Uno de los principales inconvenientes que tienen muchos jugones a la hora de jugar con sus smartphones es la falta de botones físicos y la utilización de botones virtuales en la pantalla táctil para paliar este problema, que en la mayoría de los casos no consigue convencer al usuario ya que echa en falta el tacto y la costumbre que tiene a los clásicos mandos para consola. No todo está perdido, y este aspecto de los smartphones y tablets ha avanzado con creces en los últimos meses, especialmente en Android, que cuenta con numerosos sistemas para lograrlo con sólo un cable USB y una pequeña configuración.
Como principales ventajas, la utilización de un mando nos permite un control mucho más intuitivo y poder observar el juego sin perder detalle, uno de los principales problemas de jugar con botones virtuales en la pantalla de nuestro dispositivo. Sin embargo, la utilización de un mando externo obliga a la utilización de cables y conectores, una leve reducción de la batería o si nuestro dispositivo no cuenta con una pantalla muy grande, pero serán solo pequeños inconvenientes para aquellos que buscan a toda costa jugar a los diferentes títulos que soportan mandos o en los varios emuladores de consolas clásicas que podemos encontrar, donde sacaremos más partido a este periférico. Hay muchos tipos de mandos y todos cumplirán su objetivo, aunque los mandos de Xbox 360 y de PlayStation 3 serán los que mejor cumplan su objetivo gracias a sus dos joysticks, cuatro botones de tipo gatillo y ergonomía.
The first problem that appears is the connection, do we have an external USB connector? Tablets like the Acer Iconia A500 have that advantage and all we have to do is connect it to the device and play (after configuring the buttons). If, on the other hand, we do not have this connector on our tablet or mobile, in most cases we can use an On The Go USB cable, which for its modest price (about three euros) will transform our traditional micro USB connector of our device into a external USB connector and thus be able to connect the controller without problems. Many controllers such as the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles can be connected thanks to Bluetooth technology, but the use of battery is accentuated and the installation of the same is complicated even more.
Most of the programs and games that we use will already recognize the device and we will only have to “map the buttons” (we will explain it later), but in other cases some extra application will be needed to achieve it , such as Sixaxis controller, which It will even allow us to calibrate the joysticks and the pressing of the buttons. We can also assign different functionalities to make our controller compatible with games that only use the touch screen with the help of Touch Profiles, which will bring the gameplay to control and we will have better visibility of what happens in the game.
Once our remote control is connected and recognized, the following will be to assign the buttons, known as “mapping”, a process in which we will assign each button an action and, if the number of buttons allows it, we will add extra and special options to improve the gameplay (buttons to minimize the game or save a quick game will be at our fingertips). Thus, each application that allows external devices will let us assign these actions button by button through the configuration . If not and have to use any of the applications mentioned above, it is very likely that we will need to "root" our deviceOtherwise, the connected USB device will not be recognized.
All that remains is to try our button configuration and enjoy the games that we can find in Google Play with better playability , with the help of an easy-to-carry peripheral that will become our main tool for all Android games. It supposes a change in the style of mobile game that, little by little, is gaining strength and already a large part of the games with virtual buttons accept the controls as a control system (without leaving aside the touch control) that they will appreciate, on everything, console gamers or fans of video game peripherals , who will now feel at home with this type of title.