Hello Ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, my name is Daibhi and this is the long-awaited and in depth review of the Thumb Soldiers peripherals. Before we begin, I need to address why I got to test and play with (insert Mark Hamill’s Joker voice) some of their wonderful toys. The answer to this is simple. Firstly, one of the reasons why so many of you kick my rear end at Call Of Duty style games online is my left handedness. I physically have to make my hands work against how I normally use them to play some videogames. That’s why I cover accessibility in my reviews of videogames so much. Secondly, I have a condition called Cerebral Palsy, and what you need to know for the base of this review is this, my individual digit reaction times aren’t as quick as what most people’s are. I also need to type as I physically struggle immensely to pick up pen to paper in order to write. Now that’s out of the way, it’s time to discuss Thumb Soldiers and what they sent me. We’ll also talk about my experience, and whether you should invest.
Who are Thumb Soldiers?
Don’t worry folks, it’s good with every console
Thumb Soldiers was an idea which sprung from the innovative mind of one David Chapman who asked a question a lot of disabled gamers have been asking for a while: “Why can’t we have controller adaptions instead of separate controls?” He got to work over a decade ago, and Thumb Soldiers was born. The idea was to make games such as Gran Turismo and Crash Bandicoot more playable and play a bit smoother. David sat on this idea for ages, working out how to make the ideas work.
Instead of taking controllers apart and working on making the internal components better, David decided to make external components. Using the feature available externally on controllers gave David and Thumb Soldiers one gigantic advantage- accessibility. If David could fit the Thumb Soldiers modifications onto a controller, he needed to make it so that anyone could do it, and thus, Thumb Soldiers became a nationally recognised brand of accessible controller modifications.
How we got some…
When they approached Gamerhub some time ago, I had heard of them before. I’m not the only disabled gamer I know, and several friends of mine use Thumb Soldiers, so when they offered us some tech to review, I lit right up. Is that excitement justified? Read on, gamers, and I’ll get into it.
What gets delivered…
When the groupchat got lit alive by people discussing what we wanted, I asked for a set meant for racing gamers specifically for my PlayStation 5. I got a fair amount of kit, but let’s start with the packaging. Fair play to all involved, the packaging is nothing less than superb. This sort of packaging is common, but usually, it’s set aside for jewelry. Hopefully in the next few hundred words, you’ll understand as to why this comparison is particularly accurate. Inside the multiple boxes I receive in the post, I get a full range of peripherals required to make the Thumb Soldiers kit work. My personal kit is the Racer Combi Kit with knuckles. This currently retails on their website for £25, and I got a lot of use out of it.
There is the giant hoop attached to my left analogue stick, which allows me for precision racing. There’s also a knuckle pad attached to my right analogue stick and appropriate pads to fit to my triggers on the back of my PlayStation 5 controller. (These are commonly called L2 and R2).
How did Thumb Soldiers improve my gaming experience?
Let’s start with the obvious. The fact that I’m giving this product a glowing review should indicate that Thumb Soldiers has greatly improved my gaming experience for the better. I am over the bleeding moon that I got to review something as cool as this. In fact, I can’t express to you in the short word count that I have exactly how much I appreciate having these peripherals. That’s because it has genuinely changed my gaming experience forever. How? Well, this is the section where I tell you how it works. And also, why it has completely transformed my gaming lifestyle. So read on, dear gamers…
Isn’t it pretty?
We get started with the gaming genre that this kit is set to help me with. I first downloaded Gran Turismo to my PlayStation 5 to give this a crack. Then I started working my way through the career mode. I found out that the wheel peripheral was quickly becoming my favourite bits of tech I’ve ever received in this job. I wasn’t having to put any pressure down on my analogue stick. This helped me focus harder on more precise steering. Let me tell you, when you are trying to get yourself through the Nürburgring in a Koenigsegg at a ridiculous speed…
Well, you decide to only race using cockpit views, having more precise steering is an absolute godsend.
But what about outside of Gran Turismo?
It wasn’t just brilliant in Gran Turismo though, I tested this kit with some other racing games. I needed to see if the spiel on the Thumb Soldiers website was only applicable for their named games. So, because of my love of breakneck speed and crazy racing combat, on we moved to WreckFest. WreckFest, as I’ve spoken about before, is what happens when you take a demolition derby game and mix it with Pimp My Ride. Thumb Soldiers really helped with me playing this online, with my gameplay significantly enhanced. Do you know what? I’m not getting absolutely powned by everyone at this game! I actually win a few races! Huzzah!
Don’t worry troops, it’ll even work with PS4 and other previous gen controllers
I was keen to try using these peripherals on different styles of games. Therefore, I booted up my copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to see if this game would improve with these To do this, I turned off all of the web-swinging assists and took to the top of a skyscraper. Thinking I would replicate the scene from the start of Kick-Ass, I was really proud of myself. I started weaving between skyscrapers in mid-air and not doing a George Of The Jungle routine. This is because Thumb Soldiers’ racing wheel allows me to make those precision turns and crazy acrobatics with a lot more ease.
Value for Money?
Thumb Soldiers doesn’t exactly break the bank and in the meantime, allows for some truly great and accessible gaming. For me, it’s a no-brainer. They don’t just do racing kits and not just for the PlayStation 5, they do kits for every type of gaming. Honestly, if I was you, I’d head to the shop linked below. You can order some Thumb Soldiers kit whilst you can, they’ve been a major improvement on my life.
Where can I get them?
https://thumbsoldiers.com/collections/shop
For The Gamerhub community, I’ve been Daibhi and you are all legends.
1,2,3,4, go and join the thumb war
