As a longtime iPhone fan and owner (of numerous models), it never ceased to amaze that Apple did not have a good gaming controller that they endorsed for their powerful product, but that time has passed in the wonderment that is the MOGA Ace Power!
If I sound a little over the top, remember that I have been playing Ms. Pacman in all of her vintage arcade ghost-eating-glory with a virtual, touchscreen joystick. Ms. Pacman NEEDS a real joystick (as I pointed out here with Gaming on the Phone: JOYSTICK-IT).
What the Joystick-It lacks is a place to comfortably rest the hands, like a control marquee (with a cigarette burned in hole perfect for a stack of quarters) on an arcade cabinet.
Luckily, the MOGA Ace controller has arrived and is shaped perfectly to rest comfortably in the palms as your thumbs do the steering and eating for Ms. Pacman. The joysticks could be bigger – size does matter – but they are adept and extremely responsive; this is a HUGE improvement over pressing the iPhone’s touchscreen and losing the lightning quick eye-to-finger result that only a real joystick provides.
This Apple endorsed Ace can be found in Apple Stores but is, alas, not cheap, retailing from eighty to a hundred bucks American.
Speaking of lightning, the lightning connector is equipped with a big-ass battery to charge the phone or iPod while you play away.
The D-pad is top-notch and the buttons themselves are excellent in both feel and sensitivity, though this type of controller is probably better used with racing or first-person-shooters than the classic gaming titles that I keep on my personal iPhone.
I wish the NES side-scroller Mario would come to the iPhone (Nintendo, are you listening?) . . . then this little MOGA controller would never leave my side!
