Smash-like platform fighter Rivals of Aether allows players to create custom characters and put them up for download through the Steam Workshop. One such character, modeled after the Nintendo Switchās ubiquitous Joy-Con controllers, is pretty dang accurate. So accurate, in fact, that it even drifts like a real Joy-Con.
The fighter, simply named Joy Con, was released last month by third-party modder srPerez, who has developed a variety of characters for Rivals of Aether. After messing around with it for a bit, itās easy to tell a lot of work went into making Joy Con a fully fleshed-out character, if a little unwieldy due to the inherent drift. That said, itās found fans among the gameās community.
āI thought this was just gonna be a crappy meme character, but it was actually really good,ā wrote one commenter.
āThis character is unironically fun to play,ā wrote another.
Joy-Con drift has been an ongoing problem for Switch owners since the consoleās release in early 2017. Users have had a hard time pinning down an exact reason it happens, but Nintendo took any personal responsibility out of the equation when it began offeringfree repairs in 2019. This is a particularly fun experience for Switch Lite owners, who have to send in their entire system.
That wasnāt enough to avoid legal trouble, however. A class-action lawsuit filed last year is still undergoing arbitration. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa eventually offered a personal apology for the problem in June 2020. Unfortunately, the issue is known to pop back up even after repairs.
While annoying, Switch usersālike Kotaku reporter Nathan Graysonāhave grown accustomed to the drift. What better way to deal with failing $80 controllers than turning them into a meme?
