From time to time Scott (You know, the guy who pays for the domain and webspace here) will bring a gaming related item to my attention that instantly becomes a must have. Even though I don’t currently own a Super Nintendo Classic Edition, I instantly wanted EMiO’s The Edge Super Gamepad. Having a bit of an engineer’s mind made me wonder if there was any way to convert this to use on the original Super Nintendo. If not I figured worst case I could use the controller for SNES emulation on my modded Wii. The Edge Super Gamepad also included a Wii to USB adapter, which is extremely useful, and a fairly cursory cheat book. Even though the cheat book isn’t very good and doesn’t offer anything new it was still a pretty neat little bonus.

The EMiO Super Gamepad looks like something straight out of the 90s with all the individual flick switches to enable or disable turbo to all the action buttons as well as the shoulder buttons. It also includes the colorful action buttons, which is always a nice touch. In fact, it really does resemble the Super Famicom controller in almost every way, with the exception of the font used.

When it comes to functionality the Super Gamepad worked just fine out of the box. Notice how I used past tense there? Yeah, because it worked for maybe an hour before the D-pad started displaying the infamous third-party D-pad issue I’ve always had. Sometimes I find that pressing right will activate right and up, or right and down. Sometimes pressing right will activate strictly up or down, without including right at all. Not only that but the B button became slightly more difficult to use within that hour as well. But the Wii to USB adapter is AWESOME! I spent that hour playing SNES emulators on my laptop. It’s plug and play, ready to go and even works with the Wii Classic and Classic Pro controllers, so if the EMiO Super Gamepad takes a dirt nap, at least you can still use the adapter. Until it dies too, which I’m sure it will eventually.

Maybe the carbon pad set needs to be changed out for something more reliable, and I might just do that if the problems I mentioned previously persist or get worse. I really do like the controller, especially while it was functioning perfectly. It feels like an original SNES controller, it offers customizable turbo and the flip of a switch and it can be used on an SNES Classic Edition, a soft-modded Wii with emulators or even on a PC with emulators. The possibilities are endless, as long as the controller holds up. Even if the controller craps out and the Wii to USB adapter holds up, I think that alone is worth the price. Worst case scenario the controller gets on my nerves to the point I don’t feel guilty hacking it up to see if I can convert it to real SNES hardware without tearing apart one I enjoy using.