If you’re like many people, you have plenty of unfinished games in your Playstation library. Few of us have the time to really finish every game we buy, after all. If you want to cut down on your waiting list of titles, it probably pays to play as much as you can and PS Remote Play offers a functional way to keep clearing more levels while you go about your day. The Backbone One: Playstation Edition offers to make those mobile Playstation sessions feel just a little more familiar.
To the unfamiliar, the Backbone One is a mobile gaming controller that docks the phone in between left and right gamepad grips. Except, in this case, they worked with the Playstation team to add modifications that give it the look and feel of a DualSense controller, which should give it a familiarity that PS gamers will appreciate.
The Backbone One: Playstation Edition retains the same general design as the outfit’s original mobile controller, with left and right grips connected by an adjustable bridge that allows it to accommodate different sizes of smartphones. It also retains the control layout, albeit with the buttons and D-pad updated to resemble those on the DualSense. These changes include transparent face buttons, the corresponding labels, and a dual color scheme, so it should feel a bit more like your PS5’s controller at home.
Do note, they retained the Backbone One’s system buttons, so you can still use it to easily interact with the outfit’s mobile app to bring up different features. They also retained the original mobile gamepad’s asymmetrical thumbsticks, which are a huge departure from the symmetrical analog sticks that have long been a Playstation signature. According to the outfit, this is a conscious decision as the asymmetrical placement allows for a more ergonomic position when dealing with mobile games. Of course, they probably just didn’t want to redesign the hardware and raise the price unnecessarily, but we digress. Basically, we would have preferred an asymmetrical design to really line it up with the DualSense, too, but we’ll take it.
The Backbone One: Playstation Edition is strictly for iPhone for now, as it comes with a Lighting connector to ensure a lag-free connection to your smartphone. If you prefer enjoying your games with wired earbuds, you’ll also be happy to know that it comes with a 3.5mm connector, so you can finally listen to your iPhone audio with wired headphones on. Because it’s connected directly to the phone, it uses power from your phone battery, eliminating the need to charge the controller at any point, while passthrough charging support allows you to charge the phone while you play (it has a Lighting slot for your charger).
Aside from the hardware changes, the app has also been customized to tailor the experience for Playstation gamers. Granted, we’re not sure what kind of changes have been put in, but, hopefully, the changes makes it faster to launch games from the Remote Play service.
The Backbone One: Playstation Edition is available now.
