I’m old enough to remember some of the very first PlayStation controller color variants, namely the brightly hued DualShock offerings that hit stores in the late 90s. Why would you stick with drab gray when you could taste the rainbow? I know there were a few digital gamepad color options, like a neat red one, but I never came across those, sadly.
The DualShock offerings included shades of Island Blue, Smoke Gray, a totally clear Crystal option, and the actual gamepad I acquired back in 1998, Emerald, which was a very turn-of-the-millennium translucent green. I even got the matching Emerald memory card to go along with it, because why not.
As cool as they were, Sony’s controller colors could never seriously compete with Nintendo’s slew of N64 options, at least in my opinion, but I appreciated them nonetheless. Funtastic was, and still is, hard to beat, naturally. And to Nintendo’s credit, the bright hues extended to the consoles themselves, something Sony never really explored with the PS1. Minus, of course, the slick black Net Yaroze development kit and the infamous blue debug PlayStation console.
But I will say PlayStation’s latest PS5 Hyperpop DualSense collection gives the old Funtastic colors a run for their money, and really brings up a lot of nostalgia for those classic DualShock variants. They’re not made of see-through plastic, though the neon colors—Techno Red, Remix Green, and Rhythm Blue—absolutely call to mind the nascent, and a bit more edgy, PlayStation of yore.
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The collection, alongside a matching array of PS5 console covers, was announced back in January of 2026. That said, I finally got my hands on a glossy Techno Red gamepad last week, and while it’s a total fingerprint magnet and can slip off a lap easily due to the lack of textured grips, it has to be one of my favorite DualSense variants released so far. The fact that the thumbsticks are also red is such a nice touch.
I’m rather disappointed that the console covers aren’t being offered for the PS5 Pro, though, which is the PlayStation I primarily game on these days. They’re only available for the PS5 Slim, a machine I don’t own and probably never will, so I guess I’m out of luck. Actually, I don’t believe Sony has released any official console covers for the PS5 Pro, other than the limited edition Ghost of Yotei plates, which apparently sold out in seconds back in September of 2025.
That said, I applaud Sony’s willingness to bring back some radical whimsy to its hardware lineup. Back in the ‘90s, everything was loud, in-your-face and sported the kind of colors you’d normally find being flaunted by tropical birds in the Amazon during mating season.
While retro culture has and likely always will be a thing, we’ve seen a resurgence in recent years when it comes to past-leaning gaming hardware. Companies like ModRetro and Analogue trade in pure nostalgia, often selling their respective consoles and handhelds outfitted with eye-catching and sometimes translucent shells that harken back to my cherished Emerald DualShock.
I’m also partial to both the Death Stranding 2 and Marathon special edition gamepads. The 007 First Light golden controller isn’t too shabby either, but I do tend to prefer brighter peripherals. I’m a ’90s kid, through and through, so give me neon or give me death.
Disclosure: PlayStation provided product for coverage purposes.
