while playing. Some may not like the placement of the top buttons as they are a bit further out of the way than buttons on something like the 8bitdo 2C Bluetooth, but I was able to reach them just fine and used them for things like a sprint toggle or lock on button in titles like Bayonetta 3. It’s also worth mentioning that you can assign the extra buttons to keyboard inputs through BigBig Won’s software if you’re playing on PC, which is still somewhat of a rarity.
In terms of extra features, on the bottom of the Blitz 2 is a protruding panel with four buttons, each of them controlling one of the Blitz 2’s extra functions. The left most button allows you to enable turbo functionality on the controller, easily utilized by holding it and whatever button you wish to rapid fire. Double tapping the turbo button disables that functionality, and you can use the flashing FN button to change the frequency of rapid fire inputs, too. The second button on the bottom panel lets you remap the M1-M4 buttons on the controller to whatever inputs you want them to be. The third button lets you record macros, though the PC software from BigBig Won lets you have more control over duration and the intervals between each input. The fourth button lets you change among four on-board profiles on the controller, so you can set your M1-4 buttons for different titles and swap among them on the fly, without needing to open BigBig Won’s software.
On top of the above keys to use additional features, you can toggle the Blitz 2’s no deadzone mode using a button combination, calibrate the joysticks and gyroscope, toggle vibration modes (though you need to use their software to adjust rumble intensity), and hard reset the controller using different button combos outlined in the manual. It’s actually neat to have a way to adjust things without having to download extra software, especially since this controller is usable on a Nintendo Switch and not just PC. You’ll need to keep the manual handy to know which combination does what, as there’s no cheat sheet on the back of the controller or anything like that.
The Blitz 2’s gyro is probably the closest gyroscope on the market to the Sony DualSense. It’s snappy and responsive, and there’s three distinct ways to enable and use this controller’s gyroscope. In Xbox mode on PC, the gyro can be enabled through BigBig Won’s software and will output to the right analog stick, though I find that using the Blitz 2 in Switch or DualSense mode provides more accurate controls and more ways to fine-tune the response. Switch mode works natively on the Nintendo Switch and through Steam, where you can use Steam’s intensive gyro settings to nail down exactly how you want the gyroscope to work.
It’s worth mentioning that I extensively tested the Blitz 2 on both Steam and Switch, using an official Nintendo Switch Pro controller, and the Blitz 2 performed 1:1 in recentering and drift tests. Many third party controllers will drift left or right when moving the controller vertically, or they will be jittery or laggy to respond, but that issue isn’t present here at all- even controlling the mouse cursor of your desktop computer works swimmingly with this controller. The gyroscope of the Blitz 2 also has some kind of compensation for its vibration feature, something that official Nintendo Switch controllers can do but is missing from many of the Switch Pro’s third-party competitors. DualSense Edge mode for the Blitz 2 can’t have vibration enabled, so if you want to use your gyro and rumble at the same time, the Nintendo Switch mode is going to be your mode of choice even on PC.
DualSense Edge mode on the Blitz 2 can be enabled through a button combination or through the BigBig Won software, and it works excellently… with a caveat. The gyroscope of the Blitz 2’s DualSense mode, at least on its latest firmware of 31333, does have an interesting bug with Steam in that the gyro controls are uncontrollably sensitive. By this I mean, it’s too sensitive to even remotely control and constantly drifting downward. This was tested on two separate Blitz 2 controllers, so it isn’t a single device outlier. It’s almost as if Steam isn’t receiving gyro the sensor rate information from the controller as it should, so the sensor rate is uncapped or something. Opening up Steam’s console and using the force gyro sensor rate 500 command will make Steam interpret the gyroscope correctly. But as it stands right now, I’d recommend just using the controller in Switch mode on PC if you want gyro controls. It’s nice that you can set the extra M buttons through Steam Input in Dualsense Edge mode, but it may not be worth the trouble of inputting the gyro sensor rate command every time you restart Steam or your computer.
Talking software, the BigBig Won application allows you to switch the controller’s modes, update firmware, assign keyboard inputs to buttons, and also fine-tune your analog sticks to exactly match the response curves and dead zones you want. You can really get into the weeds with this, too, as you can adjust your analog stick’s neutral position to effectively remove any and all dead zones, if you spend the time trying to set it up in the software. The resolution of the analog sticks can also be adjusted in the software, though the options are backwards from what you may expect, which could be a translation issue. Other options in the software are thankfully less confusing, as I had no issues whatsoever with setting up a macro for hatching eggs in Pokemon.
The battery life on the BigBig Won Blitz 2 is decent, needing charged every 20 or so hours of usage. It would be nice to be able to disable the LED lighting on the controller to squeeze some more play time out of this gamepad, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any option to do so in the software or on the controller. There may be a button combination that does something of that sort, but the manual doesn’t outline such a thing, and the Konami code doesn’t work, so I’m all out of ideas on that front.
Overall, the BigBig Won Blitz 2 is a controller with low latency, a high response rate, excellent analog sticks, and the best gyro I’ve personally used in a third-party controller. The unfortunate lack of analog triggers can be a definite negative for some. This is especially true for those who enjoy racing games where fine analog control is needed to adjust the speed, and the digital triggers on the Blitz 2 may leave those individuals less than impressed as a result. As with all controllers that have digital triggers, whether or not the Blitz 2 is your cup of tea will primarily depend on whether or not it facilitates the titles you play. If you play on Switch or play a lot of action games like I do, then the Blitz 2 will outperform a lot of controllers that have higher price points because it’s rare to find low latency and high polling rates for both analog sticks and gyroscopes, especially at the Blitz 2’s price point.