Update 12/4: Video version of the review is now live above!
TTX Tech is a company I don't really give much thought to when picking up accessories for my Retro consoles. Their stuff is everywhere, from Amazon to your local retro gaming store. I have owned a few original Xbox and N64 controllers and while they worked, they weren't too great for one reason or another. Just recently I found out that TTX Tech had branched into modern controllers for the PlayStation 4. Say hello to the Champion: a wired controller for the PS4 (affiliate link). I was offered a review sample and honestly, I was just so curious to see how well it would work I couldn't say no! While I expected the controller to bring back memories of Mad Catz accessories from the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the experience I had was rather, well, great!
What's In The Box
When I first got my Champion, I couldn't help but notice a similarity between its packaging and that of an official DualShock 4. The imagery and coloring are different, but the spirit is there. The controller sits perfectly visible within its plastic confines and it looks pretty rugged, I have to say! The name Champion is displayed around various points of the box and TTX has made sure that there is no mistaking that this controller is wired. There are also mentions of platform compatibility as well so you don't accidentally buy this guy for Switch or something.
The back of the packaging includes several bullet points about the controller, including cord length and that it uses precision-tuned analog sticks, a claim I have tested extensively over the last 2 weeks! Opening the packaging you can remove the Champion from its plastic prison and dive straight into playing. There were no other items or documentation included.
Aesthetics And Build Quality
I can't help but get all reminiscent over PS2 era third-party accessories when I look at the Champion. It sports a thick wide body and sharp angles. A DualShock 4 with its rounded body, this is not. Whether you like that or not will be up to your personal taste, but I dig it. Probably the coolest aspect of the Champion is that it includes rubberized grips on both handles to provide better grip support. The handles are also nice and long to let us big handed folk get a nice grip with our full hands!
All the buttons you would expect from a DualShock 4 are present and accounted for, including the touchpad and Home buttons. The 4 face buttons even get a cool stylized design for their names! There is even a little light bar on the front so games that make use of it in creative ways can still shine through.
One thing I found odd though is that there is an indentation for a headphone jack, but the port doesn't exist. I can't help but play with the indentation that remains when one of my thumbs isn't required for gameplay. I am curious as to why the indentation exists at all without the headphone jack. The cord attached to the controller measures in at 7 ft, an interesting length considering most wired controllers these days are either 6 or 10 feet.
The build quality is far better than I expected with the cord attaching securely to the solid shell. The Champion also has a nice weight to it that I particularly enjoy. Of course, none of this matters if the controller can't stand the wear and tear from even the softest of touches. But this is one of my reviews so here is some of the punishment I put the Champion through! Nice!
Gameplay
I was actually a little blown away by the Champion when I started my gameplay testing. It feels good to use and is almost identical to a DualShock 4 in performance. Buttons all respond quickly and the pressure required to use them is top-notch. They also aren’t overly stiff and clicky, which is a plus in my book. R1 and L1 likewise feel perfect to the touch and I couldn't be happier with how they moved. Thankfully the R2 and L2 triggers felt equally well-built and provided a good sense of range for my taste. I am also fond of the resistance in both triggers and thumbsticks. The added rubber grips also feel very nice to hold during long gameplay sessions.
Now going back to those precision-tuned analog sticks that are mentioned on the box; I can verify that they do work well. Playing through Ace Combat 7, I was able to beat missions easily and couldn’t really tell the difference between the Champion and a DualShock 4. My rolls all registered correctly and handling was exactly what I expected. Throttle, yaw, missiles, machine guns, and over-g turns all worked as expected resulting in a flawless experience.
Replaying Uncharted 2, my favorite PlayStation exclusive to date, was also a breeze with the Champion. The sticks were able to navigate the environment with ease and all button presses registered flawlessly to my senses. Getting into combat I was able to aim and hit my targets with relative ease. So again, the Champion has proven quite capable of matching a DualShock 4 in this regard.
Moving on to my multiplayer obsession of Apex Legends, however, provided an unexpected hiccup. While my 2 prior test games played nearly identical to a DualShock 4, Apex felt completely different. I would often find myself over-aiming my targets and missing nearly all of my shots. I also found small precise movements needed for sniping to be nearly impossible compared to what I had grown used to on the DualShock 4.
Needless to say, I was a bit baffled by this drastic difference in thumbstick capabilities. I am not sure if the way Apex works is drastically different than the other PS4 games, but it was certainly the culprit in this discrepancy. After an in-depth visit to the options menu, I was able to tweak the game to the controller by turning off the thumbstick dead zones and setting the aiming style to fine aim. With these new settings in place, the game feels better than before and I have been able to return to the action competently. It feels fantastic now!
Up to this point in my testing, I have been focusing on the analog sticks, but the time has come for the D-pad to get some scrutiny. I know it responded to inputs from my many rounds of Apex but the time has come to see if it can handle a dedicated game. Loading up Street Fighter V, I set out to test how well combos could be performed. Now since I am a Street Fighter scrub I still only really know how to use Ryu to this day. But hey, I was able to pull off all of my combos accurately and when I wanted with no ridiculous up/down misreads, so yay, the d-pad works well!
As an additional test of the d-pad, I did perform a run-through of Super Star Wars for good measure. The performance was exactly within my expectations of how the game should feel after 27 years worth of playthroughs. Did I mention that the buttons on the Champion feel really good by the way? Oh right I did; they are just that good for a third-party controller I can’t get over it I guess.
What It Could Have Done Better
But now the time has come to talk about some of the shortcomings of the Champion wired controller. First of all, it has no built-in motion sensors rendering games that require them completely unplayable. Likewise, the big looking touchpad on the front of the Champion actually doesn’t work as a touchpad and is instead just a button. You can easily test this functionality by opening a text input box and trying to move the cursor with the pad. Yup, doesn’t work. See the video of what it should do if it did. Oh well, hardly any games really took advantage of the touchpad outside of being a button but it does mean there are additional games that won’t work with it.
Next is something that might annoy many of you: the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. I mentioned the lack of this port earlier, but its absence means that anyone without a Bluetooth or USB wireless headset, like the Astro A50’s, won’t be able to voice chat or hear game audio in a more encompassing manner. My last gripe with the Champion actually comes down to the cord length. With most controllers these days coming with a 10-foot cord, the 7-foot cord of the Champion is just not quite long enough. In my setup especially I was not able to use it comfortably from my desk, so I either needed to hold my hands back above my head or turn to the side and play at an awkward angle. A USB extension cable can fix this issue, but it is still annoying to me.
Verdict
Overall though I found the Champion (affiliate link) to be an awesome PS4 controller! Performance and comfort are here and I had the headset to compensate for its lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. For anyone that extensively plays games that make use of motion controls or the touchpad though, you might be better off looking for another wired alternative. For the asking price of $24.99, I can see grabbing a couple of these as spare controllers to use for local multiplayer nights or to use while you have your primary DualShock 4 on a charging stand. Best of all, you don’t have to feel guilty about sticking your buddy with the third-party controller, because it handles just as well as the original in all the ways that matter!
