Last night I broke out, for the first time, a Logitech controller on Spiral Knights and the Previewers’ return to it. I’m still getting used to it, but for me it’s already better than the keyboard.

First, about the first night itself:

• Prices for items are now three times what they were in the preview. This is actually in line with other, similar previews for other games. C’est la vie.

• You can invite Haven friends to fight with you in the tutorial gate as well as the gate that leads to Haven. The former, however, causes the game to freeze, so I can’t recommend it.

• Previewers received a special armor and helm that provide better protection than the beginner armor and helm. And trust me, this is most welcome in the dungeons.

• The tutorial levels are very different from the previous ones, and I’m glad I did them. They’re also tougher.

• Guildhalls no longer have private alchemy machines and merchants, but do have two areas under construction. Hmmm. There’s also a door/border to Haven, but for some reason it doesn’t work (I submitted a bug report).

For my list of 1-star items to get, I’ve managed most of the recipes for them and bought/crafted a little over half of them. Good for a few hours of gameplay.

Now, about the Logitech Dual Action controller:

• For the Mac, Spiral Knights includes support. Just make sure to start the client after you get the controller plugged into your USB port.

• The controller support isn’t as smooth as it is in other games; for instance, “aim” (the Face [direction] commands) will reset to an orthogonal direction if you let the stick go. Running is a bit rough in a similar manner, though it’s less problematic.

• The preset controls aren’t the best for some folks, such as myself. Thus a use for the first “level” is to get yourself used to your controls.

For the record, my mappings are:

Move [North, South, East, West]

left stick up, down, right, left

Face [North, South, East, West]

left and right sticks up, down, right, left

Quick slots 1, 2, 3, 4

buttons 1, 2, 3, 4

Attack

right and left top shoulder buttons (redundancy helps me here)

Shield

right and left bottom shoulder buttons (ditto re: redundancy)

Previous/Next Weapon

d-pad up/down and left/right

Tomorrow after breakfast it’s gonna be straight Spiral Knights. Oh yeah, I’ve missed you, babe.