Zeemote JS1 Controller Review

Zeemote JS1 Controller Review

Zeemote kindly sent DroidHorizon some of their JS1 Bluetooth gaming controllers for review.  I tested two of them with my Nexus 7 tablet and Samsung Galaxy S2 phone to see the difference these controllers make to the Android gaming experience.

These miniature controllers are very light and fit comfortably in the hand, with a kind of rubberized texture which means they won’t slip out of your hands.  I could envisage gaming with these controllers for extended periods of time without any strain on your hands.  They consist of a little joystick for your thumb, an A and B button for your index and middle fingers and a C button tucked in a recess underneath the controller.

The end of each controller slides open to allow insertion of two AAA batteries, after which holding down the power button for 3 seconds activates it.  Once activated, it was a seamless process getting Bluetooth to pair them with both my tablet and phone.

Searching for Zeemote compatible games on the Play Store found a selection of titles, which was where I found the problem with these controllers.  Besides a few good games, many of the titles are poor quality and would be getting very few downloads if it was not for the promotion Zeemote compatibility affords them.

Anyhow I was able to find a few good titles plus a number of demos from Zeemote, and was soon up and running using the controllers.  I have to say I really liked them.  As I’ve said they fit nicely in the hand and weigh so little you could forget they where there.  Using two in unison (with Zeemote’s Angry Bots demo) really shows the potential of these controllers.  This is definitely a higher level of control over touch screen, and may even surpass some console controllers.  The only issue I could find was the bottom C button can be a little difficult to locate and will take a little getting used to.

These are great little controllers, but the problem Zeemote have is developer support.  Most Android games are designed for touchscreen and don’t support the Zeemote.  Even those that do, often still require menu buttons to be pressed on-screen meaning you interrupt the hands-off experience by going back to your tablet/phone.  All it would take is for one of the major developers such as GameLoft or Madfinger to begin including Zeemote compatibility in their games and these controllers would take off (I’d love to play Dead Trigger with one of these in each hand).  Even better would be if Zeemote could come up with some sort of driver to have the controller simulate screen touches.

So can I recommend you buy a couple of these controllers?  There are a number of emulators available with Zeemote support, so if retro gaming is your thing then the Zeemotes would be well worth purchasing.  However for regular Android gamers, unfortunately the Zeemote developer support just isn’t where it needs to be yet.  The currently available titles are unlikely to hold your attention in the long term, and the Zeemotes could well end up at the back of a drawer.

It’s early days, so I do hope Zeemote manage to improve their list of compatible titles.  These controllers deserve to do well.

Pros

High level of control

Comfortable

Easy Setup

Cons

Not supported by most titles

Overall Rating : 3/5

Associate Editor and part of the team of gadget reviewers at DroidHorizon. Also been known to dabble in software development to pay the bills.

1 Comment

  1. Is there actual a posibility to emulate a screen touch, or direct the cardboard trigger function.

    Like the “Bluetooth Clicker” in the Kickstarter project “XinGear”.

    Reply

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