Amazon Fire Game Controller

I was initially a bit worried about ordering this as it costs as much as a Playstation controller and to be frank, some of the reviews on here describe it as basically rubbish. But, having faith in the quality of Amazon branded products ( I love lots of their 'Basics' range! and save myself money when I buy them!) and also wanting a game controller for me and hubby to use when playing games on my new Fire TV box, I risked it - and I am so very glad I did.

I have had NO problems with this at all. Its arrives in frustration free packaging and its incredibly easy to install the batteries which Amazon thoughtfully supply, so you are good to go as soon as it arrives.

The build quality easily rivals Playstation controllers build quality so I was delighted upon my initial inspection of it. Its not light nor cheap and nasty. Its a good weight (whilst not being too heavy to hold) and superbly crafted. Well done Amazon!

It works beautifully! In every way, no sticking as reported by other reviewers. No dragging, no nothing. Fast and furious as I play :) I'm using this with Game of Thrones and it makes playing a whole lot more fun than when I was just using the Fire TV remote.

A winner! I love it and highly recommend it to you all.

The plus points being the contours of the controller feel good in the hands, the triggers and shoulders buttons also feel fine and it synced up with the Fire TV with no hassle. Minus points being the analogue sticks are not very precise and seem to have a large dead zone off centre, they are also quite slippery. You need to have the thumb power of The Incredible Hulk to move that D-pad and after only 30 minutes of using the controller the X button has developed a loud squeaking sound every time it's pressed which is very annoying so it's either get a replacement or get the can of wd-40 out.

For that price I expect better.

I should have trusted the bad reviews. This is clunky, over complicated and over priced. The analogue sticks are in weird places, they'd work better if they were parallel to each other, like a PS3 controller. The D pad is either too sensitive or faulty because when I try to use it to navigate through menus, it often throws me back up to the previous menu. The texture of the plastic doesn't allow for a very good grip of the controller. It's �34.99 and comes with two free games, but Sev Zero is kinda crap and has already been removed and Castle of Illusion is for children, so, not the added value that they were meant to be.

I'll persevere with it and see if more regular use will make it better, but my initial belief is that it will end up in a drawer.

Seems to work fine for a while then just freezes after several minutes when playing a game! After 'kick-starting' the game again with the remote the Game Controller again works for a while. Can't seem to find a cure - even rebooting the system doesn't work.

A bad controller can ruin a game system.

As stated elsewhere this has really awkward button feel. They stick the d-pad is terrible and the joystick are floppy and just not right.

But the main reason I am sending mine back is that for some incredibly odd reason when pressing the play pause button it turns my TV ON and OFF!?!! It's so weird. It's a 2008/9 Phillips so no idea why its doing it... it's not even bluetooth.

Also even 7 months after release, there seems to be a massive lack of games that actually use this thing properly. When Apple release theirs ATV4 with Appstore... you can bet there will be hundreds of good games.

The actual Fire TV player is great though. Keeping that.

I bought this to complement my new Fire TV. There are a lot of times when the key pad approach is unsatisfactory. I noted how similar it appeared to the Xbox controller; and hoped for a similar performance. Generally it's OK but not outstanding. I found the control sticks small and easily fumbled; not a problem I had with the Xbox controller despite my advanced years. The Bluetooth is a great idea; but there is a pronounced latency, which makes for a frustrating experience when playing any reaction specific games.
Worst of all! there is no definition sheet with the controller. Do you imagine that everyone who buys a game controller knows instinctively what does what? Many purchasers of Fire TV will be older people as I am. Just a simple instruction sheet would do! we don't need an encyclopaedia; but not everyone knows instinctively how an Xbox controller works, although the online fraternity "assume" this is the case. Do some work on it - It does have the potential!!

I bought this controller specifically to play games such as GTA Vice City. Therefore it's really frustrating that it's unusable! As soon as you start playing the game it becomes apparent there's no button to select the Map option or to buy things.... it simply won't let you as the game is designed for touch screens. Does anyone have any idea how to get this to work? Tried changing the controls but it won't let you.

The Amazon Fire Game controller is a good concept with some rather worrying flaws.

The idea is great - that it opens up the number of games that can be played, and gives the opportunity to be able to get lots of low price games to play through the fire TV. It is wireless and not too heavy in the hand. You can also use it as a remote control for media like music and videos. It looks and feels good out of the box.

On the negative side, it is really hard to control! My partner was expecting great things from it in this area and has been left disappointed. Both the right and left analogue sticks are not easy - they aren't accurate and are just difficult to use. The d pad is stiff. It is a very frustrating user experience!

Overall, it promised great things but the physical functions need tweaking a bit.