The story behind the ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER

If you’re a fan of video games, especially fighting games, it’s time for us to tell you the story behind our ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER game controller, especially its D-PAD.

In fact, in our quest to continually improve our gamepads, we were keen to provide a perfect gaming experience for all our users, including the most experienced. So who better than a fighting game expert to help us make the ultimate gamepad?

Here is what Tenshimitsu had to say:

“My name’s Joanna, my gaming nickname is “Tenshimitsu” and I play fighting games since I was a teenager. Nowadays I’m a competitive gamer, frequently being listed in top 10 best players in Poland. My hobby started at the arcades, I was playing games like Tekken, Street Fighter or “Cadillacs and dinosaurs” which were all very popular games at the arcades. Later, I figured out that Tekken can be played also on PlayStation console, and that’s how serious gaming began.

As soon as I’ve learned playing on a gamepad, it is my favorite gaming controller ever since. I’ve tried a lot of controller types, I had a couple of arcade sticks with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts, I tried playing on Hit Box… but I was always coming back to a gamepad. At first it was a standard grey PlayStation controller, which then I replaced with PlayStation DualShock 2. I’ve played on all DualShock gamepads except the newest PlayStation 5 DualSense, because in the recent times a lot of interesting gamepads emerged. Up until recently I was using Hori Fighting Commander gamepad, but I’ve always dreamed about a gamepad which uses microswitches except standard rubber with embedded carbon-like conductive part. The rubber is doomed to wear off eventually, sometimes even after a couple of months of intensive gameplay.

This is how I noticed Thrustmaster ESWAP PRO CONTROLLER gamepads! Microswitch-based d-pad and buttons and the idea of removable modules bought me instantly. It was a promise to have a fully “rechargeable” gamepad in which I could just replace a module when it wears off. After some time, because my fingers are quite tiny and slender and playing Tekken game requires high precision in diagonal inputs, I started to experiment with different shapes of a d-pad. I spent most of my free time on it because I’ve always liked tinkering with my gaming equipment and a modular structure made it easy to experiment a lot. Examining how a small module is built was much easier than looking inside a whole controller. I created a couple of proposals and, at some point, I contacted Thrustmaster to share some of my findings. I was pleasantly surprised when I received a very welcoming reply and I became a beta-tester!

I was honored to work with Thrustmaster on a perfect d-pad that is ultra-fast, responsive and made it easy to input diagonal directions with high precision. The shape of a d-pad is rounded and smooth, including delicate & shallow cavities to aid our touch sense in finding diagonals. At the same time, the corners that are rounded “just in a right way” help me play tirelessly for hours without hurting my thumb. This smooth, rounded shape is a big help in doing some of the more difficult inputs easily, like “half circle forward” or “quarter circle back”. Using this d-pad feels natural, smooth and makes me forget about it! This might sound strange or surprising so let me explain missing complicated game inputs frequently makes a player lose confidence and keep in mind his controller, paying extra attention to move a finger in a right way. This uses some “extra brain resources” which otherwise could be used fully in a tournament match. When I’m playing on Thrustmaster ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER, I have the luxury to trust in the controller so fully that I can forget about it and just express myself in the game! It’s responsive, fast and very precise. I hardly ever miss any inputs.

After some time, I’ve learned that the newest Thrustmaster ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER uses a d-pad with the same ergonomic design that the Thrustmaster Team and me were working on. I was so happy and honored that this design has been published! This is like my controller dreams coming true, and the ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER became my controller of choice to play Tekken on Steam.

Obviously, a controller isn’t great only just because of a d-pad. The whole Thrustmaster ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER is excellent for me as a competitive gamer. All buttons are based on microswitches – face buttons, shoulder buttons and additional two back buttons. The shape of the controller is comfortable and solid, back buttons can be accessed easily even for my tiny hands and small fingers. A long USB type C cable makes it comfortable to play in any setup. An included audio jack makes me comfortable during tournaments, which usually are noisy and it’s easy to get distracted without proper headphones.

The Thrustmaster ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER is a result of years of experience, a lot of trial and error and the passion to deliver the best controller experience ever! I am honored that I could work with the amazing Thrustmaster Team in creating a perfect d-pad. I hope that this d-pad design will be as lovely for you as it is for me!”

Discover the ESWAP S PRO CONTROLLER here!