Retro Fighters Defender Bluetooth Controller Next-Gen PS3, PS4 & PC Compatible Wireless (Black)

These controllers are some of the closest you'll get to a sixaxis for PS3. With 1st party controllers disappearing and a lot of scamming look-alikes, its rough out there. Cons: The joysticks are a little more sensitive, but not unplayable by any means. The triggers are a little.. mushy. They still work and have the proper range, they arent on/off switches like other controllers. Pros: These have a long battery life. Feels like forever compared to modern controllers. You can turn off and on the system with the PS button. A lot of 3rd party and wired controllers dont have this feature. The gyroscope works well and allows me to play games that require it. Over all I would rate 4.5, but due to a lot of lower ratings from people with high expectations, I will bump it up.

My old PS3 controllers were not working because the internal rechargeable batteries weren't holding a charge any more. I initially bought replacement batteries and took the old controllers apart to replace the batteries. This kind of worked, but it was a lot of hard work putting them together after taking them apart to replace the batteries. The batteries were relatively low capacity and I had trouble with their ability to hold a charge like a new controller. I should have started with this aftermarket controller first - it's not cheap but it works great, and it works great and the battery life is good. USB C charging, too. I'm happy with this purchase which allows me to continue using wireless controllers on my PS3. I bought a second one shortly after receiving the first.

I use this on my PS3. Good controller for the most part. I love that it will wake the PS3 just like a OEM controller. Connection to the PS3 was a breeze. It does have a few problems for what I like. I would prefer it was heavier. It is VERY light. Feels very cheap. Now so far I have had zero issues with quality but still.....I would prefer it to be heavier (at least twice as heavy as it is). I also do not like the xbox shape. It looks and feels like a xbox controller only with symmetrical sticks. This may be a benefit for some but I MUCH prefer playstation controllers. I'm one of the few that likely prefer the OG ps3 sixaxis controllers over modern controllers. Now there is nothing wrong with this but the shape of the controller means I can only use it for an hour or two before I got to take a break. Again personal preference. Finally uses usb-c charging cable. Which is different from every other playstation style cable. So none of my playstation charging systems work. And with my USB ports on my PS3 all in use, and unable to use my normal PS controller charging systems. I had to set up yet another charging station for this controller. If only it used USB mini then I could have connected it with my ps3 charging setup. Again just a personal gripe, nothing really wrong with the controller. Finally my only complaint is that the sticks are too sensitive. I bought this controller because I decided I wanted to play Fallout New Vegas again. And this controller even with the game sensitivity turned all the way down is just too sensitive. Even the smallest movements on the controller moves your aim miles. Now I'm getting used to it, slowly. But it made for a week or so of pure misery. Now I know I could buy a new sixaxis and solve my problems but all too often the sixaxis controllers are counterfeit. I purchased 5 sixaxis controller right here on Amazon and had to send each and every one back as being counterfeit. From 3 different sellers.....including Amazon itself. Not their fault but still.......Until I can find a new, REAL sixaxis, this controller will work. As for the customer service. I had some questions about the controller and contacted retro fighters. I had placed my order but wanted some additional info on the controller. My only response from retro fighters was to have my order cancelled. Instead of responding to my questions, they cancelled my order and sent me a form email stating that all my data had been removed form their systems. ??? I have no idea what that was all about but I still needed the controller, so I ordered again via Amazon. Bottom line....I do recommend this controller as long as your aware of what your getting. I also HIGHLY recommend that you purchase via Amazon instead of retro fighters themselves. Then if you have any short term issues you can deal with Amazon rather then retro fighters. UPDATE: I left my original review above. However all the good things I said about the controller are no longer accurate. I have been using this controller for about 10 months now. The over sensitive sticks are no longer an issue as now the sticks barely work at all. There is absolutely NO fine control with either stick AT ALL. They are all or nothing. Example, your running along and want to turn slightly left or right, any movement of the sticks swing a MINIMUM of 90 degrees. Forget aiming, not possible. I'm into first and third person shooters mostly. Like I mentioned above, I was wanting to play Fallout New Vegas again but after about a month of playing I was no longer able to use the controller at all due to the lack of fine control. And it has steadily gotten worse and worse to the point that the controller is worthless now. I have had bad controllers in the past but this is by FAR the WORST controller I've ever had the misfortune to use. You would be FAR better off with a counterfeit sixaxis than this POS.

So, I also own the PS2/1 Defender which I did not like mainly because of the terrible analog sticks which made playing Gran Turismo and other FPS games annoying to play because it was hard to modulate with precision. Now this one is way better and they fixed a bunch of stuff. Connectivity: Pairing it with the PS3 is super easy. Grab the cable, plug it to the console, disconnect cable, done. The HOME button is capable of waking the PS3 which is great and is something a lot of 3rd party controllers aren't able to do. In regards to playing PS2/1 games on the PS3 I haven't tested it yet but it's advertised as working. Triggers: they are no longer uber-sensitive to press, also the full-press deadzone has been shortened to allow for a greater range of action. Only thing I noticed was that the left trigger is a bit more compressed in range than the right one but it's minimal. Face Buttons: pressure sensitive range is a little wider than the PS2 Defender which is great. It's still easy to do full-presses but you can feather it out a little easier now. Rumble: strong motor, really meaty feeling and the controller doesn't rattle at all, love it D-Pad: like it but I feel that the button plastic could be mounted a little higher to allow for easier diagonals Analogs: the deadzones are much much better compared to the PS2/1 Defender. The sticks still aren't perfectly linear as there still is a bit of a bias towards orthogonal directions which I'm not terribly fond of, but it's way more subtle now, and it doesn't detract much from the original experience you would have with an OG DS3. Bumpers: This is the only "negative" part of the controller in my opinion. They work just fine but they feel very mushy... and certainly aren't as crisp as the ones on my PS2/1 Defender. CONCLUSION: All in all this is undoubtedly the best third party controller for the PS3. I still prefer the original DS3 because of its precise analog sticks, but other than that this controller feels way better to hold in your hands because of the more ergonomic shape. Also the triggers, despite not being the best I've used, are still miles better than the ones on the DS3. If only the analog sticks were 100% linear and with tighter deadzones like an original DS3 this would be my ultimate controller for the PS3. But don't get me wrong it's like 90% there. If you don't play a lot of shooters that require precise aiming I would actually choose this over the original DS3.

Great replacement for Dual Shock 3 controller. Everything is working fine - no issues with PSX, PS2 and PS3 games.

So, I actually have 4 of these controllers. You may ask why with such a mediocre review score. Well...the first one I bought had an issue with the L1 button, where if you pushed it, it wouldn't work half the time. You had to push it really hard to work. I informed customer service of this issue asking if there's anything I could do to fix it. They simply just sent me a new one which worked fine. *I say fine but read on for other issues I discovered. Fast forward a year and I wanted to get another one in black this time. Sure enough, it had the exact same L1 issue...again I reached out and again they sent me a new one that works. Great except it's white, but whatever now I have 2 that work and 2 that don't. There is absolutely a large swath of these controllers with bad L1 possibly bad R1 buttons out there if they replace these with no questions asked. The controller itself is quite good. I love the face buttons, L2 and R2 are good, joysticks are better than those fake sixaxsis controllers that are utter trash, but still not as good as an original controller. There is a rather big flaw though, at least that I've found with the L2 and R2 buttons, but it depends on the game. I was playing Wanted Weapons of Fate, and crouching with the L2 button on a full press sometimes causes the character to spaz out between crouching and not. I believe the game is expecting a certain degree of pull from L2 and these controllers go too far perhaps. I checked ALL 4 of the controllers I have to confirm it's just these controllers that do this. My original PS3 controllers work fine, even the garbage fake sixaxis ones I have do not have this issue. So...I think there's some calibration problem with L2 and R2 on these controllers, but again just for certain games and just on the PS3. On PC these controllers work perfectly and as expected (minus the L1 issues). There's also an issue with the D-pad on PS3. It sometimes presses twice. So far, I've only noticed this on the PS3 hub menu when selecting a game but I haven't tested it enough to see if it does it in-game. I imagine it does but there's so few games that need a d-pad I just haven't noticed. Plus when do you just tap the d-pad usually you're holding it in a certain direction. Also, I took it upon myself to try to self repair one. Hours wasted as I'm not really trained to do such things, just tried a few ideas from reddit and youtube. Nothing worked to get the L1 buttons more responsive. Overall, this is the most frustrated I've ever been with a controller. Having the L1 consistently not work is beyond unacceptable frankly. I'm old enough to have experienced the terrible controllers of Mad Catz back in the N64 days, and for as bad as those were they never had buttons just not work. Again though, customer support was super helpful so if you run into the same issue I did they should help out.

TLDR; The Retro Fighters Defender Bluetooth is a reliable alternative to the DualShock 3, with better battery life, vibration, lighter weight, firmware updates, and improved triggers, though the D-pad takes getting used to. With so many fakes and bad quality used DualShock 3. This will be your HERO. Let's start with the bad stuff because there are very few. CONS—The Dpad takes some time to get used to because you have to press harder than the Og DualShock 3. NEUTRAL - whether you like your analog sticks swapped like the Xbox family or both at the top like the Wii U Pro controller. This is not negative or positive for me, I'm OK with all 3 analog stick systems, so this one having both analog sticks at the bottom, like the traditional PlayStation family, is fine with me. Also, it makes sense, seeing it is PS3/PS4 focused. Some people might be bothered because the Xbox Family configuration has won out on this, ESPECIALLY on PC. PROS 1. The Retro Fighters team cared about their product and released a firmware update for this controller. 2. battery life is better than Og. 3. vibration is better than Og. 4. The website says it has a 12-month warranty. 5. It is light, like almost a Wii U Pro controller. Some people want it heavy, but I don't want to hold a weight in my hand all day, especially if it doesn't reduce the quality of the controller. 6. fully six-axis functional. 7. any other function the DualShock 3 has, Defender Bluetooth also has. PLUS, it has 2 ways to use turbo features. 8. L2/R2 triggers are better; you don't need to buy trigger extensions.

Looked all over for a decent remote. And this did surprise me! Great feedback for call of duty black ops. And great battery life. I’m so glad I went with this blue tooth remote. All functions work with the ps3!!!