One of the biggest surprises from the recent Switch 2 Direct is that the accompanying Pro Controller will actually come with two new back buttons labelled 'GL' and 'GR'.
In addition to a slightly revamped design in which Nintendo took inspiration from the GameCube controller, the new Pro Controller is also seemingly taking a few cues from the likes of the Xbox Elite Controller and PlayStation Dualsense Edge, both of which sport their own customisable back 'paddles'.
Naturally, the primary use case for these will be to reassign button inputs to 'GL' and 'GR' depending on your own personal preferences. As noted by Kouichi Kawamoto in the recent
Ask the Developer interview, controller profiles can be saved on a game-by-game basis in addition to individual profiles.
However, as noted by Nate Bihldorff in our recent interview with the NoA executive, it's possible that some developers may want to assign specific inputs to 'GL' and 'GR' respectively.
"If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that developers will take advantage of every last thing you give them. So there is no question in my mind that we will have developers who specifically assign something to [the 'GL' and 'GR' buttons]. Probably because it just feels really good for that particular game.
I think out of the gate, we'll probably see them more for use with customisation for individual people just because at this point you have so many buttons on that controller that if you're a developer who literally is using every single last one of them, you probably have an incredibly complex game. You'll probably see different developers approach it in different ways..... The beauty of it is that you're going to be able to map your controller preferences by game and by profile."
Now, the issue that immediately comes to mind for us is that not everybody is going to own the Pro Controller, so if developers are going to utilise the back buttons for specific inputs, then it's going to have to be optional.
Still, it's an intriguing idea, and if it works for a specific game, as Bihldorff alludes to, then we could see it being a pretty neat little inclusion.
Do you think it's a good idea that developers utilise the Pro Controller's back buttons for specific inputs, or should they be used only for reassigning existing buttons? Let us know with a comment.
