Wolverine V2 is not an X-Man, just a new Razer gamepad to rival Xbox's

Razer Wolverine V2 controller
(Image credit: Razer)

Do PC gamers ever feel like second-class citizens when confronted with something that says “Designed for Xbox” but merely “Windows 10 Compatible”? Well Razer has a new gamepad out, the Wolverine V2, and it’s both of those things.

Black Friday deals

Black Friday deals

Black Friday 2020 deals: the place to go for the all the best Black Friday bargains.

It’s also “Reforged to bring swift victory”, one of the greatest pieces of PR nonsense we’ve seen in a long time. Presumably trying to attract the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla demographic with such a flyte-worthy boast, the rhetoric takes a neck-snapping turn East with the announcement of the pad’s Mecha-Tactile Action Buttons and D-Pad. We’re picturing giant Viking robots battling against the Tokyo skyline, and like what we see. Those buttons have a 0.65mm actuation point and a three-million-tap lifespan, if you’re still bothered about the pad.

The Wolverine (now the robots are Canadian, with giant metal claws) is a wired pad with ergonomic design features, including L-shaped hand grips and non-slip rubbery bits (nope, not going there). It’s a pretty nice looking pad, very reminiscent of the new Xbox Series X pad in layout, but with a couple of extra buttons near the triggers that can be remapped. The Razer Controller Setup app for Windows and Xbox lets you create custom button profiles, as well as assign buttons to alter the sensitivity of the thumb sticks on the fly while gaming. Slide-locks on the base of the pad alter the travel distance of the triggers, and there’s a 3.5mm headphone socket too.

So we’ll forgive you, Wolverine V2, for merely being ‘compatible’ with our PCs, and go back to imagining those robots. Now where were we?