the wii remote is probably more iconic than all controllers, people picked up billions of Wii remotes xD

It changed the way we play games forever,which is why Nintendo and MS both have controllers with dual analogs and four shoulder buttons.It also spawned plenty of pc controller clones.Games like Gears,GTA,Uncharted and many more would not be designed the way they are without the DS making them possible.

Not the Dual shock, that's for sure.

It's a functional controller but boring and generic in appearance. Designed to be bland and inoffensive. The only blob of personality in it's design is the use of coloured shapes for buttons markers.

It followed the innovations of others an did it in an intentionally bland way. It's like how the masses liked the look of the boring box of the ps2's over the interesting design of the gamecube. Interesting visuals would make it seem niche and not for everyone.

It's visual recognisability has to be down to Sony using almost the same design, and marketing it heavily, for decades.

This ...

I dont know if its the most iconic but I dont mind playing the DS for the rest of my life, it feels so natural to my hands.

They could do a "major revision" right now and millions of gamers would not come out and criticize it, they'd rejoice. Maybe then they could turn off the stupid light, get some decent battery life, and not have the analog sticks disintegrate. Assuming, of course, Sony came up with a good replacement.

I'd probably give the NES pad or the Atari joystick the nod for most iconic ever.

It sure is, and for me personally it is also the best controller. Although I'm not quite happy with the DS4. The DS3 just feels waaaay better in my hands. I know I'm kinda alone with that opinion, but yeah. I'm only 1.76 meters tall, so I have small hands! That's why I never like big ass controllers like Dreamcast, Xbox or the DS4.

I seriously don't understand why I may not use the DS3 with the PS4. That would make Gen 8 so much better for me. =(

Ah, youth. So innocent!

Also the best.

A base design that's stuck around for over 20 years on the best selling platform definitely has to be given iconic status, and dare I say most iconic status.