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Author Topic: Best/Worst Controllers  (Read 8385 times)

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #15 on: September 07, 2011, 03:12:32 AM »
Oh yeahhh I forgot how much I hhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHATE the DualShock2's D-Pad.

Jim made me play Street Fighter Alpha 3 this one time, and I was like "how do i do a yoga flame with this thing" and he's all "haha criminal upper all up in yo' ass" and I'm like "what"

Several dozen attempts to Yoga Flame later my thumb was a skeleton thumb because the pad wore all my thumb flesh off.


The GC's D-Pad really is nice. You don't realize it until you play something using it instead of the stick--usually something old and 16-bit and emulated.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2011, 04:21:44 AM »
The Xbox 360 controller just feels so incredibly right to use.

As for handhelds, the original GBA was pretty good, and the original DS was alright too (the subsequent DS revisions just had those awful buttons I couldn't use properly).
If my son could decimate Lego cities with his genitals, I'd be [darn] proud.

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #17 on: September 07, 2011, 09:37:58 AM »
I do agree with BP that the DS2 D-pad is pretty terrible, but...difficulty inputting half-circles? I've never had a problem with them on there across multiple games...

For that matter, the 360 D-pad isn't quite as awful as we all keep making it out to be. I mean, I can perform 360s and 720s on it without issues. That's got to count for something.

And yeah, the GameCube D-pad's greatness is one of those things you don't fully realize until you play something that actually allows you to use it for movement inputs. Like Ikaruga.

« Reply #18 on: September 07, 2011, 11:48:58 AM »
DualShock2 was the standard PS2 controller right?

That was indeed a painful D-pad, but I actually liked it. I tore [dukar] up with that D-pad on THPS4, and in turn, the pad tore up my thumb. Good times.

I first discovered Tony Hawk Thumb along with everyone else, playing THPS on the N64.

« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2011, 02:00:18 PM »
I think I like the SNES and N64 controllers the best overall.

I can't think of a single thing I dislike about the SNES controller; it feels good in one's hand, the D-pad is excellent, the buttons have the perfect amount of sensitivity, and you can slide your finger across the D-pad and between buttons perfectly.
The GCN's analog stick is much better than the 64's (the cover's likelihood of coming off notwithstanding), but the button configuration is awful.
The N64's buttons aren't quite as nice as SNES's, but the analog stick and Z button placement make up for it.

I hate the placement the D-pad, sticks, and shoulder buttons on the Classic Controller (lack of a back-Z button more so than anything), and the buttons aren't anywhere near as smooth as the SNES's.  It's decent for SNES games, but subpar to every one of the original controllers in some way or another.
If she is indeed genetically mutated such that she has an eye in the back of her head, then I guess that she is genetically mutated and has an eye in the back of her head.

« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2011, 04:56:55 PM »
It would be interesting to see a single handed controller of sorts (fully analog, i.e. no Wii crap).
Unwillingly, but successfully! Twice!

« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2011, 05:38:12 PM »
The N64 controller was discriminatory against fat people; the middle prong dug into my stomach when I played games that used the D-pad.
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CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2011, 06:31:10 PM »
The GCN face button layout is great for games that are designed for it. But most aren't.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2011, 07:19:22 PM »
Ya know you can use the analog stick for fighting games. You don't have to shred your thumb or use the old 360 d-pad.

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2011, 08:51:52 PM »
Ewwwwwwwww.

« Reply #25 on: September 07, 2011, 11:00:43 PM »
You guys don't use the analog stick for fighting games?

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #26 on: September 08, 2011, 01:38:46 AM »
I do, yes. But it didn't work with PS1 SFA3 played on a PS2... I guess!
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #27 on: September 08, 2011, 06:30:26 AM »
Remember what I was talking about with the whole "throw" thing? With things like fighting games and shmups, you want that to be as short as possible, and every analog stick out there is going to have a longer movement radius than a D-pad.

Standard controllers aren't designed for fighting games or shmups, is the thing, and there's no reason they should be - after all, no one playing games in any other genre wants a short-throw stick, and that concept isn't really compatible with the concept of an analog stick anyway. Also, fightsticks exist for those people (and the stick on one of those has a shorter throw than any standard gamepad's analog sticks, and it's possible to mod many of them to make that even shorter).

Furthermore, games in these two genres almost never actually benefit from the main design feature of an analog stick, that being the analog movement. In fact, some home ports aren't designed to accept a slight movement on the analog stick, and force you to push the stick all the way to the edge to register input. Doing so is horribly inefficient, and I don't see any reason why I should try to use an analog stick in those cases when there's a perfectly good D-pad sitting there.

Which brings me to my next point: it's also much harder to do many standard inputs on an analog stick. Compare a double-tap forward or back on an analog stick to how effortless it is on a D-pad. Look at something like a quarter-circle or half-circle input, or a super jump (down-up); on an analog stick, you actually have to push the stick in those directions, whereas on a D-pad, you simply roll your thumb.

The only inputs I've ever had to do where I might prefer an analog stick to a D-pad are 360s and 720s, and that's more due to the fact that it'd be less painful to rotate the analog stick than to try to roll my thumb across the entire face of the D-pad in a single split-second movement. It doesn't make sense to switch to the analog stick in the middle of a heated battle for one input, though.

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