by Peter » Mon Apr 06, 2015 8:08 pm
Hmmmmm. Controllers. Gaming pads. So on and so forth......
I am not gonna vote, i am just gonna selfishly give my personal views of controllers ive used over the past 30 years as a gamer.
To start off, whats the point of the 4 in 1 pong console because it was just a knob you turned. Same for the original common joystick with 1 red button. Pretty primitive, but none the less necessary. So along came the first controllers i ever properly used. The SNES and the Mega Drive with their 6 button/3 button/D-Pad configuration. Classic gaming peripheral for the time. I was a Mega Drive owner, and loved the attitude design of the Sega controller. But 6 buttons are better than 3, so the SNES controller wins out of these two. Plus the colour scheme of the buttons, the L and R bumpers, the softness and smoothness of the D-Pad not only made it a great controller, it added to the positive experience of playing games which required button combinations, mostly in the case of beat-em ups. This pissed all over Segas games at the time. Anyone who played the eagerly awaited Mortal Kombat 2 on the Mega Drive knows exactly what i am talking about. If you were asking Santa for MK2 or Super Street Fighter for your Mega Drive that Christmas, you were a flat out moron if you didnt also ask him to slip in a newly released 6 button joypad. I mean, High Punch/Low Punch. High Kick/Low Kick. Count the key attack commands. Its clear 3 buttons will not make a great gaming experience. End of talk. Over.
Ironically, despite being so so long ago, Nintendo went outside the box. When i say outside the box, i mean take the most outlandishly radical, yet the most common sensical idea and develop it into a reality in the eyes of the general public. Strictly from a gaming standpoint, the released the N64 joypad with the incredible analogue stick. An absolute joy to feel in your hand and wiggle with your thumb. Not only that, but it wasnt a nifty trick or a market fad to sell a console. It was 100% necessary for new 3D generation of games. The first ever memory i have of the N64 is the image of Mario spinning around Bowser by the tail, which TV show Gamesmaster showed in a preview. Now just to nip any arguments in the bud, i am classing this as the first proper analogue controller over the Playstations version, because even though the original analogue PS controller was officially released a few months before the N64s release, it was more or less useless, with games still being developed with the D-pad/arrow controls in mind. They were an option at best, even more so accented by the fact that newwly released PS consoles were released with the analogue controllers but only as an option that had to be avtivated in the consoles menu, and later on by a button on the controller itself.
Anyways, the N64 games were created around the analogue stick. Again, its necessity, not a gimmick (or a misunderstood gimmick) and boy did it hit big. From spinning Bowser a full 360 degrees into a bomb in Mario 64, flipping my jetski from the left to the right in Wave race, to gliding down Mount Rushmore on my Hang Glider in Pilotwings, to aiming my sniper crosshair in Goldeneye. Just a feeling of proper control i had never experienced until that point. The how about the C buttons, and also the Z button. Proper 4 optional buttons that didnt make things complicated as you would rightfully expect, and also a proper gun trigger button respectively. Add into that a rumble pack and it honestly was like firing a real gun in a way.
At this point i am going to unashamedly admit i have never been a Playstation fan, specifically for 1 main reason; the controller. I just never liked it. 4 trigger buttons? Am i supposed to have my index and also middle fingers permanently rested upon them? Is that how i am meant to use it? If i dont, does that mean i will not play games as well as others? Then add 2 analogue sticks to it, in the most uncomfortable position possible. My thumbs are not meant to be maintained in a 90 degree position in relation to my index fingers up around the trigger buttons for a sustained period of time!! Who invented this thing?? Add to the fact that the LS and RS are push down buttons?? How am i meant to have control over this, errr, controller? I physically cant! Am i meant to, i mean are my hands meant to be of a certain size and build to use this thing?
And best of all, it hasnt fucking changed majorally in almost 20 years!!! Shite. Chunky. Grey. Poor design. Bland. Repetitive. Unimaginative. Sorry to all the Playstation fans out there, but.... i aint sorry at all. The only Playstation i have owned for a long while is the PS3, and from day one, i have played it with an XBM box and a wired USB Xbox 360 controller. I just ignored the six-axis function games all together, and the point is that i managed to enjoy PS games more with the Xbox controller than what i would have enjoyed if i had of used the PS controller. That covers Sony from its first console until its todays, baring a few different tweaks.
That leaves 2 controllers left i have to discuss; The Dreamcast and the Xbox console range of controllers.
Firstly, the Dreamcast. I will avoid any nostalgia/fanboyisms i have for the console, but i loved the DC controller. It took all the best bits of console controllers up to that point, came up with a good design, and even in its controller, proved that it was ahead of its time with the removable VMU. Nintendo redefined the controller with the N64, namely with analogue controls and also a hardware slot in the controller. Sega built on this with a great full smooth 360 analogue stick, smooth designs with its hand grooving, and best of all, a visual screen from a Visual Memory Unit which can be slotted in to act as an in game feature, or just a memory card. For its time it was great, even if it was ahead of its time. I loved it at the time, but going back and feeling it in my hands now after years of using modern console controllers, i cant describe it, but it just feels old. I cant describe it much more than that. It feels skinny. Or light. Or.... something! It just feels like a console controller from its time. But still a great controller.
Finally, the Xbox range. The original i feel was a copy of the DC pad, with a chunkier design, built in added rumble function, but most importantly the full implementation of a second analogue stick. From the many reasons its vital to its purpose, the main attraction for me was its correct placement. A much more comfortable and natural position when compared to the PS Dualshock. The LS and RS buttons were much more easier to action, and everything else was more or less the same as the DC controller. a L and R trigger, and 4 button cross layout. Almost perfect, except it was a heavy chunky brick in your hand.
But the 360 slimmed it all down, and applied the "aint broke, dont fix it" approach. And it worked. Not only that, but MS solved a big problem the console/PC base had problems with for years; software for PCs to allow the 360 controller to be used on PCs, making playing games through emulators much more appealing.
Ive typed for ages and i am running out of steam here since i am also shattered, but i will maybe say that the Xbox One controller is in fact my favourite. Its a bit chunkier than the 360, which i feel is a good thing (yes i said it!) and the materials feel a lot smoother and better. Also the curved trigger buttons are much softer and comfortable to use, as well as the analogue sticks a lot easier to grip.
Finally, i know i havent included the Wii or the Wii-U into the above aricle, because, well i dont class them as fully integrated proper "controllers". They do control the game and the console yes.... but again i cant describe it. They are in a category of their own, due to being in a controller world where there is no comparison. Perhaps another topic is controller v motion controller topic, comparing them with the Kinect and PS Move, but i dont want to discuss them here.