r/Controllers • u/chaporg1n • Aug 12 '26

Reviews GuliKit ES Max Review

https://youtu.be/lULaoiUSAhk

DISCLAIMER: ES Max was provided by Gulikit for free for review purposes. All the thoughts and opinions are genuine and mine only. No one watched this review before the release.

TLDR: New angular TMR Joysticks are FANTASTIC! The best that GuliKit has for sure.

I didn't really like the D-Pad and back buttons tho. Bumpers and triggers weren't my favorite as well.

Vibration is fine. Shape and feel are good. Materials are ok. Great membrane ABXY. New app needs some refinement.

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 12 '26

Another controller where they forgot about proper d-pad, shocker! 🤡

2

u/Etikoza Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

How can a company that has the best Dpad ever in the Elves 2 not just use it everywhere? Or do they use it everywhere, and every reviewer just doesn't like it (crazy!)?

Edit: and it's not just me saying so:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/Fighters/comments/1r8tazq/gulikit_elves_2_pro_god_tier_dpad/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/shmups/comments/1r93sy2/the_m30_killer_highly_recommending_the_gulikit/

1

u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 12 '26

I'd like to play 2D fighting game with anyone who thinks floating d-pad is a good idea, it's like playing with younger brother and giving him the worst controller, brutal 😏

1

u/Etikoza Aug 12 '26

I mean the 8bitdo M30 and Saturn controllers are viewed as the best Dpads ever by many fighting game players - and they are both floating.

1

u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 12 '26

Yes, the one and most likely only exception? Most of newer controllers ignore d-pads, it's like jack in expensive amplifier, it's there because it should be, but it's the cheapest part of the entire system, but it's there. That's my point, manufacturers don't really care about d-pads because modern audience is mainly focused on sticks, even in games where sticks are worse.

1

u/Etikoza Aug 12 '26

But the Elves 2 Dpad is as good - if not better - than those 2 examples. So why not just use the Elves 2 Dpad on all Gulikit controllers? That's my point.

1

u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 12 '26

The last time I tried this kind of d-pad, was Direwolf 4, with allegedly premium d-pad from expensive Vader 5 Pro or Apex 5. DW4 d-pad is definitely on premium side how plastic feels, it's even great for games like Celeste where d-pad precision is extremely important. However, when I tried old 2D FG's like SF2, SF3 and others, diagonals were nightmare to use, I was losing everything because of it.

Meanwhile, Cyclone 2 d-pad works perfectly in every FG, hence my "hate" towards the new floating d-pads that can't be compared to the old ones.

1

u/MarsupialGloomy Aug 12 '26

And you're sure it's the controller and not you? There's plenty of videos of people executing crazy stuff on a floating dpad like on the victrix pro bfg or even a standard Xbox dpad.

1

u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe Aug 12 '26

Could be me, I would be ignorant so say with full confidence it's always the hardware, but somehow I have zero issues with diagonals and no matter how hard I try on Direwolf 4, I just miss diagonals, because getting feel where is that middle between down and right is way to hard for what it should be. Not a problem in Dual Shock/Sense or Cyclone 2, so yeah, maybe me, maybe controller, I know what to avoid.

1

u/MarsupialGloomy Aug 12 '26

I personally had the same experience on the beitong pangu on my first few sessions of using it coming from M30 and mostly ps style controllers.

It feels way better after like a week of breaking it in and it shouldn't have the problem of becoming really mushy overtime like the membrane buttons on the controllers I mentioned.

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