D-Pad or Thumbstick?

[BurningDoom]

Do you prefer D-pads or thumbsticks on your controllers? I prefer d-pads. It just feels more natural to me. Probably because I grew up on NES, the moved on to SNES & Genesis, all of which use D-Pads. Then even on PSX I had the original model, before they added the analog sticks to the controller. So I played a whole freaking lot of d-pads. Because of that, the thumbsticks don't feel as natural to me. I've more than gotten used to them, but whenever I play an old NES or SNES game everything just feels smoother and more natural to me. I wish I could actually use the piece of crap D-Pad on XBox 360.

[AmishSamurai]

I know it's heresy on a retro forum, but I like the thumbstick better tbh. Namely the one on the gamecube. Not as much the one on the N64 that always breaks.

[Niode]

Depends on the game.

[alienjesus]

I know it's heresy on a retro forum, but I like the thumbstick better tbh. Namely the one on the gamecube. Not as much the one on the N64 that always breaks.

And yet i'm the only one to choose it :S

[Breetai]

In general, d-pad.

Even for fighting games and shoot 'em ups, I prefer the d-pad to an arcade controller. I grew up with the NES, SMS, Genesis, TG-16 and SNES (and the 2600, but that joystick couldn't hold a candle to the NES d-pad), so I'm very used to it.

[Betamax001]

Just depends on the game really. A 2D platform game like Mario needs to be played with a DPad, whereas a game like Mario 64 needs a thumbstick.

[Xeogred]

Depends on the game.

This. If it's 2D, then heck yeah I'll go with the D-Pad.

For a lot of older 3D PSX titles I can still use the D-Pad though and sometimes prefer it, since some games were straight up made with only that in mind before the analogs released.

[Bradtemple87]

fighters, shmups, arcade classics - stick
rpg, puzzle - pad
fps, strategy - thumbstick/mouse

[Czernobog]

Depends on the game.

[AppleQueso]

Depends on the game.

Yup

There's a reason that pretty much all modern controllers have both.