Customer Reviews

Gravis Destroyer Tilt Game Pad (PC/USB Mac)

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All I can say is wow, just, wow. When I bought this controller at my local store I was looking for something cheap and that would just get me by so I could occasionally play fighting games on my computer. My friend told me to get a Sidewinder Plug&Play USB but I was a bit skeptical of the reviews on this site. I saw that there was one sidewinder left when I got there so I decided to buy it. but my brother also wanted one and I wanted to get a second one for when friends come over etc. as well. The only problem was there was only one sidewinder left but I saw a bunch of gravis Destroyer Tilts near the Sidewinder. I figured I'd tried all the other game pads which either felt too stiff or were waayyy out of my price range, so I decided what the heck and bought it.

I now throughoughly enjoy the use fo my Destroyer Tilt and use it more often than my sidewinder. I personally find it has a better response than my Sidewinder when playing fighting games and has a crisper feel to it (not to mention the cool tilt force sensing function!). The only minor qualm I had was the way to stiff D-Pad, my thumb gets tired after overuse of the controller and furthermore, the D-pad's up trigger is way to close to the up-left trigger sensing. Aslo while the tilt rocks, it can be tiring as the arm movements have to be slightly over exaggerated at times. Besides that this controller is great and hope it lasts. Trust me, you WILL NOT be dissapointed especially for it's price (I got it a tad bit lower though). I've also put a list of pros and cons to summarize this controller.

Pros:
Easy Install (Plug & Play)
Responsive
Tilt Function

Cons:
D-pad is murder on the thumb
is USB only
Tilt Function (does that make ANY sense?)

I hope you enjoy this controller as much as I have so far

This is a very nice little controller. Solidly contructed and comfortable to use. Totally plug'n'play, no need for a driver disk. (assuming Windows98 or better)

With tilt enabled (LED on), the directional pad behaves as a "coolie hat", and tilting the controller behaves as analog X and Y axes. "Analog" meaning it's NOT just four mercury switches that are activated when you tilt them (like some older "tilt" controllers I've tried).

This makes it well-suited for driving games. If you use the Y axes for gas/brakes, your arms will get tired from keeping it tilted forward most of the time, BUT... if you use *buttons* for gas/brake instead, you can keep it tilted back at a comfortable angle, and rotate the controller in midair to steer with analog precision. MUCH better than "tapping" around those long slow corners.

With the tilt feature toggled off, it behaves as a traditional 8-direction digital pad with 6 buttons.

The Good:
*Good ergonomics--size and shape fits comfortably in the hands, well balanced
*Solid--keeps it's shape even under extreme conditions
*Good button feel
*Cheap (at least when I got it)

The Bad:
*D-pad is useless--good luck going any direction other than diagonally
*Tilt function overly sensitive--vibration and lateral movements cause undesired response, return to level from tilt often over-responds, sensitivity most noticeable when scrolling through lists
*Tilt function imprecise--ironically, given it's sensitivity, it's virtually impossible to execute any fine control--the worst of both worlds
*Not rugged--internal breakage occurred the first time it drove me to slam it against the table in frustration
*Not enough buttons--4 fire and 2 shoulder buttons? Gee, I didn't know it was still the early 90's (oh wait, the PS1 had 4 shoulder buttons, I guess I'm giving it too much credit)
*No throttle wheel--tilt pads should be ideal for flight games, but without a throttle, it's useless

My first experience with tilt game pads was the MS Sidewinder Freestyle. I fell in love instantly. All the precision and control of a joystick (more even) and the comfort of a gamepad. Better still, it was incredibly intuitive and even facilitated one-handed gaming. Life was good.

Time however, marches on, and my later computers no longer included midi ports. It came time to replace my trusty Freestyle with something compatible with modern computers. At the time, tilt controllers had not yet caught-on, so the pickings were slim. MS had discontinued the Freestyle and even the Destroyer Tilt was on closeout (which was good 'cause that made it cheap). Being the only available option and so damn affordable, the Destroyer Tilt was a no-brainer. I even bought a couple extras for my nephews.

After a few months, the nephews had given up on theirs. I, however, being older and more patient, not to mention a true-believer in the nirvana that is tilt gaming, persevered. I endured months of twitchy, sloppy analog, a D-pad that's only good for scrolling through menus and mapping requisite functions to the keyboard because the gampad lacked enough buttons. The last straw came when I wound up deleting the save I was trying to load because of the frickin' twitchy analog.

I am back to looking for a replacement for the Freestyle. Now that the next-gen consoles have embraced tilt controllers, I'm hoping the task will be a little easier. Folks, save yourselves a lot of frustration and avoid this gamepad.

This controller has a tilt feature, meaning that you can simply move the control left or right in order to control the game. If this feature gets annoying to you, you can just turn it off. I also like this controller because it's compatible with a Macintosh.