When it comes to gaming accessories, how do you decide what best suits your needs and what’s just a bloated piece of plastic and chips that are bundled together to zap your hard earned cash? Well, any gaming accessory that costs over $99 is usually expected to cook bacon and eggs in the morning, but for a tenth of that price the only thing you can expect from the device is for it to work, and work the TDFreek does.

So what is a TDFreek? It’s basically a touchdown Freek…an NFL Madden 11 rendition of the popular FPSFreek from KontrolFreek. The whole point of the controller accessory is to extend the functionality of the analog sticks to offer more control, more precision and better interactivity within the game. How do the KontrolFreek accessories manage this? Well, for the FPSFreek and the TDFreek the analog stick attachments extend the overall length of the left and right analog sticks of the PlayStation or Xbox controllers. It sounds kind of goofy and pointless, but I suppose the shocking thing about it is that they actually work.

I suppose, the real question isn’t a matter of if they work but how well they work. Heck Plantronics USB headphones work but not nearly as well as Tritton’s AXPC set. In this case, you might compare the KontrolFreek line with Caps4Stix analog mods and the bigger difference is that while the Caps4Stix adds precision for thumb grip control, KontrolFreek’s analog extenders literally boost precision by 40% and the difference is highly noticeable within first-person shooters, third-person shooters and some flight simulators. I can’t readily say that the TDFreek’s purposed intention to add more viable functionality to the control of sports games like Madden 11 actually makes much of a difference in comparison to the precision that it adds to shooter games and, oddly enough, even racing titles. Still, for $9.99 it’s not a bad way to gain a little more control out of games that may require precise twitch skills.



As far as the football-designed-covers go for the TDFreek, I can’t help but mention how odd and ugly they look, honestly. Then again, I’ve never been much of a pigskin fan and the accompanying look to match the football themes of EA’s Madden are somewhat of a throwaway because it detracts more from the controller’s aesthetic in favor of the off-brown football color. Still, I suppose the football look is more of a personal choice in style and that’s why it’s there.

For $9.99 can you really complain about the additional precision annexation? In some regards, yes you can. The reality is that casual gamers really have no need for a device like this because it’s literally made for sports fans and shooter fans who feel they need an extra advantage in landing headshots or scoring the goal with pin-point precision. For you normal gamers out there who just casually game, without feeling the competitive need to grab an edge on the competition, will find that this accessory really serves no purpose for you. I can easily see how the Halo fanbots would love a device like this, though. And I must say, for this generation’s hardcore elite, I would definitely recommend they check into this controller add-on from KontrolFreek given its budget-price and easy snap-on effect.

Device: TDFreek
Platform(s): Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3
Developer: KontrolFreek
Rating: