Cheap, fun Android and iOS games are increasingly popular, but for console gamers accustomed to buttons and joysticks, a phone’s touchscreen control scheme often proves frustrating and uncomfortable.
There’s a new solution for Android devotees: Sixaxis Controller, a dirt-cheap app that lets gamers use a standard PlayStation 3 controller to play games on an Android device. Though it only works with some devices — and your phone must be rooted for it to function — the app offers a neat twist on standard mobile controls. (You can check to see if it will work with your Android device by downloading and running the free ">Sixaxis Compatibility Checker app.)
Developer Dancing Pixel Studios released a video (above) this week showing the app in action. Simply use Bluetooth to connect a PlayStation 3 controller to an Android device to play games like Street Fighter. Connect your phone to your television and your mobile device becomes a gaming console.
“The project actually started out of frustration,” creator Erlend Cleveland said. “I was fed up with fumbling around on an awkward touchscreen with no tactile feedback, and plummeting to my doom one too many times.”
Because it limits the mobility of your mobile device, Sixaxis Controller might not catch on with casual audiences. However, applications like this — and the previously released Wiimote Controller — can help make Android games far more appealing to hard-core gamers.
Though he doesn’t have a full list of games that are compatible with Sixaxis Controller, Cleveland says it works best for titles that were not originally designed to use a phone’s touchscreen or accelerometer. He plans to expand the library in the future.
“I’m still hopeful that overall device compatibility can be improved, and I’m also looking into a means of simulating screen touches, which would open up many dozens of new games to use with a controller.”
Sixaxis Controller is available in the Android Market for $1.66.
Jason Schreier is a contributor to Game|Life and an NYC-based writer/editor. But he really just wants to be your friend.Follow @jasonschreier and @GameLife on Twitter.
