NYXI Hyperion Pro Review

Over the past few years, I’ve been trying to tackle my (ever growing) backlog of Switch games, and it made me realise how little I like the default control layout. While I’m fine using Joy-cons while they’re detached from the screen — I honestly hope more split controllers are made for other consoles — they’re not particularly ergonomic for longer periods of gaming.

Thankfully, there are a lot of Joy-con alternatives these days. The latest I’m taking a look at is the NYXI Hyperion Pro, which aims to offer a more comfortable experience in handheld mode while adding in a few extra bells and whistles.

What’s in the Box

In the box, you have the NYXI Hyperion Pro itself, a plastic holder if you want to use it separately from the Switch, and a short charging cable.

I took a look at the purple version of the Hyperion Pro for this review — this variant is clearly designed to emulate the colour scheme of a GameCube controller, down to the right stick and A/B buttons — but it also comes in a more standard black and white, along with green.

While I don’t have that much of an attachment to the GameCube, I’m a big fan of the purple used here. Both the front and back use this colour, with the back specifically having a textured surface for extra grip.

As is the case with many third-party Switch controllers, the Hyperion Pro also has RGB lighting. It’s not overly intrusive, consisting of rings around each analog stick and small lines near the edge of the controllers. The lighting can be adjusted or turned off entirely for a more minimalistic experience.

Outside of its aesthetics, the controller itself is just comfortable to hold. Each side of the Hyperion Pro extends out far further than Joy-cons, giving your hands more area to grip. The bigger buttons and full-size analog sticks are also nicer to use.

Features

While the layout is different from Joy-cons, pretty much everything is carried over to the Hyperion Pro. The only thing missing (something that usually is on third-party controllers) is NFC support for Amiibos. Not an issue for me personally, but something to keep in mind.

As mentioned earlier, both analogue sticks are closer to something you’d see on a standard controller over the Joy-cons. Furthermore, they use Hall Effect technology to avoid the common problem that Nintendo’s controllers run into: stick drift. Hall Effect analog sticks generally have very little chance of ever drifting (though they can still potentially be damaged over time.)

One thing that’s different with the Hyperion Pro’s analog sticks is that the tops use a smooth concave surface. I was a little worried at first since I thought this would make them very slippery, but the shape is actually pretty good while playing. It helps that the edges of the sticks have a more standard grippy texture, similar to the feel of those used on an Xbox controller.

The face buttons are a good size, but nothing too special. They get the job done and have a slight clickiness to them, but feel less premium compared to the sticks. I’d still consider them an improvement over Joy-cons, even if I prefer the clicky feel of their buttons.

Unlike Joy-cons, you also get an actual d-pad. It’s actually quite large, at least relative to Nintendo’s Pro Controller. Compared to the face buttons, it’s far clicker too. While this is nice, I found that it took a little too much force to press each direction, especially diagonals.

It’s also quite a flat d-pad, which feels odd when combined with the larger size. Its centre can’t be pressed down at all, requiring more movement to get directions out. Overall, I’d say it’s fine for navigating menus, but I wouldn’t use it for platformers.

Another area I wasn’t a big fan of is the shoulder buttons. The L and R buttons are a good size, but are hard to press due to how they work. While the tips of your fingers end up resting on the inner side of the buttons, they can only be pressed if you move to the outer side instead. Compared to Joy-cons which have L/R buttons that can be pressed across their entire length, it’s definitely a downgrade.

However, the real issue is the ZL and ZR buttons. I’ll be the first to say that the Joy-cons don’t have good ZL/ZR buttons either, but the ones on the Hyperion Pro are worse. They’re very stiff, while also feeling hollow at the same time. Playing games like Splatoon 3 with them is not a great experience, and I wouldn’t recommend this controller for any games that require heavy use of these buttons.

Extras

You do get a handful of extra buttons on the Hyperion Pro. There are two back buttons which can be programmed as an additional way to press the regular buttons. I don’t use these too often, but they’re often a good replacement for pressing L3/R3.

The main issue with these is that they can only be used to macro buttons on that specific side of the Hyperion Pro (i.e. the left back button can only be mapped to buttons on the left controller.)

All buttons can be set to turbo mode for rapid button presses — the turbo buttons also double as a way to adjust the controller’s lighting options. Another standard feature in third-party controllers and one that I don’t use, though it’s nice to have anyway.

Rounding out the features are two small buttons that can be used to adjust rumble strength for each side of the Hyperion Pro. While the controller doesn’t make use of HD Rumble like official Nintendo offerings, you can set it to be quite strong.

NYXI Hyperion Pro | Final Impressions

The NYXI Hyperion Pro is ergonomically superior to Joy-cons, but falters in a lot of other ways. While the shape is comfortable and I love the analog sticks, it’s a pretty average controller overall (and below average when it comes to the shoulder buttons.)

It also has the issue of being around £52 — currently you can only buy the Hyperion Pro via the NYXI store. At that price point you can do a lot better, an obvious example of which being the QRD Stellar T5. We reviewed the Stellar T5 not too long ago, and it features a similar (perhaps even the exact same) shape along with far better buttons.

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Our review of the NYXI Hyperion Pro was created using a sample provided by the manufacturer. All pictures were taken by the reviewer. The Hyperion Pro is currently available in the UK via the official NYXI website.

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