The Sega Saturn’s second controller design has become the stuff of legend over the course of the last 25 years. The original Saturn pad was a bit clunky, but wide, while the second offering was more streamlined - a bit like how the Sega Genesis had a chunkier pad to start, but later got a thinner design for the six-button pad. Each felt a bit different due to the shape of the pads and while the second Saturn pad was better-looking and in some ways more responsive, I always preferred the larger form factor of the first controller.
We have seen some controllers come and go that took inspiration from that pad, which was perfect for Street Fighter games with its three button punch and kick layout being perfectly-replicated, but the SNES/PlayStation diamond controller design became the industry standard and few pads outside of fighter-centric ones used the six-button design.
Retro-Bit has put out Saturn-style pads before and now they’re coming back with one that blends the best of the 3D Controller from the Saturn alongside the regular Saturn pad while adding in some modern quality of life options. The first thing that stands out is the usage of twin sticks on the front that offer up a chance to enjoy a Saturn-style pad on a modern game’s layout no matter what game you’re playing.
Having a symmetrical twin-stick design in the center basically merges the Dual Shock with the Saturn pad, as does having four trigger buttons overall. This allows for even more modern games to be played and it looks like the triggers take after what we’ve seen from 8bitdo pads where they’ll have a solid click to them without being too large and bulky to the touch. The coolest part about the twin-sticks is that they’re Hall Effect, which means that they should avoid stick drift and have a very smooth movement to them.
The Saturn-style pad will come in both a Japan-esque controller scheme with whtie and bold color accents or an all-black color scheme for an American Saturn-style look. The Japanese design definitely looks easier to see as a whole with brighter colors and contrast for the text. The pads will feature home and select buttosn alongside the regular Start button and it looks fairly comfortable with how spread-out everything looks. The d-pad should also be fantastic as long as it’s close enough to the Saturn’s d-pads, because both of them were fantastic.
Retro-Bit has it available for pre-orderthrough several retailers for $49.99 - a pretty fantastic price overall given that it works on the Saturn, PC, Mac, and may in theory also with anyone using USB thanks to that 2.4 GHz dongle having Saturn port and USB versions included.
