Funny, Interesting, and Bad Controllers - Game Sack

Hello and welcome to Game Sack! I figured I'd do something a little different this time around and review game controllers instead of the actual games. A few of you sent in some of your worst controllers and I paid for the rest and i don't know why I paid for some of these. Originally i was going to do just a "Bad Controller" episode but as it turns out a few of these are actually really good so i'll just be reviewing how they feel and how they play and things of that nature. With that said let's get going! let's start off with the xe1ap analog controller this is from micomsoft the same company who makes the framemeister this controller is absolutely gigantic i saw this advertised in the back of the manual for the japanese version of afterburner 2 on the mega drive back when i bought it and i've been fascinated with this ever since i eventually bought one but it certainly wasn't easy or cheap it's compatible with several japanese computers as well as the mega drive aka the genesis which is what i'm going to use it on here this was only ever released in japan of course it features two analog joysticks one of which only moves up and down you can reposition this stick if you prefer it at a different angle there's a switch for digital and analog so you can play games that were not specifically designed to take advantage of this controller the buttons are on the shoulders and it's weird to say the least a few genesis games are compatible like afterburner 2 here notice that the title screen says control analog joy since it automatically recognizes this controller there's a nice controller test in the options screen as well as you play the control of your plane is silky smooth the right analog stick adjusts your plane's speed pull it all the way back to slow down and push it forward to go as fast as you can let it go and it rests in the middle which is the default speed for your jet overall it's fairly enjoyable to play this game with this giant controller some other games are compatible like musha but you need to plug the controller in at the title screen and then quickly flip it to analog for it to work your ship is in the same place as your joystick that means if you let go your ship will snap back to the center of the screen it's really weird playing this game with analog controls at first after a while you do get used to it and you can definitely avoid the enemy the right analog stick doesn't do anything here it's quite a different experience playing the game this way and even fun for a bit so how does it work on normal games in the digital mode let's try castle of illusion well it works but man it's not very fun there's a lot of throw distance in the analog stick so obviously it's not as responsive as a d-pad plus the button layout is weird with the right shoulder buttons for throwing apples and the left for jumping overall i'm glad i owned this controller since it's fascinating but i don't think it would be worth the money for anyone else on the planet and honestly it gave my hand some minor cramps after playing it for this episode the turbo touch 360 is from triax and i've never heard of that company outside of this controller this is the nes version but there's also one available for the genesis basically the premise is that you just lightly touch on the d-pad area and slide your thumb around to move your on-screen character you don't need to press at all and honestly it works in castlevania here i found it worked mostly fine just lightly touching the direction that i wanted to move worked as advertised and it even was kind of comfortable i did have a bit of trouble navigating the stairs but i quickly got used to it the controller is responsive for the most part but not really nimble still i'm surprised it's as good as it is now let's try life force okay i changed my opinion this thing is all sorts of awful moving my thumb all around takes a lot more work than pressing a d-pad especially when you're playing a shooter that needs fast movements i just can't make my thumb travel fast enough moreover i found myself pressing down pretty hard with my thumb this just isn't precise enough to seriously play games with the turbo feature is nice for a game like this i suppose but it really doesn't make up for not being able to move my ship around very well at all if you need a controller that's as quick as you are this isn't it here's the quick shot joy pad for the nes the disc like d-pad is on the bottom while the buttons are on the top sides of the controller you could almost play this with one hand but not quite let's try some super mario brothers too right off the bat the joypad disc thing feels very slippery it probably doesn't help that this is kind of a slippery game but i definitely feel that i have less control than i do with the standard controller what's worse is that the jump button is on the left side of the controller and that takes a bit to get used to i only pulled things up from the ground if i needed them to get past an enemy because otherwise it somehow felt like a chore i tried this game twice and i wasn't able to make it very far either time there's certainly no joy in this joy pad but what about the quick shot joy ball also on the nes that's right it's a giant micro switch dome that you move with your hand it has suction cup feet so that it doesn't slide around on your table in addition to the standard auto fire switch it also has a left and a right hand switch let's try out mega man 2 and left-handed mode since that's the hand i'd normally use to input my direction holy crap is this thing loud not only that but it is a giant chore to use it takes a ton of effort okay maybe right hand mode would be better honestly for me it kind of is this is still awful though like horrendously awful who conceived this device and why would anyone ever think that this would be a good thing the buttons being oriented vertically doesn't help things either let's try a shooter with it like dragon spirit it definitely works better for this kind of game compared to a platformer but it's still far from ideal for a standard gamer still i'm fascinated that this thing even exists at all it wasn't very popular though and for damn good reason as you can see this is the high frequency pad for the sega saturn i don't know much about this other than it looks like a batman symbol but is it a good backup controller let's try it on street fighter alpha 3. sorry i meant street fighter 0-3 wow actually it is pretty good i'm easily able to pull off the moves when i want and if i don't it's because i'm the one messing up this happens all the time for me on a real saturn pad since i have the gaming skills of a two-year-old but seriously this is pretty darn good everything feels good enough even the d-pad i don't really have much more to say about this one if you see this available and you can't get a real saturn pad this is an excellent backup option if you go over to your friend's house and they make you use this controller you're not going to be at any disadvantage you'll be good to go racing games are pretty popular and that of course means there needs to be a lot of weird and potentially awful controllers made to cater to that subset of gaming i'm not going to be looking at some of the nicer rigs that are available for the more modern ish consoles in this episode but rather some of the more older-ish consoles and i was surprised to find one that's actually really fun to use anyone remember bishop they always advertise their controllers in game magazines and they were compatible with lots of gaming platforms well i want to try out the mighty b shoe zoomer for the nes the first game we're going to try is rad racer surely this steering wheel thing will make me feel like i'm a real race car driver yikes not quite but it could be worse i suppose pulling the wheel back towards you is the same as pressing down on the d-pad and pushing it forward is the same as pressing up and it doesn't go forward and back very easily basically you need to push and hold it forward the entire time to engage the turbo in the game if you want to get anywhere i keep forgetting to do it moving the wheel is easy but at the same time i feel like you've got to be pretty rough with it it doesn't feel or sound like it can take much abuse at all i couldn't get very far in the game with the b shoe zoomer maybe it's not made for racing games but instead perhaps they want you to play castlevania yeah that feels more right well i feel like i'm actually simon belmont himself now i can finally sympathize with the struggles a character went through to defeat dracula jumping and whipping with my thumbs is pretty weird but walking isn't too bad changing directions takes way longer than if i used a real controller and stairs are a nightmare i wonder if i can even make it to the second level fighting the first boss is tough using the sub weapons is a huge chore since you need to push forward and press the b button with your thumb all at once but i did it i killed him wow look at all these stairs i think i've had enough fun with the bishou zoomer did any of you ever have one of these things this is the performance ultra racer 64 racing controller for the nintendo 64. it has a nice rubber wheel it also has a trigger thing underneath which acts as the analog up and down and also the a and b buttons depending on which position this switch is in there are also an array of other buttons on the controller of course the first game i want to try out is f0x gotta be honest it isn't grey in order to use your boost power after you get it you need the swing to trigger up in the opposite direction of pressing the gas with your index finger you literally cannot press a and b at the same time the steering is also not very good i did not finish this race well maybe it will work better on beetle adventure racing not really the steering is still really tough maybe putting it into a first person perspective will help it does at least a little but i'm still all over the place and obviously i need to try super mario 64. it took me a bit to figure out what buttons do what but i got it of course once you're in the actual game the camera moves around a lot and as a result you've gotta really be precarious with the steering wheel and the index finger trigger the jump and action buttons are mapped to these tiny little things underneath the wheel i couldn't even get a single star using this and that's how i rate this controller not even a single star here's the negi con from namco for the playstation at least ninjicon is how i've always said it i've always been curious about this controller since the playstation originally launched and now i have a cool black one it features twisting action to steer your car very springy analog one and two buttons springy analog shoulder buttons as well as normal start a and b buttons the one and two buttons have a really long throw so it can be tough to fully press them in sometimes obviously i want to try the original ridge racer first there are some great options to help you set up the controller you can tell it how much of a dead zone you want and also how far you want it to be able to twist before it reaches its maximum input at first it was kind of weird trying to control my car however playing it with the first person perspective has always helped me in this game once you get used to this controller though it really is quite nice sometimes i'd forget which way to twist in order to steer left or right but those are just growing paints i was still able to finish in first place on my very first race i really kind of love this controller so odd yet so cool somehow it just works my biggest complaint is that pushing the gas and brake buttons takes perhaps a little too much effort now let's try metal gear solid yeah this controller doesn't work at all unless the game is designed for it i can't even start the game or skip the cutscene but it is compatible with quite a few playstation and even a few playstation 2 games the last racing controller i want to try today is called docs racing controller also for the playstation this is basically a knock off of the namco jog con which i don't have but if it's like this i'm not missing much let's try ridge racer type 4 which this controller was basically made for the options screen allows you to set it up in a similar way as the other ridge racer games do with the negicon so that's good you'd think that this would be more natural than using the nejicon but no for one there's really no comfortable way to hold this controller your thumb has to stretch too much in order to work the wheel and using both thumbs is also a pain one thing that's cool however is the force feedback the steering wheel reacts to whatever the car's front tires are experiencing so if you let go of the steering wheel it can sometimes rock back and forth into place as your car kind of centers itself on the road it doesn't fight you very much and your thumb will easily overpower the motor that's hooked up to this there is a gauge at the bottom of the screen in this game telling you how far you're turning the wheel they knew that you'd need help using this controller i wasn't really able to get much of a hang of it at all even after multiple attempts now let's try metal gear solid again this can be used like a normal digital controller but it also has an analog mode once you switch it a few times the wheel makes you move left and right while the d-pad handles your up and down i forget what to do at the beginning of this game so i'll just end it here get the negicon instead this is the epix 500 xj handheld joystick for the nes you hold it with your left hand which wraps around to press the buttons the start and select buttons are on the top and they barely even feel like they're there let's try contra okay first things first everything is responsive the joystick is easy to move however the buttons themselves are extremely stiff and i feel like i'm pressing them harder than i should simply because i'm gripping the entire controller my index finger is jump while my middle finger is button b a lot of these third parties seem to put the action buttons in alphabetical order for whatever reason it really is tough to play with this though also the rapid fire was turned on and i didn't even notice this until i got the laser weapon here's the thing though i don't seem to be able to turn the auto fire off i literally have to press and hold the auto fire off button for it to be off once i let go it's on again this is probably a defect in this particular joystick and not with the entire line at least i sure hope so even if that weren't an issue this is not a great way to play video games i tell you some of these old controllers are not built to last like this madcatz one for the gamecube i wanted to include it in this episode but it's completely broken they're made with cheaper parts in order to cost less than the official controllers and that way you're more likely to buy them when shopping for a controller because you are a cheap ass but sometimes they do sneak in a feature that's almost interesting next up is the striker from b shoe this three button controller has a headphone jack which connects to the genesis model one headphone jack obviously this was made before the model 2 existed so let's try it on ghouls and ghosts uh yeah this is definitely broken button c is acting as the start button and button b is acting as both jump and shoot i opened up the controller and severed a couple of shorts that somehow have occurred over time okay it's working now and wow is the d-pad stiff the buttons aren't tremendously responsive either weirdly though i bet that back in 1990 i could have gotten used to this don't get me wrong this controller is not fun to use but keep in mind that all i knew back then was the genesis 3 button controller as for the sound that comes through the controller take a listen it sounds fine for the most part it just passes it through but if you and a friend are playing a two-player game with two bishou strikers only one of you is gonna get sound of course in reality that probably never happened if you don't want a ton of responsiveness in your controller be sure to give this one a go this is the super pad from performance for the sega genesis this is a fairly generic six button controller with no frills so let's try it on street fighter 2 special champion edition it performs okay the d-pad is pretty stiff and i'm not doing as well as i usually do with a regular genesis 6 button controller sometimes the moves are a bit tough to pull off this is a good one to let your friend use so you can be sure to win now on to the super pad from performance yeah same name different pad in fact this has basically the same shape as the funky controllers that were included with the genesis 3. let's try it out on super street fighter 2. the d-pad and buttons all feel a bit more spongy for sure still this is definitely more comfortable to hold than the previous super pad that i showed you and it's more fun to use as well still not as nice as the bigger genesis 6 button controller but this could be worse i did a little bit better with this pad but it's certainly not going to become my go-to controller for the console up this is the sega control stick for the sega master system back in the day i wanted one of these really bad for some reason i'll tell you i was pretty sad once i got it this right-handed stick has a weird rectangle top that rotates i have no idea why they chose that shape let's play some shinobi as a controller it's responsive enough the grip does feel kind of weird in your palm seriously though who thought this shape would be a good idea but the main problem is playing right handed at least it is for me so i decided to switch it up and play the way i wanted to and you know what i find that this actually works a lot better it's not comfortable at all mind you but you gotta do what you gotta do i eventually sold it and now i have it again yay me i guess this is the b shoe angler for the super nintendo this is another giant controller but at least it feels comfortable in your hands it also sports individual turbo switches for each button playing actresser here actually feels fairly good though it is weird holding something so huge while playing a super nintendo game it feels and sounds hollow when you press the buttons but other than that i don't really have any issues with it this is probably the best thing that bishou ever made sadly that's not saying very much so check this out this is the ascii stick controller grip as114l5 one-handed controller it's for the super famicom to my knowledge this was only sold in japan supposedly these are good for grinding in rpgs for whatever reason yet it still includes a bevy of turbo switches for those fast-paced action games this seems like the perfect controller for street fighter 2 turbo wow can you believe i actually did a fireball that was harder to do than you think it's tough to feel which button is wet with your index finger so i'm just kind of winging it here i couldn't even win a single round okay now i'll try it with my right hand i have no idea why but i'm able to do a little bit better this way maybe it's because i'm more used to pressing the action buttons with my right hand i was able to defeat zangief this way now let's just get stupid and try it with both hands okay so this is much better but i still have issues knowing which button is where underneath the controller still i was able to do decently this was interesting to try but i'm left wondering why i bought this i am not a smart man here's the interact barracuda for the playstation this thing is monstrous almost as big as a xe1ap mega drive controller that i showed earlier the shoulder buttons are on the back at a weird angle it also has something that looks like it was originally meant to be a battery cover but it doesn't open at all they must have abandoned that plan using this on castlevania symphony of the night the first boss fight which is normally quite easy almost feels like it's as tough as a final boss fight in another castlevania game the d-pad is slippery and all sorts of awful the buttons are okay but they're certainly not helping me here okay let's try blaster master blasting again since it uses some analog control one thing to note is the mode switch on the top middle of the controller in position 1 the d-pad and both analog sticks all do the same exact thing i'm not sure what position 2 is for but it doesn't seem to work at all position 3 is your regular dual shock analog mode honestly it's not great i do like it better than using this controller in the regular digital mode however for some reason there's another switch at the bottom of the controller that lets you swap the left and right analog sticks i can't imagine why anyone would ever need this but someone somewhere thought this was a good idea doing my sideways hops is a real chore with this controller since it uses the shoulder buttons to do it bottom line i do not like this controller interact followed that up with a barracuda two this one is also for the playstation i figured i'd play the same two games with this one it seems they mostly learned from how bad the first one was this one feels much better playing castlevania here it's not as nice as a sony made controller but honestly it's not bad at all okay let's try blaster master blasting again again it's important to note that this controller has the same modes as the original the digital and analog mode as well as the mode in the middle that does nothing on the back is still the toggle to reverse the position of the analog sticks after you get all of that squared away it is indeed much better than the first barracuda controller the analog sticks aren't as nice as sony's but they mostly do the job oh and this controller has a super healthy rumble if you're into such things wow how you doing do you like blaster master blasting again for the playstation well you should it really is an underappreciated overlooked gem game i'm glad we could have this conversation today now let's finish up this episode this thing is the bass landing fishing controller for the playstation from ag attack or is it age tech augetech aggietech it has a single analog stick a spinny wheel and all the normal buttons but no d-pad so let's try it with bass landing okay keep in mind i have no idea how to play this game mainly in how to find fish but the controller works and it seems to have a bit of motion sensing as you need to flick it in order to cast your line moving the analog stick will pilot your boat around the map spinning the spinny thing will reel your line back in of course i'm bored already but hey it works let's see how it does in road rash jailbreak wow not good at all i can't steer even though this is an analog compatible game this is an incredibly niche controller and if you don't like fishing games well then i'm thinking you might not enjoy this controller much at all so okay this controller is just labeled as pelican accessories it doesn't seem to have a name other than that it's for the playstation it doesn't look special and the d-pad almost looks crooked i guess i'll give g darius a go with it honestly i have to admit the d-pad isn't that bad at least not for a shooter like this i probably wouldn't play a fighting game with it though g darius advertises that his analog compatible on its case so i tried to engage it here even with a reboot only the d-pad ever worked with this game either the case is lying or the controller sucks let's try ace combat 2. i know the case isn't lying here yup it works great overall the analog stick feels really nice this is a decent alternative to the normal playstation dualshock controller not bad i also have this madcatz controller for the playstation which also doesn't seem to have any name besides that this thing is tiny i thought it would be too tiny but it's not uncomfortable i don't like how you can't see the start select or mode buttons these buttons are also flush with the rest of the controller casing which makes finding them and pressing them a chore anyway let's try rc day go here this fun little game works pretty well in digital mode however the shoulder buttons feel stiff and so does the d-pad the next race i switch to analog mode this game is weird in analog mode because the left stick controls your speed while the right stick steers you suddenly i find myself wishing i could switch the position of the left and right analog sticks go figure it takes a while to get used to but this controller functions well better than i'd expect from a madcatz product but i'd still rather use a regular dual shock oh and i love how this game uses the same announcer from street fighter alpha 3. here's another one-handed controller the ascii grip for the playstation this one-handed controller is much better than the one they made for the super famicom the x and circle buttons are underneath and the triangle and square buttons are on both sides of the d-pad so you can use it either left or right-handed it works decently in rpgs like wild arms too well mostly the combat works fine and so does proceeding through the character dialogue but this particular game rotates the camera view with the lndr buttons and pressing them on this is kind of a chore i tried it with both my left and right hand and i did a little bit better with my right hand i thought it would have been better with my left hand since that's what i always use d-pads with on every other controller ever made but as i'm finding out in this episode my right hand is generally better in these situations this works well overall but i think it would take me a while to get used to but how does it work on a fighting game like soul blade using my right hand i'm pretty much able to own this game somehow it's certainly not comfortable but i keep winning again and again not a bad little controller if you need to have your other hand free for your own personal reasons here's the performance astro pad for the sega dreamcast this is another gigantic controller one thing that's nice is that the cable comes out of the top of the controller unlike the stock pad the l and r triggers are especially springing on this one let's try soul calibur first and put that d-pad to the test it works okay it's certainly not as sharp as the stock dreamcast controller's d-pad so that's a good thing the action buttons are mostly fine but man holding this controller just isn't very comfortable at all the start button is much too far away from everything else so if i want to skip the intro or victory scenes i really have to reach with my thumb playing daytona usa here i find that i can't quite control it as well as a real dreamcast controller the analog stick just doesn't seem to work as well i do like the springy l r buttons though otherwise i really do not like this controller finally this is the madcatz dreamcast controller no other name that i can find for it unfortunately the cable comes from the bottom and can be latched around on the top like a normal sega controller but at least the start button is within reach and of course it also accepts vmus one thing that's interesting is that it features six face buttons on the front like the dreamcast should have had all along though the angle of the buttons is a bit steep for my preferences there's also some programmable macro button here but don't use this only bad things will happen let's start out with some crazy taxi it works adequately if i'm being generous with any praise the analog stick just doesn't feel right i feel that it's a bit harder than it should be to steer correctly overall the game is definitely less fun with this controller okay let's try street fighter 3 and put those six face buttons to the test this works better than i thought it would the d-pad isn't great but it's mostly good enough the attack buttons all work well and i could pull off most of my moves again the angle of these buttons is a little steep and also the z and c buttons are offset even more during fighting games i like to rest my thumb on the middle column of buttons but here it was hard for my thumb to know where the middle was i found myself resting on the rightmost column a lot of the time so it feels like it's a bit more work for my thumb but overall it didn't take long to get used to it at all holding this pad isn't great but it sure is better than holding that giant green astro pad overall you could do worse which is honestly saying a lot for mad cats all done that was a lot more work than i thought it would be going in but honestly it was really quite fun in fact i'd like to make another one of these episodes someday so what controllers would you like to see me review and what game should i play with said controllers let me know in the meantime thank you for watching game sag hmm what would be the best game to play with a bass landing fishing controller for the playstation hey i know how about track and field for the nes 100 meter dash go go fester master you idiot i think i like the regular controller better

Channel: Game Sack

Views: 141,531

Rating: 4.9331613 out of 5

Keywords: sega, nintendo, turbografx, gameplay, videogames, retro, genesis, snes, nes, msx

Id: HCYTUQCTraA

Length: 36min 34sec (2194 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Harperlarp]

A great episode with one of my new favourite end skits!

[u/AstonVanilla]

I had a NegCon growing up, it was always the controller player 2 got.