Logitech Cordless Action Controller for PlayStation 2

Playstation 2 owners finally have a reason to drop the Dual Shock 2 controller and go wireless.  

Wireless controllers have seen a recent surge in popularity. I believe most of the credit should be given to Nintendo when they released the Wavebird controller for GameCube. Gamers were finally able to purchase a wireless controller that was made with the same quality and craftsmanship that they expect from Nintendo. In the past the majority of wireless controllers were made by third party companies and usually the quality was far behind the standard controllers released by the console makers. But with the Cordless Action Controller for PS2, Logitech has raised the bar for third party hardware designers. In fact Logitech has probably raised the bar even for Sony.  

The first thing you will notice when you pick up the Cordless Action Controller is how light the controller feels. Logitech has corrected one of the biggest complaints with their last PS2 wireless controller, the bulkiness. The controller weighs a little more then the Dual Shock 2 controller, but after just a couple of minutes you won’t even notice the difference. The button layouts are exactly the same as the Dual Shock 2 controller with the only difference being the shoulder buttons being a little different than the Sony controller. The shoulder buttons are different in size than the Sony controller and there is a bigger gap in the shoulder buttons (but only a marginal increase in size).  

The D-Pad is one of the biggest differences between the controller, with the Logitech controller having a completely different D-Pad entirely. The D-Pad on the Logitech controller is based on a wheel shaped D-Pad. While the Sony controller has four individual sticks that have to be pressed in order to use the D-Pad. Fighting fans should enjoy the Logitech D-Pad since it will probably remind them of classic controllers from the 16-Bit era. The analog sticks are also a little bit smaller than the Dual Shock controller and have a looser feel to them as well.  Once again after a few minutes I didn’t notice the difference and was able to adapt easily to the feel of the Logitech controller.  

One nice addition that even Nintendo doesn’t include on the Wavebird controller is the rumble function. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Logitech Cordless Action Controller will rumble in your hands when the action gets hot and heavy. In fact the rumble feature on this controller was even stronger then the Dual Shock 2 controller. But Logitech knows that the rumble feature should suck the batteries dry and has included a button to turn off the rumble feature at any time. The controller runs off of two batteries and Logitech claims 50 hours of game time with the rumble feature on (300 hours of game time with the rumble feature off).  

Pros: 

• Great Design

• Smaller than the last Logitech wireless controller for PS2

• Rumble Feature

• Great D-Pad

Cons: 

• Loose feel of analog sticks

• Might feel a little heavy for younger gamers

Overall 9.0 
For gamers that are in love with the Wavebird for Gamecube and have been looking for a great wireless controller for PS2, this is your controller. This controller makes me feel the same way I did with the Wavebird; how did I ever play games with a wired controller? Logitech has created an incredible piece of hardware that must be played by all PS2 owners. I only ran into one issue while I using the controller; I dropped the controller and had to reset my game in order to keep playing. But this only happened once and I can’t count the times I’ve had people tripping over cords and pets ripping cords out of the system with a wired controller. Resetting a game is a small price to pay for such an incredible piece of hardware. Sony, if you’re reading this, you should let Logitech design the PS3 controller based off of the Cordless Action Controller. You will make gamers everywhere wonder how they played games with a wired controller for so long.