The official Star Fox Mousepad felt like a no-brainer purchase.
I've loved barrel-rolling my way through the new game on the Switch 2, and wanted to try out the mouse controls on something other than my sofa cushion. Better yet, it wasn't even technically 'purchased' in the traditional sense like the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories often are, as I only had to spare 500 of my precious Platinum Points to make it mine.
And yet, I wish I had saved up my points for something else, as this is one cheap-feeling mousepad. I can already hear many of you all saying, "Well, it was free, what did you expect?" and that's fair to say. But I was at least expecting something that felt pleasant to "pilot my Joy-Con" across like Nintendo intended, and not what I got.
Star Fox Mousepad | 500 Platinum Points
If you still want to grab the official mouse pad, it's still available via the Nintendo UK Store so long as you have 500 Platinum Points to spare.
The Nintendo UK store advertises the mousepad being used alongside a typical PC setup, but I wouldn't recommend that either.
I'm currently using the ASUS TUF Gaming Hatsune Miku Edition Mini Wireless Mouse, which includes a 12,000-dpi optical sensor and glides effortlessly through any gaming mat I've thrown its way. Yet the "rough top" layer of the Star Fox version feels unpleasant and results in plenty of misclicks due to its plastic and slippery surface.
Instead of feeling like my little anime mouse was gliding across the desk like a little ballerina, I constantly felt it slipping out from beneath my grasp. This should have been an indication of things to come, but I decided to remain optimistic that a Star Fox mousepad designed for Star Fox couldn't be all that bad. How wrong I was.
The accessory is made up of a cheap-feeling plastic, like the mouse mats that you used to be able to buy throughout the late 1990's. You remember them, right? They'd often feature Homer Simpson's face and some philosophical quote of his, and were packaged as Father's Day gifts and stocking fillers.
This one feels worse than any of those. It's the opposite of dense and utilizes a paper-thin synthetic rubber underlayer rather than an anti-slip rubber base that you'd typically want in a gaming mat. Which, as you can imagine, does little to stop it from moving around unprompted.
If you thought fighting Team Star Wolf on Venom was tricky with the standard controls, using mouse controls on this cheap mat was something else entirely. The little rubber stops at the bottom of the Switch 2 Joy-Con straps at least helped keep the controller from running amok like my gaming mouse, but it was not a great-feeling experience.
In all fairness, fighting Star Wolf never is. But I had my hopes high that the mousemat would at least add an extra layer of fun to the fight that has haunted my nightmares since my childhood. Instead, it made it all the more headache-inducing, with the thinness of the mat feeling like I was scrolling my Joy-Con across a bare table, and I barely managed to take down Andrew, Leon, or Pigma, never mind Star Wolf.
It at least didn't move too much, which was a blessing. That was, unless I made the grave error of lightly brushing the side of my hand gently across Peppy's printed face, as then the entire thing would start slipping across my desk like it had a mind of its own.
It's a shame, as I really like the idea of the Nintendo Switch Online rewards being accessories that you can actually use alongside new Switch 2 games, rather than boring bits of stationery with Nintendo characters' faces on them. There's also so few new pieces of Star Fox merchandise out there, that this mousemat (and the plushies expected to drop later this year) are pretty much all we've got.
Taking that into account is why I don't judge anyone who reads this and still chooses to spend their hard-earned points on this Star Fox mousepad. When there's little merch out there to grab, securing a free item makes complete sense. However, I recommend keeping this as a display piece and sticking with traditional gaming mats by brands like Razer and SteelSeries, rather than piloting the Airwing across this cheap bit of Star Fox-branded tat.
- View all gaming mousepad deals at Amazon
Check out our guides to the best Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, the best Nintendo Switch headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards for accessories worthy of your Star Fox adventures.
