Don’t like the Playstation controllers, at least not the ones I’ve used (I haven’t used a PS3, I should note, so this just applies to the PS2). They seem to have been constructed with the idea that “everything should line up squarely”, which doesn’t make ergonomic sense. The grips were too small, and maybe it’s just me, but I can’t keep track of four different shoulder buttons two for each hand. Finally, on the ones I used at least, I hated the fact that the tops of the sticks were convex rather than concave. Even with a textured surface, my thumbs slip off the top of a convex stick. On the Xbox’s concave sticks, my thumbs rest nicely in the depression, even when the stick starts to get worn.
I liked the original Xbox controller “S”, but the 360 controller is even better. Feels just right, plays great, the layout is nice, it’s balanced, and has well thought out functionality (that silver button in the middle and all the stuff it does? Ingenious!).
I’ve always been fond of the N64 controller. Not that many games made use of the right-center scheme of it (though I think some did), but many could alternate between left-right and centre-right, depending on your preference. The z button was also well placed, giving the controller an actual ‘trigger’. My only gripe would be that the Start and Z buttons were hard to reach with the left-right scheme, but that was only rarely a problem.
The Gamecube, on the other hand, is (in my limited experience with it) the worst controller design EVER, IMHO. It’s not particularly comfortable to hold–only the original NES is comparable there, due to the corners, but that’s more jsut painful–and it is the most uninfuckingtuitive controller I’ve ever met. The L and R buttons also pressed in weirdly, and the shape made the otherwise well-placed Z button a pain to use.
Wii–very intuitive. Not the best for some sorts of games, and it does have its drawbacks, but very versatile. If nothing else, you have to give Nintendo props for innovation, something sorely lacking from Sony and Microsoft.
PSX/XboX–The PS1 was mostly a furthering of the SNES design, and most of the controllers that have followed are incredibly similar. The shoulder buttons were a bit of a pain to use in the first incarnation, because they were hard to press, but this improved in later versions. Otherwise, I’d place all these in the same category, because there’s not enough difference between any of them to be worth mentioning (though I haven’t used a PS3 one yet). Overall not bad, and doesn’t need much tweaking. The uniformity of it is nice, but I have to admire Nintendo for having the balls to try something else, even though it doesn’t always work (see my Gamecube comments above).
Really? I always thought that the “six thumb buttons” layout was stupid, since you can’t hit more than two of them at once, and the SNES pad totally showed the way forward.
You never had to Jump + Sprint (+ Attack) in platform games?
Or hold down the “left spin” button while pressing the hit/pass/shoot/swing button in a sports game? Or Turbo + tackle/hit/swing/kick/whatever in an EA sports game?
While it’s true 3 inlines meant less variety good games managed to make it work well by putting your auxiliary (usually limited number) “Oh SHIT!” command on A. Streets of Rage, for instance, had the napalm/bazooka strike bound to A which (depending on whether it was a boss or not) either cleared the whole screen or did a crapton of damage. Golden Axe had your magic bound to that, etc etc. While it doesn’t have as much UTILITY as the SNES controller it still feels good even now to say “that’s it” moving your thumb away from your two “principle” buttons and hitting your A button. The only thing that feels MORE rewarding is if you get one of those joysticks that have a big red button called “DANGER!” covered by a flip-cap. It’s just the fact that it required an extra bit of motion to make it work that had it feel so rewarding… for some reason.
To me at least.
I can’t comment on the 6 button because even though I was a big time Genesis kid my mom never got me a 6 button.
I can’t comment on sports games, but (and I’m admitting this is a flaw) Genesis people got REALLY good at hand pivoting when they needed to, I didn’t even notice I did it until I came back to it recently. It’s more like <thumb> holds two inline buttons and you pivot at the wrist and hit the other with your index. So you can hit three, and it’s not that hard, but I’ll admit it’s more complicated than it should be.
This is probably the best argument I’ve ever seen on these Boards. Like, ever. I play the original Streets of Rage on GameTap sometimes using a Saitek PS Dual Shock clone, and I have the smart bomb/bakooka thingy bound to the keyboard space bar for JUST this reason.
Thing is though, some popular games like the Strike series, came to the SNES after they were produced on the Megadrive. So the extra buttons on the SNES weren’t utilised.
For example with the Strike series (unless I’m forgetting something here), there were functions like jink (strafe basically) that required MD buttons to double up. They could have used the shoulder buttons on the SNES pad but just reused the same three button controls.
IANAP(rogrammer) so I can only guess that it would have been too protracted to recode the game as so. But still, bit of a waste.
I agree though that the SNES has some nice buttons to press. The NES pad has to stand proud as the most robust design. I can remember having to take a break from playing, purely because my thumbs were sore and had little right angled dents in them. Ah for the days when I played till my eyes were all warm and slightly sore.
ETA: I disagree about the N64 controls though, the little trigger was excellently placed for FPS games, mimicking of course a gun.
I liked the SNES controller… I was able to make a gizmo out of legos that had a couple of pistons and a crank, and locked the controller inside. When i turned the crank, the pistons alternately hit A & B really, really fast. My custom team for Madden 90-something was unbeatable.
I never played those EA sports games, I hated them. I’ve big fingers so maybe subconsciously I was pressing more than one button at a time and didn’t notice. It’s been a while.
It’s just a tad awkward, the shoulder buttons have that large groove that makes you feel like you have to lift your finger slightly to reach it. Otherwise, I find the only problem with the GC pad is what to do with your middle fingers. I find that when they’re gripping the pad, the tips tend to rub up against the back of the d-pad/joystick.
SNES Desert Strike used the MD/Genesis controls, but Jungle Strike and Urban Strike were properly done, with the shoulder buttons used for strafing.
I think the difference is that the original game was developed for the Amiga and MD/G simultaneously, while the next games were developed for MD/G first and then ported.
It’s a weird bias, but due to the ability in single-player Rare games (Goldeneye, PD) on the N64, there was a controller mode where you could use two controllers, one in each hand. I was a friggin’ master of the universe like that. I dream of hacking old N64 controllers somehow and creating an 360 controller with that setup. It was really a thing of beauty.
First: 360. Second: N64. Third: I actually liked the dreamcast controller, though I must agree the VMU was silly. I don’t remember what it was like to play with a SNES controller at all, so I don’t know where it rates, never owned earlier Sega systems, and only ever played one game on a Jaguar (Aliens v Predator, which was AWESOME.)
I LOVED the NES Advantage. This thing was just short of a true arcade-quality stick - the damn thing was near-indestructable. Hell, it survived a 250-lb weight being dropped on it from 6 feet up. And ISTR that it was one of the earliest items to have turbo settings on the buttons (and ADJUSTABLE turbo speeds to boot - do any controllers even have that nowadays?).
I gotta say the Saitek controllers. They’re designed just like the PS controller (4 trigger buttons, one d-pad, 2 clickable analog sticks, Start & Select) except they have a 3x2 set of right thumb buttons, similar to the Sega and N64 controller. This controller is perfect for playing ANY emulation system, since it will adapt to all of them.
I have a Saitek 610 or somesuch, and I’m not a huge fan. The sticks are too fiddly for flying/driving, and the “FPS” button does nothing but get in the way.
The FPS button can be reprogrammed to anything you want, along with the Analog button (which is in the Start button position). Infact you’re much better NOT installing Saiteks’ configuration software, cuz then the one built into Windows will leave them as regular programmable buttons.
