Controller Chaos is an online retailer that sells a huge variety of controllers with custom paint jobs. If you’ve been to a gaming convention like PAX or Twitchcon in the past year, you’ve probably seen their eye-catching display of beautiful controllers that just seems to go on an on. Controller Chaos has an absurd number of designs to chose from, and if you somehow can’t find the perfect paint job for your controller, they’ll even design one for you.
Clean Designs And Flawless Paint Jobs
Even if you haven’t heard of Controller Chaos before, you’ve likely seen their work online. A number of their most popular designs have gone viral, like this Spider-Man themed controller based on the webslinger’s new look in Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4.
This is actually only one of many Spider-Family designs available from Controller Chaos: they also have designs based on Miles, Spider-Gwen, Venom, and Carnage. The variety Controller Chaos offers is unreal. If you want to rep your favorite IP like Game of Thrones, God of War, Call of Duty, and Destiny 2, they’ve got a design for you. They also have hundreds of original designs and patterns in every color scheme and style. Every Controller Chaos design is unique and airbrushed with high quality paint that really pops.
Custom Designs Are One Of A Kind
Browsing through hundreds of awesome paint jobs for controllers and PC accessories (they do mouse, keyboards, and headphones too) is like being a kid in a candy store, but for a lot of people the allure of a custom paint job on their prized controller is the real draw. When we started working with Controller Chaos for this review I asked them what a controller designed around our website TheGamer would look like. What their designers came up with for us is the most singularly beautiful piece of hardware I’ve ever seen in my life.
We were all stunned by what they came up with for us without any direction other than to incorporate our logo and colors. There’s a magic to getting something made just for you, and it’s evident that some really talented designers put thought and care into coming up with these beauties. The best part is they can do that for you too. The website has a controller designer where you can get nitty gritty picking out color schemes for every button and trigger, and even add some FPS mods if you’re so inclined. If you want something more elaborate like our controllers, you can contact customer service and work out a custom design. Needless to say, everyone at TheGamer immediately ordered one for their collection.
A Functional Work Of Art
Once you select your design, you’ll get your controller in just a couple weeks. It’s important to remember these are official controllers purchased right from the manufacturer and painted, so you can expect the same build quality and functionality as any other OEM controller. If there’s any problem at all with the controller itself being defective, as was the case in the large batch of controller we purchased (a defective controller, not a problem with Controller Chaos’ work) their customer service works quickly to get it replaced and resolve the issue. The entire process working with them has been quite refreshing. I get the sense these are down to earth people that really care about their product, and it shows.
The controller you receive will have a different texture than you’re used to. The matte paint gives them a slightly rougher feel than the smooth plastic underneath, but they’re not unpleasant to hold by any means - just different. Examining them up close, the only tell that these are altered controllers is a very slight gap between the sides of the shell. All 4 controllers I’ve examined have this. It doesn’t effect the controller in anyway though.
The other thing you notice is how clean the work is. The lines and stenciling on our TheGamer controllers are immaculate and the colors are bright and beautiful. I also got one of their most popular design, the “Glazed Fresh Donut,” which has beautiful gradients in the colors that you can only get with airbrushing. The sprinkles are interesting. All the blue sprinkles are painted onto the pink frosting layer, while all of the white, yellow, and red sprinkles are painted on a layer beneath the pink frosting and then stenciled out, creating white, yellow, and red sprinkles you can feel and blue ones you can’t. Personally I think the blue ones look nicer because if you look really close the lines around the other sprinkles aren’t totally clean. It’s a bit odd, but it also gives it a hand made quality that I really appreciate.
Making Your Controller Yours
I love my custom controller from Controller Chaos - it’s one of my prized possessions. It’s so much more than a coffee mug or a keychain with my logo on it. The designers at Controller Chaos made something uniquely for us that I get to use every single day. Whether you want PS4, Xbox One, Gamecube, Joy-Con, or mouse and keyboard, Controller Chaos can make your controller really yours with a beautiful custom design. I’ve lost hours just browsing their entire shop and playing with color schemes in their build-your-own software. You really need to check them out.
Controller Chaos provided several controllers to TheGamer for this review. You can check out all of their design (or make your own!) on the Controller Chaos website. Right now they’re running a sale for the holidays on controllers, mods, and button upgrades.
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