Final Verdict: Brook Mars Wired Controller

Brook is a company synonymous with the DIY arcade stick market and is most popular for its multi-console PCB known as the Universal Fighting Board. The UFB's biggest selling point is that it is compatible with most consoles released in the 7th and 8th gen; older consoles are also compatible through the use of adapters or Brook's Retro Board. It's an interesting point to bring up because Brook came out with their very first controller which happens to be multi-console compatible. The Brook Mars Wired Controller is currently compatible with the PlayStation 3 & 4, Switch and PC via XInput. I see myself fully replacing my longtime faithful controllers, both the Logitech F310 and Saitek Rumble Force P2500, with a Brook Mars Wired Controller. So far my experiences using the Brook Mars have been great with nothing more than concerns. Every expectation I had for the controller was either slowly met or immediately exceeded.

 

Included with the Brook Mars controller is an approx. 10ft. micro USB cable and the three d-pad shapes 'cross', 'disc', and 'faceted'.

 

I don’t believe the Brook Mars Wired Controller was ever marketed as a fight pad; taking into consideration who Brook’s biggest demographic has been for previous products, but I found it perfect for other genres with the exception of platformers and brawlers which share a handful of foundations in their mechanics. Personally, typical scenarios where I find myself using gamepads on PC are for casual and couch gaming sessions. That doesn’t mean I also seek out games that offer the hand holding experience so I expect a controller that is able to deal with intense usage and allows me to conduct gameplay maneuvers consistently. The triggers and analog sticks have very good deadzones allowing them to comply with the needs of racing games or games where the character moves according to the pressure used. All of the buttons have no perceptible travel time in the middle of gameplay making actions happen as soon as you press something which is essential in platformers or games using menus that don’t halt the game.

 

The Brook Mars fitted with the cross shape. Looks closest to Nintendo's d-pad.

 

A huge factor many third-party controllers tend to fail on; probably on purpose in order to avoid patent lawyers coming after them, is the d-pad making it something I put so much emphasis on when deciding if a controller is gonna be my main input device or be used as a backup. The Brook Mars offers three shapes you can play with being a cross, faceted and a disc. The cross offers a very good reference point for what kind of precision you can expect from this controller if you’re into platformers. My only concern at all about this controller is the stiffness I experienced from the cross shape but oddly enough it registered the inputs just in time requiring some getting used to. The faceted shaped d-pad is pretty much a useless novelty aimed that recreating the XBO Elite d-pad. I was most surprised by how well the disc shape performed. During my tests with the d-pad shapes, I played Super Meat Boy, Super House of Dead Ninjas and Cuphead which all offer unique types of stress tests. Using Super Meat Boy, the cross and disc shape handled the wall hops with flying colors whereas the faceted shape was not up to the task making me miss many jumps. Super House of Dead Ninja is a fast-paced game that ties the d-pad to movement and directional based attacks, again the cross and disc both provided all necessary directional precision while the faceted d-pad had me more focused on my thumb placement. It was in Cuphead where I was torn between the cross and disc shape because it requires every technique to be timed and executed in a frame-perfect matter but both showed great promise in the long term. I used the DiRT games and Grid to test out the analog performance of the triggers and analog sticks seeing as these are the closest games I own to being realistic driving games. The sensitivity on these acceleration based inputs was so good, a light tap was all that was necessary to accelerate or steer the car. Overall, the Brook Mars has performed very well so far which makes it my favorite modern third-party controller.

 

The Brook Mars fitted with the disc shape. It's a very experimental shape and not seen very often in higher quality controllers. It's my default option.

 

The build quality of the Brook Mars Wired Controller can be best put as sufficient enough to compete with first-party controllers and I see this controller being just as durable too. Nothing about this controller feels cheap in any way, triggers have a smooth and soft resistance, sticks don’t have the super stiff feel and the d-pad is very precise but, again, takes time to get used to. Another aspect I find surprising is that it fits perfectly into my hand allowing a firm grip, not having any awkward edges or force me to hold it in specific ways. The red matte finish in the front and black rear are fucking awesome because those are my favorite colors to combine.

The Brook Mars fitted with the faceted shape. I have not used the XBO Elite controller in a game so I am not able to comment on the differences.

Honestly, I have always wanted to give this controller a try since last year because of a few reasons. There are no immediately available multi-console controllers out there with this kind of quality. I’ve been wanting to try a different controller that uses XInput on PC other than my Logitech F310. Lastly, this saves me money because it supports every platform that currently dominates my living room. I hope this review gives others a good enough idea of what caliber this controller is. You can definitely ask me about anything that did not satisfy your curiosity after reading this.