The 15 Best Video Game Controllers Of All Time

The modern scientific standard for controller usability is measured by the number of times a controller can be angrily thrown against a wall. But before controllers shed their wires, we paid more attention to minutiae such as ergonomics and button placement. And let’s not rule out the biggest factor of them all: nostalgia. Put an old joystick or gamepad in our hands, and our thumbs remember combo sequences like it was just yesterday

A controller may just be an arrangement of buttons and a directional pad, but as games have evolved, so have controller layouts. The alchemy is a funny thing—same basic ingredients, but each company cranks out a distinct brew for every console. Every controller left its mark on our childhood and adulthood. Sometimes that piece of plastic was a landmark; at other times, a skid mark. Either way, we decided to rank our favorite man-machine interfaces since the home console first became popular, because good or bad, we still left Cheeto fingerprints all over them. Oh, and we’re limiting the list to stock first party controllers. Sorry, Mad Catz!

By Ryan Woo

13. Xbox Controller S

Pros: Microsoft finally got the controller thing right when they decided to use the Japanese controller as part of the de facto Xbox bundle, replacing the tanklike original "fat" conroller.

Cons: At least the original fat Xbox controller was a sort of parental control. Your 5 year old brother couldn’t play those M rated games simply because his chubby smurf hands were too small for the OG controller. The S controller removed that barrier, thus leading to the current generation of violence-desensitized zit-poppers.

10. PlayStation 3 DualShock

Pros: It’s based on the OG DualShock, one of the GOAT controllers.


Cons: Megan Fox isn’t as hot after plastic surgery. Why mess with perfection? Sony took the pinnacle controller and performed a little lip surgery on the L2/R2 Buttons, and then lipo’d a little too much, removing the heft. The end result was a mere shadow of its former greatness.

9. Neo Geo/AES

Pros: For a nearly $700 system, we’d better get a beast of controller. Fortunately, the Neo Geo piece worthy—it was a pure gamer’s controller, with no gimmicks or fluff. It was clicky, precise, and detail-oriented. And it just FELT right.


Cons: In order to have the privilege of using this controller, there was the small matter of a $650 entrance fee to get the Neo Geo. Most people, unsurprisingly, opted to just enjoy the Neo Geo via multi-title arcade cabinets.

7. Sony PlayStation

Pros: Ah, the original PSX controller. It single-handedly turned the X, O, Square, and Triangle into the modern equivalent of Egyptian hieroglyphics. When aliens find humanity’s fossilized remains in 3015, they’ll deduce that humans discovered fire, then worshipped cats as gods, then pressed little round plastic buttons, and eventually blew themselves up at some point. And that’s pretty much our existence.

Cons: Not much you can say to knock it, except maybe that it sort of copped the SNES’ button steez.

5. Xbox 360

Pros: Third time was a charm for Microsoft. After the fat debacle and the subsequent small band-aid, we were finally gifted with a reliable, solid, well mannered wireless workhorse.


Cons: Too bad Microsoft is limited when it comes to their R&D blood supply—when they put all their energy into the controller, they drained the life-force out of their console design. Hence the Red Ring debacle.

3. Sega Genesis

Pros: Sega fixed every problem with the Sega Master System’s pad by giving us the most easily gripped controller of all time. The plastic texture was perfect.


Cons: Whenever we pick this thing back up, we’re reminded of the fact that this was one of the last remnants of a time when Sonic games didn’t suck.

1. PlayStation 2 DualShock

Pros: The pinnacle of controller design that borrowed from its previous ancestors, it still stands tall as the culmination of years of hardware trial and error.


Cons: The wire—especially compared to the Alaskan Pipeline that was the SNES controller—was too short. And it didn’t pop out of the port easily if someone tripped on it or you pulled it accidentally, which meant that if the PS2 was on a shelf, it was crashy crashy time.