Controlling the Controller: Your picks

[KalessinDB]

Face buttons on the GCN controller reflected a new idea: You use the A button for most stuff in games, so make it bigger and easier to hit. Like most stuff Ninty does, it's innovation. The problem with innovation is you're going to piss some people off. Sometimes it's good innovation and it sticks, sometimes it's bad innovation and it doesn't.

But I'm mid 30's, so I was well and truly in college by the time the GCN hit, and I personally have no problem with the design of its controller. Probably helps that I mostly played GCN exclusives on it though, so most games were designed with the controller in mind.

[isiolia]

Face buttons on the GCN controller reflected a new idea: You use the A button for most stuff in games, so make it bigger and easier to hit. Like most stuff Ninty does, it's innovation. The problem with innovation is you're going to piss some people off. Sometimes it's good innovation and it sticks, sometimes it's bad innovation and it doesn't.

Well, innovation or not, Nintendo tends to do things in a self-centered way. The GCN controller is a great example of that. The A button with surrounding buttons works nicely for games designed around it. It doesn't hold up as well when all of the face buttons have equal value, like for a lot of fighters. That mentality followed them to the Wii, where you don't really need all those sticks and buttons, right?
Again, it can work nicely when what the developer wants to do fits into the box Nintendo set up...but for a lot of ports or established game designs that doesn't necessarily ring true.

It's what I can appreciate about the Dual Shock and XBox series of controllers. They're excellent generalists, which is what the standard controller should be in my mind. Being fair, all three are largely utilizing the same layout now - Nintendo stripped some features, Sony added some, but the common ones are fairly robust.

I can particularly appreciate the degree of support that MS has managed to get the 360 controller design, since it's also largely the standard for PC gaming (with a pad) now. The asymmetrical analog sticks are likely the best solution for not being cramped, and I like keeping the color-coding for buttons on (most) variants (granted, this was copied from the Super Famicom controller). To me, these are the happy medium for what's out there now, and a logical evolution/incorporation of most of the best from the past. The XB1 controller is pretty much an across-the-board improvement.

I do think the DS4 does a lot of neat stuff, but I've found them to be kinda fragile (literally had one where the case popped out of alignment in normal use), and the battery is terrible. As people have mentioned, big kudos to Nintendo for whatever dark sorcery they used to enable the Wii U Pro Controller's battery life. Not doing analog triggers is odd, and the gloss finish is...icky...but on the whole it's nice. Pros and cons all around, but nobody really has a bad controller today.


For some I don't like...

I don't really like the DC controller - from the extra-short cord coming out of the bottom, to the bulky VMU slot, to the convex analog stick with too little grip, lack of a second analog stick, super-raised d-pad designed to torture thumbs...just not appealing.

I also think the Jaguar controller was poorly planned - huge bulky controller that's mostly making room for what's effectively a membrane telephone pad. I get the idea of using overlays, but even at the time you had more games that used 6+ buttons (which they did make a controller for, but it wasn't the original design). Almost nothing about it is ergonomic.

The teensy controls on the Vita also cramp my hands up too easily. Most portables do, really, but those are particularly bad.

[ElkinFencer10]

The only only things I didn't like about the Gamecube controller was the C stick (both size and placement; I hate diagonal control sticks) and the Z button. The face buttons were great IMO.

[alienjesus]

The gamecube controls work fine for all the fighters I care about playing on the Gamecube

[Tanooki]

The gamecube controls work fine for all the fighters I care about playing on the Gamecube

Yeah especially if you use the c-stick shortcut cheats for easy special attacks in Capcom vs SNK 2: EO(ie easy operation.) Joking aside, I never had a problem and I played it quite a bit back when it was new.

[Blu]

I have small hands, so my results are different from you all.

I love the contour and shape of the Gamecube controller. I think it's absolutely lovely.

Dreamcast gets a similar vote. It's aesthetically different, which I think is refreshing in ways, and I can understand why people don't like it. It's really quite bad for shooters, considering oXbox, Gamecube, and PS2 did them better when the two stick layout became the norm.

I think those are the best and are super comfortable.

[alienjesus]

I have small hands, so my results are different from you all.

I love the contour and shape of the Gamecube controller. I think it's absolutely lovely.

Dreamcast gets a similar vote. It's aesthetically different, which I think is refreshing in ways, and I can understand why people don't like it. It's really quite bad for shooters, considering oXbox, Gamecube, and PS2 did them better when the two stick layout became the norm.

I think those are the best and are super comfortable.

It's not even anything to do with the lack of a second stick on the Dreamcast. The 1st stick is bad enough. Horrible hard plastic that is way less comofortable even than the sticks of the previous gen. Couple that with a badly placed wire, horrible spongy feeling buttons, a d-pad which is made of razor blades and square grips that were designed only for a robot to hold comfortably and there's not much I like about the thing.

I guess the triggers are comfy enough?

[chuckster]

Face buttons on the GCN controller reflected a new idea: You use the A button for most stuff in games, so make it bigger and easier to hit. Like most stuff Ninty does, it's innovation. The problem with innovation is you're going to piss some people off. Sometimes it's good innovation and it sticks, sometimes it's bad innovation and it doesn't.

Well, innovation or not, Nintendo tends to do things in a self-centered way. The GCN controller is a great example of that. The A button with surrounding buttons works nicely for games designed around it. It doesn't hold up as well when all of the face buttons have equal value, like for a lot of fighters. That mentality followed them to the Wii, where you don't really need all those sticks and buttons, right?
Again, it can work nicely when what the developer wants to do fits into the box Nintendo set up...but for a lot of ports or established game designs that doesn't necessarily ring true.

It's what I can appreciate about the Dual Shock and XBox series of controllers. They're excellent generalists, which is what the standard controller should be in my mind. Being fair, all three are largely utilizing the same layout now - Nintendo stripped some features, Sony added some, but the common ones are fairly robust.

I can particularly appreciate the degree of support that MS has managed to get the 360 controller design, since it's also largely the standard for PC gaming (with a pad) now. The asymmetrical analog sticks are likely the best solution for not being cramped, and I like keeping the color-coding for buttons on (most) variants (granted, this was copied from the Super Famicom controller). To me, these are the happy medium for what's out there now, and a logical evolution/incorporation of most of the best from the past. The XB1 controller is pretty much an across-the-board improvement.

One thing I can say bout the GCN controller is it's not the N64 pad. That one felt like it was just an attempt at making a 3D controller that was simply misguided, which was especially highlighted when the PS1 Dual Analog nailed it. The GCN controller was A-OK in comparison. The triggers were a little too long, I wish for a left Z button to this day, and the D-pad small, but both sicks were well made in my experience, and the layout was really not very different from a cross, and took only a few minutes to get used to simply because it was so unique.

Then again, I'm no fan of the cross layout for face buttons anyway, a gentle arc of 6 buttons is so much more natural for me, so I've been out of luck for the last 20 years or so with stock controllers.

If you're making a closed console, I figure you have free reign over what sort of controller you decide to use as an interface. It can be anything, as long as you provide a good design base and examples for third party developers, like Nintendo and Sony definitely have when they've introduced innovations, and Valve of course hasn't with the Steam controller (though the community has). I'm all for attempts at making positive changes to any part of games in this case.
I love how open and cross compatible the DS3/4 and Xbox controllers are, but that's not a goal or requirement I think should be considered by console makers because it will stagnate the overall controller evolution (Microsoft, maybe).

[Glitch42]

I like to wiggle my Analog Sticks constantly while playing a first person shooter and I prefer controllers that let me do this.

I never noticed it but actually the Dreamcast controller does look like the Xbox controller. Damn I do hardly talk about the Xbox I am so tempted to write Xbox One when referring to the first one but One is actually the name of the newest one; this is so stupid.

Oh and I've never had any problems with my PS3 duel shocks 3 regarding charging; maybe I just don't play it enough or I'm just lucky...

[Xeogred]

Best way to fix triggers on a PS3 controller is to order some trigger caps for it. Do not buy the shitty ones Best Buy carries, they always break eventually. I just imported a bag of them from somewhere overseas and they are great. I found them on Ebay, China or India or somewhere and they came in like two weeks. Maybe ten bucks?

They work great and almost feel like the PS4 controller now. I have never broken or chipped one either.

Any caps that look like these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-trigger-ca ... SwT6pVvx4R

Only if they look like the ones in the picture. Do not order the other one you will see, they break.

They snap on tightly also. Just stay away from the Best Buy ones with the red strip package. They also have a square like indent around the L2/R2 face of it, stay away from that design. Make sure you get some with the same design as in the picture. I am sure they are available on other site as well. Deal Extreme or price angels or Ali Express, or whatever import site that is around now. They literally make playing better.

Sadly, think I got some that resemble how you described Best Buy's. There's a square indention around the middle and they just... don't look very aligned when popped in. No matter what, both are slanting to the same side. My OCD won't allow this.

Assuming I didn't luck out and got some crappy ones...