This app was mentioned in 10 comments, with an average of 1.60 upvotes
This app is what I use (paid, root required). It emulates button inputs as touches.
If you want to play any game that would make sense to use controller, use this. However, you need root for it.
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In terms of controllers, I can personally suggest 8bitdo SF30 Pro (of SN30 version), but its indeed quite expensive, but worth its money. I definetly would not suggest buying some cheap controllers since they often have awful deadzones and response times.
It is extremely easy to set up. You can create different touch profiles for different games which will enable automatically if you chose that option. Really neat app. Negative reviews are from those who dont realise that the app needs root.
not octopus these ones worked perfectly with games that have problems with controllers and games that use onscreen buttons only problem is that the gamepad one hasnt been updated to Oreo yet :( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalyst06.gc2tpro&hl=en_AU https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalyst06.gamecontrollerverifier
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalyst06.gc2tpro
I don't think the app I used is still available anymore but this one looks similar, and also requires root
Try this app instead
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catalyst06.gc2tpro
Going to try this one this weekend. I'll report back: Game Controller 2 Touch Pro
I have the same controller and this app worked for me, but it requires root.
Apps like these should be able to do this. Google around a bit more, most of these apps need root however