I have been using the Nvidia Shield Game Controller to play games like shooting games, racing games, and RPG games on my Nvidia Shield Tegra K1 Tablet. The Shield controller works great for games like shooting, racing, RPG, Action, Adventure and other types of games which are mainly designed for game controllers, and Keyboard and Mouse Input because of the fast pace of the game. The controller works for NVIDIA SHIELD, SHIELD Tablet, and SHIELD Portable devices. It also works with GeForce-equipped Windows PCs and Laptops.
I like that the Nvidia Shield controller has a nice round shape which has nice hand grips, button and joystick positions which make using the controller very comfortable to hold for many hours. The controller has a nice texture to it. It does not feel slippery when holding it.
Using a controller us more comfortable to use for playing games because a tablet can be hard to hold, and press buttons on the slippery rectangular touchscreen at the same time. Plus, games are also easier to play because the controller is more responsive, and easier to use than stretching my fingers across the screen to quickly tap on a button. I can also play games for a longer amount of time without my hands feeling tired from holding a tablet for a long time. I also don’t have to worry about dropping my tablet when using a controller, and just focus on the game I am playing with a controller. I usually get higher scores in mobile games by using a controller.
My hands also don’t block the front speakers on my Nvidia Shield tablet when I use a controller, so the sound is louder because my hand are not blocking the front speakers on my Nvidia Shield tablet.
If you play many hours of mobile games a day, and want to get very high scores in games, using a controller can help you get better scores in games, and make gaming more fun with a controller. When I use a controller, I can finish more levels on games like racing, shooting, RPG, action, and adventure games without dying as much, and needing to restart the whole level over again which can be annoying. I also don’t need to spend as much money on in-game purchases to buy extra lives, better cars, better weapons, or more in-game money to play a game.
Some mobile games hide the on-screen touchscreen controls when I use a controller to play games, so games also look nicer because on-screen controls, are not blocking the video like using touchscreen controls which block some of the video from showing. Having a game with no on-screen controls where you use a controller to control a game seems more realistic than using on-screen controls.
There are many games you can find in the Nvidia Shield Hub app with controller support. GT Racing 2, Asphalt 8, Real Racing 3, Crossy Road, Goat Simulator, Dungeon Hunter 4, Portal, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and many other games on the Google Android Play Games store which work for the Nvidia Shield tablet’s controller after you installed them, so you can use the controller without adjusting any settings in the game, or your controller.
You can also use the controller to play PC Games on a PC which has a compatible GeForce video card. You can stream PC games to your Shield device with Nvidia Grid/Now Online Game Streaming service, or Nvidia PC Gamestream to play streaming games with the Shield controller, and your Shield Tablet, TV, or portable handheld connected to your home Wi-Fi or wired network if you use the Shield TV with a wired Ethernet port to connect to your router/modem. Gamestream stream PC titles up to 1080p at 60 Frames Per Second to your Nvidia Shield device.
There are also unofficial Android programs and apps like Splashtop and Remotr which let you stream games, and software to your Nvidia Shield device if you use AMD or Intel graphics processing unit chips and video card on your computer.
The Nvidia Shield controller has a button mapping app for mapping joystick, directional pad, motion sensor, and buttons on the controller to the on-screen touch controls for games without built-in controller support. The button mapping app works well at mapping the buttons to the on-screen controls. The mapper app automatically saves your mapped button settings once you mapped the buttons, so you don’t need to re-map the buttons every time you play the game.
I used the controller button mapping app to map on-screen buttons games like Asphalt Nitro, Need for Speed No limit, and Drift Spirits. The button mapper app works pretty well, and map buttons work as good as games like Asphalt 8 with built-in Nvidia Controller support. I can also download fan-made button maps from other Shield Controller users who uploaded their button maps on the Game mapping app’s website for the Nvidia Shield Controller. I can also share my custom game button map for a game I map with other players who play the same game as me.
The buttons, directional pad, and joystick are easy to press, and use for playing games. The controller is easy to hold with my medium sized hands. I like the shape of the controller, and the weight of the controller is light.
The Shield controller has a left, and right joystick, directional pad, 4 buttons which are X, Y, A, and B, right and left trigger buttons, R1, and L1 buttons. The two joysticks are also buttons when you firmly press down on them. The left joystick can be use as a scroll wheel on web browsers, and other apps which has scrolling. The right joystick is use to control the on-screen mouse cursor movement in Android, so you don’t have to use your fingers to tap on things. You firmly press downwards on the right joystick to left-click a link, app shortcut, or button to launch them.
There are also Android touch buttons like Home, Back, Play/Pause, volume up and down. The Home, Back, Play/Pause, and Nvidia buttons are also backlit, so you can see them in the dark. The controller has a built-in microphone for voice commands like Google Now which you use for performing voice search and voice commands by talking to the controller which is connected to your Shield device. There is also a headset jack for voice chats, game chats, on Android, or using to listen to audio from music, games, and apps.
I like the black, silver, and green design of the controller. The controllers buttons, and texture feels very nice. The joysticks also has some grips on it to make it more comfortable to use.
The battery life is 40 hours for the Shield controller. The controller comes with a long Micro-USB cable to charge the controller. You use a regular USB Charger like the charger which came with your tablet or smartphones’ internal battery. There is a charging light that is orange when the battery is not fully charge, and turns to green when the battery on the Shield controller is fully charge.
The Shield Controller uses a wireless Wi-Fi Direct connection to connect to your device. Wi-Fi direct is faster than Bluetooth, so you can control characters on games faster when using this controller on your Shield device because of the high speed connection of Wi-Fi Direct.
Connecting the controller to the Shield Tablet is very simple. I just need to open the Accessories App for my Shield Tablet. Press the + button, and press the green triangle, and wait for the Shield and Shield controller to automatically connect to each other. Once you setup the controller, you just need to press the Shield logo on the controller to connect it to your Nvidia Shield device when you want to use the controller to play games in the future.
The NVIDIA SHIELD Controller is a great mobile gamepad controller for playing your mobile games on your Nvidia Shield tablet, Shield TV, Shield portable, and GeForce-equipped PCs with a controller like playing console games. The controller is well-built, and very durable. The battery life last for a long time. The buttons, and joysticks are easy to use. The controller looks very nice, and is easy to hold with my medium sized hands. Using the Shield Controller makes my gaming experience on the Shield Tablet more fun, and more easy.
Tip: Fully charge your controller before using it. You would most likely need to update its firmware after connecting it to your Shield device, and the Shield controller needs a nearly full battery to update the firmware on the controller. Firmware updates will fail if your controller does not have an almost full, or full battery.
To update the firmware, you just need to connect the Shield controller to your Nvidia Shield device, and agree to update the firmware. The firmware updates usually take a few minutes to complete. I recommend not touching your controller, or Nvidia device while the firmware for your controller is being update.
It is also a good idea to fully charge your battery, or make sure your battery on your Shield Tablet or handheld is not very low before updating the firmware to prevent your tablet from shutting down when you do not have enough power.
If you are using the Shield TV settop box, make sure you have reliable power, and don’t update your controller during a storm.