When the Switch slides into its dock, you have a couple of alternatives for controlling it. Either slide out the Joy-Cons and slide them into the Joy-Con grip, or use a Switch Pro Controller. The better of those two options is the Pro Controller, but it costs $69.99. However, there will soon be a viable alternative that only costs $49.99.

As NintendoLife reports, peripheral manufacturer PowerA is launching a range of six Enhanced Wireless Controllers for the Switch. The good news is, they are officially licensed, look very similar to the Pro Controller, and only cost $49.99 each. The bad news, and it's not really that bad if we're being honest, is a lack of HD Rumble support and no NFC reader.

The PowerA pads connect to the Switch using Bluetooth 4.1 with no need for an extra connection dongle. Motion controls are integrated, and there's two extra mappable buttons on the back of the pad. PowerA thinks this will be popular when playing games that require you to use the analog sticks as buttons because nobody enjoys that, right? As for battery life, PowerA claims 30 hours from two AA batteries, so no recharging required with these pads.

There's a range of designs available, with my favorite being the pure black with red buttons. The full range includes Black, White, Red, Mario Silhouette, Link Silhouette, and Retro Mario.

The PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controllers will be available to buy from GameStop and Amazon. The launch date is currently set at Oct. 31, which gives PowerA plenty of time to produce enough controllers to cope with the holiday rush. Undercutting the Pro Controller by $20 suggests to me these will be very popular pads if the quality holds up under scrutiny.