whats your favorite controller?

My Thoughts and scores on all of the controllers in the poll, plus some other major controllers not mentioned

Genesis - not specific enough, 3 button original or 6 button arcade pad

3-button - in 1989 most arcade games had three buttons (kick/punch/jump), and the curved shape was certain more ergonomic and modern looking than the boxy NES and SMS controllers, but on todays standars, three buttons are not enough for some of the better genesis titles, and the pad is rather bulky for the controls it contains - 3/5

6-button - this is THE pad for serious genesis gaming. ergonmically curved, sized correctly, authentic arcade six button layout, true 8-direction d-pad, longer cord than original 3-button model. there is little to improve on this gem. the perfect controller of the 16-bit era - 5/5

NES - there are two major controllers

standard - in a word, revolutionary. joysticks were the name of the game before the crash, but without a large heavy base, a joystick with multiple button setup is extremely difficult to use (read: Atari 5200, Coleco Action Controller, Atari 7800).

the genius of the NES pad was the realization that multiple buttons are more complex than direction and should be set aside for the right hand. in a single button/joystick setup, joystick movement, movement is more complex and reserved for the right hand, while the left hand uses the simpler single button.

while boxy, the size and shape of the NES pad rarely got in the way of the game, and the d-pad was extremely accurate in games that only used four directions (ie most games on the system), though games that use 8 directions suffer just a little - 4/5 (note: dogbone gets same score, though it is slighlty more ergonomic, its not enough of a difference to warrant a different score)

NES Advantage - The best stick of the 8-bit era. this stick was well built, surprisingly ergonomic, and had killer features. the advantage wasnt the first controller with turbo/rapid fire, but nintendo knew that one-size-didnt fit all and included an analog dial to adjust the rate of fire. the stick itself was as close to an authentic 8-way arcade joystick as you could get in the day. the buttons were large and well laid out. though there were a couple of lame features like slow motion (which was a rapid fire start button, fairly useless), and a switch that let two players take alternate turns with the stick. Games like Track and Field II are virtually unplayable on the standard NES pad, but with the advantage you have more than a fighting chance (the hammer throw on a standard d-pad is horrible) - 5/5

SNES - while in no way a dog, the SNES pad is clearly overrated. the improvements from the NES pad are minimal. the curved edges give it slightly better ergonomics, but the curves are not extended in the depth dimension. the four button diamond layout was a brand new invention of nintendo, and was never lifted from any arcade game, its a half-assed three button layout, a half-assed second joystick (for smash tv), and nintendo managed to shoehorn the triggers to make it a plain old crappy six button layout. why nintendo never offered gamers a true six button solution (the Super Advantage was produced by a third party), when the bases its early popularity on Street Fighter II is a complete mystery. The other huge drawback is lack of a true 8-way d-pad. 4-way cut it for most NES games, but emulated 8-way didnt cut it for street fighter. fireballs werent too bad, but pulling off zangief's spinning piledriver is dam near impossible without true 8-way direction. It was certainly functional, but it couldve been so much better. - 3/5

Dreamcast - (this order is surely strange) another overrated game pad. Essentially, it took the innovations of 3D saturn pad, and removed the classic sega features (six button layout, 8-way D-pad), gave it smaller buttons and a shorter cord, and placed said cord on the bottom. The VMU was a nice idea that never took off. It is ergonomic, functional, and full of character. - 3/5

Playstation 1 or 2 - again two types

original psx pad - a natural extension of the SNES pad, with outstanding ergonomic handles (stolen from virtual boy, maybe?) and two sets of triggers (was the first set that useful?). one controvesial (to this day) aspect are how the buttons are labeled with cryptic symbols rather than letters. they make little sense, as letters and numbers have natural progressions. If you know the first button is A, then the second button is logically going to be B, so you really only have to learn where the first button is. symbols offer none of this logic, and you must learn 4 different buttons and their symbols. To this day i still get circle and square confused. (Nintendo uses letters, but has the same problem taking advantage of logical progression). Overall, it is on par with the SNES pad, and as i said before, thats not entirely a bad thing. 3/5

dual shock - analog and rumble featues were in, and sony responded with those two specific improvements to the original psx pad. the dual thumbsticks were ambitios, but few games took advantage of both sticks, and when they did, they were placed in an area under the belly of the pad that ruined the ergonmics of the original pad. The rumble was the best of the psx generation.
psx version - 3/5

dual shock 2 - "if it aint broke, dont fix it" was the mantra, but with the PS2 generation of gaming, primary movement moved from digital to analog, and the position of analog sticks in secondary positions is inexcusable. if sony had simply swapped the position of the d-pad with the left analog stick, it couldve kept its excellent ergonomics. - 2/5

the Various Atari paddles - two major catagories again, the classic CX40 joystick, and the atari paddle

Atari CX40 Joystick - an absolute classic, considering how bad atari's later controllers are, its most likely an accident this stick was so good. a basic 8-way joystick, with a single fire button in the upper left. joysticks require a steady base to be effective, and in the case of the standard vcs stick, the players left hand does the trick nicely, while the left thumb is free to press the fire button. simple, sturdy, accurate. its square shape isnt the most ergonomic design, but in its era there was nothing out there that even comes close to its useability - 4/5

Atari Paddle Controller - awesome, simply awesome. way ahead of its time, think of the paddle as the roman empire of gaming controllers, they got it well before the systems of the 90s. analog control? check. 4-player action? check. ergonomic design? check. Intuitiveness? check. atari paddles are so pefect, that many of the paddle games of the era cannot be proplerly duplicated on current consoles. pong, warlords, breakout, kaboom and many others. forget 3D control, 1D control is where its at. Challenge a non gamer to a game of Kaboom! and measure how long it takes to see how long it takes for the noob to figure the game out, and also measure how much fun the player has with the game. while part of that is game design, the other part is the control. kaboom! with any other analog control just doesnt play as well. be it analog joystick, mouse, stylus, or anything else, MY VOTE FOR ALL TIME FAVORITE CONTROLLER - 5/5

N64 - left field. nintendo drops the conservative approach and screams that the N64 is the ultimate 3D system (cartridge based 3D system as it turned out). it was the first system to ship with analog control, and it offered a controller solution that gave you two ways of holding the controller depeding on if you were using the d-pad or analog stick. the problem with that was that some games used both. the "C-Button" was an oddity. while it gave the N64 an arcade six button layout, the C buttons were so tiny to be very useful. but the biggest drawback to the N64 controller is its realiablity. analog sticks were not built to last, and finding good tight analog sticks on used N64 controllers is quite the chore. - 3/5

Saturn - again, two major variations

original - forget about the north american "fat" version, the slim version is the way to go. it is a natural progression of the outstanding six button genesis controller. the only new feature to write home abour are two triggers. the saturn was a 2D gaming monster, and this controller is the ultimate 2D gaming controller. - 5/5

3D controller - this gem had some great innovations. the analog stick, was more of a traditional thumb pad and had great ergonomic placement, the six button arcade layout, and 8-way d-pad from sega systems past remained, and the 3D controllers real gem were its analog triggers. racing games should be forever thankful for this great use of analog control, but its a tad bulky for 2D gaming. - 4/5

Jaguar - calling planet wtf, the jag was released when fighting games ruled the universe, yet it only shipped with a three button controller. and atari thought people were clamouring for the days of bulky keypads that served little function. atari did come out with a six button version later, but these beasts are hard to find, and they probably arent worth the effort to track down. despite the bulk, the pads are usable and somewhat ergonomic.

3 button version - 2/5
6 button version - 3/5

game cube - the good: great thumb stick, analog triggers with a full throtle "click", intuitive A and B buttons, great ergonomics / the bad: terrible d-pad (take the lousy 4-way pad of old and make is smaller), unituitive x and y buttons. - 3/5 (wavebirds get the same score, but deserve a lot of credit for doing wireless control right)

xbox - more variations

fat controller - a very fat dreamcast controller, though white and black buttons are configured in a psuedo 6 button layout - 3/5

controller s - a dreamcast controller with some extra heft, and with lousy black/white button placement. both pads get kudos for the d-pad - the best controller on the current market - 4/5