Those of us old enough to have played Halo: Combat Evolved when it was first around (I think we’re boomers now?) will have probably done so with the most legendary of all Xbox controllers.
The Duke.
The absolute goliath of a controller that back then, in my teenage hands, felt like a dinner plate. But what a thing. Hefty, sturdy, a real piece of equipment. I adapted pretty quickly, having been used to the equally sizable Dreamcast controller, and have many fond memories of one of Xbox’s most iconic franchises.
I hadn’t even thought of digging out my Hyperkin Duke for Halo: Campaign Evolved until I came across a thread on Reddit simply calling it a “nostalgia rush.”
It just feels right.
The only trouble is that if you don’t already have one of Hyperkin’s remade controllers, they’re not as plentiful as they once were.
Right now you can only buy the white Xbox 20th anniversary edition, with the original black and the crystal green ones no longer in stock (unless you hunt a used one down.)
“If you’ve played any OG Xbox games on backwards compatibility, you have to buy this thing. Those games were designed specifically for those shiny white and black buttons, and it just feels so right having the Duke in hand when that backwards compatible Xbox boot screen loads up on your shiny modern TV.” ~ Jez Corden
The Hyperkin Duke is a perfect recreation of the original, except you can use it on modern Xbox consoles and your PC. The icing on the cake is the OLED panel in the giant center button that shows the OG Xbox boot-up screen when the controller is connected.
As my colleague, Jez Corden, wrote when first trying it out, this controller is built for nostalgia. Playing backwards compatible games with it just feels right. Halo: Campaign Evolved may be shiny and new, but it’s as classic an Xbox game as you can get.
After all, the original incarnation of the game was the console seller back then. I’m not a massive Halo fan these days, but the original is the game that got me to buy an Xbox. The first time I played it at a friend’s house with a Duke, all of my next paycheck from my part-time job was used to buy a console and a copy of Halo.
I haven’t played Campaign Evolved yet, but suddenly I have the urge to dig out my green Duke from the box of many things in the attic and get to it. Better still, I guess, now we’re also getting original Xbox backwards compatible games on PC, too.
Oh, and if the Duke is a little too big, you can still buy the smaller Duchess from Hyperkin, too. Same nostalgia, smaller size.
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