Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave Wired Controller Review - Serious Bang for Buck
When I was growing up, controllers came in two categories. The first were the official ones. Made by Nintendo, Sega and later, Sony and Xbox, these controllers were basically where it was at. They worked, they lasted, and you knew that if you looked after them, they would do the job for a long time. The second category was everything else. Usually cheap, usually dodgy, these were the controllers your friends or little brother had to use when you were playing games of Street Fighter or NBA Jam. But around the PS4/Xbox One era, something changed; all of a sudden, we had some really good third-party options coming into the market. Quite often, they were expensive, but for the most part, they were of high quality and gave just as good a performance, if not better, than the official controllers. The thing was, though, the dodgy cheap stuff was certainly still around. But what if I told you there was a cheap option that was not only just as good as the official Xbox controller, but in a lot of ways even better? Well, that controller is here. From Turtle Beach, the Afterglow Wave Wired Controller is an absolute ripper of a device that only comes with a small catch, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, a bit of an intro to this great little controller. Built using the Xbox layout, this controller is light, stylish and well put together. It gives a great first impression with a cool bit of adjustable lighting on the grips that is neither obnoxious nor subtle, sitting smack bang in the middle of those two extremes. There is a nice textured grip on the back, two programmable buttons, hall-effect three-setting triggers and a dedicated mute/chat button on the front. So it when compared to the standard Xbox controller, it has more features, and the great part is, it sells in most shops for $75 or less. But the catch, and it can be a big one, I’ll admit, is that it is wired. Yup, that means long cables running from the console to your lounge, something I was totally happy to do away with when I consigned my PS2 and original Xbox to the garage.
But, you know where being a wired controller means nothing? On your PC. Yup, I would say that this controller’s ideal habitat isn’t your Xbox but your humble computer. What’s one more USB cord on your PC after all? What’s even better is, its price makes it the perfect travelling controller, the one you just throw in your laptop bag as you take off on a holiday. Since I received the controller, it has been my weapon of choice on my PC, and frankly, I haven’t looked back. It doesn’t have the finish or feel of my other controllers, but then again, they all cost $120 or more. This little beauty can feel a little bit, well, plasticy, but that is totally understandable considering how little it costs. Apart from the cheaper feel, there is no indication that this is anything other than a sturdily built product that should last a long time in front of your computer.
The most important consideration for any controller is obviously how it handles games, and once again, this cheap battler seriously outperformed my expectations. The thumbsticks felt great, regardless of the genre; the buttons all provide a nice bit of tactile feedback, and the d-pad really impressed me in fighting games, with special and super moves in games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter all able to be pulled off without worry. The Afterglow Wave handled everything I threw at it, always going toe-to-toe with much more expensive controllers in the process. Honestly, I love to see a company take the challenge of making a cheaper item so seriously. It is wonderful to see. Cheap doesn’t have to mean bad, and that has been proven with this controller.
If there is one issue I have with this controller, it is the 3.5mm plug. It seems a little dodgy, with my cord not quite staying in all of the time. You know the type of connection that works most of the time but sometimes has a few issues? That’s the sort of thing I experienced with this plug. That said, considering the wide use of 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth headsets these days, if they had to skimp on one area of a product to keep the price down, I am glad it was on the 3.5mm plug and nothing else. I am sure it won’t even bother 99% of users, and it is only because I was reviewing it that I even noticed.
I can’t say enough nice things about this controller. It is hands down the best bang for buck Xbox-style controller I have ever used. Its feature set outshines the official base controller, and while it doesn’t have the premium feel of the more expensive models, it certainly doesn’t come across as cheap and nasty either. This is a well-built, well-designed and most importantly, well-priced controller that would be perfect for anyone who needs something on their PC, something for the not-so-gentle kids in their life or the person who wants a controller they can chuck in a travel bag yet not sacrifice performance. Being wired will, very fairly, put some people off, but if cables don’t bother you or if it is for a PC, I can’t recommend the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave enough.
