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With its Sidewinder line of gaming peripherals, Microsoft offers everything from traditional joysticks and steering wheels for simulation fans, to tilt pads for arcade addicts, and now an accessory for the RTS gamer. The Strategic Commander, as they’ve christened it, certainly fits in with the average desktop. If anything, it looks like a black mouse for the left hand. Southpaws take note: this is most definitely not a mouse replacement. Unless you can use the mouse with your right hand, this product is not for you. That little issue aside, how does it perform? Will this baby help your game? Read on and find out.

The Strategic Commander is certainly chock full of features. It offers a map control, six programmable buttons, three shift keys, and three profile positions. That’s up to 72 possible programmable shortcuts, but if the included profiles are any indication, you won’t use anywhere close to all of them. Also included are a zoom in and zoom out button, as well as my favorite feature, record-on-the-fly. Different profiles for each game can be loaded, and several profiles for different aspects of the game can be used as well.

MS Strategic Commander Boxshot & Top View

Installation was painless; the installation guide is simple and straightforward (and printed in nine languages). Stick the included CD in, install the software, plug it into the USB port, and you’re ready to go. There is no manual worthy of the name, instead there is an online user’s guide. It’s actually useful, and addresses many of the gaps left by the installation guide and the introductory video. Introductory video? Yes, after plugging the Strategic Commander in for the first time, a short three minute video plays, outlining the basic operation of the device. It covers the map control, using each button, and record-on-the-fly.

Now, we know that all the features are there. Are they worth using? That’s a different story, and the answer is: it depends.

The map control is fun to play with, but in a traditional 2D game like Age of Empires 2 or Red Alert 2 it is essentially useless. For long distances, clicking on the mini-map is far faster, and for short distances it doesn’t make a difference. Granted it’s nifty, but the novelty soon wears off.

The ability to zoom and rotate, as well as pan from side to side, makes 3D games a different story. A game like Populous: The Beginning, which offers of all the navigation features that can be mapped to the Strategic Commander, is definitely easier to play once you’re past the learning curve. In fact, the learning curve is shorter for the Strategic Commander than for the keyboard.

There are two major issues with using the map scrolling function. One, the base isn’t quite heavy enough. The seven little rubber pads at the bottom don’t have quite enough traction on my pine wood table, and I find that the whole unit tends to slide left and right when I use it. While I don’t think it needs something as drastic as a clamping mechanism, larger pads might help.

Two, the Strategic Commander occasionally (rather rarely, actually) gets “stuck”. It works fine for a while, then it keeps scrolling in one direction even though I’m no longer touching it. This issue usually disappears when I pan left, right, forward, and back, but it’s a nuisance and could cost you a game if it comes at a critical time.