My mistake for missing it, must have had the blinders on when I saw it. You were right.
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Worst Controller Thread. Not to be negative but, the controller is bad!
- Thread starter NintendoMariah
- Start date
Honestly, to the people posting controllers from the mid 90's and earlier I'd like you to post a controller from that era that holds up today. Outside of the SNES controller and the six-button Mega Drive / Genesis controller I'm not sure many would. From my perspective, it was kind of like the Wild West in terms of ergonomics and controller design. I would argue it wasn't until the Dual Shock that we got a controller that could handle 2D and 3D about equally, while being comfortable to hold. The next major refinement came with the Xbox 360 controller - though it had its problems -.
Edit: I agree with the OP. In the modern era, I think the Wii U gamepad has been the worst designed of them all.
Edit: I agree with the OP. In the modern era, I think the Wii U gamepad has been the worst designed of them all.
The Jaguar controller, in my opinion, gets an unfairly bad wrap. I own a Jaguar and I felt the controller was surprisingly comfortable after hearing all the doom & gloom about it on the Internet beforehand. Granted I first held the controller as an adult with man hands, maybe I'd feel differently if I was a smaller child/teen. I'm not going to say its a good controller, the keypad is awkward as hell to use and should've been left in the 80s, but there are far worse controllers than the Jaguar.
PS1,2,3 and Wii U tablet.
The PS controllers because they were made of extreme cheap plastic wich did not last long, glad the ps4 dualshock is a huge improvement. The wii tablet controller well.... That looked like a fisherprice toy tablet and it was awkward to hold.
The PS controllers because they were made of extreme cheap plastic wich did not last long, glad the ps4 dualshock is a huge improvement. The wii tablet controller well.... That looked like a fisherprice toy tablet and it was awkward to hold.
I'd like to make a mention to all those shitty, half broken, greasy third party controllers that we all have been given when playing at someone else's.
When you go to your friend's, or your cousin's, and you go like "Let's play some COD/Some Smash" and you see them take their pristine original controller, and then they reach into the abyss of a drawer full of garbled cables and they jank out something like this:
It doesn't have to be this particular model or any other particular model, because no two of these controllers are the same. They are not bought from human companies. They come from the most wretched recesses of hell.
When you go to your friend's, or your cousin's, and you go like "Let's play some COD/Some Smash" and you see them take their pristine original controller, and then they reach into the abyss of a drawer full of garbled cables and they jank out something like this:
And you know you should have done better and bring your own. Because the sticks drift and get stuck, the triggers don't work, the buttons don't work either half of the time and when they do they get stuck, the whole thing creaks, one of the directions of the D-pad doesn't work and buttons get randomly pressed.
It doesn't have to be this particular model or any other particular model, because no two of these controllers are the same. They are not bought from human companies. They come from the most wretched recesses of hell.
The Saturn offered some bad and the very best.
Not the worst but bad and bulky, I hated the first western incarnation of the Saturn controller.
A terrible wrong idea while the Japan already had the perfection of controller design in their hands. Fortunately it was addressed eventually and the Japanese design adopted worldwide.
Not the worst but bad and bulky, I hated the first western incarnation of the Saturn controller.
A terrible wrong idea while the Japan already had the perfection of controller design in their hands. Fortunately it was addressed eventually and the Japanese design adopted worldwide.
Here's an interesting idea that was... executed...
Isn't this one meant for people who have limited mobility, only one hand, things like that? It's even shaped in a way that you can put it on top of your leg while sitting down so you don't have to hold it.
The controller discussion is interesting because there's a lot of 'I loved it back then' but dislike it now, and it even works the other way around.
For example, I kind of loved the N64 controller back in the day, but nowadays, I really don't care for it. The grinding of the base of the stick is just bad design, as is relying the small yellow C buttons for vital movements/controls in games. Playing Mortal Kombat with those tiny things wasn't great. And yet, a lot of games designed for the N64 have ensured that they ONLY feel proper on that controller. Trying to emulate games can be easy enough by mapping the C buttons to the right joystick, but it's just not the same.
I used to hate the Gamecube controller at the time of its release. The button layout just didn't make much sense to me. Still doesn't, actually… but I've come to appreciate this controller in recent years because it's so, so comfortable to hold.
Never had a problem with the NES controller back in the day, but that's all there really was. Nowadays, I'm not a big fan of its flat, rectangular shape.
The Wii-U Gamepad really wasn't that bad. For what it was, it was actually comfortable in my hands. Bulk was its issue, even if it wasn't heavy.
I can certainly understand the complaints about the DS or 3DS controls. I have big hands, too, and it just isn't comfortable to play with for long periods of time. I've rectified this by purchasing a cover which turns the bottom portion of the 3DS into controller handles. I'll never go back.
I've been extremely disappointed with the Dualshock 4, though. That may have to get my vote. It's a beautiful controller and it feels great to hold, but I have found them to be the least reliable controller I've ever used. I'm not someone that abuses his controllers. I'm generally as careful as can be, and always make sure my hands are clean before I play. For some reason though, the left stick has eventually failed on 2 or 3 controllers so far. In time, 'up' stops working, so I either can't move or can't run full speed in certain games. Not sure why this has happened to me so often, but I'm not the only one who's experienced this phenomenon. At this point I'm chalking it up to the controller just being poorer quality than it actually looks.
For example, I kind of loved the N64 controller back in the day, but nowadays, I really don't care for it. The grinding of the base of the stick is just bad design, as is relying the small yellow C buttons for vital movements/controls in games. Playing Mortal Kombat with those tiny things wasn't great. And yet, a lot of games designed for the N64 have ensured that they ONLY feel proper on that controller. Trying to emulate games can be easy enough by mapping the C buttons to the right joystick, but it's just not the same.
I used to hate the Gamecube controller at the time of its release. The button layout just didn't make much sense to me. Still doesn't, actually… but I've come to appreciate this controller in recent years because it's so, so comfortable to hold.
Never had a problem with the NES controller back in the day, but that's all there really was. Nowadays, I'm not a big fan of its flat, rectangular shape.
The Wii-U Gamepad really wasn't that bad. For what it was, it was actually comfortable in my hands. Bulk was its issue, even if it wasn't heavy.
I can certainly understand the complaints about the DS or 3DS controls. I have big hands, too, and it just isn't comfortable to play with for long periods of time. I've rectified this by purchasing a cover which turns the bottom portion of the 3DS into controller handles. I'll never go back.
I've been extremely disappointed with the Dualshock 4, though. That may have to get my vote. It's a beautiful controller and it feels great to hold, but I have found them to be the least reliable controller I've ever used. I'm not someone that abuses his controllers. I'm generally as careful as can be, and always make sure my hands are clean before I play. For some reason though, the left stick has eventually failed on 2 or 3 controllers so far. In time, 'up' stops working, so I either can't move or can't run full speed in certain games. Not sure why this has happened to me so often, but I'm not the only one who's experienced this phenomenon. At this point I'm chalking it up to the controller just being poorer quality than it actually looks.
Well, crap. I had no idea and now apologize for including here in this thread.
I literally just ordered one of these this week to go with my old Atari computers.A-hem.
One man's garbage is another man's treasure. I love the NES pad and the Duke. The duke especially felt great for long shooter sessions in my giant hands. Also Halo 1 feels inferior on any other pad due to the feeling of the thumbsticks and weight of the controller of the Duke.
I always get shouted down about the Gamecube controller, but it was small and cramped and I hated all of the button placement. I was listening to the Giant Bombcast this past week, and someone else also was down on it. It felt nice to know that I wasn't the only one.
I remember that generation, everyone hated the OG XBox original controller for being too big (which it was), but no one got on the Gamecube controller for being too small. As it turned out, I have hands on the bigger side, so the OG XBox S-Controller is still my perfect controller. Then again, this isn't a thread for good controllers, so...
I remember that generation, everyone hated the OG XBox original controller for being too big (which it was), but no one got on the Gamecube controller for being too small. As it turned out, I have hands on the bigger side, so the OG XBox S-Controller is still my perfect controller. Then again, this isn't a thread for good controllers, so...
So many good choices in here, even though I feel like some of the third-party stuff is cheating by being so terrible. Digging through our cardboard box of tangled 2600, 5200, and Colecovision controllers when I was little was very much searching for the least nasty piece of garbage in a pile of nasty garbage.
Despite really enjoying the PS3 during its era, it's hard to go back to now - mainly due to the Sixaxis/Dualshock 3. At least you can plug in a Dualshock 4 now!
That diagram almost reads like one of the xkcd phones, good lord.
Despite really enjoying the PS3 during its era, it's hard to go back to now - mainly due to the Sixaxis/Dualshock 3. At least you can plug in a Dualshock 4 now!
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
That diagram almost reads like one of the xkcd phones, good lord.
Its too easy to find back 3rd party controllers. Sticking with main 1st party controllers I'd say the Playstation controller is the worst. Specifically the PS3, something about those trigger buttons, my fingers would always start to slide off and I kept having to readjust them.
Plus i've always hated the positioning of Playstations control sticks. They're in an unnatural position that doesn't feel good for longer periods of time. The Xbox and Gamecube had the control stick positioning where it should be.
Plus i've always hated the positioning of Playstations control sticks. They're in an unnatural position that doesn't feel good for longer periods of time. The Xbox and Gamecube had the control stick positioning where it should be.
The Steam Controller.
I find it to be useless. Bad for 3rd and 1st person games as well as emulators. I regret buying one.
I find it to be useless. Bad for 3rd and 1st person games as well as emulators. I regret buying one.
N64 pad was shown for years at that point, Sega's one was definitely an 'answer' to it, along with Nights, their Mario response.
Sega and Sony were essentially forced to graft sticks to their existing designs for backward compatibility, since their consoles did not launch with those controllers and a reconfigured pad for analogue control would not be popular since it would not work as easily/clearly with the games released to that point (eg see how N64 VC games' controls are mapped to the classic controller on Wii). For games that do not use the analogue, most people prefer the original pads since they are lighter have no sticks in the way. To this day Sony have the stupid symmetrical sticks because they were literally just grafted onto the original SNES style PS1 pad.
In my opinion, they 'lucked in' to having essentially hybrid SNES/N64 controllers for this reason. By coming in with mid-gen answers to the N64, they were forced to hedge their 2D/3D controller bets in a safer way than Nintendo had, and it turned out the compromise 2D/3D controller was semi-accidentally the best overall compromise.
Sony also lucked into dual analogue, it was added largely as an answer to Nintendo's forward thinking in inventing the stick (same with rumble "OMG we have DUAL shock it must be twice as good!" marketing bullet points etc), as well as having flight stick compatibility. But they clearly didn't have any idea what to do with the second stick most of the generation, Ape Escape used it for a bunch of gimmicks, most games ignored it, it wasn't until Alien Resurrection that someone used the N64 paradigm of two direction inputs for FPS on the console.
That last point also explains somewhat why Sega had one stick on the Dreamcast. Until 1998 nobody had made good use of the PS1 second stick at all, and the DC controller was designed specifically to be intelligible to new users, who were apparently confused by Saturn having so many buttons. Of course they could have looked at FPS games on N64 that used the d-pad/stick position or stick/c-buttons for dual input (or even Goldeneye which had the two controller dual analogue option), but FPS wasn't quite huge yet as Goldeneye only started taking off around the time the DC launched in Japan.
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The worst part about the wii u controller is how low quality the screen is. It really stands out in comparison to the TV that you're using, when the game generally displays the same exact image on the controller, because its screen exists for no particular reason. It was really distracting for me in Fatal Frame, to the point where I just quit the game.
I agree with pretty much all of this, especially in regards to the Dreamcast launching with a single stick because a consistent argument for dual analog hadn't been made yet. I will say though that I don't think the timing of GoldenEye is what prevented that from influencing the Dreamcast stick arrangement. GoldenEye was making waves immediately in 1997, and the Dreamcast didn't hit Japan until late 1998, and to add to that Sega were hardly shy about replacing their controllers for different regions, or updating them for important functionality (Genesis 6-button control, US Saturn Pad, Saturn 3D Pad, etc). The reason I don't think GoldenEye's twin-stick configuration influenced Sega, is simply because too few people actually ever used it, or were even aware of its existence. The vast, vast majority of GoldenEye users played with a single stick either choosing to use it for movement, or for aiming alongside the c-buttons, and so the Dreamcast simply did the same for games like Quake III Arena, whilst relying on the mouse and keyboard for more precise control. This generally worked well enough, because even with the PS2 games using dual-sticks, they were still being treated like PC shooters (i.e. barely playable) at the time, and so approximating WSAD wasn't really a huge drawback until Halo. Even Metroid Prime was still built with the mindset of a single-stick configuration, despite the availability of the c-stick.
Only considering official controllers for major consoles, the Dual Shock series (for 3D games). I do not play many games that use both analogsticks most of the time, so for me it is most convenient to have the left stick and the buttons in the primary position. Since the left stick almost always is the primary input and requires the greatest precision, a convenient position is of highest priority. So the Dual Shock series is a nightmare for me. Out of those, in my eyes the worst is the Dual Shock 3.
Another vote for the Master System control pad. It was really awful.
Thanks god Megadrive pads worked with the Master System!
Thanks god Megadrive pads worked with the Master System!
Any controller that is way too small, but I struggled with the likes of the PSP and PS Vita. And no doubt I wouldn't get on with the Switch at all.
I just can't get on with the Steam controller at all, the stroking motion on a controller just feels wrong, its not precise enough and doesn't feel natural in most FPS situations for the "mouse-look" replacement.
But this beast, the NegCon had me foxed in many ways, mainly used for driving games, you twisted the controller two halves across a vertical axis, like doing a rubiks cube to turn corners in a car. Odd. Interesting. But Weird and was ultimately a shelved novelty.
I just can't get on with the Steam controller at all, the stroking motion on a controller just feels wrong, its not precise enough and doesn't feel natural in most FPS situations for the "mouse-look" replacement.
But this beast, the NegCon had me foxed in many ways, mainly used for driving games, you twisted the controller two halves across a vertical axis, like doing a rubiks cube to turn corners in a car. Odd. Interesting. But Weird and was ultimately a shelved novelty.
Glad I'm not the only one. It was such a cramped controller. You had to be a child to use it comfortably. The little recesses that the triggers were in were awful too, had to use your finger tips otherwise your fingers would hit the edges of the recess. People talk about the GameCube controller like it's the epitome of controller design but I just do not see it.I hated it so much, my hands were always sore after a couple of hours of use.
See my post *here*.
I looked into this more and have a better timeline of the N64 controller -
1995
-July 31 "trust us, we have an unnamed source" website (IGOnline) posts a bunch of info about the N64 controller (mentions of this on usenet)
-Aug 13 Same website mocks up a sketch of it
-(around) late Oct, Nintendo.com releases prototype pic (first concrete info) advertising for Space World
-Nov 23 - full reveal at Space World
Even if somehow the Nights team got wind of a western website's unconfirmed/unsourced rumor (on the internet in 1995…), Yuji Naka's "...by Fall we had officially adopted the analogue controller you see today." heavily indicates no influence if he's being accurate.
Now add that Takahiro Hamano, a "Senior Programmer" on Nights, was also a programmer on Super Monaco GP II, a game that literally has a graphical representation of the XE-1 AP controller in-game along with analog support for it. http://segaretro.org/Takahiro_Hamano
So you've got Sega supporting an analog thumbstick controller as late as 1995, that has striking similarities to the Saturn 3D controller (general/handle shape, analog/digital mode switch), and an important team member of Nights having had direct experience with it. Cmon now!
Where to start....
Sony revealed force feedback before Nintendo:
Sony dual analog (with rumble)
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.video.sony/zziF2Nxh5sE (next generation magazine #25 has an article on this mentioning the force feedback)
Nov 1-4 1996 reveal
April 25 1997 release
Rumble Pak
Nov 21-23 1996 reveal
April 27 1997 release
Sony's dual flightstick...
...obviously had nothing to do with the N64 (released months before) and already showed the value of two sticks for Sony. Or really, the value must have already been thought up because they released it in the first place.
The handheld version may have been a response to their competitor(s) analog controller, but to explain the second stick as a marketing ploy in light of the dual fligtstick...
Anyway, here are some pre-1998 releases using both sticks to move/aim simultaneously in different directions. That's the main purpose of having two, right?
Bonus Omega Boost (Polyphony Digital) demo... from 1995. Left stick move/strafe, right stick aim. But forward/back are inverted on the left stick.
http://zenade.angelfire.com/OB/OBD.html
Edit:
This is a random but fun thing -
Apparently the XE-1 AP worked with Star Cruiser (with analog), an actual polygonal 3D game for various Japanese computers (also had a Mega Drive version but no support). That game was made by people that would later work on Omega Boost here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sncAziTYZTs
...they also made Wibarm, a 3D free movement third person game in 1986 O.O
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GOD FUCKING DAMN THIS. I love the library of the DS and 3Ds, but fuck the controls are just killing it. My hands start to hurt /fall asleep after 40 min everytime :(
I just bought a ds lite again because of all the games I missed and I always have to play short sessions. It sucks.
Hard to beat the pre-NES controllers like the Atari 5200 for general badness.
Not sure what controller it was, but I played a version of one of the old Turrican games at a retro convention in Hong Kong earlier this year and the joystick they had attached to the system was by far the most painful thing I've ever used. Like 5 minutes in, I had to be done for fear of causing permanent damage to my hands.
Not sure what controller it was, but I played a version of one of the old Turrican games at a retro convention in Hong Kong earlier this year and the joystick they had attached to the system was by far the most painful thing I've ever used. Like 5 minutes in, I had to be done for fear of causing permanent damage to my hands.
Try to find a controller grip for these systems for a few bucks. I had the same issues, but a grip solved them all.
Even here (well GAF previously) during the discussions of twin-stick origins GoldenEye's dual controller mode is something people often needed to be informed actually exists.
I hate the DS and 3DS because the square sharep console is so uncomfortable to hold but, in the subject of controllers, the WiiU's is horrible too. I can't stand playing with that huge tablet. Thankfully once I finish Zelda, I'm done with the console.
Why would people have problems with it..?
Maybe if you went back from a newer dual analogue to it and miss a stick.
But we went from the SNES and Playstation (without sticks) to it. I don't see the problem that people would have had in 1996/1997. It's ergonomic and it would take a lot to hold it in the wrong way.
BUT --
-- it is the worst controller for me, due to build quality. And the shitty-stick-problem that was never adressed or corrected.
So much hate in here the for the Wii U Gamepad. At first I hated using it because I didn't like the idea of conflating a controller with a console, however once I got over my hangups, I've come to accept it as a really comfy and practical controller. It's now the default option for all my retro gaming.
My vote for worst controller has to be the Nintendo SuperScope.
I loved light gun games, but this really wasn't the evolution that we needed. Fun for a day, and thats it.
My vote for worst controller has to be the Nintendo SuperScope.
I loved light gun games, but this really wasn't the evolution that we needed. Fun for a day, and thats it.
Ah, ok then. Thank you for illustrating my point then! :D
