CRKD has provided the world with some pretty great pieces of tech over the years. The recent CRKD Nitro Deck + upgrade made me fall in love with the Nintendo Switch again, and now I’m hoping that the CRKD Atom can help me fall in love with retro and phone gaming again.
If you enjoy this tech review, check out some of our other hardware pieces. We’ve recently covered the aforementioned CRKD Nito Deck+ and gave it rave reviews, but we’ve also covered other gaming peripherals like the The Recoil Centurion Gaming Chair.
What Is the CRKD Atom?
If you haven’t seen or heard of it already, the CRKD Atom is a tiny little game controller from CRKD that is designed to be attached to your keys and is compatible with the Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS and Android. It’s highly portable, easily rechargeable via USB-C, has a decent battery life, and can be whipped out and used on the fly for any of your gaming needs.
It’s also a relatively stripped-back controller. It features a D-pad, four face buttons, L/R, ZL/ZR, Plus/Minus and a central CRKD button. Obviously, this means you don’t have access to an analogue stick, but you can have the controller emulate either the left or right analogue stick depending on your needs at the time.
So, How Well Does It Work?
One of the first questions you’re probably going to have about this controller is if it even works. When you get tech this size, it’s usually incredibly difficult and/or cumbersome to use. Case in point: the Game Gear Micro. These keychain-sized handheld consoles were notorious for being nearly unusable, with many arguing they were just intended as interesting keychains rather than usable devices.
Not so with the CRKD Atom. This thing works surprisingly well considering the tiny scale of the device. All of the buttons are easily reachable, and even with larger hands, it’s relatively simple to not accidentally press random buttons while playing a game. Mostly, you can put that down to not having to accommodate a screen like the Game Gear, but still, it’s an impressive bit of a design that I was really not expecting to get on with.
Using It on Nintendo Switch
As mentioned above, the device is fully compatible with the Nintendo Switch. This works fantastically for anything that has simplified controls, such as any retro emulation or games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land where you can just attach the controller in ‘left analogue stick’ mode and have it basically fully function.
Things get a little more fiddly when you’re trying to play something a bit more advanced. Sure, it’s technically possible to play Tears of the Kingdom, but you’re going to have to swap between left analogue and D-pad mode to get anything done. Clearly, the controller is designed with a more streamlined gaming process in mind, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Retro Is as Retro Does
If you’re a big fan of 2D platformers or retro games in general, then the CRKD Atom is basically perfect for you. It connects very easily to various devices, meaning you can have it connected to your PC and swap it to your phone within seconds. On top of that, the limited controls aren’t as much of a factor for emulating anything pre-PS2. From NES and SNES to the PS1/N64, there are a bunch of systems that fit right in with this controller.
If you’ve bought emulators for your phones, or any of those pixel-perfect re-releases of older games, then you’ll be able to use the CRKD Atom for pretty much all of them. We managed to try it out on the Head Cannon Sonic apps for Android, and it worked like a dream, much the same way that the mobile ports of the Final Fantasy games did. We even had it working on the GTA mobile ports too.
A Friend to the Indies
Another phylum of games that fits the CRKD Atom well is indie games. A great example (and a great game if you’ve never played it) is Kaze and the Wild Masks, a 16-bit inspired 2D platformer. It basically works great for most games in this category too, with other highlights being stuff like Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight, which both work excellently.
Even when playing on my PC, I had an excellent time with all of the games we tried. I honestly mostly refrained from using the ability to swap to analogue sticks, instead tailoring my choice of titles to the controller. Of course, that does limit the range of games available to you, but the key selling points here are the collectability, visual design and the high level of portability.
Visual Design
The CRKD Atom comes in a pretty huge variety of different colours, making them highly collectable. As you probably could have guessed with the retro-aligned control design, some of the visual designs harken back to older controllers. Visually, the Atom most closely resembles an SNES controller, albeit with two extra shoulder buttons, and you can get a grey version with coloured buttons that reflect this style of design.
We plumbed for one of the translucent plastic ones, partially because I love that style of design (I will die on this hill) but also because it lets you see the internals slightly, and that’s always a nice touch. The design of the controller is pretty ergonomic, and visually, they look great. Having this thing on my keys is certainly the sort of thing that is going to start up conversations with the other gamers in my social circle.
Summary
The CRKD Atom is a great bit of design. While it is certainly small, CRKD designed the Atom in such a way as to maximize usability. Sure, it’s not going to be as comfortable as a full-sized controller, especially not for folks who already complain about the size of their hands being too much for things like Joy-Cons, but its main focus is on being highly portable and easy to connect, both of which it pulls off well. If you’re the sort of person who often finds themselves wishing they had a controller on them during their commute, then the CRKD Atom is a must-have item, and it will certainly be staying attached to my keys for the foreseeable future.
