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?

Comments

I agree

[twistedsymphony]

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.

Re:I agree

[Broken scope]

I'm one of the guys who prefered the original "duke" controler on the xbox, but even with my largeer hands the 360 controler is really comfortable, I think they really spent alot of time on the design of it.

Original NES

[Farrside]

Everything else has too many buttons.

SNES controller

[192939495969798999]

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.

NES Advantage

[Tickenest]

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....

Idiots

[seebs]

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.

Re:Idiots

[Verteiron]

When holding it like a remote control, the pointing interface is so horrible that I can't believe they bothered. It's fine for menus, but any time that it's used interactively, it's horrid. Red Steel is a great example of horrid pointing.

I can't help wondering if this is something software-specific. Case-in-point: Zelda's pointer interface is smoother and more responsive than the actual Wii menus. When it comes to firing the bow in Zelda, it's easy to snipe even tiny targets from a tremendous distance using the pointer interface.

I haven't played Red Steel so I'll take your word that the pointing interface sucks in that game, but I don't think it's a problem with the controller.

N64? Seriously?

[Daverd]

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?

I love the Power Glove.

[Rob T Firefly]

It's so... bad.

Dreamcast.....but then 360

[Pojut]

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;-)

Definitely software-specific

[Moryath]

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.