PuK Gaming: The Thumbstick Review (Mobile) – Magnetised Mastery
I’m not a massive fan of mobile gaming. Never have been really. Growing up it was distilled deep inside that video games should be played on controllers, not screens. On mouse and keyboard, not on my iPhone. It’s something I’ve stuck by for the longest time and as I delve deeper into cloud gaming, Bluetooth-ing my controller to my phone is just the natural order of things. The phone becomes a screen and nothing more, it’s just the way it works.
My biggest gripe with mobile gaming has always been the analogue sticks on the screen. They’re awkward, inaccurate and infuriating to the point where I simply can’t use them. Perhaps they’re made for smaller hands, perhaps my cantankerous views on touch screen controls are made true by me simply even attempting to give such new fangled technology a go in the first place?
I need something tangible so make it feel like I’m in control. I don’t think that’s much to ask? Well, enter PuK Gaming. They may have just solved all these old person complaints with The Thumbstick – a literal analogue stick you place on your phone screen that’s anchored by a heavy magnet on the back of your phone to keep it in place. I mean. Winner.
Essentially the PuK Thumbstick works by sitting over the touch screen analogue stick and replaces your directional movement with something physical to touch. You’re not bound by the whims of a weird ass touchscreen analogue that can fly you off in a different direction at any moment, this feels like it’s actually holding you in place and keeping you in the game.
The first game I tried? Well, the greatest video game of all time of course – Sonic The Hedgehog 2. I loaded it up and noticed the magnet on the back wasn’t quite fitting correctly due to the camera on my phone being slightly raised from the base. No bother. I simply flipped my phone over and the analogue stick was now in the bottom left corner of the phone. Perfect. I matched up the analogue stick and took it for a spin.
What you immediately notice is that the stick has a dip in its centre, akin to say 3DS sticks rather than traditional controller sticks. Made from nylon and silicone, it feels comfortable, and is just big enough to feel like your thumb can settle fairly nicely in there for a prolonged period of time. Playing Sonic 2 with it, I felt like it was a good place to start as it requires precision and timing. Miraculously, it worked like a dream. Of course, it’s not the optimum way to play quick speed platformers, but as an alternative to the touch screen analogue it’s a dream come true.
Naturally, because I’m so horrendously predictable, I moved onto Fortnite via the Xbox Cloud. It was an interesting test as not only is it working against the movements of the touch screen controls but also streaming, and I found the stick to work just as well as it would have natively (I’m on an iPhone in the UK, so there’s currently no native way to play Fortnite due to the ongoing dispute between Apple and Epic Games). The stick allowed me to move across the map with little effort, and it became fairly natural a couple of games in.
Oh if you’re looking at this picture and wondering what the green thing is – it’s a lid. The bottom is the magnet, the middle is the thumbstick. If you’re carrying it around all three pack up nicely and neatly and well, you can’t lose it..have you seen how green that lid is? It’s so green.
So as an alternative to touch screen controls, as a rather heavy gamer, this was a comfortable and satisfying way to play games on the go if you’re without your controller. Obviously that’s the more natural way to play if you have one nearby, but I commend PuK Gaming for attempting to fix an issue I’ve long had with mobile gaming and creating something that doesn’t get in the way, actually works well and doesn’t break the bank in doing so..
PuKka.
Sorry.
The PuK Thumbstick is available now from here.
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review we were provided with a promotional Thumbstick from PuK Gaming.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels –Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.