If there’s one thing that developers absolutely must get right when designing a video game console, it’s the controllers. If they muck up the controller design by making it unwieldy, cumbersome, or painful to use for extended periods, the entire system can fail, so they’re important. We looked through some of the best and worst video game controllers ever released and identified five at the top and five at the bottom of the pile. For controllers with multiple generations, we selected only the best (or worst), and we only focused on primary system controllers, so no elites or special editions. We arranged them in no particular order, except for identifying each as one of the best or worst game controllers ever made.
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Best) Atari 2600
Sometimes, the simplest controllers are the best, and you can’t get much simpler than the joystick controller for the Atari 2600. Its official designation is the Atari CX40 joystick, and it’s the first commercially successful cross-platform game controller. It came out in 1977, and while it was designed for the Atari 2600, it could be used on the Commodore 64, Apple II, and many other systems with adapters. The controller featured a single button, so there weren’t many options. It did require plenty of torque to use, so some players developed fatigue from extended play, but overall, the Atari 2600’s joystick’s simple design made it ideal and iconic.
Worst) Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is a failed system that lasted only a few years and sold fewer than 150,000 consoles. Part of the problem with the system (and there were many) was the design of its controller, an unwieldy beast with a full numeric keypad in the center. It was called the PowerPad and featured 17 buttons: three face buttons, 12 keypad buttons, a D-pad, and pause and options buttons. You could fit plastic overlays on the keypad to help quick-select weapons in Doom and similar games. It was an interesting idea, but the execution was awful, and the controller mapping wasn’t great.
Best) Super Nintendo
The controller for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is another simplistic design, but it offers a significant improvement over the NES controller. That controller was rectangular, featuring two buttons and a D-pad, but the SNES controller added a bit more. It included two more buttons on the face and an L and R button on the top. To accommodate this and improve the controller’s feel in the hand, the rectangular shape was abandoned in favor of rounded edges, making it more comfortable for extended use. This design would influence others in the years that followed, as was common with early Nintendo controllers.
Worst) Phillips CD-I
The Phillips CD-I is one of the worst home video game consoles ever released, and I can say that because I had one. It actually had a few controllers you could get for it, including a three-button gamepad, which was mildly okay, but the one that really sucked was the pictured paddle controller. Theoretically, the paddle could be used to play all games, as every game on the system had to be playable with every controller. That said, using the paddle was nearly impossible, as it’s one of the worst-designed controllers ever released to the public. It included a D-pad of sorts that rarely recognized inputs and was far better as a paperweight than as a gaming controller.
Best) Wii Remote
When Nintendo released the Wii, the system came with controllers that looked nothing like anything the company had designed previously. The controller was more of a rectangular remote-control design that could fit a wide range of peripherals. It could also accommodate the Nunchuk. This additional controller included an analog stick and two buttons. When combined, the two controllers were all you needed (alongside your body movement) to control all manner of games. The design was ingenious and, while unconventional, a literal game-changer, demonstrating once again that Nintendo knew how to innovate in its controller design.
Worst) Nintendo 64
Cards on the table, I actually liked the design of the Nintendo 64’s controller, and I’m not the only one. That said, it seems that far more people hated the design than liked it, so I had to include it here. The main problem with its design is how it’s meant to be held, as it allows for three different hand positions. This was inventive and worked for many games, but it also meant that you couldn’t always hit the right buttons with every handheld position without significantly moving one or both hands around mid-game. It worked well with many games, but with others, it caused hand strain and left players hating the controller.
Best) Xbox 360
The first Xbox controller was too large, and I nearly included it on this list, but didn’t think it quite rose to the level of “worst” controller. Still, it was a massive beast, so Microsoft went with a more streamlined design for the Xbox 360. The company absolutely nailed it with a much better form factor that feels good to hold for long gaming sessions, with no discomfort when hitting all its buttons for extended periods. Successive designs retained the same form factor with minimal changes, as there wasn’t much to improve upon, ensuring that Microsoft’s best-selling system also introduced its best-designed controller.
Worst) Apple Bandai Pippin
Remember the Apple Bandai Pippin? No? Well, there’s a reason for that. Apple and Bandai decided in the 1990s to create an inexpensive computer designed around a CD-ROM that would make a great gaming system, but you’ve probably never heard of it because it was a massive commercial failure. Part of the reason the system failed was its horrific controller design, which took the shape of a boomerang for some reason. It featured a trackball in the center, two shoulder buttons, four face buttons, a D-pad, and three bottom buttons. It was hard to hold and frustrating to use, so it didn’t help enamor many people with the Pippin.
Best) PlayStation 5 DualSense
When Sony introduced the PlayStation, it also gave the world one of the best controllers ever made. The design of that controller continued to receive upgrades and enhancements, and save for the DualShock 3, which kind of sucked, they only got better. The most recent addition to the line, the PlayStation 5 DualSense, is easily one of the best gaming controllers ever designed, thanks to its extraordinary features. The controller is loaded with impressive technology, including multiple levels of adaptive trigger and force feedback sensitivity that make it feel like you’re actually squeezing the trigger of a firearm. I’ve held a lot of gaming controllers, and to date, the DualSense is the controller to beat.
Worst) Amiga CD32
The Amiga CD32 is another gaming console that absolutely failed to achieve a foothold in the marketplace. The system bombed so hard that it actually drove Commodore into bankruptcy. While the design of its controller isn’t the chief cause of that financial mishap, it certainly didn’t help. As you can see from the picture, it wasn’t designed for a human to hold — who thought this shape was a good match for someone to hold for a long period of time? It’s somewhat akin to the SNES controller in terms of buttons, but the odd shape is too hard to ignore, making the Amiga CD32’s controller design one of the worst in the history of gaming.
What’s your all-time favorite and least favorite game controller? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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