Hey all, I'm going to provide a comparison of 6 video game controllers
Keyboard+mouse
Wiimote+nunchuk
Xbox360 controller
sixaxis/dualshock3
classic controller
Gamecube controller
I decided that reviewing the PS2 and xbox controllers was unnecessary, as the only real difference between them and the GC controller mostly come down to personal preference.
I am making each catagory worth as much as any other.
Anything that comes down to personal preference, I shall leave alone
The best controller for a catagory gets 5 points, 2nd best gets 4. If there is a tie between 2 controllers for first, they both get 5, no-one gets 4, and 3rd place gets 3 etc
Wireless (not connected to the console by a wire)
PS3, Wii and Classic get 5 points for having wireless controllers bundled from the start
360 gets 2 points for having wireless controllers with the exception of wired controllers bundled at the start with the core
PC and GC get 1 point for having optional wireless controllers
(I would like to hand the victory to Wiimote, because it uses AA batteries instead of a proprietry battery, but that's just personal preference so I shant)
Player Identification
PSWii60 and classic all get 5 points for having a light indicating which player they are in split screen multiplayer
K+M also gets 5 points, because it is not the fault of the controller that there is no split screen multiplayer
GC gets 0, because (assuming the controllers are the same colour, there is no way to tell which player you are once the cords get tangled
Analogue inputs x dimensions of freedom of each (analogue triggers/buttons count as 1, analogue sticks count as 2, plus pads count as 1, because unlike analogue sticks, they dont register how far down they're pushed, just the angle at which they are pushed, motion sensitivity in 3 dimensions counts as 3, rotation sensitivity in 3 dimensions counts as 3, Mouse and IR pointer have 2 degrees of freedom, therefore count as 2)
That was a mouthful ^.
Wii has 15 and thus earns itself 5 points
Wiimote itself has 6 of motion, and 1 from the plus pad
Nunchuck has 6 of motion, and 2 from control stick
PS3 has 12 and thus gets 4 points
4 from analogue sticks, 6 from sixaxis tech, 2 from analogue shoulder buttons (the plus pad doesnt have 360 degrees of freedom, it's just 4 buttons, so no points from that)
GC, classic and 360 are all tied on 7 I believe, and so earn 3 points each
PC has a mere 2 degrees of freedom, and thus gets 0
Digital Inputs
PC wins on 'lots' and gets 5 points
PS3 15 (14 for developers) (4 arrow buttons, the 2 analogue sticks can be pressed as well, 2 digital triggeer buttons, [] triangle, O, X start select and the PS button) and gets 4 points
Wii, 360 and classic both have 9 (8 available to developers) and get 3 points each
GC 6 (a b x y z start) no points
Speaker
Wiimote has a speaker - 5 points
The rest lack speakers - 4 points each
Rumble
GC, Wii, 360 all get 5 points for rumble
PS3 gets 2 points for sony's 13th hour addition of rumble in the dual shock
Classic and keyboard get 1 for having no rumble
memory
Wiimote gets 5 points for having 8 kb of memory
All others get 4 points for lacking such functionality
Finally, Price
Keyboard gets 5 points. Before you argue with me on this, count the number of keyboards in your house. Count how many mice you have. Keyboards can always be got for free, as can mice. If you want extra features, you can pay more
360 $37
4 points here, nice price
GC Wow, I can't seem to find data. I'm assuming it was somewhere in this range
3 points
PS3 $55
2 points
Wiimote+nunchuk/classic $40 + $20
1 point
Tally
Wii 34/40
PS3 30/40
360 30/40
Classic 26/40
PC 25/40
GC 20/40
Comments?
And before you say, GC controller should have 100 bonus points for being so damn comfy, I agree, but that's hardly scientific :P
*edit* The 360 controller uses the analogue sticks as buttons, which gains it two points to tie with the Sixaxis/Dualshock
