I didn’t know I wanted a handheld with modular controls, but Ayaneo showed me the light

You know, modular controllers should be more of a thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been playing with an Xbox Controller (with the A button at the bottom and the B button on the right) and then got tripped up when I moved onto my Switch (with the A on the right and the B at the bottom). Having the ability to shift the buttons around in whatever position I want would be really helpful. So, when Ayaneo dropped their new handheld trailer and showed off that you can just swap the controls around whichever way you please, I was left wondering why other companies don’t do this.

The Ayaneo 3 comes with modular controls for easy swapping

In a trailer for the Ayaneo 3, the company showed off a few key features of its new handheld. The part that caught my eye the most is what the company calls the “Magic Modules,” which are a cool way of letting people change up their control scheme.

Here’s how it works; the left and right side of the console will have these pill-shaped slots. Ayaneo will supply modules that fit into these slots, and each one comes with a different control scheme. One of them has a stick and some face buttons, one has just six buttons, one has two sticks and no buttons, and so on. The trailer showed off six modules in total, but there may be more.

To build your perfect control scheme, you just grab these little modules and slot them into the desired spot. Ayaneo confirms that you can turn the module upside-down and it’ll work fine; for example, you can have the control stick and D-Pad module have the stick on the top or the bottom.

We’re very excited to see what Ayaneo pulls off with its third portable console. After all, we gave the Ayaneo 2S a solid 8/10 score; hopefully, this one will be rated even higher.