Support NeoGAF

[Alphagear]

What do you guys consider the worst controller ever?

Personally, I have never been fussy when it comes to controllers. All were good enough except one.

Sega Dreamcast Controller.

Simply bad in every way.

Analogue stick which was too loose and there was only one.

Really awkward to grip.

Cord too short and at the bottom of the controller.

Heck even the D-PAD was a disgrace after what we got on the Sega Saturn.

 

[CatLady]

No question, the DS4

Cheap low-quality build, stupid battery draining lightbar, ridiculous non-swappable 4 hour battery with an equally ridiculous 3ft charger cable and I hated the symmetrical sticks.

I never had a Dreamcast, but I have to admit, that looks even worse. How do you even hold that thing?

 

[MasterDerico]

N64, NEVER liked.
DC controller isn't good also.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

When I was gaming on my Dreamcast, I don’t remember ever thinking “this controller sucks,” but when I see it now, years later, I definitely think it looks hideous

 

[kunonabi]

Mad catz six button for the dreamcast since it fried the controller ports.

Original xbox and all the Sony dual analog controllers are pretty rubbish too.

The switch pro controller is probably the worst as far as Nintendo controllers go

 

[John254]

Dualshock 3

Terrible, small, non existed ergonomics

 

[kikonawa]

original xbox controller...

 

[Vawn]

Dualshock 3

Terrible, small, non existed ergonomics

original xbox controller...

Oh come on guys....

It's actually worse than it looks.

 

[DoctaThompson]

DS4 without a shadow of a doubt.

 

[PSYGN]

The Super Nintendo controller. The Sega controller felt better to me when I was a kid.

 

[GetSchwifty]

Switch Joycons.


They are cute, and cool, but they must be the most uncomfortable controllers ever.

 

[RokkanStoned]

Never liked it. A pain to play with. Doesn't feel good in your hands.

 

[Bogroll]

Dualshock 3, not even rumble and it is just shit anyway. Panasonic 3DO blisters and hard skin off that d pad were possible.

 

[zcaa0g]

N64. Holy Fisher-Price!

 

[Cert.in.Death]

I am mortal enemies with the GCN controller. Ergonomically, it warrants A+ for comfort and form fitness. But the very premise of off-sized buttons proximately placed to each other drives me bonkers. Then you have the C-stick, the mini D-pad, the single Z button, and you can GTFO.

 

[TLZ]

Atari 2600.

I think they were made of wafer.

Oh come on guys....

It's actually worse than it looks.

You can tell they're young. Or have memory loss.

 

[GymWolf]

fucking joy con on switch.

or gamecube pad, never liked that one.

the only N pad i enjoyed was the snes one.

 

[The Snake]

What do you guys consider the worst controller ever?

Personally, I have never been fussy when it comes to controllers. All were good enough except one.

Sega Dreamcast Controller.

Simply bad in every way.

Analogue stick which was too loose and there was only one.

Really awkward to grip.

Cord too short and at the bottom of the controller.

Heck even the D-PAD was a disgrace after what we got on the Sega Saturn.

Just curious and I don't wanna incite an argument here: what are your thoughts on the N64 controller? Personally, it baffles me that you'd pick this over that, especially given your complaints.

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

It's the DS4 for me, too. And it has nothing to do with the layout. It's such an improvement over the DS3. But the dreadful build quality and battery life makes it the worst. I ended up going through 3 of them, and I'm not hard on controllers at all.

 

[Bonfires Down]

They are not the worst ever and they work well for d-pad based games. But the Dual Shocks are just so much worse and uncomfortable than the Xbox controllers for analog stick games that it irritates me.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Worst for me, outside obvious shit like the Virtual Boy controller has always been the PlayStation controllers, up until the DS3.

They're way too small. For me PS controllers have always been too small. I felt like I'm playing claw to hit the bumpers on a Dual Shock, almost like the bumpers on a GameBoy Advance SP. I didn't like the stick placement because my thumbs touch when moving both the sticks to center and hitting start or select was a weird reach because of their proximity to the sticks. The face buttons felt mushy. I dislike the segmented D-pad as I rock d-pads from the center. The triggers were shaped poorly and the tension was weak. The controller just felt cheap and hollow. When I bought my PS3, I replaced the DS3 the first day with a bigger aftermarket pad. The DS4 is a massive improvement ergonomically though I haven't used it much with my PS3.

No question, the DS4

Cheap low-quality build, stupid battery draining lightbar, ridiculous non-swappable 4 hour battery with an equally ridiculous 3ft charger cable and I hated the symmetrical sticks.

I never had a Dreamcast, but I have to admit, that looks even worse. How do you even hold that thing?

The Dreamcast controller is actually really comfy to hold and bigger than it looks in pictures. I have enormous hands and just can't do smaller controllers. The problem is the D-pad is shit, the stick is imprecise, the face buttons are too low on the controller and poorly spaced which means you can't grip the controller as designed. The controller is pretty fragile, pressing the start button hard will crack the board inside because there is no bracing underneath. The cord comes out the bottom which is retarded, so retarded in fact they made a notch so you can make the cord exit the top like it should be. It's pretty bad overall.

The other major issue is that the VMUs die even when you aren't using them.

The triggers are great though and like I said it's a comfortable controller.

 

[Alphagear]

Just curious and I don't wanna incite an argument here: what are your thoughts on the N64 controller? Personally, it baffles me that you'd pick this over that, especially given your complaints.

Well it is up there too though I felt it was comfortable to hold.

The analogue stick on it is worse though.

What makes me hate the Dreamcast controller is that it was released by Sega after the Sega Saturn controller with a superior D-PAD and the Sega Saturn 3D controller which it was based off yet inferior. What were they thinking.

 

[McCheese]

Nintendo Switch because it's cost me £120 over the 3 years it's been out in repairs and replacements.

For comparison, I have a shitty Atari Jaguar prototype analogue controller with bodge-wires that is still working without any drifting.

 

[Codes 208]

yeah in a generation where shooters are most prominent, lets make the sticks concave and have them placed together for frequent thumb collision along with awkwardly curved l2/r2 with the overall shape designed for the littlest of hands.

GENIUS

(battery life aside, the ds4 is a much, much, much better design)

 

[Flintty]

To be fair to Dreamcast, dual thumbsticks wasn’t standard until the OG Xbox was it?

Answer to the question, any controller with dualshock in the name. I find the thumbstickplacement uncomfortable.

 

[Mr Hyde]

N64

Could not stand it. It seems Nintendo built it solely for Super Mario 64 and then the rest of the games and genres suffered.

Dualshock 4

Comfortable, like all Dualshocks before it, but fucking useless to the point I wanna throw it in the wall. Pointless lightbar, touchscreen no one uses, worthless battery time, short cord. The list goes on. Dual sense better fucking be an upgrade of epic proportions.

NES 8-bit

Small and uncomfortable. Never liked it. Not even as a child when there was no other options and my hands were small. Luckily things have evolved.

 

[The Bloody-Nine]

yeah in a generation where shooters are most prominent, lets put the sticks concave and placed together with awkwardly curved l2/r2

GENIUS

Pretty sure most of the 'aim / fire' commands in PS3 games were mapped to R1 / L1.

 

[Alphagear]

yeah in a generation where shooters are most prominent, lets put the sticks concave and placed together with awkwardly curved l2/r2

GENIUS

Would you believe this was Sonys first controller with analogue sticks.

 

[Codes 208]

Pretty sure most of the 'aim / fire' commands in PS3 games were mapped to R1 / L1.

Thumb/index finger placement made this pretty difficult in long sessions without cramping, especially for shooters. I always had to remap to the triggers. (Though i eventually said fuck it and swapped over to playing most of my games exclusively on xbox due partly to this.)

Would you believe this was Sonys first controller with analogue sticks.

Convex > concave and its not even close

 

[Sybrix]

This POS is the worst ever

 

[Mokus]

Terrible. I was lucky enough and someone bought it from me shortly after my disappointing experience.

 

[ThaMonkeyClaw]

 

[Alphagear]

I might be in the minority who actually liked this controller. Felt great playing Halo for the first time.

D-PAD was shite though.

 

[Codes 208]

I hated this controller for the opposite reason of the ds3.

just too damn huge and inconsistent, the xbox s controller was a huge improvement and a better layout for what the 360/xbo/xsx controllers would rise from.

 

[Gargus]

 

[mcz117chief]

DS3 definitely for me. Convex sticks are just nightmarish, my fingers keep sliding off!

 

[Bo_Hazem]

1: N64

2: X360

Never played Xbox OG, nor Xbox One (we have at home though, but never played on it or even started it). Tried N64 for a while, finished Assassin's Creed 1 on Xbox 360 on my cousin apartment and the controller was painful to deal with, not as bad as N64. The rest I could cope with (Atari, Family Game "NES", Sega MegaDrive, Sega Game Gear, Sega Saturn). PS1, PS2, PS3 were good as long as I don't sweat my hands, with DS4 on PS4 being the best so far.

My brain needs too much time to cope with asymmetrical layout of the Nintendo, or xbox if I consider it.

 

[The Pleasure]

360 controller. Shit dpad analog sticks drift buttons stick and needs batteries. The Duke was better.

 

[Optimistic Gamer]

This thread with these pictures makes me ACTUALLY uncomfortable.
I swear this whole room is now a bit colder, the wall colors seem off and several things on the wall are no longer leveled.

 

[Deleted member 740922]

original xbox controller...

 

[The Snake]

To be fair to Dreamcast, dual thumbsticks wasn’t standard until the OG Xbox was it?

Answer to the question, any controller with dualshock in the name. I find the thumbstickplacement uncomfortable.

That's right. Very few PSX games even take advantage of the right stick.

Interestingly enough, the Dreamcast is capable of a second stick, and there were plans to release a controller featuring one apparently.

 

[Flintty]

I might be in the minority who actually liked this controller. Felt great playing Halo for the first time.

D-PAD was shite though.

I’m with you there. The Duke will always be special for me. I have big hands so it always felt right. Fond Halo memories too ❤

Interestingly enough, the Dreamcast is capable of a second stick, and there were plans to release a controller featuring one apparently.

I never knew that. I remember playing Quake 3 online and getting destroyed by KB/M players. The button setup kind of worked but it was naff. The leap from that to OG Xbox was mind blowing.

 

[Aion002]

Wii Remote is garbage.

I love the Wii, but that thing for normal games is atrocious, Nintendo should have included a normal controller with the console... Not make everybody spend more on it.... It was a greedy move...

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Wish I had this back when I had a DC

 

[Spukc]

Dualshock 3 or 4.

I have 6 non broken OG snes gamepads.

4 broken dualshock 4's out of 5
And 3 broke ds3 out of 4

 

[Vawn]

To be fair to Dreamcast, dual thumbsticks wasn’t standard until the OG Xbox was it?

The DualShock on the PS1 had dual analog sticks.

 

[bender]

Oh come on guys....

It's actually worse than it looks.

The only correct answer. Still have fond memories of Snafu, Stampeder and Tron Deadly Discs.

 

[JordanN]

"Ready to play Smash Bros? By the way, here's your controller."

 

[Yoshi]

The Dual Shock controllers, simply because the left analog stick is a terrible position for 3D games. Wii Classic controller s of course the same, but mainly meant for 2D games, so it is fine for that purpose (terrible for 3d games though, obviously).

 

[frogger]

N64
Dreamcast