PowerRamp Mite Programmable Gamepad Review

Fireballs made easy.

Gamepads are cool from a philosophical level. Adding one to your standard word processing, internet searching, Windows '95 running hunk of electronics seems to magically transform a system that otherwise discourages gaming into one capable of rivaling the experience of playing at a flashy video game console. There you are at the multi-hundred dollar rocket ship computer that you purchased for "business and word-processing", except that now your eyes are glued to the screen, your fingers are flying, and you are now the proud owner of the world's most expensive Nintendo.

That is actually my father talking. Despite the images of a gamepad as being totally subversive of all constructive uses for a personal computer, the addition of one to any system, especially the PowerRamp Mite, can completely enhance the experience. Take your generic sports game for instance. Have you ever tried playing NBA Live '97 with a mouse? It's not easy. How about a joystick to play football? Good luck. Finally, have you ever seen anyone playing baseball with a keyboard? That, in itself, is just wrong. You might as well turn off the computer, grab the old bat, ball, and mitt, and go outside to play.

Thus comes the need for some sort of purely gaming device, not just for sports games, but for any computer game that requires a fair amount of hand-eye coordination. In many ways, the PowerRamp Mite by ACT Labs does this and more.