The 25 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!

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Controller: Guitar Hero Controller

Pros: It gave us the opportunity to live out our dreams of being a rockstar, and was rather easy to get used to.

Cons: The first guitars released weren't wireless, so you had to make sure you weren't shredding too hard. Fortunately, Neversoft took care of this problem when Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock released, creating a wireless guitar that could be purchased with the game.

Controller: DDR Mat

Pros: It doubled as both a dance mat and as a means of losing weight. Plus, it was great to watch your not-as-coordinated friends nearly bust their ass from missing so many arrows. Also, apparently Street Fighter is compatible with DDR mats, so, yeah.

Cons: Similar to the Guitar Hero controller there wasn't much else that could be done with the DDR mat. Plus, the home mats could be unresponsive at times to the point to where you had to stomp on arrows, in order to complete a certain move.

Controller: NES Zapper

Pros: It's basically the godfather of light guns.

Cons: It won't work on LCDs, plasma displays orother flat panel displays becuase of display lag.

Controller: PlayStation Move Wand

Pros: It's precise, comes with built-in lithium-ion batteries and works extremely well with the PlayStation Eye.

Cons: Its launch lineup was pretty bad and not worth the price. Fortunately, better games have been released since then.

Controller: NES Advantage

Pros: It does a great job of having that arcade controller feel, and you could even adjust the controller's turbo features (among other things).

Cons: It was an underrated NES accessory. That's really it.

Controller: Kinect

Pros: It can simultaneously track up to six people, and holds it own against the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation's Move.

Cons: Similar to the PlayStation Move, Xbox's Kinect was also troubled by a bad launch lineup. there have also been some slight lag problems addressed, but other than that it's good.

Controller: Sega Genesis Six Button Controller

Pros: Ideal for fighting games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and a nice and comfortable fit for your hands as well.

Cons: Nothing really, except that dpending on certain gaimes, playing with a six button Sega Genesis controller instead of a three button one, would sometimes mess up the button configurations.

Controller: Hit-Box

Pros: It's innovative and manages to deliver that nostalgic, arcade feel to the comfort of your own home.

Cons: The price on the Hit-Box ranges from $160 to $225, and having to use buttons for character movement instead of a d-pad or joystick, might take some time to get used to.

Controller: Sega Dreamcast Controller

Pros: It was essentially the blueprint to the Xbox controller, and that Virtual Memory Unit? One of the coolest video game creations ever.

Cons: The size of the controller could be overwhelming, and the length of its wire was pretty short, too.

Controller: Nintendo GameCube Controller

Pros: Despite the initially odd-seeming layout on the pad's right side, everything seemed to finally come together when we played Resident Evil 4. That left analog stick never slipped again.

Cons: The odd layout on its right side and its short wire. (The latter would end up getting fixed when the GameCube Wavebird controller came out, hint, hint.)

Controller: Wiimote

Pros: The accuracy-enhancing MotionPlus, and the fact it can be attached to a Classic Controller, Wii Zapper and the Wii Wheel.

Cons: It's just awkward to hold when playing traditional d-pad/button games (are you listening, Donkey Kong Country Returns?). And it tended to slip out of your mom's hand when she played Wii Sports, causing an argument between her and your dad on why the new plasma TV got broken less than a month after they finally got the damn thing off layaway at Walmart.

Controller: Atari 2600 Joystick

Pros: Although not the first gaming controller, this is still considered the Dolemite of home console joysticks. And it kept going for years, well after you tried figuring out what the hell you were supposed to do in E.T.

Cons: Well, it only had one button. But who cares? All you were doing was shooting little tank-like blocks that, when blown up, sounded like a dial-up modem connecting.

Controller: Xbox Controller S

Pros: Microsoft finally got the controller problem right when they decided to use the Japanese controller as part of the de facto Xbox bundle, replacing the tank-like, original "fat" controller.

Cons: At least the original fat Xbox controller was a sort of parental control. Your five 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. (Just kidding, Xbox. Well, kind of.)

Controller: Nintendo 64 Controller

Pros: It was fairly minimal and the triggers were nearly perfect for first-person shooters.

Cons: Unfortunately, those same triggers weren't as useful for other games. Other than that, the N64 controller was pretty solid.

Controller: Sega Master System

Pros: It was the perfect size for our munchkin hands back then, and it could also be used as a controller for the Atari 7800, because of the connector pin compatibility.

Cons: Games always felt a bit mushy on it. The control pad (labeled "CONTROL PAD") felt like we were playing Double Dragon with the Braille system, and the raised nubs sanded our thumbs down after extended play sessions. And, lastly, the buttons had too far of a travel time, adding to the imprecision.

Controller: Playstation 3 Controller

Pros: It's based on the OG DualShock, one of the GOAT controllers. The inclusion of a "home" button was cool, too.

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.

Controller: Neo Geo/AES

Pros: Considering the Neo Geo/AES system ran for nearly $700, we'd better get a beast of a controller. Fortunately, the controller (among other qualities) was worth the price. The controller was a pure gamer's controller, with no gimmicks or fluff. It was clicky, precise, detail-oriented and just FELT right.

Cons: You had to pay $650 in order to even use this controller. Most people, unsurprisingly, opted to just enjoy the Neo Geo via multi-title arcade cabinets.

Controller: Keyboard and Mouse

Pros: The PC isn't a console per se, and we hate to encourage PC elitists. But the WASD x mouse combo still reigns supreme for shooters, RTSes, and MMOs. (Not so much for Kinectimals, though, which is probably another pro.)

Cons: By using a keyboard and mouse you share a significant commonality with the guy who scoffs at Crysis on a console, as he pushes his glasses back up his nose.

Controller: Sony Playstation Controller

Pros: Ah, the original Playstation 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, worshipped cats as gods, 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 layout.

Controller: GameCube Wavebird Controller

Pros: It was the first wireless video game controller, and was like a glimpse into the future when it dropped.

Cons: It had the same layout as a regular GameCube controller, but the wireless made up for it.

Controller: Xbox 360 Controller

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 and 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.

Controller: NES Controller

Pros: Despite the thrashing you gave this controller when you were a raging prepubescent, you can still pick it up today and play without a hitch. The everlasting precision belies the fact that you tried to kill it by dragging it around the house in a tug-of-war match with your dog.

Cons: None. Well, maybe it was a bit too rectangular shaped. But it was the '80s-even people were square-shaped back then.

Controller: Sega Genesis Controller

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 controller up we're reminded that this was one of the last remnants of a time when Sonic games didn't suck.

Controller: Super Nintendo Controller

Pros: Without the SNES pad there would be no DualShock. This controller became ubiquitous with Street Fighter II, but it was perfect for every single game out at the time. The wire was miles long too, so there was some slack for when your little sister tripped on it.

Cons: It's a bit Camry-esque, aesthetically. Sure, it gets the job done-forever-but it's about as exciting as morning breath.

Controller: Playstation 2 DualShock Controller

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.