Not super weird in the grand scheme of things but I played the shit out of FFXI using this controller and when my friends found out I was using this they were astounded at my typing speed. This was back in the era of texting with a number pad so thumb typing wasn’t as prevalent as it is today.
I unironically wish all controllers were like this. IMO the main way hardware limits game design is the number of buttons on modern controllers; more buttons = more actions that can be performed = more complex and interesting games.
The steam controller was (and still is) fantastic. I once got a comfortable binding for the original System Shock, which already has a pretty untenable control scheme with a keyboard and mouse. Also its haptic feedback can play music.
I’ve played lot of slower paced first person games with them. It also feels really nice in games with inventory screens and other mouse-focused ui. I never really tried to get used to them though, they just kind of clicked with me.
Try a strategy title with the pads, in particular something like Civ, where there is no time limit. Right pad works fantastic as a mouse replacement. Left pad is always kind of just there, though it can be useful as a radial menu if you use the configurator (albeit that makes more sense on Steam Controller since the pads are round).
100% a title that would struggle with full controller, for me it was cities skylines and rimworld. Also played a lot of warframe and spec ops:the line with mine, being able to have actions trigger at different points of the trigger pull was interesting, had a profile I grabbed for shooters that’d enable gyro aiming at the last bit of your trigger pull for fine adjustment and seriously, it works extremely well once you get used to it. The pads also supported osd rotary menus for hotkeys which was probably what the left pad got the most use out of, had the ability to set different behaviour too using mod buttons are by touching the rim of the pad. Also the haptic feedback on the pads was interesting, did a lot to make them feel more real, seriously had a really powerful piece of hardware with the og steam controller.
Came here to say this. I use mine almost every day, specifically for titles that don’t have controller support.
While I do prefer a twin-stick like the DualSense for games with support, you cannot at all beat a Steam Controller for strategy gaming from the couch. I’m still on my first, but have two as backup (it was limit 2 when Valve offloaded them for $5 each).
N64, and this is the one I actually grew up with. They took a chance, they fucked up by making an alien spaceship three-pronged dildoesque monstrosity, that wore out at mach speed - especially by normal gameplay in certain (coughMarioParty1cough) games. While I have tons of love and nostalgia for N64 and several games on it, it can't excuse the controller itself.
Joycons. I actually enjoy using them but the fact that their failure rate is basically guaranteed makes them little more than paper weights. I have 4 sets all with drift. I have a friend who’s really into Nintendo and he has a huge collection of joycons because they keep developing drift. At $100 a pop in Canada, I know my friend has spent over $1000 on these things. Myself, I would never buy another pair of joycons from Nintendo.
My experience with joycons has actually made me much more discerning when it comes to buying new controllers, for example why would I buy the xbox elite controller when everyone reports they develop drift? Before joycons I probably would have just bought the xbox elite controller and ended up with a disappointing product.
I had an ASCII Grip for the original Playstation that I really loved. It was a one-handed controller that I mostly used to play RPGs, and although it took a little getting used to, I eventually got so comfortable with it I could menu faster with the Grip than with a normal pad!
It’s not exactly weird, but I loved the giant “duke” controller for the og xbox. A lot of people hated it but I think it’s one of the most comfortable controllers ever made.
I’ve always had long fingers, and The Duke was perfect. I remember getting one of the revamped controller models down the line, and it just never felt quite as good.
Still prefer X-Box style controllers on the overall, these days. Still not quite up there yet, but still better than PlayStations style, and while I think the JoyCons are absolutely adorable and clever, actually using them is just uncomfortable after awhile.
Hot take: Nintendo Switch Joycons. They’re a nice and clever concept but in reality they’re bad.
Too small even for casual games. The Wiimote was much better at it.
Very expensive at 80 € per set. Yes, you get two of them but in most games outside of Mario Kart you also need both. And even then they’re fine at best.
4 out of 4 of my controllers got stick drift. Nintendo had to be sued into repairing them.
It’s a conventional GameSir controller that has a Switch mode among others. The split design of the Joycons rarely plays out, most of the time it makes the controllers unnecessarily complex and thus expensive IMHO.
You mean both hands have to grip one controller opposed to having a Joycon in each hand? That split-design can be an advantage, but IMHO doesn’t cancel out the shortcomings of the Joycons. I find them still too small and not grippy at all.
Single joycon is barely usable, but the Wiimote was terrible for sideways holding.
Its shape was clearly never intended for it, and the d-pad was absolutely awful, one of the worst I’ve used.
The d-pad worked as buttons (which was how most games used it, in vertical mode), but for movement it was very stiff and almost impossible to get diagonals. For a console that featured virtual console heavily and needed a lot of classic controls, that was very bad design.
I hate the Joycons so much. The clicky buttons are terrible, the split dpad sucks for games that use it for movement, the sticks aren’t great either for precision (ignoring the drift issues), and I find them painful to hold.
markdown formatting is weird bruh, sometimes it adds spaces, sometimes it removes them sometimes it just fucking yeets newlines, sometimes it adds them, what a weird “standard”
Any of the PAID games from Kairosoft. Dungeon Village, Grand Prix Story, Game Dev Story. He has since re-released all his games as f2p microtransaction junk, but the full price versions are generally really good.
This is a Nyko Air Flow controller. I had one for the original Xbox. It was supposed to keep you from sweating during long sessions of gameplay, because it was ventilated and had a fan on the back. To be honest, I don’t remember it being excellent at keeping you cool. I think the fan was pretty lousy, but it was a great gimmick none the less.
I had a lot of weird controllers back then. Some good, some bad. Most of them Mad Catz.
Mad Catz and their controllers that seem like they were designed by two actual, mad, cats. They still make ridiculous stuff like their R.A.T. mouse with like a dozen different dials and sliders and removable parts for customization:
Of course, I think Mad Catz was absorbed by some other company at some point, so i’m not 100% on if it’s even the same people anymore. But the spirit is alive and well, it would seem.
LOL I had completely forgotten about this controller. One of my roommates in college had one of these and I usually wound up with it. I didn’t hate it, though, for a third party controller it was surprisingly decent. The fan was mid, but you could feel it, from what I remember.
I remember it being one of my favored chosen out of the plethora of random third party devices I had laying around. This was a step above Mad Catz for sure, but definitely still below the original controllers.
NYKO were a decent third party, back in the day. Not great, but a step above the competition. Downside, I don’t think they ever really changed their plans that much. I swear I saw PS3 controllers with the “air cool” marketing still on it, just now with RGB through the controller!
Official Microsoft controllers were absolute peak with the Xbox 360…
…but modern Microsoft Xbox controllers have absolute dogshit build quality. Just the worst, constantly breaking for no reason. I’m just done with Xbox controllers because old DualShock 4’s are cheap and quality.
Back in the day, I bought the official Xbox360 steering wheel. It made me laugh because it was called wireless. It was only wireless between itself and the Xbox. It still needed a power brick to drive the motor and another wire to connect it to the pedals.
When I sold it, I almost made my money back because it was in high demand. MS had replaced it with that awful U shaped steering wheel that you held in the air like a Wii controller. It used sensors to tell when it was tilted. I never used one but the reviews weren’t favourable as I remember.
Well, both of the ones I used (one was second hand) had a very small range for the analog stick. Like it would take a few seconds to turn the character around in a game even if I put the sensitivity up to max. Though if you had good experiences, maybe it wasn’t the controllers fault. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I was pretty happy with my most-recent Logitech gamepad – I think an F310 – but I had another from the 1990s that was terrible, had a D-pad that rolled to diagonal movement far too easily.
I had a knockoff wavebird for the GameCube. Guzzled batteries, introduced lag, and sometimes your character just slowly rotated in a circle. It was cool to have a wireless controller though!
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