A Complicated-Looking Way To Hold PlayStation Controllers

Years back, Kotaku reported on an inventive way to hold a DualShock and play From Softwareâ€™s mecha game Armored Core. Now in 2019, itâ€™s back.

In Japanese, this grip style is called densetsu no AC mochi (ä¼èª¬ã®ACæŒã¡) or â€œlegendary Armored Core grip.â€ This grip style is so legendary in Japan that itâ€™s even made a manga appearance!

Via NicoNico, this old clip shows the grip in action.

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At the time, I initially assumed that this was a gag. Thatâ€™s exactly what Japanese forum users said when the photo first surfaced.

But was this ever a real thing? Back when Kotaku originally reported this story, mecha game expert Ollie Barder said, â€œBasically, fans took the piss out of the fact that the game required you to have about 15 fingers and that â€˜thisâ€™ was the only solution. Itâ€™s one of those satirical gaming points I think as Iâ€™ve never seen any of my AC playing friends in Japan playing the game this wayâ€”bear in mind Iâ€™ve participated in tournaments back in the PS2 days too!â€

Recently, Twitter user Jiro-chan showed off the this style of controller grip.

Itâ€™s seems at least one other person has also used this for a non-AC game. Above a streamer shows how to use it for Black Ops III.

Jiro-chan doesnâ€™t recommend this grip because it made her pinky fingers hurt. I donâ€™t recommend it because it looks bonkers.

This article was originally published on January 24, 2012. It has since been updated.