Rogue Friday: Controllers

Controllers. They come in many different shapes, and sizes, and more buttons than you can shake a stick at, but they weren't always so complicated. There was a time where they were so simple you had to be brain dead not to understand them.

Of course, the more technology grew, the more complicated games became to play, the more complicated the controllers became to use. Today, I'm going to go through the controls I had the pleasure of using.

It doesn't get any simpler than the NES controller. Well, I suppose it does, but this as far back as I go.

Two buttons and a D-Pad. Traditionally, the A button was always reserved for jumping while the B button was running or shooting. Except when they reversed the two, but we don't talk about that.

Start was for pausing your game and that would become the industry's standard, though I can't for the life of me remember what select did outside of the Komani code...

Then there's the Sega Genesis controller. This console came with two different types: the three button controller you see above, and a special six button controller sold separately.

The six button one was preferred for fighting games, but I never had much trouble with the former. Either way Sega gave us more buttons than Nintendo at the time and the D-Pad could go in eight different directions! That was crazy!

Despite having three buttons they weren't always the most effective. There are several games for the Genesis where the third button just repeated what another button does.

When that happens you may as well not have three buttons at all, but some time it does come in handy. Like the Genesis version of the 1989 Batman movie. The third button gives you a new move you can do that isn't there in the NES version.

Looking back, it's weird to think there was a time the PlayStation controller didn't have the analog sticks, but this plain look right here was their very first controller.

PlayStation hasn't changed their look since first coming into the market. There have been some special controllers here and there – my brother had a longer blue controller he used to use, but the appearance have always been the same.

Four directional buttons, and the four button combo, that the Super Nintendo started, were shapes instead of letters. A good way to have them stand out while sticking with a design that's familiar.

Later on PlayStation would introduce the dual shock controls which would be what everybody knows. Two analog sticks and a rumble feature that created a new dimension to playing games.

When you took a hit you felt it. Some games were pretty creative with this feature, like Metal Gear Solid which used the vibration to demonstrate Psycho Mantis' abilities and when Naomi was trying to heal Snake's arm.

At the launch of the PS2 they switched to a black color scheme and the PS3 gave us our first wireless controller for the PlayStation. To this day I still feel like I'm going to break the damn thing. I know it's mainly because of all the new tech inside the controller, but still. When I'm afraid to even hold the thing something's wrong.

I already went over this (and the GameCube controller) during my A Child's First Console article, so let's focus on something else. The compensating. Nintendo is always constantly updating their technology in order to keep up with the competition.

If you want to save certain games you have to buy a Memory Pak. Want to play certain games? You need an Expansion Pak. Want your controller to vibrate? Rumble Pak. You get the idea. You needed to buy additions for things that came easier on the PlayStation.

You can't have both vibrating and saving on the N64 since both paks need to be placed in the back of the controller. N64 balanced this out by having plenty of games with save files.

Xbox 360 gave me my first wireless controller. Unlike the PS3 controller which you have to recharge, here you need to change batteries when it's running low on power. Still less of a hassle than having to untie a cord if you ask me.

Here we've returned to the A, B, X, Y, combination that debuted with the SNES, but with the four main colors you see all the time, and two control sticks for moving around. One dedicated to moving your character, and the other for moving the camera.

The Xbox controller also has two L and R buttons like the PlayStation controller. Only separated by abbreviation for bumper and trigger buttons rather than just numbers. The X button in the center is a lot more distinguish than the power button on the PS3's controller.

  I'm going to pun hell.

Wiimote. Get it? Because it sounds like remote? I don't have a Wii, but I was able to play with this controller on a demo at GameStop one day and came to despise it.

I was playing a racing game and because of the damn controls I ended up running straight into a wall. You want anything close to a responsive control scheme you have to turn it sideways, but then the A button is so freaking close to the D-Pad, and look at the volume controls and the numbers. They really did want this to be like a TV remote.

I get what they were trying to do with motion controls and all, but it's just not for me. If I ever get my hands on a Wii I'd rather have the regular Wii controllers they made for it. And just when I thought it couldn't any worse out came the Wii U.

Look at this thing! It's so big it may as well be a handheld system. If you found it separate from the system would you think this was intended as a controller?

The marketing strategy for this is that you can continue to play games uninterrupted by switching it with the gamepad so it does double as a handheld device. You're better off that way.

I had so much trouble just trying to line up my shot because the game in question required you to use both screens to do so that it wasn't worth the time or the hassle. I would've loved this as a kid, but now? Not so much, and fair enough if that's what they're going for. That's what they always went for.

And that's all I have to say about controllers. I honestly can't believe I wrote this much on the subject. Until next time this is ToriJ signing off.