Pelican NERF PS2 Controller

October 15th, 2006, 10:59 Posted By: wraggster

NERF is one of those brands that's synonymous with childhood, adolescent, and even grown up fun. When we were little, the foam was just soft enough to convince our parents we could be trusted to wield it in weapon form, yet as we well know, solid enough to inflict real pain on small friends once out in the yard. The IGN offices are a historic NERF battlefield, and some of our LARPing (Live Action Rollplaying) brethren couldn't take to the field without it.

Sadly, a lot of these NERF pursuits involve some very un-videogaming aspects, like being outside, so when we received word that Pelican Performance had partnered with NERF with plans for a line of foam-plated controllers we got pretty stoked. Today we got the chance for an exclusive first hands-on with the first of the Pelican-NERF line, the wireless NERF pad for the PlayStation 2.

In general size and curves, the controller is relatively similar to a Xbox 360 pad. That's about as far as the similarities go, however, as the entire controller, save for the analog sticks and buttons, is encased in a shell of injection-molded NERF foam. Pelican didn't wimp out on the design with just some foam handle-prongs and a hard plastic face, when we say the entire thing is encased in foam, we mean it.

The handle-prongs are the softest, but seem to have some flexible tabs buried inside to provide a bit of rigidity. The rest of the controller body has a thinner layer, which is enough to feel NERF but not too think or spongy enough to interfere with button presses. As a matter of fact, the controller feels great in hand, and in showing it off around the office, practically every gamer here commented that it felt much better to hold than the usual hard-plastic pads.

Since it's NERF we also couldn't stop ourselves from giving it the good old drop test, which progressed to a drop-kick and some light abuse. The controller seems to be able to take a solid fall if it lands on the handle prongs or its side, but Pelican isn't claiming absolute indestructibility and we can image you could damage it if you really nailed one of the analog sticks into a wall.

We'll explore the controller's toughness over the weekend and return with the full review on Monday in which we'll delve into the button response and feel, wireless performance, and more. Until then, take a peek at these exclusive first-reveal pics and enjoy.

Screenshots Via Comments

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