The Sticks

The thumbstick caps are kept in place magnetically, which works pretty well for everything except the domed cap. This is your shorter, faster, more offensive stick, so it'll probably never leave your thumb, anyway. The taller stick is meant for defense - intended for slow, precise movements. These are great options if you tend to stick to one role in a game, though I found if you're going to be switching things up, the default stick works just fine.


The thumbsticks themselves are responsive, though I found them a little challenging for more precise action. They seem to fly to the edge past the initial 25% of travel. You'll get used to it. The upshot here is that the moment you release them, they will spring back to the center. Both the sensitivity and dead zones can be adjusted to your liking.

The secret sauce when it comes to these sticks is the Adjustable Clutch Sensitivity which, by default, is mapped to the bottom two back paddles (M5, M6). This allows you to briefly drop the sensitivity of the sticks by holding your button of choice, giving you precision in a pinch. We'll talk about how this feature impacts gameplay later on in the review.

Mecha Tactile Satisfaction

The face buttons and directional pad are probably the most satisfying part of this entire affair. Razer says that they are good for 3 million presses across their 0.65MM travel. With just a 10 ms actuation time, these clicky little circles can get your input to the game 3 to 7 ms faster than the "competitor controllers".

These switches are honestly my favorite part of the controller, and enough to keep me coming back to it. There's no doubt about whether, or when you pressed the button. Once that mouse style click fires off, your input is in. This is kind of a mixed bag for the directional pad. It is perfect for things like platforming, or selecting menus that you've bound to them in game… but less so for sweeping fighting game inputs.

Chroma - Razer flavored RGB

These gorgeous little streams of color that wind their way around the body and under your palms are what earn this Wolverine the Chroma Moniker. They are customizable within the app to control if you want the 16.8 Million colors to breathe, cycle the spectrum, or stick to your favorite shade. These settings will stick with the controller between systems, which I genuinely appreciate.

Thing is, these are on the face of the controller. They spend most of their time under your hands. They look cool on your desk, on a stream, for your friends… Realistically, you shouldn't be staring at your thick mitts enough to see them during a game. At least they're bright enough to be noticed, but not enough so to be obtrusive.