Your Favorite Classic Controller

[Eric]

I would say its a tie between the n64 and snes. I loved how the snes felt in my hands and it had an amazing dpad. The n64 had an awesome analog stick and z trigger for its time. What do you guy think? Am I right?

[Tony_32]

Yeah, I loved it. I could own all my friends at Goldeneye. Using a NES gamepad now, it feels unnatural. I'm not sure if it counts or not, but I'd go with the good ole mouse and keyboard.

[white-zombie]

Hmm, probably the SNES, though the Mega Drive was quite comfortable, though limited by the number of buttons, and I think the D-Pad was a bit sharp for SFII.

I think the Playstation pad was good overall, but the R1 and L1 buttons were just too high.

I could never hold it in the configuration shown in the early promos, with index fingers on the L1/R1, and middle fingers on L2/R2.

My index fingers naturally went to L2/R2.

[Areala]

Super NES pad, bar none. Heck, it was so well-designed that Sony ripped it off for their Playstation controller design.

*huggles*

Areala

[Gnash]

I would have to say it depends on the game. Oldschool I would say the Snes pad.

[MacGruber]

Unfortunately I never used a SNES controller but it looks awesome. The n64 and sega genesis controllers were awesome too, especially the genesis 6 buttons gamepad when you are playing mortal kombat 3

[Phillyman]

Super NES pad, bar none. Heck, it was so well-designed that Sony ripped it off for their Playstation controller design.

*huggles*

Areala

Agreed, The Super Nintendo controller set the standard. I always despised the Sega Genesis controller.....and get sick when I see a Jaguar controller

[gblock]

SNES is what I use on my PC....as well as a Super Advantage (for joystick games).

[Mister Zero]

Sega Saturn, Sega 6-Button, SNES Capcom Soldier, SNES, NES, NES Advantage

I like having the 6 buttons laid out on the same level!

[link82]

Gamecube is the best.As older one i say snes controller

[strat]

It shouldn't be underestimated how placing the Z-trigger behind the analog stick made the games more involving. I would not want to play Mario 64, Zelda or Starfox with the Gamecube controller. Only, it's a little annoying how Zelda did not use the d-pad for things like the iron boots; how hard would it be to let go of the middle grip and tap the d-pad?

[Retrostage]

The best? The SEGA Saturn 6-Pad-Controller:

[MrUppercut]

The best? The SEGA Saturn 6-Pad-Controller:

Why is the Playstation logo on there? I like the select button that was added!

The Saturn controller is my favorite controller as well.

[Retrostage]

Oh, yes, it is not the origianl controller. That's a PlayStation version. But the layout of the buttons and the directional pad are the same.

[GrinningGoku]

Man, the N64 controller was perfect for shooters. It almost single handedly brought back the joystick/thumbstick. I think people forget how revolutionary the N64 and its accessories were. Nowadays, almost all I see is people dissing the N64 controller and talking smack about the system's muddy textures and foggy graphics. Hurt gamer is hurt. :-( Anyway console rant over, back to classic controllers. The NES controller was also epic. It was so simple and comfortable (and so was the SNES controller). The PS1 controller was ok, but the three best in my opinion would be the NES, N64 and SNES controllers. Nintendo bias much?

[Spiro]

Man, the N64 controller was perfect for shooters. It almost single handedly brought back the joystick/thumbstick. I think people forget how revolutionary the N64 and its accessories were. Nowadays, almost all I see is people dissing the N64 controller........

I'm going to be one of those that dislike the N64 controller. I thought it was an abomination of a controller, to be honest

I could never really get to enjoying my N64 games as I should have, and the reason wasn't that the games I was choosing to play were poor games, they were far from that, just that the controller felt really awkward really uncomfortable to me.

As soon as I saved some cash and bought me one of these,

aaah!! what a difference!

one of the few instances where a 3rd party pad blows the original controller out of the water.

Back on topic,

another vote here for the Saturn controller.

[ubersauce]

My favorite classic controller is definitely the original DualShock analog controller for PlayStation. It's comfortable, not obtuse, and everything is placed just right in terms of button placement. The analog sticks made everything much easier as well, especially in Gran Turismo and most 3D platformers.

The Super Nintendo gamepad comes to a very close second in my book. I've been more familiar with the PlayStation, so it gets that extra edge for me.

[RetroMaximus]

The SNES controller was perfect for that generation's games. Also, the N64 controller was very much ahead of its time. I used the N64 controller recently, or to be precise I tried to use it. It was difficult to readjust to it. I remember thinking it was the perfect controller back in the late 90's. Maybe the learning curve is higher on the N64 game pad compared to others as it was so different and still is. The 3D stick feels awkward and far too high compared to say the Xbox 360 stick.

The SNES controller is timeless, though!

[theoldgameboy]

When it comes to really feeling the retrones of a game, the atari 2600 with it's one button and long directional stick. Of course when it comes to games from the nes era to today, a modern joy pad like the PS3 controller (using motion joy to connect it to my PC) not only feel comfortable, but felt just right (had lots of trouble doing any street fighter moves with the snes controller before).

This thing though:

makes any retro game, including galaga much more fun to play.

[Ferneu]

SNES

N64, if we were talking only about 3D games.

But overall, SNES still is the winner. It is from a time where NINTENDO was capable of building a decent D-Pad. N64's was not that good and it all went downhill from there, except for the first NDS (phat). It is simply impossible to execute diagonal movements nowadays.

[Schloss Ritter]

At least it's better than the XBox style 8-way pad where it's difficult *not* to move diagonally when you want to push straight over, heh. This is a real problem when emulating old 2D games where accidentally pushing up or down a bit makes you crouch or jump when you don't want to.

[sixeleven77]

I will have to go with the PSX controller. Hated it at first back in the day but over time I grew to love it. The duel shock feature just made everything better.

[Ferneu]

At least it's better than the XBox style 8-way pad where it's difficult *not* to move diagonally when you want to push straight over, heh. This is a real problem when emulating old 2D games where accidentally pushing up or down a bit makes you crouch or jump when you don't want to.

Yes, totally. I was trying to play Super Mario 3 using the XBox's. Climbing vines and entering pipes is pretty much impossible. You would not believe how many lifes I have lost on the pipe world.

It is as if Microsoft listened to what people were saying about the impossibility of executing diagonals on the current Nintendo controllers and capitalized on that. They would deliver a diagonal capable digital pad even if they had to sacrifice other less important features, like up, down, left or right. And so they did.

[whulfcastle]

The original Mega Drive 3 button game pad. To me that C button made the difference between 8 and 16 bit.

[pant90]

mine is by far the genesis controller since it is the only one that doesn't make my hand hurt like hell even after an excessive gaming session