8BitDo Pro 2. It’s like a Playstation 2/3 and SNES controller did the fusion dance. I use it on my Switch and PC, response is great, tactile feel is amazing.

I really liked the Steam Controller, but the lack of a right stick was sometimes an issue. Being able to switch between mouse-like and joystick-like input in certain games on the fly was important and not always easy to set up. No issues with the stick itself going bad, but the rubber cap on the stick for both the ones I bought was worn smooth pretty fast. In shooters, I generally had a harder time tracking targets with the touch pad, but an easier time snapping to targets. Quick headshots were easier than with a stick, but sustained full auto fire was oddly tricky. Touch pad makes it shockingly good for N64 emulation since you can put A and B on the ABXY buttons and then the C buttons on the pad without the weirdness of having ‘buttons’ on a stick that you have to resort to with other controllers. The touch pad is also useful for DS emulation. Dual stage triggers also came in handy way more than I expected them to. Really neat, and I’ll definitely try a v2 if they ever make one, but it’s a pretty divisive device and there’s a steep learning curve to using the pad to aim.

Tried a Razer Wolverine Pro Ultimate, and I loved the extra buttons, but stick drift was a serious problem. Four back buttons and two extra shoulder buttons meant my thumbs almost never left the sticks. The controller was basically unusable after a point, though, and I really didn’t feel like spending that much on another one. Steam also wouldn’t recognize the extra buttons, so I had to use Razer’s proprietary app to configure it, which wasn’t great.

Was gifted a Dualsense Edge and it’s so far been really nice. Haven’t had much use for the touchpad yet, but that’s mostly because of the games I’ve been playing. Sticks are pretty cheaply replaceable, but I haven’t had any issues with them after about a year of heavy use. Steam also recognizes all the extra buttons and lets me map them all I want, unlike the Wolverine. Battery life is much worse than a standard Dualsense, though. Apparently they cut into the battery area to make room for the removable stick units. That battery life issue is my only problem so far, however. Well, that, and I doubt I would have paid $200 for it. Again, it was a gift.

What I would really like to see is a controller with six face buttons, similar to how the original Xbox controllers or even the N64 controller have them. I wouldn’t always use the extra buttons, but there are times when they’d really come in handy.

I mean, I gotta mention Steel Battalion for the OG Xbox. The experience of playing with that controller is truly saddening when game developers these days won’t do anything similar. Yes, it was expensive back then, and would probably be expensive now. But you know what? It was totally worth that cost. Any person that has played the game will agree.

But for more normal controllers, I like the layout of the WiiU Pro controller, with both sticks at the top. I never owned a WiiU, but I did get a third party Xbox One USB controller that had this configuration. While it was obviously a very cheap controller, I really liked the ergonomics of it.

I have enjoyed my Xbox Elite V2 controller, it has served me well the last few years. The dish shaped Dpad is a nice feature, even though I don’t play games that use it too much I can see where it could be extra beneficial for fighting game players to make circular movements easier.

This might be a controversial take, but this was one of my favorite controllers:

It had the size of a Duke, so comfortable to hold with my large hands, and also felt really nice when the airflow feature was turned on. It had the really bad D-Pads though.

The Switch Pro controller has been my favorite, however it has two issues. The trigger buttons are just a switch, so if you’re into arcade racing games, that’ll be rough. The other is that the rubber pads on the thumbsticks are questionable quality, and can also become quite slippery from the oils in your skin

Agree on the Xbox controller. I even bought an adapter to use the Xbox360 controller on my PS3 :D

I like xbox controllers for first person shooters and playstation controllers for just about everything. Some games more intensely than others.

For widely available layouts, I prefer XBox. However, I feel like the Wii U pro controller layout was on to something if it could add ABXY paddles but unfortunately it seems like patents have stifled a lot of innovation controllers could be seeing.

Phob gcc. The best stick box ever constructed with Hal effect sensors. Genius button layout with a larger primary button surrounded by secondaries. Swap to spicy sticks and bald buttons for added grip and fluidity. Add mouse click z and paracord cable for the perfect, best feeling, most responsive controller. The best part is that it is all open source and can be built for around $50 worth of parts

My favorite controller currently is: “Gulikit Kingkong 2 Pro”

It has hall effect sensors for the sticks and triggers so pretty much drift proof.

The layout is similar to a switch controller but the buttons can be swapped for a more Xbox-ish layout.

You can look it up on amazon. I bought it back in Nov 2022 and it still hasn’t failed me.

Gamesir T4 Kaleid. I love the hall effect joysticks, and it feels like it’s the right size. The one negative is that it’s wired-only.

OTOH, the GameSir Nova (not lite) is hot garbage. I hate almost everything about it, and its wireless PC connection (without the dongle that it does not come with) is trash. It’s basically only good as a Switch controller… And I haven’t even actually tried it for that.

The GameSir Nova Lite is much better, but still too small and you need to use the slightly-older 4200 firmware (from the official app) instead of the latest, because they got stupid about things.

I somewhat like the Xbox Elite V2 controller, but you have to get a good one. A bad one will have really crappy triggers that sometimes won’t work. I think I’ve even heard that the sticks are sometimes wonky. And it’s not hall effect.

My description of the perfect controller:

• nice size and hand fit
• left joystick is “up” at a natural spot (sorry PS enthusiasts, those low sticks suck)
• buttons are “chicklet” style (Xbox round buttons feel awkward)
• one set of trigger buttons are “throttle” style
• sits on a flat surface without any buttons being pressed

Not sure if there’s one out there that meets all of those. But I have a certain fondness for the GameCube controller. Always felt comfortable, and I actually liked the asymmetric button layout.

I don’t see it mentioned often, but basically my favorite has been the GameCube controller. Massive primary button with the secondary button the same shape but smaller and next to it, with the alternate (X/Y) buttons a different shape that flow around the primary, all in easy reach but all different to the touch. Especially when I’m playing the Xbox or Switch for a while and then switch to playing the other I’m messed up on the controllers for a little while since Nintendo and Microsoft swap the A and B buttons but both keep A as the primary button (I think a legacy of the original NES/Famicom putting the A button closer to the right hand and the B button farther in, to the left of the A).

I’d prefer the right thumb stick to be the same shape as the left, and it needs a left shoulder button, but beyond that I’d pretty much keep the layout as-is, maybe a slightly different size/shape to better fit in hands. I’ve seen a few third-party controllers like that for the Switch but haven’t looked into them enough to buy one.

I’ve had 2 “Xbox elite” controllers, both of them have had problems with sticky buttons. Annoying beyond belief. The regular Xbox s controller works better than either of the elites did.

That said my steam deck is my favorite controller when I need a controller.

Tough call between the Dualsense and the Dualshocks 1-3.

The Dualsense has great features, but is large enough and bulbous enough that I’m forced to use a full palm grip. That’s good some of the time, but sometimes I like a lighter finger grip that the earlier Dualshocks allowed for. I think of it similarly to claw vs palm grips on mice. A full palm grip on either can get too sweaty over time. The Dualshock 4 is a bulbous mess that fatigues my hands. On all of them, the plastic feels premium and sturdy and really fits well together. Plastic molding is an art, and they are good at it.

I have a few 8BitDo’s and they are all good too. The Pro-2, SN30 Pro, and Ultimate C (their naming conventions are flour of control). A bit cheaper feeling than the Sony offerings, but still pretty good.

The Xbox Series controller is… Fine. The plastic feels cheap, the face buttons feel cheap, it’s too big and requires a palm grip, the R1/L1 buttons feel cheap, the d-pad is one of the worst in history. The analog sticks almost feel great except they’re too tall.

Shout-out to the Steam Deck for feeling phenomenal. Also shout-out to the RetroBit Genesis controllers- they feel really good, but the lack of sticks and fewer buttons than most modern controllers makes it hard to use for modern games.

The JoyCons are awful. Most 3rd party options are better but I still haven’t found one that I really like.

The GameCube and N64 both feel kind of cheap. I think the plastic is a bit thin, and the sticks and buttons rattle around slightly.