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TI92

Alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,598
Worst standard controller? Definitely this thing.

icon.png


Bad d-pad, only one stick, wire coming out of the bottom????? VMU was cool but only lasts an hour??? Why couldn't the VMU screenlight up with power from the controller cable??

Edit: Also, people stop posting insanely high res photos. Put it in a quote tag.
 

Rats

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,112
The single Joycon.

If a friend handed me one of those and said, "Let's play Mario Kart" I would be forced to re-evaluate said friendship.
 

Willy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
296
I don't know if its the very worst ever but the Turbo Touch 360 is easily the worst I've owned.

AaUWvHa.jpg
 

Deleted member 2102

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
692
I hate the Vita's poor excuse for thumbsticks.
Might be in the minority, but I disagree. They feel incredibly smooth and responsive to me, and the shorter travel time fits a portable system nicely. It's probably my favorite handheld analog solution - definitely better than the PSP's or the 3DS's circle pad.

As far as mainstream controllers go, the Dualshock 3 feels pretty bad to me these days. The dpad especially is pretty miserable to use. I thought the Wii U tablet was comfortable enough, if not cheap feeling, but the battery life and power brick really put a dent in its practically.
 

HououinKyouma

The Wise Ones
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,366
All of the abominations I can think of have been provided in this thread.

This may be cheating, but shoutout to smartphone touchscreens for being absolutely miserable to game with, in my opinion.
 

Minako

Member
Oct 25, 2017
477
Any of the versions of the DS or 3DS. My hands are too big for those systems.
Even the XL versions? I have small hands (like, Nintendo Switch joy-cons are the perfect size to me) so I can't help but imagine some seriously giant hands if the bigger versions of the DS/3DS are still too small haha. I totally understand this complaint with the normal models though.
I hate the Vita's poor excuse for thumbsticks.
I kinda like the thumbsticks, but I think that's because of the games I play on Vita. I mostly use that system for JRPGs and VNs, and the thumbsticks feel really nice with those. But when you're playing an action game or shooter they do feel a bit too... nubby. All that said, I have the newer "slim" model of the Vita and I dunno if the thumbsticks are different on other models.
 

broncobuster

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,139
I excuse some of these controllers because they were of their time. But the Dreamcast controller came years after the Dual Shock and somehow was even a step back from Sega's own Saturn 3D Pad.

Dreamcast has such a great library. Going back to using that crummy plastic concave stick with squeaky triggers, it's a shame Hori never made a good replacement like with the Nintendo 64.
 

ChestRockwell

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
157
Might be in the minority, but I disagree. They feel incredibly smooth and responsive to me, and the shorter travel time fits a portable system nicely. It's probably my favorite handheld analog solution - definitely better than the PSP's or the 3DS's circle pad.

I'm with you 100%. The Vita's inputs are unparalleled in handheld gaming. I've owned/played 'em all and I think the Vita's ergonomics are a cut above the rest.
 

Like the hat?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,577
Gotta say the Genesis controller has always been my absolute least favorite.

Only basing this on default controllers. If we are including non default but still first party, I'd go with the NES Max. Just awful to use.
 

Jer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,197
Absolutely the DC controller, hated it so much it soured me on the system, and I never really gave it a fair chance as a result. :-(
 

Bigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,638
Maybe I'm a weirdo but I genuinely had no issue playing on the Wii U game pad. I played a crap ton of my Wii U games mostly in off TV play. It's ugly, sure, but I didn't think it was really uncomfortable.

IMO the Xbox Duke, the DC controller, and the N64 controller are all worse than the Wii U Game pad.
 

linnus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
366
Besides the triggers, I quite like the gamepad.

For me, the wiimote + nunchuck will always be the worst thing ever made.
 

Bubukill

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,810
Panama
Dualshock 4. Yes, it is a more comfortable compared to the previous dualshock, but damn the build quality on this is atrocious, it's been the only controller that I've had to replace three fcking times already, so stupidly annoying, I've never had a worse controller than the Dualshock 4.

The first dualshock that came with the PS4 I bought at launch started to fall apart on the joysticks (though, we all know about this case) just by one month using it, then the triggers started to fail, then it stopped charging through the USB.

Second dualshock... One trigger got stuck out of nowhere (the controller never fell off previously), had to dismantle it in order to put the triggers on its position but in the process... one of the plastic edges that hold the little shitty spring broke easily and fuck it, one trigger inevitably started to feel loose, until it stopped working again a few months after. Threw it into "my dump accesories" for future pieces replacement...

Third dualshock 4, the touch pad suddenly stopped working, guess what.. Dismantling the shit out of it again, touch pad cord appeared unplugged from its sensor, so I plugged it back and problem solved. However, almost one year working well until the X button stopped working... Guess what again? Dismantled it fcking again thinking it was just dirty stuff and cleaned it all up but never worked. At the end I discovered it was the transparent paper sensor that was not taking the commands for some reason so that was impossible to repair for me unless I would've been some kind of certify engineer.

Currently on my fourth duakshock 4, this time the dualshock I bought is the newest one where you can see the useless light through the touchpad and it feels solid, for now... I even have the feeling that they've improved the build quality just a little bit.
 
Oct 27, 2017
4,771
I'm sure there are worse, but for a first party controller I'd have to go with the Dreamcast's controller. It's the only controller to actually hurt my hands. The VMU was kind of cool though.
 

jotun?

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,500
I can't stand N64 controllers for how bad the analog sticks are. Probably biased by primarily using years-old controllers
 

AlecKoKuTan

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,256
Irvine, CA
The worst controller, to me, is one sold at a primium price and breaks two weeks into gaming, twice. I've had bad experiences with the xboxone elite controller and its left jumper poping out of its socket.
 

gappvembe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
776
51VF5FFBVCL.jpg


My friend loves this thing for halo. He said it gave him an advantage because he could jump and aim or something like that. It didn't make him any better... he was probably the worst out of our group
 

RojoEL

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5
As much as I have to agree that the Wii U game controller wasn't a great controller.

I still think it was very innovative. It just didn't get enough support to give it any chance really.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,460
51VF5FFBVCL.jpg


My friend loves this thing for halo. He said it gave him an advantage because he could jump and aim or something like that. It didn't make him any better... he was probably the worst out of our group
Curious what the LCD display *actually* does, because I assume (possibly incorrectly, I guess) that it's not getting information from the game. It's always nice when a controller encourages you to look at it rather than the game!
 

Deleted member 8001

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,440
People have posted some terrible ones, but I'll just post something that is baffling.

q3RbAc7.jpg


This is not how hands work, Hyperkin.
 

Willin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,091
Wu-Tang-Controller.png

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit but they sure did fucked with the PS1 controller. Jesus.
 

Vengerberg

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
50
As much as I have to agree that the Wii U game controller wasn't a great controller.

I still think it was very innovative. It just didn't get enough support to give it any chance really.
It wasn't just a problem of 'not giving it a chance'. It was a great concept, with a terrible execution. The screen on the controller was of low quality, the controller itself was not great, the maximum distance was terrible. I loved a lot of the games on it, but that was rather despite the hardware.
 

Pagey81

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8
For me personally it has to be the PS3 controller. I just could not get on with it no matter how hard I tried.
 

RojoEL

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5
It wasn't just a problem of 'not giving it a chance'. It was a great concept, with a terrible execution. The screen on the controller was of low quality, the controller itself was not great, the maximum distance was terrible. I loved a lot of the games on it, but that was rather despite the hardware.

I agree

But I still don't think Nintendo themselves even gave it the support they needed too.
 

NuclearCake

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,867
The Wii U Gamepad is the worst input device Nintendo has ever made. It somehow being worse than the abysmal N64 controller.

The PS3 controller was also pretty terrible in every way imaginable. The build quality could not have been worse.
 

Vengerberg

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
50
The Wii U Gamepad is the worst input device Nintendo has ever made. It somehow being worse than the abysmal N64 controller.

The PS3 controller was also pretty terrible in every way imaginable. The build quality could not have been worse.
Fully agree. Though I mainly quoted you to compliment you on that great avatar. One of my favorite games, played with one of the best controllers too.
 

Intel_89

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,038
Portugal
The Retron 5 controller is terrible, besides being a controller designed for retro gaming WITHOUT A D-PAD, it's ugly as sin and it's also very unconfortable to use.

1f41_retron5_bluetooth_wireless_controller_grey_box.jpg
 

yxxi

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5
Ugh. There have been so many bad controllers.

+1 on Master System, Dreamcast, N64 and PS3. Mario Party for the N64 destroyed my hands and the PS3 just made any gaming round a painful experience.

I'm adding the Atari one to the mix. That joystick was horrible.

at_atari_2600_joystick.jpg