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What is the Best Console Controller of All Time?
Mateo Slovinsky asks: "Is the XBox 360's controller the best controller of all time? CNet seems to think so in its line up of the top five gamepads of all time. If you expected the Wii's controller, you will be dissapointed. It's a brilliant piece of innovation, but there simply aren't enough games to judge it against the best controllers ever." Which controller would you pick? What controllers have not left your hands cramped after a marathon session of gaming?
I'd agree that the 360 is the best controller of all time. it's damn comfortable and has pretty much every function you'd ever want. If they included a Dreamcast like VMU screen it would be "perfect" IMO.
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Everything else has too many buttons.
It's great to see the SNES controller, it provided 6-button, finger-and-thumb controlling in about the most compact design possible. I see it as the bridge to all modern controllers, from the previous controllers like the NES, Atari,etc.
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Dual Shock is "..a light, comfortable to hold, well-designed pad with all the trimmings."? I always found the PS2 controller really uncomfortable compared to the GC one.
Adjustable turbo on A and B, large buttons, comfortable stick, fits on your lap or a tabletop nicely, even a slow-motion hack for those games that could support it. Next question....
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Hmm I would definately have to say the most comfortable is the gamecube controller, it just seems to slide into your hand and is great for everything except games that use the D-Pad really. The dreamcast controller is also pretty nice and the dpad is great for fighting games although hardcore gamers will still prefer a joystick. The original analog controller for the playstation was also damn comfortable as it has a longer handle then the dual shock which honestly feels kind of small to me. Overall I would say the gamecube though, since I never remember my hands ever getting tired from that controller (and it certaintly wasn't from lack of playing!).
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I may be in the minority, but I love the DC's controller.
It's comfortable (for my hand size at least), light, had rumble, twin triggers, the VMU (pity it was underutilized), and was the only one that let you play Soul Calibur.
The wavebird was practically the only redeeming feature of the Gamecube. Sure, if you had ape hands it was kind of small, but for my 12-year old hands, it was a dream come true. The wavbird proved that you could have a decent wireless controller.
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I have always like the PS1 controllers, they were comfortable and had the right amount of buttons without being cluttered. Didn't care for the ones with the little sticks on them though. I never cared for the giant controllers some consoles have like the Atari Jaguar system. Good lord the controllers were over sized on that system. i mean wtf do you need a full keypad for?
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Works great on DS games (and PDA games, too!). Very easy and comfortable to hold, very easy to use.
With its joy-disc, keypad with bent-up changable inserts, and tiny side buttons, it made every game more challenging.
Maybe they should have played some Wii games rather than just dismissing it.
It does not take a lot of games to notice that:
1. I no longer have to play games with my hands together as though I'd been cuffed.
2. Easy to distinguish buttons, not too many of them, with convenient support for things like "thumb+forefinger = grab", making controls easier to remember.
3. Broad selection of simultaneous actions. I can move and turn at the same time without trying to remember button combos.
The wiimote is, hands down, the best console controller ever. It's not even close. Can I invent a game that works better on something else? Sure. I can make games that are better on keyboard than mouse, too. Still, the dominant case is pretty clear.
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I do think the 360 controller is one of the most comfortable, however the D-Pad on it is awful! Have you ever tried playing Tetris on it? That's a game that shows just how bad the D-Pad is. The Dual Shock has the whole package.
I always preferred the Sega Saturn controller to the SNES (and all other digital-only controllers). It's got a smoother directional pad, 6 buttons in 2 rows of 3 with a bump for the bottom center button to find it without looking, and it still had shoulder buttons. The 2 rows of 3 was far superior for games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. And personally I always thought the Genesis directional pad was a bit soft or I'd also put it above the SNES controller.
For me it will always be the Sega Megadrive - preferably playing Sonic 2.
This is not an objective opinion, I don't think that there can be one where the word 'favourite' is involved, but I spent so many hours with it in my hands that it's the one that feels right for me and all others are, in my mind, compared with it. I'm sure that, had my peer group been Nintendo, rather than Sega, orientated, then I would feel differently, but they weren't, so I don't.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Atari 2600: One Joystick, one button. What more do you need?
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Atari's controllers have no place on this list. I may be one of the first but those joysticks were the worst ever produced. They were shitty and constantly broke. Even the wheels were terrible.
And for me, the N64, playing Goldeneye.
I would go for the Atari Paddles; intuitive controls with just one "fire" button. Even my granma could play games with that.
;-)).
Just compare the simplicity of that with current joysticks (Like this
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I loved the NES Advantage, not for the arcade look, but for its turbo ability. I haven't seen a single turbo controller that matches this one. Nowadays, in games involving button mashing (like some Mario Party mini games, or FF-8 boosting), I can manually mash the buttons faster than any so-called turbo controller. Why can't anyone make a decent turbo controller (and I mean one that presses the button more than twice a second) anymore is beyond me.
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G&W started the whole Nintendo D-pad era, which then migrated to the NES and every console they've made since. Personally, I much prefer the Nintendo style D-pad to any of the others out there, and specifically don't like the 360's version as it seems to be on a slight angle based on how you hold the controller. As far as analog sticks go, the 360 has the best out there - much better than the sloppy ones on the PS1/2/3 controller IMHO.
However in my mind, I reckon that WASD and a mouse is the best controller for most games I play. Granted, it's not a console controller, but it's the dogs for FPS. No console control system comes near it and I often find myself longign for a keyboard and mouse for my Wii/360...
I started reading the article, and got through XBox360, PS2, and then N64 at 3rd place. That's when I stopped reading it. There's a general concensus among my friends that the N64 controller is among the worst ever designed, and possibly is the worst. Whose idea was it to make a controller that you needed 3 hands to properly use?
It's so... bad.
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Why, the Powerglove, of course!
Am I the only one that cannot STAND the Dual Shock controller? In fact, the controller is one of the reasons I never finished many PS2 games...I just couldn't stand using the friggin' thing
For a while, I thought it was the Dreamcast controller...it fits perfectly in my hands, has a good weight to it, and the D-pad felt solid.
Overall, I would have to agree with C-Net...the 360 controller is AWESOME. The buttons and triggers have a nice solid feel, the thing just cradles in your hands, and it has a decent weight to it. My only gripe would be with the D-Pad...other then that though, the 360 controller is at the top of the list.
Nothing beats a good keyboard/mouse combo though;-)
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The Glove!!! FTW!!! No, but on a serious note, I can't say which is the best. Responsiveness always depends on if your wired or not, if your sitting 5 ft from your console or 20 ft (if your wireless), or if you've recently spilled beer/soda on it in a fit of excitement. However, the 360 does have one hell of a comfortable feel to it.
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of the consoles i've played, ignoring handhelds, this is my list of best to worst
snes - as someone said, it's the bridge to modern joypad design and the most intuitive
playstation, vanilla, dualshock, ps2, all the same to me, comfortable progression from snes
sega master system pad - small and responsive and works well on the amiga
original nes pad - has more buttons than the sms pad, but it's ugly and the concave buttons
sega megadrive pad - direction pad needs breaking in to be useful
GC pad - reasonable pad, bit too big and button placement feels odd
jaguar pad - seems like the megadrive pad if i remember right, the numberpad was pointless
n64 pad - 3 pronged design was pretty cool, though the left hand side rarely got used. the analogue stick wasn't truely analogue - not like the dualshock, and got slippy through sweat very easily with salt building up at the base
atari 2600 stick - barely ok once you break the stick in
cd32 pad - unresponsive, flimsy ugly snes pad rip off
3d0 pad - wtf
I agree, except the D-pad is truly awful. Fix that and it'd be a clear winner, although still with room for improvement (e.g. make the main "go" button bigger like on the gamecube).
I also don't like clickable analog sticks, it always feels really awkward. Just put more real buttons on the controller already.
because some controllers are ideally suited for specific games only.
On the PC my favorite for FPS games was the spaceorb. If only it was brought forward to XP I would never had gotten rid of the ones I had.
As for consoles, again, doesn't it depend on which game your playing?
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My fav so far has been the 6 button Sega Genesis controller. It was light, responsive, and the buttons well placed. Honestly I wish they would rebrand those old controller for some of the modern systems.
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was larger, heftier, better built with better buttons. It was also $35 bucks. They dropped the price $5 bucks, and massively dropped the quality. It's still my favorite pad (the original Saturn Pad's a close second, but analog is too nice, and the Saturn analog pads were badly designed).
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The big problem I find with the 360 controller -- and honestly the only one -- is the D-Pad. It's a pain in the but to use. Very innacurate. I think for that reason alone I'd take a Dreamcast controller over the 360 one. Still, D-Pad asside, it's an amazing piece of work.
The Wii controller smashes all the others on many many games out there and they didn't even mention it?
Sure, it's not the best for all kinds of games, like you won't expect to play realistic boxing games on a 360/PS controller, but this looks to me very biased information, ie. advertising.
Come on! That list totally sucks. The GC controller is much better than the N64 one, and there's nothing better than the SNES controller. Ever. Why is the Wiimote out of the list? Not too many games? Pff. I call a fanboyism ranking.
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Ok, at the top end of the scale, I've got to agree with assessment the 360 controller is the best ever made. Prior to the 360's launch, I'd have pointed to the Xbox S-controller, which was well ahead of anything else in terms of shape, quality of build and buttons, weight balance and overall ergonomics. The only downside with the S-Controller was that the black and white face buttons were awkward and uncomfortable to use. The 360 controller corrects this flaw, essentially by converting those buttons into bumpers and also improves the weight balance still further. Range, reliability and ability to survive being thrown on the floor after Dead or Alive 4 drives me to my snapping point are all excellent.
The Dualshock 2 was also an excellent controller in its own way, despite being a little too small for comfort. It did a good job of doing absolutely everything a modern controller needs to with a minimum of fuss and bother. However, the pressure-sensitive function of the buttons could be extremely finnicky and was hard to use properly in games that demanded it (such as the Gran Turismo series). The Sixaxis is a big improvement in this respect, but... well... I'll come to the Sixaxis later.
Leaving the consoles aside for one moment, I'm going to get a bit retro for my final pick of "great" controllers and go back to the PC's Thrustmaster F-16. I had one of these eating up half my desk-space for many years and never found anything more fun to play flight-sims with. Sure, the customisation software was all DOS based and didn't work properly under Win 95 or later, but I still have very fond memories of this stick.
Now... the bad.
Top pick here... the Gamecube controller. Not in terms of sheer, outright awfulness - you can certainly find worse examples of that. But rather because this controller managed to be the only controller to "get it wrong" so badly in a generation where everybody else (including PC accessory manufacturers) seemed more or less able to agree on roughly how many buttons a controller should have and where they should be. One huge, stand-out flaw was the pathetic cable length, particularly unforgivable on a system so heavily geared towards party games. Shelling out extra for wireless controllers became effectively essential for anybody with a living room larger than a small cupboard. The right analogue stick wasn't even a proper stick - it was a stumped and malformed nub, which was no use whatsoever for gaming and made fpses on the cube a truly nasty proposition. The mis-shaped buttons, with the huge green blob and the tiny little kidney-beans around the edge meant that you were forever hitting A when you didn't mean to. All in all, the official Cube controller felt like a nasty, $5 third party accessory.
Also high on the list... the PSP's analogue stick. Gums up with dust far too easily and is not pleasant to use even after cleaning. The rest of the PSP interface is fine and many games avoid using the little stick, but this is definitely something for Sony to tackle in the next revision.
And now the "why weren't they includeds"
Basically, because while allegedly revolutionary (although the results of this "revolution" remain to be seen), the Wii-mote at best represents a very early and unpolished attempt at a new type of controller. Accuracy is questionable at best, especially during rapid movements. Less understandable, and harder to forgive, is the positioning of the buttons. If you want to use more than 2 buttons, then you are going to get sore fingers. Using the Wii-Mote for anything other than a "wave the wand around manically" game for any protracted period is deeply uncomfortable and cramps up my hand like nothing else I've ever tried. The 360 controller is a massively polished traditional product - as good as it's going to get for regular controllers for the forseeable future. That the Wii-mote fails to measure up is perhaps inevitable given how novel it is, but it still doesn't mean that it's as good as the 360 controller.
And the Sixaxis? Well..
OK. Here's my top 5.
5. NES joypad - Light, sturdy and a great digi-pad.
4. NEOGEO joypad - Second best non-analog pad. If you've never seen one you're a shithead.
3. Japanese Saturn joypad - Best non-analog pad.
2. GameCube controller - Ah, fuck you all. Everybody knows this is the best conventional analog pad.
1. Wiimote + Nunchuk - Don't like the Wii. Don't like the games ('cept TP). Nevertheless this is the most comfortable motherfucker around.
If you question any of these you're a fucking retard. Go jump off a bridge after you killed all of your friends and family members.
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Come on now, a little critical thinking will do wonders.
If you have the hands of a 6 year old kid, a controller like the NES or like the small/close buttons on a Game Boy / DS model will probably be perfect for you. If you have larger hands, something like the SNES controller might feel better.
There's also the issue of how you hold the controller. Some people like something that fits firmly into the palm of their hands. Others try to rest it by curling the 4th and 5th fingers around to give it support.
It's not "one size fits all." Multiple companies sell snap-on parts that make various Game Boy/DS models have a bigger base, so that people with larger hands or issues with mobility (arthritis, carpal tunnel, etc) can still use them without discomfort.
Personally? I absolutely loved the original Xbox controller. It fit comfortably into my hands, resting the sides in my palms, and I could still reach the buttons from there.
The PS2 controller, PS3 controller, the "S" controller, and even the 360 controller to some extent, makes my hands ache after a few hours of play because I have to rest the friggin' thing on my fingers instead. I'll probably buy a couple of old, broken original Xbox controllers soon and try to transplant the guts of a 360 controller into it just to fix that.
The Wii controller is a whole different ballgame - for most of the games, it's great. I'm getting that same issue with Paper Mario, however - it's just too thin to hold comfortably sideways while using the buttons.
If the game companies were smart, they'd market 2-3 different sizes of controller, and that way people could get the controller that fit them best rather than being forced to use the one crappy, small-sized-for-whiny-idiots-and-japanese-hands controller that comes with the system.
Personally, I've always rated the 6 button sega geneis controler high, with the snes controller a close second.
"If you expected the Wii's controller, you will be dissapointed. It's a brilliant piece of innovation, but there simply aren't enough games to judge it against the best controllers ever."
Then why exactly did they pick the DualShock 2 over the DualShock? The only feature the newer controller has over the latter is pressure-sensitive buttons, and I'd say there are fewer games that take advantage of that than there are in the Wii's library.
And the 2600 controller? They're not handing out these awards based on durability, are they?
I mean, it's pretty comfortable to just hold. But once I start playing games with it, it frustrates me at times. In particular, the shoulder buttons are way too stiff, and my fingers (which are somewhat arthritic) start hurting quickly in any game that makes heavy use of them. And then there's the Z button. Am I the only one who finds it very awkward to reach back and forth between the R button and the Z button? I can't stand it. Sure I could put my middle finger on the R button and keep my index finger on Z, but that just doesn't feel right on the GC controller, whereas on the Dual Shock it feels just right to have my index fingers on L1 and R1 and my middle fingers on L2 and R2. They also take much less force to push. I find it the most comfortable controller overall, with maybe Dreamcast second (I prefer the Dreacast's D-pad).
The 360 does have a nice controller, but the D-Pad is very difficult to use. The Playstation Dual Shock controller is pretty much the same thing as the 360, except the D-Pad is much more accurate. I would say that since the Dual Shock came out, all non-Wii controllers have just been a variation of the same design.
Seriously, these are great, sure they look a bit like the SNES and PSX controller, but the buttons are much better.
I just hate it that MS forced me to buy a new gamepad because they broke support for the Gamepad Pro in XP SP2.
My gravis gamepad, even though over 10 years old, are still in perfect condition.
http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/detail/nes_m ax.html
Amazing, great form factor, and turbo buttons.
To me, stock wireless controllers are the worst thing to happen.
Micro$oft screwed it up by only including three USB ports on the 360 (forcing you to go wireless to play Halo with 3 friends).
Sony screwed it up by not having swappable batteries and putting in an absolutely crappy battery in the sealed controller; my PS3 routinely has battery life issues (starts losing signal even while reporting 2 "bars"... WTF is with only having 3 bars to indicate battery capacity left anyways?) if I try to go wireless for more than about 6 hours.
To me, the best innovation has been the move to standard USB connectors. I once spent $35 on a good adaptable controller-extender set (it's one 6' cord with swappable plugs for whatever system, Xbox/PS2/GC, you're using). Now, I can get a 6' extension that's compatible with the 360 and PS2 for around $3, because it's a standard commodity USB extender. Since my couch is about 10 feet from the consoles, that's just about right.
On the Wii, I survive by using a set of rechargeable NiMH batteries. But the Wii controller's wacky enough that a corded version would probably not work.
The Wii Virtual Console really needs some controllers substantially similar to the MegaDrive/Genesis and N64 controllers. The remote alone works great for the NES and TG16 experience (and SMS, if they ever get around to adding it), and I daresay the Classic Controller is a better SNES controller than the original, but I'm not entirely happy with the mapping of buttons and controls from substantially different controller form factors so far.
Oh, and I'd really like to be able to use buttons Y and B on NES and TG16 games on the Classic Controller instead of B and A.
I'll take this generation by generation, as it's much easier to compare...
First, I'll have to choose the NES and SNES controllers. The NES controller isn't very comfortable nowadays, but it did what it needed to do back then. And the SNES controller is just great, maybe my favorite, definitely my favorite no-joystick controller. It's small but it's comfortable, it has plenty of buttons, but nothing confusing. The Genesis controller just felt plasticky and I never really liked the three button setup.
For the Saturn/N64/PSX generation, this is kind of a toss up. None of them were all that great, they all had their faults, at least to me. I didn't like the original Saturn controller, but I did like the analog one they released with Nights. It was huge though. I probably used the N64 one the most this generation, but the three pronged design just didn't work. I really liked the Z button though, that was pretty innovative, but necessary as a replacement for the left shoulder. The N64 controller used a button setup similar to the Saturn controller, but it worked better because the A and B buttons were larger than the C buttons, immediately allowing your fingers to know where they are located on the pad. The original PS1 controller was just a SNES ripoff, but I hated the D-Pad, still do. The Dual-Shock was much better, and it's my emulator controller on my PC, and I love it. It's not the most comfortable but it's very functional.
Next up, Gamecube/PS2/Xbox. Gamecube was great, but the second joystick seemed worthless at times. It was just a little nub instead of the joystick on the left, which made it feel awkward, why they never fixed this, I don't know. The Wavebird was a classic controller though, simply for the wireless that was perfect. PS2 controller was just a black Dual-Shock with analog buttons, whatever, still good. Xbox Fatty was hilariously bad, at least for me. The face buttons were almost sharp and pointed, and the buttons were arranged in an odd fashion. The controller was simply too big for me, probably what kept me away from the Xbox for a few years. The S-Controller though was awesome. Definitely one of my all time favorites. Very comfortable and everything is laid out nicely, except for the black and white buttons (I never could remember which one was which).
Finally, this generation. I like the Wii controller, if only the Numchuck was wireless. The cord between them is sometimes awkward and intrusive. The Wiimote itself feels nice, but is limited on buttons, but I guess that's the point. We'll see how it does down the road. I love the accelerometers but the built in speaker is incredibly tinny and loud. When I played through Zelda I had to turn the stupid thing down all the way because Midna was so incredibly loud. Xbox 360 controller probably is the best one out there. Does everything the original S-controller did plus moved those dang black and white buttons to the bumpers where they're comfortable and make sense. I have never played a PS3, but from what I hear, the controller is very light without the rumble. Don't know if this is good or bad until I play it.
All in all, my favorites are the SNES, Dual-Shock, and Xbox 360.
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Ever since the PS2 (that seems to be the watershed for me), the damn things have become stupidly unwieldy. I hate the analogue sticks on the PS2 Dual Shock. Not per se, but they just make the whole thing so cramped. As for shoulder buttons... one each side is permissable, but what idiot decided TWO could fit on there comfortably? The damn thing feels more like a chinese finger-trap than a fun controller.
I also don't like the 4-button diamond layout that started with the SNES controller and has persisted. The thumb has one comfortable axis to play with and keep uniform button-pressing movement - side to side. Thus the three-buttons-in-a-row structure is far better.
Certainly large amounts of buttons are more easily accessible on arcade games (I've never had a problem with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc), but as you're using your fingers, palm-down to access them, that's far better than trying to hit 4 - or even 6! As per the Saturn for instance - with one thumb.
I play PC games more than console games, so I'm familiar with using a good 15-20 buttons to play Counter strike, World of Warcraft, what have you - but the layout of a keyboard is so much better for that than a cramp-inducing controller. It's not the complexity of what's involved, but the fact that your most useful digits are tucked away gripping the controller, and you're expected to hit 12 buttons and 3 directional pads/sticks with your two thumbs that is dumb.
Having said that, I love the Wiimote. Aside from the jumping-about-waving aspect, its design limits you by necessity to not using more than 2-3 buttons, which is great. The Nunchuk could use one mess "shoulder button", but it's forgivable.
There is a cute "family tree" of controllers available here: http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/
DREAMCAST!!!! Anything but the PlayStation controller. I hated that stupid thing.
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Particularly with the Dual Shock and the Atari stick. Let me break it down.
/laugh) took this controller and made it very fun to play. Swing a golf club, shoot a pool cue and even go fishing with a realistic real (I jumped to Twilight Princess) and you've got a fine controller. You had fewer buttons to play with, just the motion of your wrists and arms could accomplish so much and it even allows someone who's left handed to swap everything around and have it feel very natural. Yes, it hasn't been out for a year yet, so I'll give CNET the benefit there, but I'm interested in seeing where this goes.
Xbox 360 controller: Doesn't feel bad. Pretty good in my book, but seems kinda small at some points. Though, I wish CNET would check their facts. This is not the first standard wireless controller. If I recall correctly, certain Gamecubes were released with Wavebirds as standard. Also, I would hardly call this controller original, it really incorporates tons of other things from other controllers, though the headset jack is quite interesting.
Playstation 2 Dual Shock Analogue Controller (damn that's a mouthful): I'll have to admit it wasn't bad. Though, once again I come back with checking facts. The analogue control stick wasn't first put on pad by Nintendo, it was Sega with the Dreamcast. Really I think this controller was a copy of Nintendo when they came back with the first force feedback device for a controller (Hint: Rumble Pack). What really irked me about this controller was how flat it was. The buttons didn't really seem to jut out of the controller, making them easy to miss sometimes.
Nintendo 64: Now I liked this controller, but it had one important flaw which I couldn't get used to and this is because the control pad and the L button required you to take your hand off the stick and move it to the left side. Granted, a lot of games only used one or the other, but the minor flaw was there. One of the fun things to exploit with this was playing Perfect Dark with two controllers, though it was still somewhat flawed there. This was fixed in the Gamecube controller. (See below)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Good controller, not the easiest to hold, but still worthwhile.
Atari 2600: Um...what? A controller with one huge analog joystick that often requires a large amount of strength to move and one button? I have to disagree here. It's too big for one, hard to move around when you're four years old (I started playing games at an early age) and finally it's impossible to use by someone who's left handed. The button itself is on the left side and I use a stick with my left. It just doesn't work here.
Gamecube Controller: Yes. Just yes. It's like an N64 controller done right. Get rid of the left side additional and make it integrated with the main body of the controller. The sizing and design made it comfortable in big hands as well as small hands. The addition of analoge shoulder buttons made for interesting levels of gameplay, particularly with something like Rouge Squadron II: Rouge Leader, because it allowed you to vary your speed more easily. A lot of people found the button design weird, but when you got down to holding it, it felt very natural.
Wii Remote and Nunchuck: Another fine work. It allowed for gameplay that extended beyond pressing buttons. Wii Sports and Wii Play (do you?
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I agree with them. The 360 controller is the best! Not only is it comfortable, it puts the left joystick right where your thumb naturally goes when holding it, unlike the PS2/3 controllers, which seem to emphasize the D-Pad a little more.
Besides the things you mention, I feel the wiimote is the best by far because it has the potential to change the gaming demographic, perhaps radically.
Every female member of my extended family played the atari 2600 for a couple hours in the 80s and that was pretty much the last gaming they did. Every one of them is now addicted to the family wii -- and all we have is the Sports disc.
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I've always found that the Gamecube controller was the most comfortable for me. Just the way it fit in my hands was perfect. To the contrary is the Playstation controller. My hands always got cramped from the way my fingers would have to splay out to get all four of the shoulder buttons.
The NES Max was by far my favorite controller of all time. It was super comfortable. It fit my hands perfectly, the buttons were all in the perfect place (including turbo buttons for A and B), and the cycloid for the thumb made controlling games super easy for me. I used the NES Advantage on several occasions, and never did like it. I didn't like the oversized buttons, and hated controlling games with the joystick (although I grew up on the Atari 2600 joystick, so its not like I had something against joysticks).
I felt so bad when, in 1997, my cat chewed through the cord of my NES Max. The controller was in perfect condition, despite thousands of hours of play (I always wash my hands before playing and never eat sticky snack foods when playing; I see so many controllers where the buttons are all stuck and the controller sticks won't move in certain directions and it really bugs me). Anyway, I was fortunate enough to find a used NES Max at a video game retailer. The controller itself was in bad condition, but I bought it anyway for something like $1.99, opened it up, removed the cord, opened up my NES Max, and replaced the chewed through cord with the one from the used one, put it back together and it was good as new. It still works perfectly as of the last time I hooked up my NES, which was about a year ago. I've played with most controllers on most system since then, and I've never found a controller I love as much as the NES Max.
World of Anime
The Epyx 500XJ. Microswitchez, bitchez!
...but this is about serious man-gaming -- there's no time for moving your arms when your thumbs are tapping this fast. Give me a fucking break. Give me two. For one, I'm pretty tired of this attitude, there is nothing manly about sitting on the couch and playing video games. Just give that up right now. I don't care how many aliens you're eviscerating with hot plasma or how many game-winning hail-marys you're throwing up on that screen, it's all fantasy and in the real world you're just wasting time better spent on getting ahead in the world. Grow up and realize it isn't about being grown up, or macho for cripes sake. It's a video game, a toy. Nothing wrong with that. And second, if you're talking about FPSes, and you are, it's obvious to anyone coming from a PC background that mouse/keyboard kills thumbsticks any day. Like, Mike Tyson vs. Terri Schiavo kills. In fact, that little scenario also illustrates the gaping chasm between using your fingers and using your arms in play. I can't play Wii without breaking a sweat, I could physically break a 360 without sweating. I think I read somewhere that sweating is manly.All that said, I still prefer the original xbox controller, if we're talking straight up old-fashioned non-motion sensing controller. It's a solid little design, the perfect evolution of all traditional controller technology up to that point. Doesn't cramp my hands like the PS controllers, has a good weight, and damn it has long wires. I'll take long wires, no batteries over wireless, "ah shit I'm outta batteries, well I think I'll go play outside" any day. On the 360, I welcome the extra shoulder buttons, but they neutered the triggers (which were better bigger, especially for racers) and they really screwed something up with the shape of the controller. It wants to leave my hands for some reason. The new d-pad sucks too. It's a d-pad! Stop melting d-pads into one monolithic piece of plastic, they're meant to give a solid tactile feeling of 4 separate directions!
I normally don't complain about the writing of articles presented here, and this is a contentious subject for gamers, but this article is just insulting. c|net is just blowing kisses at Microsoft. Thanks for reminding me why I don't read that rag site.
If you are going to rate the best all time ocontroller, should you not rate all controllers from the past present and future. One can rate the best al time dinosaur or all time greatest roman ruler because none are contained in the future. One can not rate teh best all time controller because someone could make a better one next week.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Am I the only one to notice they are in Chronological order, so the newest must merely be the best... Atari 2600, SNES, N64, PS2, X360... Hmmm maybe they just asked people which controller was their favorite from each generation and compiled it that way assuming that the controls from the current generation are the best that there are... maybe they are wrong, I know a number of people who would say the dual shock is the cream of the crop, I would have to disagree with them my personal fav is the Wavebird, the placement of the Analog sticks was just right for me, honestly the first analog stick should have replaced the Dpad on the dualshock as it did on the Cube controller and further the Wavebird. But that's an argument that will be had many a time, but the fact that while they may have said that it is the best of all times, I think that is because of the way they ordered the controllers, in fact I would have rated the controllers they chose to use in a slightly different order 1. Dual Shock 2. X-360 3. SNES 4. N64 5. Atari but in anycase that could just be me so meh *shrugs*
Where's that cap to the Decanter of Endless water???
If it weren't for the awful texture on the analog stick and the "crab finger" syndrome that you get from the triggers after a night of Crazy Taxi. I was rather found of the Wavebird though, actually. The added weight and filled in areas made it feel a lot more comfortable than the vanilla Gamecube controller. Neither of the two controllers listed have rumble features either. Always a plus! :)
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
I can't believe no one has mentioned the DDR mat. Anyone who doesn't think this is the best controller of all time has never watched a female use one.
MegaDrive/Genesis 6button joystick.
Its simple,and very easy to operate(especially when you use millisecond twitch skills).
except the mode button:its really badly designed and breaks often.
And for PC:
A properly mapped keys on keyboard(with extra short retype delay) would provide the same or better gaming expirience.
How did that monstrosity of a controller get third place? I used to get hand ache and callus's if I spent more than an hour playing that controller and I wasn't the only person I know who suffered problems with it.
SNES controller over the Mega Drives? The SNES controller was ok, but the Mega Drives was built in your hand shape and when your ten you can hit all the buttons without having to re-adjust your grip. But I'm guessing it comes down to nostalga in the SNES's controller.
Personnally I'd have the PS2 controller first, its comfortable very versitile and just a nice controller I think the PS3 controller is a backwards step (wifi good but its too light.) But thats a personal preference thing.
Seriously did people like the N64 controller, the way you would have to completly readjust your grip to go from the analogue stick to digital, the way the c buttons were out of a normal person's thumbs reach, the fact that digital play removed the ability to use the Z button. It was never a good controller just a copy cat of the PS2 one.
It's also way more comfortable than any of the others.
wrong!
.... hands down.
The PS2 Controller is the best
This has been decided for a while.
The sega saturn controller is almost exactly like the dreamcast controller.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The Quickshot 2 (http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joy015.jpg).
Now get off my lawn, you damn kids!
F_T
Remember the "advanced" controllers for the original Nintendo, the NES Max and NES Advantage? The Advantage was the huge, arcade-style controller. I never had one, but friends did. I didn't like it. What I did like, and own, was the NEX Max.
Now, the thing I hated about it was that "sliding" left thumb control wasn't very precise. But I fixed that by taking it apart and actually inserting the D-pad from a regular NES controller. A real simple hack that gave me the customary precision of the standard NES controller, the more "natural" and comfortable shape of the Max, as well as the all-too-important turbo buttons.
Nowdays, I like the standards Playstation2 controller to be the best. It just feels natural in my hands.
I don't see any reason for the Atari 2600 to even be on the list other than nostalgia. That wasn't a particularly good controller, I didn't even like it at the time. It was too stiff to allow for fine control, not that it mattered much for games back then.
The SNES controller I agree was quite good. But I tend to think the 6-button Genesis controller was superior. That controller fit the hands better and I've always had a tendency to prefer buttons on the face of the controller.
The simplicity of the original NES and Sega Master System controllers made them great. Except that the squared off edges could make them uncomfortable during extended use and they could benefit from being a bit thicker.
I never much liked the N64 controller; I think the Gamecube controller was superior. If this article discussed innovative controllers then perhaps the N64 controller deserved a mention, just like the Wii controller. But this is supposed to be a list about the best controllers.
The PS2 controller is very good. I think that one deserves to be near the top of the list. I liked it enough that I got a USB adapter to allow me to use one on the PC. The only criticism I have is that it has a few too many buttons. I specifically think the 4 shoulder buttons are a bit much.
The Xbox360 controller is also good, however, there's something about it I don't much like. It could be aesthetics.
I think the DS touch screen deserved mention. It allows for all kinds of functionality we haven't really seen in the past, at least not on consoles. I still find FPS games like Metroid Hunters a bit awkward to play, but otherwise it's great.
None of the game pad controllers work for me due to my physical disabilities. I have four fingers, lack of thumbs, and can't hold them up in mid air. I like those Atari 2600 joysticks because they were simple, light, small, and used on table/floor.
These days, I just don't play consoles and stick with computers (2-3 buttons mice + non-Natural keyboards).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The Playstation 2 controller is truly the greatest controller of all time. It's got the analogue sticks in a natural location, the buttons feel right, there's no problems switching from digital to analogue... everytime I buy a PC controller, I look to get it closest I can to a PS2 controller. Even the 360 controller fails in some regards, due to the fact that a lot of games read the back shoulder buttons as analogue. That screws up controls in some games like Pro Evolution.
Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
when I'm in the middle of a game, and the battery acts up, I don't want to have to take the fucking thing apart to change a battery.
I find the GameCube controller to be the single worst controller in modern console history. The Jaguar controller was worse because it just had too much crap, but the GC controller loses because of its design. I hated the many different shaped buttons, I hated the placement of them, I couldn't use it without my hands hurting.
It is the biggest single reason that I never bought a GameCube game that was available on any other system.
Yeah, many of you will laugh, but I still love the Dreamcast controller. Those analog trigger buttons had just the right size and resistance for my liking.
I can't take this list seriously.
Any list of "top" console controllers needs to include the Power Glove
The Saturn Analog pad has a shorter stick and larger "thumb dish" which I find much more comfortable than the current designs from MS and Sony. Also, it's D-pad and face buttons are far superior.
I'm a bit frustrated with modern controllers and games which are shoehorned onto them.
Take the 360 pad for instance, it's well made and very good all around aside from the unusable d-pad. Now go play Halo or Gears of War with it. There are too many overlapping actions between the left analog + d-pad and right analog + face buttons.
Using a claw grip (Arch your right wrist back so that you can activate the face buttons with your index finger allowing your thumb to remain glued to the right analog) can alleviate this to some extent at the price of comfort as the 360 pad certainly isn't design with the grip in mind.
The most obvious solution is for console manufacturers and developers to do away with restrictions on which devices we can attach to the now standard USB ports on our consoles. Beyond that, the "pad" is overdue for its next evolution. Motion sensitivity will probably become a standard feature much like analog sticks and later rumble but much more is needed.
the following things:
- Fail to respond (push button, see result 3 seconds later)
- Give erroneous "lost connection to console" reports
These ONLY happen after 5-6 hours of gameplay - with a freshly charged controller, it behaves fine. The fault lies in Sony's crappy construction of their controllers. They could easily have put in an access panel to remove and swap the battery, but no - they want you to waste $50+ on buying a whole new controller when your battery permanently dies, 2 years from now. Fuck that. I just run the damn thing wired all the time now.
But that defeats the purpose of having a wireless controller, now doesn't it?
This is one thing the Nintendorks software writers need to fix for the next Wii software update: include a goddamn calibration routine.
I have a 50" screen. I was getting really annoyed at how twitchy Zelda was, how twitchy the general Wii response for visuals were. If I pointed to the edge of my screen, the mouse zoomed WAY off to the side.
Then, inside Zelda, I found this awesome feature. It let you select your screen type (4:3 or 16:9), then it displayed a yellow bar. You lined up your IR bar ("sensor bar" my ass, it's a bar of plastic with a set of IR LEDs in it) with the center of it, sized up the yellow bar so it matched the IR bar, and the Zelda interface adjusted itself. Now, in my Zelda games, if I point to a spot, the little cursor goes right where I'm pointing.
NO other Wii game has implemented this yet. Red Steel, had they had this in, would have actually been playable. Trauma Center: Second Opinion would be playable. Wii Play would make a lot more sense in Duck Hunt mode.
Nor have they done us the simple courtesy of pushing a simple recalibration routine out over the system software, which would stop any other software company from having to do so.
Bad Nintendorks. No Cookie.
All game reviews need to list the old stuff to establish "Geek Cred."
But the Atari Controller depicted REALLY hurts the hands, it had no thought of ergonomics. I hated the gamecube controller so the best controller of the last generation for me was the Dreamcast controller, it was BIG but light and comfortable and the vmu spots were a great feature.
...I think we can agree that the WORST controller is the n64 monstrosity. No hate for the console, but I can't fathom why they decided it was a good idea to create a controller where the analog stick was a ridged piece of hard plastic, and to design the controls around the fact that you can only hit 3/4ths of the buttons from either of the proper ways to hold it. I swear, it's the only controller that has given me blisters. (BTW, my vote for best controller goes to the Dual Shock. Basically just an SNES controller with analog sticks and rumble.)
I love the comments here about how "awful" the GameCube's controller was, and how the Xbox360's is the "best ever."
:^P
;^)
Have you looked at the two of them and done a comparison?
Excepting for the layout of the four front panel buttons, they're identical. In that difference, I'd say the Gamecube's front panel layout is SUPERIOR because it allows you to perform button combos (hold more than one button easily, while tapping the other) and can arrange three button fighter games in a linear fashion (B-A-X), and is thus more flexible to a greater variety of games.
The four corner layout of the 360 is, after all, just a throwback to the SNES controller layout.
I've had the pleasure of using both controllers, and they're *both* great controllers, but give credit where credit is due.
The only problem the standard GC controller was that it was designed for Japanese hands, and that's more a problem with my hands, not the controller. There are oversized controllers available with the same layout that work great for me. The WaveBird also fixed that problem quite handily, and if you went wireless on your GameCube, you'll understand why that controller is my recommendation for the "best controller ever."
OTOH, XBox360's controller is typical Microsoft. They're co-opting someone *else*'s innovation from the last generation (Vista Widgets anyone?), and claiming the "best in show" for it. Look instead to the leader that *invented* that controller, the one whose present innovation was unfairly cut from this review as "too new for greatness," and not the copycat company that play tested and perfected an *old* design, tuned for a hardcore North American audience, before you claim it's the "best ever."
They had to have the "best ever" to base it on in the first place. When you play with the 360, you're playing with a hybrid GC/SNES controller fine-tuned to larger hands, nothing more, nothing less. You're playing with Nintendo's brilliance.
Giving MS the award for what amounts to a "first post" is hardly equitable and, knowing C-Net, it's probably just sycophantic.
--
Toro
No, the Saturn 3-d Analog controller is almost exactly like the Dreamcast controller without slots for VMU or vibro. When I got one of those for Panzer Dragoon Saga and SFIII, I stopped using the regular Saturn controller. I loved the analog/digital on/off switch to go from 3-d games to 2-d games. It did have some sort of upgrade slot on the back that was never used afaik.
The original Saturn controller is almost exactly like a 6-button Genesis controller with R and L buttons in the back. Any of those beat the SNES controller hands down.
My favorite controller of all time was my EPYX joystick for my C64, It sat in your left hand with a button on the side right by your index finger, then you used your right hand to control the joystick. I have never experienced anything as ergonomic since then.
"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything."
With the big shiny x-box symbol in the middle, weighing in at around two-gamescubes-duct-taped-together? Awesome!
"Now I'm seriously serious!" - Serious Sam
I basically agree with everything you said. However, I wish they made the new 360 controllers in two sizes like they did with the original Xbox controllers. I have large hands and it really is much more comfortable to use the larger controller rather than the S one.
I always preferred the Sega Saturn controller to the SNES
I can buy that. In particular for Street Fighter it's great but just slightly sub-optimal compared to the 6-face-button setup.
Genesis directional pad was a bit soft or I'd also put it above the SNES controller.
Okay, now you're on crack. 3 face buttons, no shoulder buttons. The SNES was sub-optimal for SF and MK, but playing those games on the Genesis was a joke because of the controller.
The enemies of Democracy are
The standard NES controller.
Because nostalgia always defeats improved design.
Also Nintendo thumb. I mean, c'mon. How cool is that?
Waiting for Warhammer Online.
I'm not sure how it would rate against the following point though:
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
There was a 6 button Genesis controller, which frankly was quite nice. I still have one around, the D-Pad just sort of floats there; it's very responsive. I particularly like the way Sega rounded the Genesis controllers to fit better into one's hands. The sharper angles on the NES and SNES controllers were rather uncomfortable to hold in comparison. The Wii's remote seems to have fallen back in that direction a bit, but it's not so thin. I haven't noticed the same cramping that came with the NES and SNES controllers, so that (along with not needing to hold both hands close together in most games) may be the reason.
GPL: Free as in will
The Dual Shock is overall a fine controller, and while no I don't find it as comfortable as the GC controller (it's tapered handles make it hard to hold compared to more bulb-shaped handles), I'd still give it a place in esteemed game controller history.
It does suffer from what I consider to be a huge design flaw: The favored position of the left thumb is occupied by the d-pad, and the left analog stick is placed downward where it is harder to reach and the flexing of the thumb means it's painful to use after long periods. And when my thumb starts to ache, my pain turns to hate because this painfull situation only exists because Sony was too conservative to design the controller right to begin with, and too conservative to break from the "tradition" and fix the controller when they had a chance.
The original PSX controller was digital only. After the N64's release heralded the rise of the analog stick, Sony wanted to make an analog controller for the PSX -- with two analog sticks, for some evolutionary innovation. However because all the existing games used the d-pad, and because Sony wasn't sure that the analog stick would really take off and get used by developers, they put it in it's awkward, second-class position relative to the d-pad. At the time this was probably prudent for them.
By the time the PSX generation was coming to a close, it was clear that the analog controller was a hit and the d-pad was a relic that, while still useful, would not be the primary input for the majority of games in the future. Yet for the PS2 they decided to keep the exact same layout with the d-pad in the primary position, for no reason I can fathom other than that they were scared to mess with what had worked before. It had become a "tradition" of sorts to have a controller based around 2d gaming with 3d bolted on. A sacred tradition of uncomfortable controllers, yay.
They wouldn't even mess with this tradition for the PS3. Even when they decided to get "creative" with the banana controller, it still had exactly the same layout as the dual shock, only now with a shape that makes my hands hurt just looking at it. Everyone hated this controller, not because it was something different, but because it was so similar the changes they did make seemed pointless and stupid. If you want to be different, but are too scared to actually do something different, then it's a good bet that you should do nothing at all.
And thus we have the current situation of 3 generations of essentially identical controllers from Sony, all with the exact same horrible design flaw. The initial burst of innovation in the dual shock has never been repeated. This is why it's the Xbox360 that gets recognized for having an excellent controller which actually improves over the decade-old dual-analog design.
The enemies of Democracy are
Regardless of the failure of the Virtual Boy, it had a remarkably comfortable controller. With its Start / Select buttons shaped like the round (and very usable) A & B buttons, dual control crosses, nicely placed trigger buttons (L & R, also round), and the comfortable handle grips, it's a shame that this system didn't last long. Sure, the Virtual Boy had several serious flaws, but its controller wasn't one of them.
Wii Virtual Console + An Actual Arcade Stick (with GC adapter). There's no WVC game you won't be able to play, and play well.
I especially love the lopsided control sticks on the Xbox! I mean come on the Wii, what they hell are they thinking, built-in accelerometers, IR sensors, speakers, and status LEDs, that's old news.
If they'd push it into the system firmware, then all people would have to do is calibrate once, and then only recalibrate again if they moved the TV or adjusted the bar somehow. You could even tune it side to side, to compensate for an off-center IR bar.
Plus, it would then fix the older games that didn't ship with calibration.
Although it claims to be "The five best game console controllers of all time", it is more like, "Five inflential or important controllers except the Wii". You cannot argue that these are the best controllers. Every aspect of most of these have already been improved upon.
You know what everyone says about opinions, but here's mine. The 5 best controllers of all time:
5. Nintendo Wavebird. A little quirky and heavy but totally usable. Beats the hell out of an Atari 2600 joystick, that's for sure.
4. PS2 Dualshock. A bit too small to be rated higher - the 360's controller is much more comfortable to hold. But the overall feel is much better than any controller to come before it. The PS3's controller is a downgrade, with no rumble ability and a quirky roll sensor.
3. Guitar Hero guitar. This controller is specialized but it has a fantastic feel, takes major abuse and keeps working perfectly (millions of strums!) and just looks damn cool. It is a visceral experience, the controller helps with the suspension of disbelief that really helps you get into the game and feel like a real guitar player.
2. XBox 360 controller. What more can be said about this. It's one great-feeling, easy-to-use controller. For playing traditional games, there is none better.
1. Wii controller (nunchuck + remote). Redefines video game control. Nobody can argue that this won't have a profound effect on future console design. Sucks for traditional games, but in 10 years, will anyone remember that?
When 2D fighting games were all the rage, Sega released a 6-button controller to support Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and their own Eternal Champions game. The buttons were A,B,C,X,Y,Z (and of course, START).
The controller actually had a 7th button, called "Mode", which was used to force the controller to function as a 3-button controller (A=X, B=Y, C=Z) for a few old games that freaked when booted with a 6-button controller plugged in (Ms. PacMan, for example).
The 6-button controller was the new default button sceme, even appearing on the Nomad portable.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
What're you gonna manipulate that joystick with, your nose?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
If we're allowed to go with third party controllers, the Logitech Cordless Action Controller for the PS2 is hands down my favorite. They fixed up the d-pad to make it smoother for slide movements on action games, and the grips in back are much more comfortable than the original. The wireless has great range, and the battery life is something like 200+ hours with rumble turned off. The only downside is it can be a pain to get it to sync with the receiver.
there were two that were ultimates.
The Hammerhead FX (second revision with USB, the first had a D-pad that was way to ridged and tight) gave you everything you needed, for any game; D-pad, two analogs, six face buttons (GREAT for six-button arcade fighting titles), two shoulder buttons and two back triggers. It was my gaming pad for 90% of the MAME library as well as for NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, and PSX emulation.
For something that needs a flight controller, you can't go better than the Airstik from the sadly-deceased VrStandard corporation. Light as a feather, didn't have tons of buttons but had enough, on-the-fly switch between 3 sensitivity modes, and will actually still plug in to the default Vista drivers and run flawlessly. How many top-of-the-line sticks do you know that can run on any system's default drivers and run flawlessly?
Sadly, both of the companies are dead. VRStandard killed themselves trying to push 3D glasses and went under during the switch to Windows 2000 when the Win3D company (who'd been their outsource partners for 2000 drivers) went under. Good luck finding drivers for the VRJoy headsets these days - even the independent guys haven't bothered to update them and nobody seems to have archived the older ones.
Interact got bought out by MadCatz (well, the Gameshark stuff anyways) and the rest of the old product lines got dumped completely.
If I could get a wireless Duke for my 360, with shoulder buttons replacing black/white, I'd buy four tomorrow. The 360 controller is definitely a big step up from last gens tiny controllers (dual shock, gamecube, xbox s-controller), but it's still nowhere near as great as the duke.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
To me, the best game controller is one whose controls are well-positioned, reliably responsive, and require very little force to depress.
The xbox360's D-pad is pretty stiff (takes excessive force to depress) and doesn't respond as reliably as it should. Try playing that Street Fighter collection XBOX game on a 360's D-pad and you'll see.
I think the controller that was the absolute best for its time was SEGA's 6-button genesis controller. The D-pad on that thing was the best D-pad I've ever used -- incredibly responsive, very easy to depress, and coated in a rubbery non-slip grip. And it used a real six-button layout (like the Street Fighter 2 arcade machines did) rather than the goofy shoulder-button layout that the SNES controller used.
I think shoulder buttons are a bad idea in general because they are too easily accidentally depressed because they are placed where your fingers naturally hold the controller along the top anyway -- this is especially a problem with portables like the DS Lite.
As for the best "somewhat current gen" controller, I'd nominate the PS2 Dual Shock 2 controllers. Those things are awesome. Not the best D-pad, but decent, and the shoulder buttons are excusable because you've got the little handles to hold onto the controller with, thus freeing up your index fingers from holding the controller. I use two of them with a little DualJoy USB adaptor from from Lik-Sang as my primary game controllers for my PC.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
party then.
If you're willing to chip in by bringing in the mega-pack of AA's we'll need, that is (face it, the Play & charge cord doesn't help when you're out of plugs).
I know the theory on why "stock wireless controllers" are supposed to be grand. I also know where they fall flat: extended play. If you're having to use a charge cable more than 50% of the time to keep the battery in a usable state, you might as well just have a wired controller.
wouldn't have been so annoying?
Seriously. Goldeneye had you aiming with the stick, and moving with the "C-pad" as they called it. Would it have been that hard to flip it around?
I agreed with all of their examples except the 2600 joystick. That's THE worst. It hurt your hands, with its lack of ergonomics... The stick was stiff, the rubber covering quickly would rip right off... It sucked sucked sucked! That's why people went out and bought the Wico Command Control bat-handle joystick instead. Epyx XJ 500 was a close second to the Wico, thanks to its ergonomics (some don't like the "clickiness" though).
The "Enterprise" controller from the Saturn release of Nights: Into Dreams was one of the most comfortable controllers I had felt up to that point. I think it influenced the Dreamcast controller heavily and therefore the XBOX Duke, S, and 360 controllers. Check it out on wikipedia
I just love how the article tells us "For starters, it was the first wireless pad to come as standard." then show a picture of a controller which has something at least very similar to a wire protruding out the back. Anyways, I find the 360 controller to be very comfortable myself and usable for long periods of time. The only problem I have with it is how easy it is to get dirty. Dirt seems to be attracted to its sleek, white design.
Also, the N64 controller shouldn't even be on that list, imo. I rank it as one of the worst controllers I've ever used... I should never, ever, ever, ever look at a controller and have my first thought be, "How the hell am I supposed to hold the damn thing?"
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Not simply because of my own personal preference, but there was a lot more thought that went into it than any other controller to date... there are some extremely thoughtfull design decisions that went into it to make it much more immediate than other controllers of the time. It's not perfect, as I can see room for improvement, but it simply does a few things better than any other controller:
Button shape:
This is the main reason why I feel the controller outperforms all others. Each button is skulpted differently, with a different size and shape, so that your thumb immediately has tactile feedback as to which button performs which action. About 5 minutes into a game, it's very rare to hit the wrong button or for their to be a delay in time between wanting to perform an action, and remembering which button to press. Where-as, on the PS2 and the XBox, I find myself hitting wrong buttons all the time, especially buttons across from each other (the human brain is able to distinguish up and down much more easilly than left and right). Each button shape also represents the function and amount of use of each action. The largest button is always the action button, it being the most tied to direct actions, with the smaller B button for secondary, but commonly used actions (jumping, etc.), while the more oddly shaped X and Y buttons are for more specialty actions and commands.
3-Shoulder Buttons:
This is probably the most controversial aspect of the controller. Many times, it's pointed that Nintendo would have been facing a lawsuit with Sony had they put four shoulder buttons on the controller. None-the-less, what resulted from this decision was pure perfection. Having an odd number of shoulder buttons makes the controller aesymmetrical, and this makes it more immediate for the brain to interpret which action to perform. As I mentioned earlier, the brain has a difficult time distinguishing left and right, and sometimes has to stop and think about which is which (even if you're not dyslexic). But having a different number of buttons on each side of the controller makes each side "feel" distinctly different, and thus the brain can access that side of the controller much more quickly. Now, the z-button itself is a dog, it could have been made much more robustly, could have been given pressure sensitivity, and made bigger, but still have it be very differently constructed than the R button.
Different A-Stick design:
This isn't as much of a deal, since their position is so outragiously different, it would be difficult to accidently switch the two... but it still shows that there was a lot of psychology that went into the design. The A-stick shows a very traditional design, color, and shape, where-as the oddly shaped C-Stick very clearly represents specialty actions such as camera control.
Now, for irgonomics and basic robustness, the 360 controller quite possibly comes out on top, although besides the 360 controller, I think the GCN controller is still very robust and irgonomic compared to it's other counterparts. But from a psychological perspective, and the perspective of design philosophy, the GameCube controller has a much better handle on the neurological process of connecting desired actions action with button pressess.
It's not perfect, there are a few things that could have been improved:
- The D-Pad is attrocious... not that it ever gets used
- The Z-button is slightly too small, to thin, and could have been given pressure sensitivity
- The face buttons could have been given pressure sensitivity
- The wings could have been a slightly thicker
- Addition of a select button
Unfortunately, the odd button shape and color-coded layout makes it look like a toy to some. This is unfortunate since both of these things were not done to represent a child-like appearence, rather than to achieve immediate visual and tactile recognition of different buttons.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Any that does not link to the last page.
The N64 let you play any type of game comfortably, allowing you to put your hands in position for the types of controls used in the game. It was by far the most versatile, and the most comfortable controller ever made up to that time. Discounting the Wii (as they so unfairly have), I agree the Cube would have to be the best.
BTW, I started gaming with Pong potentiometers.
Please tell me someone else's mom bought them the u-force after you cried for it! That thing was awesome actually swinging at something in Mike Tyson's Punch Out, but try playing Mario Brothers with it once and really screw yourself up.
8-way OR 4-way, two buttons for the same trigger. No microswitches tho.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_Pro this thing was probably one of the most durable controllers ever built and one of the best joysticks at its time. Btw. I always hated gamepads, I personally think from the precisiveness they were a huge step back, ergonomywise as well (thumb injuries, and cramps) and they basically enforced a left hand reaction scheme to right handers mich are still the majority (thank you Nintendo ...)
It is funny that once the sticks were reintroduced again, the pads mostly were redelegated to extendion slow reaction buttons...
Going the pad way was the biggest mistake in gaming history (again thank you Nintendo)
Certainly not too shabby - though I feel like the ergonomic grip-base made the thing a little unstable. (Essentially, the stability of the stick is dependent on your ability to hold the base of the stick, stably, with your left hand.)
:)
I was more into the various Suncom products - the Tac 5 was a great stick. When mine broke I used parts from a Tac 3 to fix it. Also the original Icon-troller, the little joystick that was built to stick on to the side of a C-64C or C-128 keyboard as a mouse alternative - that thing was surprisingly good for games. Very responsive and easy to control, especially when you had it semi-permanently mounted to your computer.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
How the PS2 and N64 controllers even got considered is beyond me. They were the most uncomfortable controllers ever made. The PS2s separate D-Pad buttons made it 100% useless for fighting games, and the N64 controller was just... messed up. No human could use the thing perfectly. I think it was made for 3 armed aliens.
I also do LOVE the 360 controller. As I loved the Logitech PS2 Wireless controller as well.
Despite the nay-saying of the article author and most of the replies, I truly loved the ColecoVision Super Action Controller.
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
The "sensitivity" tool you pointed out is not a calibration tool. What it does is allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the sensor inside the remote, if your remote is having trouble finding the IR bar. It does nothing for the X and Y-axis visual calibration.
Adjusting the screen type doesn't change the X and Y calibration of the interface, either - all it does is alter whether the 480P visual output is formatted for a 4:3 or 16:9 television, for those games that support a 16:9 mode.
The whole point is to calibrate the range of actuity such that the pointing of the remote closely mimics where you are pointing on the screen. If you're going to have a shooting game (Wii Play's shooting gallery, Red Steel, the upcoming Metroid) or a game involving manipulating objects on the screen (elebits, Trauma Center) then what you want is 1:1 correspondence or as close as you can get, because natural instinct for a human is to point where they want the item to go. When the line I point my remote ought to have only moved 2 inches, but the cursor flies off the edge of the screen, that is contrary to Nintendo's claim that the Wii control would bring more "intuitive" controls to gaming - and it's just crappy interface design, too.
Then what is the fucking point of it being wireless?
I don't want a "sometimes wireless, sometimes not" controller. I definitely don't want something that is essential routine maintenance, like replacing the battery, to require me to unscrew the back of the controller and void the warranty.
If it's a wireless controller, there ought to be a simple and quick operation where I can simply pop a panel, swap in a newly charged battery (or a set of AA's) and go. If the only way to charge the thing is with the USB cable, that's no help. If the battery can't be reached without taking screws out and exposing the circuitry in the controller, that's no good.
This is basic design 101. The greedy bastards at Sony sealed up the unit, and stuck the battery without access, because what THEY want is for the fanbois and morons who bought a day-1 PS3 to pony up another $50 or so a couple years down the road when the existing internal battery dies.
If I have to, I can plug rechargeable NiMH's into my wireless 360 controller (though I do have the play'n'charge pack). I swap NiMH's from the Wii every few days when they die down, no fuss. WHEN, not If, the PS3 controller craps out I have to plug the damn thing into a cable as the only way to charge it - and that's just a fucking retarded design.
I don't really get why these two make it up there -they have the worst feature for a controller; namely, the two control stick things (forgot the names). I could barely play games that used both. Call me a traditionalist, but the one stick (or just the d-pad) works fine for me, although granted it would need more for, say, a 3d FPS. But I'd bet it would still work better than the 3-4 hands needed to play a simple game of Halo.
My vote gots to this controller as well. While it can be improved (the DPad is overly sensitive), being able to adjust the location of the four control pads "DPad, buttons, left stick, right stick" around made a lot of games just plain better.
Unlike the parent, I never settled on a look. I'd swap the DPad and Left stick for most games, but for some (Katamari Damacy) I'd do DPadLeft Stick, ButtonsRight Stick. All told, I had about four different configurations that I used.
I love my Powerglove. It's SO bad.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
...more at 11. The fact that the Sega Genesis controller and Wii controller aren't up there at all is a good indication that these guys have no idea what they are talking about.
The analog nubby sticks just don't cut it for racing games (too damn short a throw), and not everyone has the space for a proper wheel and pedals. What would it take to convince the industry to bring back some variation of the paddle style controller specifically for this genre?
Fuck the 360 d-pad. It's fucking worthless.
dreamcast makes my list as #1 controler of all time.
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAC-2
Now wash your hands.
Oh well, what you gonna do. Here's my list:
Worst controller ever: Dual Shock/Sixaxis/Similar PS controller. Too small, stupid placement of left analog stick, Sixaxis has broken lower shoulder buttons and no force feedback, ... Sony, fix this.
Finally, that list is fucked. The 2600 controller may have been an important controller (although the NES controller would be much more so), but it is crappy. Even back when I was a kid, I hated the controller. It's just broken.
If you're on a long tightening bend, with adverse camber and you need to stick it to the inside to drag out the apex you can't be doing either, you have to be patient.*
Trying to think of one off the top of my head, um, the left hander after the tunnel on that GT3 track that's a sort of a figure 8 shape, heh. Though there's an old story about Michael Schumacher figuring out a similar trick at Spa Francorchamps on his first ever F1 race there (which involved keeping the revs low in 5th gear on a corner that others were finding tricky to get right in a lower gear).
If you have a good set of analog controllers (like a foot pedal set) then, yes, there's an argument to be made that you need to "use the accelerator" to keep your revs up. If you're counting that as "accelerating" then we are in agreement and i'll promptly shut up.
*Unless you've got tyre wear turned off, and a fat 4wd rig and you can drift for miles, but that wont always help because certain games/scenarios wont give you that option.
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
Oddly enough, I was one who liked the defaults, though.
Oops. I should've been explicit that I meant the 6-button Genesis controller. That's the only one I've ever used.
Am I the only person on earth who didn't like the Epyx? I bought it because it was the closest thing I could get on the NES to my beloved 7800 controller but it just never gelled with me. Maybe Skate or Die wasn't the best game to get used to the stick with or maybe it's just me but I hated that controller. I especially hated that the select and start buttons for the NES version got progressively harder to push as the controller got older. They were those pseudo-buttons like you'd find on a cheap car stereo remote that look like a bump in the surface.
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Bally/Midway had a nice design for a hand-controller that was simple and comfortable. It had a "gun handle", like that on a classic Colt 45 revolver, with a trigger button, that you held in one hand. Sticking out of the top was a 8 direction joystick and a rheostat knob that you twist with the other hand. It was dramatically more comfortable than the Atari and Nintendo offerings.
Unfortunately, it was prone to failures, in particular potentiometer nonlinearities in the twist knob, and bouncing contacts on the joystick. It was a "great idea poorly executed". That, and the fact that it "looked like a gun handle", did it in.
I forgot that one existed. I remember hearing about it now, in fact it was advertised specifically for Street Fighter, but never got to use it since my friend with the Genesis moved away :)
The enemies of Democracy are
for me, the best feeling controller was gamecube. the shoulder triggers had indentations that you could grip your fingers around, and i didn't move any part of my hands with it aside from my thumbs or index fingers. that being said, i happily still use my wavebird with my wii. for the best controlling controller, i would say that the dualshock gave you the most options. for the most part, every game employed every button. i especially enjoyed games where i was able to rotate the camera with the L1 and R1 buttons and adjust camera zoom with a stick, instead of combining all of the above into just the stick. I wasn't a big fan of the XBOX (original) controller in either incarnation, which is what prompted me to buy the logitech wireless controller. while it didn't have any add-ons like turbo or rapid fire, it felt like i was cheating because the buttons had more sensitivity, so in tiger woods i was able to use full power (or a precise amount) on all my swings, when my friends are pounding their controls for 5 minutes trying to get a full swing. that got me to buy the PS2 version, which was really just a waste of money because i wasn't playing much other than RPGs on PS2. the new 360 controller isn't amazing (i'm not an xbox fanboy, sorry), but it is comfortable. i feel that the N64 controller deserves a very honorable mention, ESPECIALLY because of the goldeneye/perfect dark franchises. if there was a shooter coming out it HAD to be on N64. the Z trigger owned all that existed. Z targeting from OoT and MM? Hello! Circle strafing with C buttons and the control stick? Easy mode. While the D pad was essentially made useless in most of the games aside from scrolling inventories, the right half of the controller was spot on. As far as worst controllers go, i would say anything ever made by mad catz (seriously, if you need grips for your controller) or the last generation remotes that had COOLING FANS built into them. Nothing says "i have sweaty palms" more than an incredibly loud fan in your hands. Here's a tip: Put down the controller. The Wii controller setup is fun, and the nunchuk is very comfortable, especially the control stick. Twilight Princess is the only game i've played so far on Wii that i feel utilized the controller to it's potential (at that point in time); before I played Wario Ware. That was just insane. My only qualms with the SIXAXIS are that the motion sensitivity is non-existant, and the L2 and R2 triggers (a great improvement over the buttons) can be accidently pressed while resting the controller. Also, having that hideous cable coming out of the front of my PS3 really drove me insane, so i bought the 3rd party charger. Much nicer. i think my favorite controller of all time was the Fighter Pad for SNES. it was a wider, almost ergo-shaped SNES controller, with smaller shoulder buttons on the top.. but it had the L and R buttons in the YX and BA rows, like an arcade console. there were also standard, semi and full auto switches for each of the 6 buttons, and the control pad moved very well. it's collecting dust somewhere, now that i no longer destroy my friends in street fighter 2 or mortal kombat 2.
oh marmalade.
Super Nintendo - hands down.
I actually prefer the Wavebird controller with the Cube - the big feature there is the fact the buttons are all various sizes and shapes so you can feel which is which without having to look down.
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