Can You Play Tears of the Kingdom With a GameCube Controller? Yes You Can

While the newest entry to the incredibly popular Legend of Zelda series, Tears of the Kingdom, is out for the Nintendo Switch, not everyone likes playing with that console’s controller. As a matter of fact, there are a bunch of fans who would rather play the game with their old GameCube controller. The question, however, is whether or not it’s even possible to do that.

Well, that’s where we come in. We’re here to clear up any questions you might have regarding playing Tears of the Kingdom with a Nintendo GameCube controller.

Can You Use a GameCube Controller to Play Tears of the Kingdom

Yes, you can, however you’ll have to first purchase the official GameCube controller adapter that was first launched for the Nintendo Wii U. Of course, you can also use unofficial third party adapters, but we don’t recommend it since most of them are pretty unreliable and the controller might not work as it should.

As a matter of fact, there are various Nintendo Switch games that support the GameCube controller, so it only makes sense for Tears of the Kingdom to do the same. Plug the adapter through the USB port on the console, and connect your GameCube controller to the other side of the adapter. 

One thing to keep in mind is that it’s mandatory for the Switch to be docked. This means you can’t use a GameCube controller to play ToTK if you have a Nintendo Switch Lite since that can’t be docked.

With everything being connected properly, all that will be left to do is to pair the controller with your Switch. On your Switch, go to the Controller Settings menu on the home screen. Then, simply press the L and R buttons on the GameCube controller and it’ll be detected as a USB gamepad

With the controller paired, you’ll notice that you’ll be able to use the GameCube controller to control Link in Tears of the Kingdom now. However, it might feel a little off because, at the end of the day, ToTK was made with the Nintendo Switch controllers and Joycons in mind.

Should You Use a GameCube Controller to Play Tears of the Kingdom

Now that you know that it is indeed possible to use a GameCube controller to play Tears of the Kingdom, the question is whether you even should. Well, you see, there aren’t enough buttons on a GameCube controller to support everything you can do in ToTK. 

Therefore, you’ll find that you won’t be able to do certain things you would have been able to do if you had been using a Nintendo Switch controller or Joycons. As you can imagine, that’s already a pretty major downside of using a GameCube controller.

Pair this with the fact that GameCube controllers are generally pretty outdated at this point, and you might be better off just using a regular Switch controller to play this game. Of course, at the end of the day, it all depends on the user.