Nintendo’s rad old-school Switch controllers now work with Steam

There’s a healthy overlap of PC gamers and Nintendo Switch owners. In fact, now that both Sony and Microsoft are bringing at least some of their exclusives to PC, I’d argue it’s the perfect one-two punch for the gaming market. If you’ve been drooling over those official wireless throwback controllers Nintendo has been making, the better to authentically play NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 games on the Switch, you can now use them with Steam’s official controller system.

Since the controllers use standard Bluetooth, just like all Switch controllers, there was nothing stopping you from connecting them to a gaming PC before. But as of last week, all three controller designs are officially supported by the Steam Input system. As PC Gamer reports, all you need to do is connect them via Bluetooth and Steam should recognize them right away, ready to be customized for just about any PC game, just like the standard Switch and Switch Pro controllers. The Hori Fighting Stick Mini 4 is also supported.

The controllers are near-perfect replicas of Nintendo’s classic designs, the only difference being the addition of Bluetooth wireless and internal rechargeable batteries. (They don’t even have modern console “Home” buttons, just to keep the authenticity.) The controllers are meant to be used with the Nintendo Online system, a set of hundreds of free emulated games thrown in when you subscribe to the Switch’s online multiplayer.

The NES, Super NES, Genesis, and Nintendo 64 Bluetooth controllers are hard to come by. Nintendo only makes them in small batches which are frequently sold out, and won’t even sell them to you if you’re not currently subscribed to Switch Online. Currently all of the Switch Online controllers are going for more than double their MSRP on Amazon and eBay.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer