Maybe you have answered this before, but what are you favorite video game controllers? Also, of you were to design the perfect one, what features would it have?
My favorite controller is the Dualshock 2, used with the Playstation 2. I had a Playstation-to-USB Adapter for my PC and it became the controller I used for all PC games that let me use one.
If Sony could make a controller that’s just the DS2 with good analog triggers, it would be the perfect controller.
The way I see it is like this: Sony made a decent controller for the original Playstation. It was the first one to really embrace the idea of “grips” that your palms wrap around. This form factor went on to become the defacto standard for most controllers going forward.
It’s basically just a better version of the SNES controller, which was already the best controller of its era.
Sony innovated a second time with the introduction of twin analog sticks, something else that became the defacto standard in the industry. And for my money, Sony’s placement is still the best. I prefer symmetrical analog sticks, because it feels more comfortable on the thumbs when switching back and forth between the d-pad and the stick. The d-pad is already always where it originally was, and Sony put the sticks in the place where they’d make the most sense.
This is part of the reason why I think the Xbox controller has universally been saddled with poor d-pads. Regardless of the actual technology inside an Xbox d-pad, it’s not a natural position for your thumb to rest.
To use the d-pad on an Xbox controller, you have to rotate your thumb almost 90 degrees to the right and push inwards, below the analog stick. On all axis, the d-pad is underneath the stick, making it less comfortable to use on all fronts. On a standard d-pad (NES, SNES, Genesis, Playstation, etc.) your thumb is pointing upwards, and you rock it back and forth, left to right, to move your character left and right.
On an Xbox controller, your thumb is pointing outwards when using a d-pad, requiring a different motion. You kind of push your thumb out (or up) to move to the right, and in (down) to move left. That’s on top of having to physically have your thumb resting further inward on the controller in general. It’s kind of awkward.
I’m sure some people will say that I’m using the Xbox 360 controller as an example, and that the Xbox One d-pad is better now, but I don’t think that really matters. For me, the legacy looks like this:
The Dualshock feels like taking a good controller and adding new standards to make it better, whereas the Xbox controller feels like taking a bad controller and smoothing out its rough edges until its less awful.
Which is a bummer, because Microsoft being such a dominating force with the Xbox 360 means that a lot of people think the Xbox controller configuration is the “correct” one. Even Nintendo uses it now:
(But then, Nintendo’s been kind of dropping the ball on ergonomics for a while now…)
The only thing I’d say in closing is that Sony actually changed the form factor for the Dualshock 4 and I don’t like it as much. There’s a reason I specifically point out the Dualshock 2, and that’s because it’s before the Playstation 3′s mushy analog triggers and before the Playstation 4′s dumb (and nearly useless) track pad.
But it’s not just the track pad. Getting rid of start and select was a bad idea for both Xbox and Playstation alike. The “Share” and “Options” buttons on the PS4 are also really uncomfortable to hit because they’re squeezed in to that tiny little spot next to the touch surface.
The Dualshock 4 also has smaller analog caps and taller sticks, which was hard to adjust to as I found it made my thumbs get really tired, really fast. The face buttons also feel weird and sticky sometimes in a way I don’t like, and there’s sharp plastic ridges all over the controller – there’s some on the outside edges of the L and R bumpers, and at there’s more along the bottom edge of the analog triggers underneath the controller, which is where the rest of my fingers usually rest. These sharp ridges tend to make my fingers sore, especially the ones under the triggers.
Like I said at the start of this ask, if Sony made a Dualshock 2 with proper (read: Xbox-style) analog triggers, it would be my perfect controller.
