by golly you’re right.
Oh, I should also mention, in regards to my preferences, that while I like the symmetry of the positioning on the Dualshock’s analog sticks, I much prefer the x360’s shoulder buttons. I like the trigger and bumper on each side, as oppose to just two buttons
I’m another who’ll chime in to say that the N64 controller was actually pretty useful. There weren’t many games that used the C-buttons well, but their use as a contextual alternate-menu thing saw good use in Zelda 64, and one can see the ghost of that in today’s games that use a D-pad for menus and commands.
The Gamecube controller is actually one of my very favorites. The analog shoulder buttons were big, comfy, and responsive, and the setup with three buttons accessible from the standard A button was pretty brilliant (for Metroid Prime), even if it meant certain games (that weren’t Metroid Prime) suffered some awkward controls.
My current favorite for overall feel is the Xbox 360 controller, but I’m pretty disappointed in how little abuse it can take. Compared to a Dualshock 2, it’s practically hollow and ready to snap apart. The Wii controller gets honorable mention for having amazing motion controls (of course), but the actual layout is sadly lacking. I mean, really? I’m supposed to hit the + key, let alone the 1 and 2 buttons, from a vertical grip on this thing, and that’s considered ergonomic? It is pretty cool how it’s used like an NES controller when you flip it sideways, tho.
I actually prefer the Atari 7800 Pro-Line joysticks over the 2600 sticks. The Pro-Lines are my joystick of choice on all the Atari-stick-compatible machines: Commodore 64/128, Amiga, TI-99/4(a) (with adaptor), Atari 2600, 7800, XL/XE lines. I hated the TRS-80 Coco sticks, as well as all of the analog sticks sold for the Apple II and PC up through the early 1990s. ColecoVision sticks were also horribly hand-cramping. Good, working 5200 sticks are a joy to use, but their fragility and difficulty in repairing them make me wary to use them.
Of control pads, I loved the Saturn 3D controller (the analog+digital Nights into Dreams controller mentioned earlier) and the Dreamcast controller when loaded with a VMU. Great size, great feel, and in the DC’s case, the VMU was a stroke of genius I’ve been sad to see ignored ever since. I dislike the 3DO and Vectrex pads (early 3DO pads had to be modified to allow diagonals, and the Vectrex was a good idea (digital and analog in one stick) that didn’t work well. I HATE the Intellivision control discs, CD-i remote pad, and SMS pads. I actually like the Jaguar controller; though the keypad is ridiculous, the keypad gives it a weight and size that makes the overall package a good fit for my hands.
For specialty/secondary analog controllers, I love the 2600 paddles, 2600 driving controllers, and Atari 5200 trackball. The ColecoVision Turbo steering wheel is fun, the NES Vaus controller works well for Arkanoid, and the paddle and sports pad for SMS are pretty good.
For guns, I prefer the SMS Phaser and the various Namco Guncons. I hatehatehate the giant bazooka-sized things that were the rule in the 16-bit days (Menacer and Super Scope). The NES Zapper is okay, but the trigger gets tiresome in rapid-fire games.
For the best constructed I have to point out the Atari 2600 trackball. I’m not certain how it designed but it feels like a slightly scaled down Centipede set up. Of course in practice it was absolutely terrible to use but I’ve wanted to modify one of those for a home built arcade machine for a while. A close second are those lovely Dreamcast arcade sticks which are exactly what they’re described as; it’s a shame that so many Dreamcast fighters used scaled down control schemes due to the soft analog shoulder throttles.
If I had to pick for the worst I’d go with the original Playstation controller mainly because everyone has so heavily copied its layout. The grips on the bottom make it less comfortable for me to hold and it tries to force a “thumbs only” scheme that’s a less efficient method of control.
I think the 5200’s analog is after the PC joystick standardization. I remember when people complained about those because “nobody except flight sims will ever need to measure offset from the center.”
Wow, really? I thought the dpad on the DC controller was absolutely horrid, made fighting games quite terrible and difficult (I’ll play the ps2 Street Fighter Collection over SF3 on the Dreamcast ANY day simply because of the dpad issue) and I felt the size and feel was just awkward. NEver really saw the VMU put to decent use, either (I know what game I’m playing, thank you, I don’t need it displayed on my controller). Guess we just disagree on that
I can see this opinion, but I honestly never really had a problem using my index and middle fingers on the buttons and hooking my thumb around the right grip for fighting games that required hitting two buttons at once. Granted it limited access to the shoulder buttons, but I never found that a hinderance. I mostly use my thumbs for games anyway. Be proud that you’re a mammal! 
I like the Playstation controller so much that I started using similar ones for PC.
I have a Logitech Dual Action for my PC that is essentially a ripoff of the Dualshock 2, and it works pretty decently but there’s a slight yet noticeable delay from when you hit the button and when the input registers, compared to my Microsoft Sidewinder (really old model that plugs into the game port). I’m actually interested in finding a better PC gamepad for this reason.
I’m not a fighter-player (though I’ve got a good representative collection across consoles over the years), so I’m not surprised our preferences would be different. Worked great for Crazy Taxi and various intense shooters without hurting my hand, so I was happy. (Most DC fighter folks I knew used arcade-style sticks anyway, which seems to be a point of pride among fighter fans.)
And while the VMU was useless for some titles, having a personal, secret screen for use in sports games was great. Look through playbooks and choose plays without giving opponents a chance to figure out what you were doing. I fully expected it to be picked up by other companies…
I currently have a Logitech Rubmlepad 2, which essentially is a Dualshock 2 for PC. Haven’t noticed any delay, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had anything plugged into a game port. My previous gamepad was an old Saitek that had to be replaced because it wouldn’t play nice with Vista. This Saitek was so old that it had both gameport and USB connectors.
Had another thought after the edit window closed. Is your Dual Action in a front or rear USB connector?
Suppose you make some good points. I’m not much of a sports game guy, other than the occassional FIFA match (which, obviously, requires very little selecting from menus). None of my friends had the DC arcade stick, and having never owned a DC myself (just played the heck out of a few games. I used to trade consoles, my playstay for my buddy’s DC, whenever he or I wanted to play a game the other had) so I never really got into it. Just a few bouts of Street Fighter and Power Stone here and there (and Last Blade 2, only because of how absolutely, hilariously bad that game is/was)
You know you can get a USB PS2 adapter. I have one that allows 2 controllers to attach to a single USB port. Haven’t noticed any delay, and I get to use an actual Dual Shock 2 controller on my PC. You can also just plug an X360 controller directly into a USB port, also a good option
Personally, my all-time favorite was the SNES pad. Really showed the way forward for everything that followed, with the shoulder buttons. I liked the N64 pad, but the control stick wore out way too easily.
From an objective perspective, I think the PS Dual Shock has to be the all-time champ just because every PC gamepad is essentially a knockoff of it.
Worst: original XBox controller, and it isn’t close. Distant second is the GameCube pad with the weird layout and horrible clicky pressure sensitive shoulder button.
I like the layout but not the feel; they make me feel like I need to wipe my hands every few minutes to dry 'em off, not so with the Logitech. I do not like the Xbox’s controller layout.
I’m a big fan of the Xbox 360 controller also. That was one of the most surprising thing to me about the system considering how much I hated the original Xbox controllers.
When the PS2 was king of my playtime, I had a MadCatz dual shock that I loved like a brother. It had rubber grips and was a bit heavier than the first party controllers. We had many good years together before it died. I was never able to find another one like it. I actually still have it even though it hasn’t worked in years. I can’t bring myself to toss it.
Another great controller is the one that came with the top-loading 8-bit NES. The ‘dog-bone’ controller took the already solid NES controller and made it considerably better. I’ve had friends try to buy mine from me.
The worst controller is a close race between the original Xbox and the Dreamcast. I think the Dreamcast wins by a nose because of those awful (and expensive) VMUs.
The Playstation series are the best. Same basic design, all just about the right size (maybe a little small but nothing terrible), all very good controllers quality-wise. Very good D-Pad which is key for me (I prefer D-Pad to Analog about 90% of the time, at least when they let me use it). My only complaint about the 360 controller is the D-Pad quality, but that’s enough to knock it a step below the Playstation controllers.
SNES is the runner up. GameCube is in absolute last place - what a terrible controller. The N64 was a bad design but it actually worked really well; the GameCube was bad design that was just plain bad (terrible shoulder buttons, un-pressable Z-button, D-Pad that is basically vestigal, awkward layout of most of the other buttons). The original X-Box controller was pretty bad too just because of the size and layout; I have hands that are probably slightly bigger than average and it was just big enough to not be remotely comfortable.
Favorite: Tie between Gamecube and 360.
Worst: I hate the Playstation controllers, never had one before the PS3 and the controller always feels like it’s going to break in my hands for some reason.
Honorable “potential great” mention: Wii. It’s a great controller, but nobody, including Nintendo, seems to know how to use it in a game not based entirely around it. Zelda: TP (and No More Heroes) got close, I’ll admit, but no one has found a good balance of motion sensitivity and regular button navigation yet. I figured it would be like the DS, no one could really work with it for a year or so and then tons of stuff would just “click” but it hasn’t happened yet.
I think i’d probably go for the PS2 controller first, mainly because the D-pad was nice and crisp. On the Sixasis I like the longer “trigger” shoulder buttons, but the D-pad doesn’t seem as good as it was. Second would be the Xbox 360, certainly, which is simply an excellent controller.
I find that in general with the Wii remote, I end up using it for games that were built around the use of it, but just sticking with my gamecube controller for anything else (assuming it accepts it).
what’s wrong with the Z button on the Gamecube controller? It’s not great, by any means, but I hardly find it unpressable. I use it all the time in Smash Bros
I echo the thoughts of Jragon and Revenant Threshold about the Wii. I use it for a game built around it, for everything else I use a GC controller. The system’s controls just haven’t clicked for most developers yet. There is so much shovelware on that system that the gods are crying.
One thing I love about this controller is that the buttons are different sizes and shapes. Makes it easy to tell by touch which button is which.
I like XBox’s controller the most. I can play for hours on end and my hands don’t get sore and I have very good control of the joysticks. PS controller is my second favorite although my hands get really cramped in games which require repetitive button pressing.