UK company Thumb Soldiers aims to deliver a range of thumb stick add-ons providing players with greater control over their in-game movements without the need to invest in specialist hardware, while also introducing a platform for more interchangeable ‘Soldiers’ suited to specific genres and needs. Performance and inclusion are headline goals too, with the range of thumb stick adapters intended to elevate players' in-game prowess while removing barriers that have impeded players with disabilities from accessing certain games in the past.
To achieve this, the Thumb Soldiers experience begins with the application of what the company calls ‘Knuckles’. These small, roughly textured plastic rings slot over the top of your existing controller thumbsticks before locking into place with the built-in clamp.
Despite the comapn'y accessibility assertions, I actually found fitting the Knuckles to be rather fiddly and required more force to attach to my DualSense Wireless Controller and Joy-Con thumb sticks than I’d anticipated. I was particularly worried about the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons as I wrestled the Knuckles into position and I feared for a moment that I may snap Nintendo’s drifty little stick off entirely.
After a little bit of wrangling, I managed to clamp the final Knuckle into place and I was impressed at how sturdy these little thumb stick caps appeared. With the Knuckles in place though, swapping between the various Soldiers became simple, with each kit utilizing a universal locking arm design that fits snuggly inside the Knuckles.
Wheely good
As the name suggests, the Racer Kit is designed to eliminate the need for a dedicated racing wheel and pedal set-up for a fraction of the argy-bargy (a set of Thumb Soldiers Knuckles and the Racing Kit retail for $33 / £25).
The Racer Kit comprises a vertical steering wheel and a curved, grippy, accelerator pedal attachment, both of which easily lock into place with a half turn inside the Knuckles.
The vertical steering wheel immediately impressed me with the level of control on offer and I was able to push myself through the twisting back alleys of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto: Online’s street races, aggressively steering left and right without ever feeling like I was losing control of my virtual supercar.
To test the grippy pedal, however, I opted for several mud-splattered races in Codemaster’s Dirt 5. After remapping the controls in-game to bind throttle and braking to the right stick, I had an absolute blast slinging my rally car through boggy corners and drifting over the icy frozen racecourses of New York’s East River.
Feathering the throttle around bends, pushing forward to maximize my speed, and forcibly pulling down on the stick to slam on the brakes pushed my enjoyment to a new level.
Thumb Soldiers and accessibility
I too have been dabbling with some different Thumb Soldiers kits in recent months, as I'm deeply interested in them from an accessibility perspective. Having never found a gaming controller that properly fits my 'different' hands, I've always been drawn to potential solutions that attach to mainstream pads.
While, like all gaming accessibility products, the Thumb Soldier accessories are not a total silver bullet for me, some of them in particular have been surprisingly useful.
The Studs have been great for my thumbs and really helped my grip on the sticks - though the extra height always takes getting used to. Elsewhere, the Racer ring attachment has also been good for taking some of the stress out of thumb movements for steering in racing games, while the big round Shroom pads do make general interaction with the sticks far easier for those with shorter thumbs like me.
Accessibility in gaming is something that's becoming an ever more important part of the industry - made doubly exciting by official brands making hardware for the space, like the PlayStation Access controller. Cool bits of kit like Thumb Soldiers' attachments are a welcome addition to it, providing gamers with more options and flexibility.
Now back to Theo...
Step it up a tier
Pivoting to another set of Soldiers, this time the Step Up kit introduced a second, smaller, higher tier control pad above the default thumb stick. This higher pad, elevated by a curved plastic stem, grants greater precision when in use.
I opted to jump into a shooter I know incredibly well, namely Call of Duty 4, to put the Step Up to the test, and yes it really does work as advertised. I still mainly opted to rest my thumb on the default right analog stick but definitely found an improvement in my aiming capabilities by utilizing the Step Up’s high pad when looking through a scope.
One minor consideration when using any of the bigger Soldiers though is that face buttons and d-pad controls aren’t always easy to reach. For instance, the Racer Kit wheel is large enough to block d-pad access mid-race, and the Step Up Kit on the Switch’s right analog stick overhangs the B button considerably.
It may not be a deal breaker to some but it would definitely make me reconsider using these kits in every play session.
Sticks and studs
Similarly, I’m hesitant to rush back to the Sticks or Studs kits. The former, designed partly to aid players with limited dexterity and party to appease arcade purists, unfortunately, felt a little too lightweight as a replacement for an actual dedicated joystick in games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Pac-Man Championship Edition.
The Studs meanwhile do provide added grip thanks to their moulded plastic bumps and contours but failed to help me distinguish and input precise direction commands throughout several online bouts of Tekken 8.
A system like no other
I spoke to David Chapman, Founder of Thumb Soldiers about the thinking behind the current product range. “For years it seemed crazy to me that we use the same thumb sticks for Call of Duty as Minecraft, the same thumbsticks for FIFA as F1, yet outside of gaming, we have specific kits for the activities we participate in”.
David has a point. I wouldn’t wear my Converse All-Stars to go rock climbing. The range as it stands is flexible enough to cover the majority of game genres although David believes that the players hold the power of the future of Thumb Soldiers. “Our objective is for this to be for everyone and for everyone to be integral to the development of Thumb Soldiers, integral to the development of game interaction. In return we intend to offer a platform where the community participates and is rewarded for their involvement, rewarded at every opportunity that we can provide”.
Our community will help us direct which products are next launched, what is to be developed, and what collaborations and licensing agreements are to be negotiated, so that the community receives the product they desire. We have developed a system like no other and this is just the first stage”.
