It’s been like two years since GuliKit released the original King Kong Pro controller. That controller was quite okay for what it had to offer at that time. Highlight – at that time – because since then, a lot of new controllers entered the market with new features. Now, GuliKit has released a sequel to that controller – the King Kong 2 Pro.
This new controller comes with a bunch of new upgrades – and I really love it. And I’ve been using it for quite some time now – so let me share my experience with you.
Now, inside the box – you get all of these usual things that come with a GuliKit controller – a hard shell plastic case for the controller, and box of accessories – which is just for the cable anyway – and a big piece of user manual – we’ll need this for later.
It might look exactly the same as the old GuliKit King Kong Pro controller from 2 years ago – and in hindsight, you’re right. The overall shape, size, and color are identical. However, the difference is in the material and texture.
You see, GuliKit is no longer using the weird soft-touch material. Now, they changed to this matte finish and at the back part here where our fingers will be gripping against – GuliKit added this dimple texture on it. This further improves grip during our sweaty intense gaming sessions.
But, those aren’t the only upgrades that GuliKit has done for the King Kong 2 Pro controller. Earlier this year, GuliKit announced that they’re ending joystick drift once and for all – and they developed a brand new “patented electromagnetic stick”.
Technically, it’s a joystick made based on the Hall effect. The Hall effect is actually pretty interesting – imagine you have a straight line of electrons traveling from one end to the other and then a magnet moves near the electrons, and the line sways to the side. That creates a fluctuation in the voltage, hence that is why we have Hall sensors.
We can even proof that the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro is using a Hall sensing joystick by putting a magnet near it – and we can see it responding.
Implementing this into a joystick is actually a new idea – and GuliKit’s implementation here is really well done. Since there is no potentiometers inside like the conventional the other joysticks, there is no metal on metal grinding. Hence, the GuliKit’s joystick is a lot smoother.
GuliKit also sent in another spare unit of the Hall sensing joystick and I gotta say – it feels so much different compared to this spare joystick I have for the Nintendo Switch Pro controller.
And there is also another upgrade on the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro – the face buttons – particularly the ABXY buttons. You see, conventional controllers have a membrane pad that we have to press down to connect the two ends together so that the system can detect what we pressed.
Basically, this button essentially works the same – but this button is more akin to tactile mechanical keyboard switches like Cherry MX Brown kind of switches. The feel of that button getting pressed is more deliberate and very springy.
And those are only the physical upgrades done on the controller. What about the software – the features?
We gotta talk abotu the true multi-device connectivity first. You see at the top here there are a total of 4 modes for this controller to be in? I used the Switch for my Switch, obviously, then the X-input for my Windows PC via Bluetooth, and finally – the Android logo for my phone. I connected 3 devices just for fun and wow – it actually remembers each and every device I have connected for each of the mode.
So, let’s say I’m playing some games on the Switch with this controller and oops – someone called me for a game of Halo Infinite – I can just hold the mode button to switch to X-input mode, and my PC immediately connects to it. No need to pair and re-pair again like the first generation of the King Kong Pro controller. It’s a huge upgrade.
It even has the feature to wake the Switch up from sleep directly from the controller itself. Granted, it’s not as simple as “holding the power button to wake from sleep” like the Joy-Cons or the GameSir T4 Mini. For the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro, you’ll have to press any of the face buttons to wake it up from sleep, then the LEDs will start blinking. Then, give that home button a press, and it’ll wake from sleep.
And back to the Hall sensing joysticks. In the user manual, it states that we can actually disable deadzone. I mean, what? Because these Hall sensors are so sensitive, a deadzone will help to ensure the switch from having stray inputs from some random objects – like my phone’s speaker magnets for example.
But, I can think of a reason why you’ll want to disable deadzone – that is if you’re using this controller to play FPS games that require the tiniest of movement. I’m not doing a good explanation here – so I hope this comparison is enough for you.
There are a lot more features that can be found on the user manual – but I’m not gonna use all of it so I’ll just show you here.
By the way, GuliKit is still continuously bringing more features via firmware updates that you can download for free on their website. Even the first generation GuliKit King Kong Pro from 2019 still has new updates.
And to actually play games using the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro is just magnificent. There is literally no argument that this is one of the highest-quality controllers that I’ve used so far. I even played Hades on my PC using this controller – and Hades is a game that requires instantaneous inputs with zero lags and zero errors in terms of inputs.
Those new ABXY buttons managed to register every single press that I’ve made during my button-mashing marathon. However, I do feel fatigue after a while since the buttons are a little stiff in comparison to the Xbox One X controller, for example.
Oh – speaking of the Xbox One X, I modded my Xbox One X to have this trigger lock so that I can shorten the trigger’s travel distance for a much faster button press – and the GuliKit has a similar function as well. In the user manual, we can change the triggers to magnify the sensitivity by 600%! And the reason why it is able to do that is that GuliKit also uses Hall sensors for the two triggers.
The King Kong 2 non-Pro version which has a few differences here and there. It has the same basic functionalities and the new joystick and buttons, but lacks the new finish material.
Should you buy the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro controller?
If you’re already a gamer that owns multiple different platforms – PC, Switch (the main focus), Android, iOS – then yes, the GuliKit King Kong 2 Pro is a fantastic controller. Its ability to remember all the devices that it has previously paired to is a huge timesaver for Windows PC since their Bluetooth menu is atrocious.
Those joysticks and buttons – even though they’re the first generation of this technology to the market, GuliKit has done a fantastic job on them.
As for the price, I was told that it’ll be USD $59.99. A bit hefty since I was expecting it to be about $50, but I think this price is still fine for a controller like this.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links) (not to be confused with King Kong Pro v2)
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