Dual Analog Controllers
The other day I had a brief debate with a co-worker when he said the original PlayStation Dual Shock controller was the best game controller of all time. His reasoning was that it introduced the (now standard) right analog stick, as well as extra shoulder buttons (aka trigger buttons). He also added that the controller was very sturdily constructed. He is right on all those counts, but I took a somewhat different stance: that the original PS Dual Shock Controller is, in fact, the worst controller ever.
First of all, it has the absolute word d-pad ever seen by a first-party controller on any system. The whole concept of replacing the full cross on a d-pad with weird disconnected buttons is just crazy. You might be "used to it" by now, but it's a fundamentally flawed idea. Some games (like fighting games) really need either a full cross or a full circular pad like the Xbox's. There are no games, though, that benefit from the terrible PS d-pad design. The NES, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, Xbox, and even the GameCube all have better d-pads. While the PS version is now "the standard" in some sense, it doesn't make it less terrible.
Next, the PS controller added 2 extra shoulder buttons. Shoulder buttons are those annoying hard-to-reach buttons on the top of the controller, for those who don't know. The Saturn used those two buttons on the face of the controller, where I can actually reach them, but the PS's "innovation" was to move perfectly reachable buttons to an annoying place.
The right analog stick is great for games that I like to call "1.5 analog," meaning that character movement is on the left analog stick, and camera adjustment is on the right, but the game is designed so that you mostly use the face buttons on the controller and only occasionally move the camera around. Mario Sunshine, Prince of Persia, Ratchet and Clank, and Grand Theft Auto 3 are some examples. N64 did fine with the little yellow c-buttons in Mario64, Banjo Kazooie, and Donkey Kong 64, but hey, the right analog stick does a little better, I guess.
But the right analog stick also has given rise to most vile of all control schemes: the true dual analog game. This includes first person shooters like Counter-strike, and other such games that are suited to being played on mouse/keyboard, rather than a game controller. Sometime when I wasn't looking, true dual analog fps games on game controllers went from "obviously a terrible idea" to "ok" to "pretty popular." That original PlayStation Dual Shock controller planted the vile seed.
So now I give you the actual greatest controller of all time. Great d-pad. Those extra two buttons aren't obnoxious trigger buttons, but instead are right there on the face. Also, the 6 face buttons are all the same size, and not laid out very "ergonomically." ("Ergonomic" is just a code word for "totally wacky and terrible," I've noticed.) Also, the controller doesn't even have that pesky right analog stick that started the unfortunate trend of dual analog fps games on console. I give you...the Super Pad 8.
Now that's a sexy game pad!
--Sirlin
First of all, it has the absolute word d-pad ever seen by a first-party controller on any system. The whole concept of replacing the full cross on a d-pad with weird disconnected buttons is just crazy. You might be "used to it" by now, but it's a fundamentally flawed idea. Some games (like fighting games) really need either a full cross or a full circular pad like the Xbox's. There are no games, though, that benefit from the terrible PS d-pad design. The NES, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, Xbox, and even the GameCube all have better d-pads. While the PS version is now "the standard" in some sense, it doesn't make it less terrible.
Next, the PS controller added 2 extra shoulder buttons. Shoulder buttons are those annoying hard-to-reach buttons on the top of the controller, for those who don't know. The Saturn used those two buttons on the face of the controller, where I can actually reach them, but the PS's "innovation" was to move perfectly reachable buttons to an annoying place.
The right analog stick is great for games that I like to call "1.5 analog," meaning that character movement is on the left analog stick, and camera adjustment is on the right, but the game is designed so that you mostly use the face buttons on the controller and only occasionally move the camera around. Mario Sunshine, Prince of Persia, Ratchet and Clank, and Grand Theft Auto 3 are some examples. N64 did fine with the little yellow c-buttons in Mario64, Banjo Kazooie, and Donkey Kong 64, but hey, the right analog stick does a little better, I guess.
But the right analog stick also has given rise to most vile of all control schemes: the true dual analog game. This includes first person shooters like Counter-strike, and other such games that are suited to being played on mouse/keyboard, rather than a game controller. Sometime when I wasn't looking, true dual analog fps games on game controllers went from "obviously a terrible idea" to "ok" to "pretty popular." That original PlayStation Dual Shock controller planted the vile seed.
So now I give you the actual greatest controller of all time. Great d-pad. Those extra two buttons aren't obnoxious trigger buttons, but instead are right there on the face. Also, the 6 face buttons are all the same size, and not laid out very "ergonomically." ("Ergonomic" is just a code word for "totally wacky and terrible," I've noticed.) Also, the controller doesn't even have that pesky right analog stick that started the unfortunate trend of dual analog fps games on console. I give you...the Super Pad 8.
Now that's a sexy game pad!
--Sirlin
9 Comments:
At 11:54 AM, NObodyNOWHERE said…
Hey there. Cool addition to an already outstanding site.
What you say about the PS dual analog is absolutely true. My brother and I used to have fits when people would talk about how much they love that thing. It was especially irritating to hear them gushing when the X-box controller was getting slammed so much (not that it's perfect or anything). I always thought that for fighting games, the Saturn had the best controllers, hands down. Also, you didn't mention the button labelling on the PS - What is the deal with the circle, square, etc...? So arbitrary and counter-intuitive! With x,y,z,a,b,c,l,r you know where everything is within 3 seconds because a natural order is built in. Only thing I disagree on is the dual analog. I enjoy FPS a bunch and I find that sort of setup vastly superior to the old single stick with side-step controls that you had to deal with.
Thanks!
At 12:51 AM, Anonymous said…
i actually have one of those Super Pad 8s sitting in a dresser drawer with my poor neglected Saturn. It was a good pad.
-pat m.
At 1:43 PM, Nickolas said…
I consider the GameCube controller to be the best because of the ingenious triangular configuration of the A, X, and Y buttons. I don't own a GameCube, so the only GCN game I ever play on is Soul Caliber II, during frequent visits to friends' houses. Based solely on my experiences playing SC2, I must say for 3 buttons to have 7 different combinations (A, X, Y, AX, YX, AY, AYX) that can be easily executed with your thumb is phenomenal.
The PS2 controller, and all other controllers I know of, lack such ease of use. Though I have fingers that would be stereotypically described as a pianist's, I still find it difficult to reach across the diagonal with my thumb on a PS2 controller and hit two buttons without accidentally hitting a third. Am I just a scrub with a ponderous thumb and no manual dexterity? I'd like to think not. I know what it is to be a world class competitor, though not in Soul Caliber 2, and I believe my experiences have made me able to judge when a problem such as the one I have described above is due to poor controller design as opposed to a failing of mine.
At 9:31 PM, Anonymous said…
I have liked the psx style of controller for a while, but my friend said he hates it- especially for how tired his hands got after extensive play basically. But to address the points you brought up, I have a different perspective:
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First of all, it has the absolute word d-pad ever seen by a first-party controller on any system. The whole concept of replacing the full cross on a d-pad with weird disconnected buttons is just crazy. You
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I disagree- the psx style is more "digital". The function of a directional pad is for the player to indicate direction, and with a full cross d pad it might seem more intuitive but for navigating around the screen within a finite state machine's environment, I like having more of a distinction between down-left vs. left, for example. It is a little harder to press both buttons at the same time, especially for any rolling motion, but for this trade off you get a slightly better distinction.
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it's a fundamentally flawed idea. Some games (like fighting games) really need either a full cross or a full circular pad like the Xbox's.
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Agreed- but I would say that playing fighting games with pads in the first place is what's fundamentally flawed. That's like saying, why not play fighting games with the Analog Shock feature enabled? From a marketing standpoint, it makes perfect sense- more "immersion into the world" etc. but there is a fine line between desired immersion and ...volition (as accurate as volition can be input by the controller, which is more important in fighting games I think).
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There are no games, though, that benefit from the terrible PS d-pad design. The NES, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, Xbox, and even the GameCube all have better d-pads. While the PS version is now "the standard" in some sense, it doesn't make it less terrible.
<<
I must have first gotten used to it/hooked when playing WipeOut on the psx, a racing game- there's left and right for steering, but also pressing down gives you some more lift as you hover over the track that you fly low over. There are also two independent air-brakes, left and right, which you can use to pivot your car from a central axis for steering tricks around tight curves.
Pads themselves put a lot of stress on the wrists, for not only supporting the controller itself (you have to hold it in your hands) but also actually pressing the buttons. Eventually, as video games become more popular over time, we can evolve appropriately to grow a second opposable thumb somewhere on our hands and it might help to deal with that. I remember the original Nintendo NES, and my brother got a new stick for it, the Lynx I think it was called. It was black and red, and totally different. I had a stick, a real stick- but still conformed to the hold-the-whole-thing-in-your-hands problem. In fact, I think it had players _reversing_ their hands altogether- it was not ambidextrous but the hand you held it with, also pressed the buttons. This freed up an entire hand to focus on the stick itself, and offered an interesting compromise. My brother really got into it, but by then I was far too used to the standard. The Advantage stick first came out then, which was awesome, but you soon realized that you had to clamp the damn thing down or spend half your physical resources making sure it won't skid all around your lap or whatever.
David Boudreau
At 9:29 PM, Anonymous said…
Sirlin is right. The pad itself may be suitable for a lot of games, 2D fighting games is not one of them. Most of all, some games don't even support the (too small to use anyway) analog stick, like SFA3 for PS/1. I can play that game for 7 hours on a cabinet, but 5 minutes on the PS/2 controller gives me friggin RSI.
DJS
At 5:54 AM, Anonymous said…
Other details about the PS2 DS controller that proves how crappy it really is:
The analog stick itself is not surprisingly, the most horrible analog stick I've been subjected to. The placement is so that I, an adult player, actually have to stretch the thumb to put it properly on. And in addition to this, it seems to have only two movement ratings: Slow and fast. I've played Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy X, Jakk II, WRC (first one for PS2), and all of them with the same result. What's even worse is that slow movement is only possible when you move the stick between 1,1 and 1,2 millimetres away from the center.
And even in games where you hardly use the shoulder buttons, they still keep being irritating because of the design it makes. To anyone still fond of the DS controller, I have a task for you: Take your DS in your hand, and try to find a position for your index and middle finger that isn't tiring in itself, or that doesn't make the controller "gnaw" against one of your finger knuckles.
Or, you can take a grip with the left hand, where both fingers are placed on their respective buttons, and the thumb on the analog stick. Now keep your hand in that position and remove the controller from your hand. Does that look like a comfortable position for your hand? Or does it look like you have two fingers in a good grip and two claws sticking out?
Looking at the N64, we have a controller that, while having it's own problems, at least knew how to make it comfortable when it comes to using the analog stick. The hand just gets into place and stays there, and the stick actually has several different movement ratings. I've actually spent hours just moving Link around in his various forms in Mahjora's Mask, simply because it works so damn well. If only the stick itself was more like the one on the XBox and didn't "tire out" so soon, I'd be really happy during my N64 days.
At 5:42 PM, Anonymous said…
I agree with that comment- the analog has the most difficult-to-use sensitivity. I played GTA3 on the computer with a mouse, and then got a PS2 for GTA:SA. The reason I have to redo a mission 99% of the time is because of my problems aiming.
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous said…
What a load of bull. The PS Dual Analog is the best controller yet. U wasted my time coming to your site to read about a bunch of crap comments. If u play enough games you will be able to understand the reason for the layout and labeling of the PS Dual Analog. Go do your research and get the facts right before jumping to conclusions hastily.
At 6:45 PM, Anonymous said…
Irony - Spelling "you" as "u", and then capitalizing it when used at the beginning of a sentence.
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