Saitek has delivered a joystick for the Xbox. But does it make the cut? Let’s find out. The Adrenalin Joystick was created for your flight games on the Xbox. The tough part was finding out what games you can use the joystick with. No where in the manual or website does it show a list of games for The Adrenalin Joystick. After some tooth-pulling, we received information on the subject.
Saitek has stated that the following games support the Adrenalin Joystick:
Air Force Delta Storm
Crimson Skies
Freaky Flyers
Star Wars Starfighters
Does it really support these games? Read on and find out.
Overall, The Adrenalin Joystick performs well as a joystick. Playing it on Air Force Delta Storm was a real joy. The Saitek Adrenalin Joystick seems like it was built just for this game. The force-feedback wasn’t overwhelming, which is good, and the buttons are placed logically on the stick and base. The joystick isn’t very stiff which is nice since this would make it difficult to do things such as filling out your name in the game. I liked the sturdiness and heaviness of the base making it so The Adrenalin Joystick didn’t move around much during game play. The grip is also good on the Adrenalin.
The throttle, which is really the left and right triggers, works out well when used as a throttle, as in Air Force Delta Storm. As a weapon’s trigger, like in Crimson Skies, it just doesn’t work. That’s the real down side to the joystick. This joystick makes poor use of Crimson Skies because of the way Saitek configured the controls of the joystick in comparison to a gamepad. If the game does not allow the player to configure the gamepad/joystick, using the joystick becomes cumbersome and not very intuitive. Case in point is the throttle. Crimson Skies uses the left and right triggers as weapons. Since the throttle is basically the left and right triggers, you end up continuously shooting your missiles or machine gun until you move the throttle again. Eventually, you run out ammo.
Final Verdict
If you want to get a feel of the flight stick in a Xbox game, The Adrenalin Joystick is the joystick for you. It might even be worth the $40 you spend. You just need to make sure you get a game that can allow you to reconfigure the controls and buttons. Otherwise, stick with the gamepad and pass on The Adrenalin Joystick. Hopefully, one day, all the games designed for Xbox will allow the player to configure the controls and buttons. Once this happens, I think it would make The Adrenalin Joystick shine and become a favorite to all those who like “flying” games.
Score
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