I bought yet another retro controller. The Pro3 is 8BitDo's latest revision of one of their most popular controller, the SN30, which was based on the Super Nintendo controller. It comes in a few different colors, half of which are based on the Gamecube. I decided on going with the mid to dark gray tone of the original Playstation because I think this looked best when paired with the Super Famicom buttons.
While the Pro3's roots are in the retro space, it is very much a modern controller. I think it's interesting how third-party controllers used to be cheap knock-offs, but in the last 5 or 10 years, many gaming peripheral companies are creating controllers that can do more and work better than first-party controllers. They use more precise components that don't degrade over time and still sell them for cheaper.
The Switch is the best example of this. Switch Joy-Cons are now infamous for developing "drift," sending unintended movements when you're trying to play. Switch Pro controllers also can develop drift, as well as Xbox and Playstation controllers. Modern premium third-party controllers use "hall-effect" style sticks that prevent this drift from happening, including the Pro3 controller.
I think it's also interesting how the evolution of 8BitDo's Pro series somewhat mirrors their own development as a company. 8BitDo began as a company selling NES and SNES controllers that worked on original hardware and modern PCs. The SN30 was released in 2018 and the SN30 Pro came a year later, which added the twin sticks. In 2021, they released the Pro2 which aimed to make the controller more modern with ergonomic handles and programmable buttons.
As their controllers became more and more modern, 8BitDo was expanding their focus from retro only to all modern platforms. In 2022, they released the Ultimate 1, their first controller that primarily targetted modern gaming. Now in 2025, they have brought all the features of their Ultimate controller series back to the Pro.
Initially, I did not care about the Pro3. While I love the Super Nintendo, it's flat-face design puts too much emphasis on nostalgia instead of ergonomics and comfortability. I think the Playstation 5's Dual Sense is the most comfortable controller I've ever used. It fits in my hand perfectly, and all the buttons are close enough and in exact positions that I only have to move my thumb to press something.
After getting the Pro3, it does feel big and combersome. When I'm gripping the controller and focused on using the sticks for movement, my hands are too down the handle that I need to move them to hit UP or the Y-button. And I really need to move my hand to hit the Start and Select button in the middle. Sure, that's their nostalgic position in the middle, but having those buttons in the corner of the D-pad and the button array is their modern, more convenient position.
Maybe they should've made some considerations to sacrifice nostalgia. Although, after using it nearly a whole day playing Pokemon on Switch, I didn't have any problems, so maybe my brain is too wired on the Dual Sense.
The Pro3 comes with a charging dock and USB-C cable. The charging dock doubles as a wireless receiver as hidden in the base of the dock is a USB-C 2.4ghz dongle. You can remove this dongle and use it on a Mac or Windows or plug this directly into the Switch 2.
Also hidden in the dock are replacement buttons. The face buttons on the Pro3 are held in place by magnets. You can remove these buttons using the plunger tool and mix-n-max the buttons in any order you want. You can keep the buttons to match the Switch B-A layout, or flip them to fit Windows' A-B layout. You can also replace them with the rainbow buttons matching the Super Famicom layout.
Ultimately, I do like the Pro3 and it is a strict upgrade from using the Dual Shock 4, which I had been using on the Switch and other consoles prior. I like the Dual Shock 4 a lot, but mine is a custom repair job from a few years ago. It feels rickety from the repair and once or twice the buttons don't work without a power cycle. It is also limited by its bluetooth connection, which requires a USB dongle for the switch. (I'm using the 8BitDo retro receiver.) And also the giant touch pad in the middle acts as the screenshot button.
The Pro3 feels solid and incredibly well made. Using bluetooth, it connects to the Switch natively without the need of a USB receiver, so it even works in handheld mode. You can go a step further and use the included 2.4ghz receiver, which gives a connection that makes the controller feel just as responsive as a wired connection.
The Pro3 has now become my universal controller used on Switch, Mister, and other consoles with Bluetooth options.
While I think having many extra buttons and back paddles on a controller is unnecessary, the biggest boon of the Pro3 is being able to program these buttons to perform macros. And this is particularly helpful with the most recent Pokemon game, Legends Z-A.
In all Pokemon games, you encounter, catch, and train Pokemon to be the best. However, when they spawn, every Pokemon has a base 1/4096 chance of becoming Shiny, an alternate colored version. These are highly sought after because of their rarity, even though they occasionally look terrible. In recent games, there have been methods which increase your chances of a shiny either through increased odds or increased spawns.
Legends Z-A has a different method through permanence. As you walk around Luminose City, Pokemon spawn and despawn from a 50m radius around your character. However, if a Pokemon spawns as a shiny, it will stay in memory. Even if it despawns, when it comes into view again, it will be shiny. This means that if your character is running around the world, it is constantly shiny checking Pokemon that will not disappear on their own.
This is perfect for the Pro3 because you can program infinitely repeating movements for your character as a macro, let the macro run by itself, and come back to the games hours later to find tons of shiny Pokemon (hopefully).
To set macros on the Pro3, you must use 8BitDo's Ultimate Software V2. This software is available on ios, macos, pc, and android. You also use this software to update the firmware on the controller and dongle. On Mac, the current version is v1.0.8, but when you update the firmware on the dongle, the dongle becomes stuck in boot mode, so the controller cannot connect to it. (The problem doesn't happen on Windows.)
I sent an email to 8BitDo's support and they replied with an updated version of the software for Mac. Version 1.0.8 is from Sept 2025, but this one has a date of Oct 2025. Maybe it's a prerelease version of 1.0.9? Anyways, here's a link if you happen to need it: Google Docs/ 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 for mac adapter boot.zip. Using this new version fixes my dongle's boot problem.
When the controller is connected either through the dongle or a wired USB-C connection, you can click into its Switch settings and create a profile. Profiles can be switched on the fly, so you can set up 4 macros on one profile, and switch to another profile with another 4 macros.
On Mac, macros are built using controller inputs and refined after. You can't build them by scratch, which I think is possible on Windows. But, it's easier to just record input and mess with them after. Once a macro is built, it must be assigned to one of the 4 extra buttons.
For Froakie, I used the following macro.
Froakie spawns in the middle of Wild Zone 16, which is unlocked after reaching Rank C in the story. This macro is meant to be started after entering Wild Zone 5, though, which is right next to it. After entering Wild Zone 5 from the south, you can fast travel to Wild Zone 5 which puts you right in front of the entrance you just entered. Fast traveling like this rerolls and respawns all Pokemon, so putting this on an infinite loop will do a Froakie check every 20 seconds. It will reroll all surrounding Pokemon, too.
FYI, these timers are based on Switch 1 load times. Switch 2 would be faster, so you could tweak the times to be more efficient. It's pretty efficient on my Switch 1.
After setting this up, I sat in my bathtub for about 2 hours. When I returned, I already had a shiny Froakie.
Greninja is an excellent Shiny, plus it has a new Mega evolution. I thought he would be perfect for my team.
Chandelure is another strong Pokemon whom also has a new Mega evolution. I'm not a fan of its Shiny, but rare is rare.
Litwick spawns in only three locations, two of which are near each other and all of which are in the sewers. You first visit these sewers right before reaching Rank C in the story. After that story sequence, they are closed off, but can be opened again through a side mission.
For shiny checks, we want to run down the hallway leading to the Litwicks. After they spawn, we want to run back to the beginning of the hallway. Rinse and repeat to infinite. Here's my macro.
This was adapted from PhillyBeatzU's Youtube Community. Each one of these I have had to tweak in some small way, so if you use any of these yourself, you might have to do the same.
This macro I left running all day while I went to work. I figured that I would return home to either my game being turned off because things went to sleep or ran out of batteries, or my character was stuck on the wall. Neither were the case, and I had two shiny Litwicks.
Ralts ultimately evolves into Gardevoir and Gallade. Psychic and Fairy moves have been very helpful in Pokemon Z-A so far, so I thought Gardevoir would be a good addition to my team. Gallade is a great Pokemon when catching other because it knows Hypnosis and False Swipe. False Swipe isn't in Z-A, so I'm not sure if Gallade is actually useful, but it's Psychic and Fighting might be good.
Either way, two Ralts spawn in the overworld in the northwest in a grassy alcove of buildings. When you go in the area, there's a ladder that brings to the roof, right next to a bench.
At a bench, you can progress time from day to night and night to day. This respawns all Pokemon just like fast traveling, but you don't have to worry about the day-night cycle. Choose the bench closest to the ladder, and use the following macro:
This macro was again adopted for PhillyBeatzU. It just holds down and hits the A button a bunch. There's a B button thrown in there in case it accidentally chooses to relax with Pokemon.
I left this going all day while I was at work and came back to nothing on the first day. Although, there was a shiny Dedenne and Flabebe on other roofs nearby. The next day, I left it going again and I came back to TWO shiny Ralts. There was an Eevee on a nearby roof, too!
Unfortunately, both Ralts had Adament natures, which is bad for Gardevoir, so the search continues.
Overall, I'm working on building my shiny team for the game's story.
My next target is Delphox which has been instrumental in many of my fights. Chandelure and Gardevoir might replace its duties, but it's not a bad idea to have some redundancies. I need to progress to the story to Rank B to unlock the Wild Area that has Fennekin, though.
Ground is another very useful type in Pokemon Z-A and Mega Garchomp is going to be the best Ground type. Hunting that one is very annoying, though, as it only has a 10% chance of spawning in its area. Apparently, you can do some spawn manipulation to get them spawning 100% of the time. I might take the time to do this.
So, my team would be Greninja, Gardevoir, Gallade, Delphox, Garchomp, and Chandelure.
Hmmm... I don't really have any good defense against Fairy and Water. I need steel and grass moves. I guess I should go after Beldum when I reach that point in the story. For Grass, having a shiny Meganium would be best, but those won't be available until after the story is complete. I think Gallade might have a good Grass move...
Shiny Hunting has been lucrative, but the passive brute force nature of it is not very engaging like it was in Legends Arceus or Pokemon Violet. Also, there is very little variety in the city and the low rez nature of the game makes it quite boring when compared with the open world games I've gone through this year on PS5. Katamari has more variety than this, too.
Also, I cannot find myself caring about this story. It's neat to see old characters from Pokemon X/Y come back, but the story wasn't all that great back then either, so I don't remember it at all. The last Pokemon story that I actually remember was Pokemon Black/White where the villains thought the idea of "enslaving" Pokemon in balls was cruel, which was an interesting idea.
The lack of voice acting in Pokemon is really becoming apparent now, too. Every cutscene is endless textboxes with uninspired music in the background. It's sometimes hard to stay awake, let alone pay attention.
The best part of the game is its new take on the battle system making it more of an arena fighter rather than a turn-by-turn RPG fighter. In my opinion, the most boring part of Pokemon has been fighting. It takes forever, and it's always just a means to an end. While not perfect, this arena-style battling is fresh and pretty fun. I would love to see this refined in future titles.
But, I think that is the game's only good point. Good = Battling. Bad = Graphics, Art, Music, Story, Characters, Exploration, etc.
I'm not sure if I'll continue playing much after completing the story and completing the Pokedex. I don't think I will go deep with Shiny hunting the way I had with other titles. I think I'll probably move on to another game or buy that Assassin's Creed DLC.
