Third party manufacturer Hori has been working on a Joy-Con, for the Nintendo Switch, that comes with a D-Pad instead of the buttons Nintendo decided to go with. These new Joy-Con were released this July in Japan but Hori never announced that they would be releasing them in the West until now.
IGN reports that Hori are finally bringing the D-Pad Joy-Con controllers to the West and these will be themed after the
Super Mario Bros. and
The Legend of Zelda series. These controllers will be available this September and will retail for $25,00 USD.
Much like the
Joy-Cons announced for Japan back in March, these controllers are not including HD Rumble, SL and SR buttons, Accelerometer, Gyro Sensors, or even the Sync Button—meaning that they can only be used when attached to the Nintendo Switch.
Another thing to consider is that the Hori Joy-Cons that just released in Japan
have been reported to drain the Switch's battery pretty fast, even when the console has been put in sleep mode. That's probably one of the biggest downsides about these controllers that give players a D-Pad to enjoy platformers and fighting games, but do away with quite a few features. On the plus side Hori are selling their Joy-Con for only $25,00 USD, official Joy-Con controllers retail for $49,99 USD each, and for $79,99 for the pair.
All negatives aside, though, Hori has stated that they're working on trying to find a solution to the battery draining issue and will keep customers posted. In the meantime, this is still good news for players who want to get a Joy-Con to enjoy their fighting and platforming games on the go without carrying a Pro-Controller around.