Top 10 Best Controllers of All Time

[hotrodx]

IMO the Japanese Sega Saturn gamepad is the best (the US version sucks). The button placement is good. The dpad is excellent. The grip is ok. It's a very big improvement over the six-button Mega Drive controller (while nice, it's pretty small for the hands).

For analog controllers, it's a toss up between the Dual Shock 2 and the 360 controller. I like the ergonomic design of the 360 better, but it is negated by the poor dpad (btw, I have a 360 controller for my PC).

Tried the six-axis in the office. I think it's too light, and I can't find the center of the analog sticks (I would have to let go of the stick in a millisecond so that it's in the center). Haven't tried the Dual Shock 3 yet.

The Wii controller-- I don't know if it's even ergonomic. When vertical, the dpad is too far on top (they designed it so that the thumb rests on the A button). The 1 and 2 buttons, on the other hand, is way too low. The + and - are too small. Also, you could accidentally press them (+, -, 1, 2) while gripping the controller.

It also no good when sideways. The dpad side is too thin because of the way the B button is made (trigger style).

It would have been ok if the motion sensor is excellent, but it's not. So games have to rely on big and sudden swing movements for the actions to be registered. I have trouble explaining to newbie guests how to swing properly in Wii Sports' tennis and golf. I was kinda like "Um, you have to swing a little stronger and sudden so that the sensor detects it." How the hell are you supposed to do that in a putt? In boxing, you have to throw very snappy jabs, or the character won't punch at all (kids are baffled of this... why isn't the character punching when he's punching?)

All this will be alleviated with the Motion Plus. It'll make a big jump in game experience (finally, decent golf games in the horizon). But why wasn't it part of the Wii launch? I think they rushed a half-baked motion controller.

(On a side note: Somehow I was reminded by the GBA when it was launched, and had no backlight because Nintendo said it can't be done without draining the battery. And then there's some third party dude who showed how it's done by making backlight kits for the GBA. And soon after, we had the GBA SP!)