Game Gripper review
By Tim Stevens 
posted April 23rd 2010 12:11PM
posted April 23rd 2010 12:11PM
The Gripper is a simple rubber thing that just slides on over the keypad. It's been more or less hand made, that much is easy to tell, but it feels durable and its size plus flexibility means it'd be comfortable enough to stick in a pocket or can be tossed into a bag without breaking. Our initial fears that the buttons would have horrible feel turned out to be unwarranted, as they actually have a decent tactility to them. It's nothing like the feel of a standard gamepad, but it's not necessarily bad.
We played a number of games for a number of hours and about the only complaint we have is that the Gripper has a tendency to slide left-to-right a bit when you're frantically tapping in games like Street Fighter 2. But, that could be seen as a good thing, as the unit comes with a rather scary warning that pushing too hard could potentially damage your phone's keyboard. Perhaps we're being a bit optimistic, but that sliding does let you know when you're getting a bit too forceful. Regardless, it rarely slid so much as to cause us to hit the wrong buttons.
After those hours of play we never noticed any change in feel on the keys being pressed, nor any marks on them or any other sign of damage, so we're reasonably sure you can load up those emulators to your heart's desire and get your game on without fear of permanent damage -- if you can rein in that super-human finger strength you've been developing all these years.
Wrap-up
For $15 the Game Gripper turns a Droid (or Milestone) into a far more capable gaming machine and, while we do wish there were some way to add shoulder buttons to the thing, we were actually able to map the camera and volume up buttons to be R and L, respectively, giving a reasonable facsimile for an SNES controller. The feel isn't perfect, but we're satisfied, and after a few days with one we certainly don't want to game without it.
Oh, and if you happen to be playing on some other device, you'll be happy to know that there's a Gripper coming for the Devour, Backflip, and the N900 too.
I just don't know why Nintendo or Sony don't make a phone with a gamepad built in and develop games for it. Even if it was bulkier or heavier than most phones, it would be so popular.
Yeah $15 would be great, but if you don't live in Utah, It's $15+$13 S&H... $28 just doesn't seem worth it for this product.
@Somojojojo I don't know if it's the same for Utah though... Could be, but my comment still stands. Too much money for a plastic sleeve with rubber knobs.
@Somojojojo I don't live in Utah, and it's $4 shipping to me.
Have you priced Droid protective cases lately? Most are even simpler in design than this, yet cost as much or more.
@Somojojojo
I live in Minnesota and shipping was 4 dollars for me also. Thanks to the "Hivemind" Totally worth it for me, I was thinking of doing something like this but making it so easy to put on and off would have been a lot of work. Went with black on black, funny that with so many choices of colors gold buttons or plate wasn't one of them. May have to bust out the paint.
@TimStevens Hmm, that's odd. Must be because I'm Canadian, racists. lol j/k, but yeah it's $13 shipping (no other options) to Canada :(
@Somojojojo It's the poutine tax :(
How did you get the Volume/Camera buttons to map? I have been trying to do this for awhile but they still launch the photo app or change the volume, unless it was a recent update in some games.
@Turner Joy Hmm, worked just fine in Gensoid and Snesoid. We only did a half-push of the camera button, though. It's possible a full-push would still launch it.
Was unsure whether to order one or not, but I will definitely be ordering one because of this review.
This guy needs to get a case for his Droid. Thing looks like it's been dropped on the pavement a few times.
When I first saw this I thought it would be like a pocket the keyboard slipped into. That would have been nicer.
How about a dual layout landscape slider? Slide it out to the right, and it is a keyboard. Slide it out to the left, and it is a gamepad.
I love it so tell me where can i get one for my droid?