Ranking 25 Nintendo Third Party Controllers

we all know and love Nintendo's classic controllers but what about those really weird third-party ones I've got ahead and picked out 25 of the strangest controllers you can use on Nintendo systems this list is based off how useful the controller is and how many games it can be used with so with that let's get her ranked Oh 25 you force Kinect fans get your virtual pitchforks out because I am NOT a fan of this controller as I'm sure you know you're supposed to play the game with your hand movements which is read with infrared sensors as cool as that might sound it doesn't actually work like at all you're supposed to be able to control the d-pad a and the B buttons with your hands while start and select have designated buttons on the bottom there's also turbo buttons and game switches to change the controls but even with the correct switches it's incredibly unresponsive maybe the you force worked better back in the day but you have zero sense of control with this thing it also comes with a flight stick and a power bar for some games but why even bother 24 and 64 Logitech controller this looks like your typical n64 controller but it was used exclusively for hotels there's also some new buttons on here like order menu reset select and even some phone keys these were used for services at the hotel and even controlling the TV to change channels well this is a really unique piece of history there's one problem with it it's not usable anymore the end of this has an rj11 phone connector which can't be used with a normal n64 unless you heavily modded the controller there's actually a great video about this controller which I highly recommend you check out from Nintendo after watching this 23 snez NTT DATA pad you want to talk about an obscure piece of gaming history you're looking at it now the MTT data pad was used for one japanese game called drop pad and the game allows you to gamble online for horse-racing this game only worked in Japan and the service is ended now which makes this controller a dud that's right you can't even use this for normal games I tried it on mice nests and well nothing happened and it's too bad that it doesn't work because I actually really like the bigger size and the buttons the grip is really comfortable and the buns have a solid click to them so again it's too bad you can't use it normally o-22 laser scope in case you didn't feel like using the zapper and duck hunt the laser scope lets you yell fire into a microphone instead you'll aim your target by using this scope and as a bonus you can plug the audio cable directly into the NES hidden if you really wanted these can also be used as actual headphones too I really would love to meet the one guy that did this on ironically the huge problem here is most games don't work with a laser scope and you need the proper TV to be able to use this at all it's an interesting but mostly useless novelty 21 and 64 powerglove one look at this thing and carpal tunnel is knocking at your door we'll get to the complexity of the NES power club in a bit but I'll give this one some props as there's not really any setup to use this you just plug it in and strap your arms up the buttons are all laid out across your fingers and the d-pad is positioned near your thumb you may have noticed one button missing the joystick that is controlled by bending your wrist the original idea is this is supposed to make FPS games easier to aim with well supposed to in quotations I had no idea what direction I was supposed to bend my wrist in and hitting the buttons is extremely uncomfortable when I try to push B as an example I would always hit R by accident just because they're so close together now I did try this with Goldeneye and well maybe my glove is just broken or something but it just didn't want to work like I would move around and sometimes it would move with me and sometimes it didn't yeah xx NES power glove if there's one thing I can say it looks a lot cooler than the n64 glove does it function any better though well no and kind of yes so this club is different from the n64 one because its main purpose is to use only your fingers and thumbs to play right away that sounds like a bad idea and that's because it is before even playing you have to set up these sensors and there's no easy way to do that especially if you have a big TV I was forced to use an older TV to set this up and I needed to use a load of duct tape just to keep the center's up next you have to put in a specific code for each game because they all work a little differently and after all of that shockingly the glove actually kind of works by flicking your fingers or it triggers different inputs but that doesn't matter because none of the games are intuitive with this play style so now you might think well you could just use the controller on the glove right well my answer to that not really because the motions of the glove are always activated so random inputs are gonna get projected if you move the glove too much when pushing the buttons this whole thing is just a big beautiful mess that somehow technically works and just doesn't nineteen Roland rocker this is basically a DDR pad with one giant button the idea behind this one is the rocker becomes the d-pad on your controller by shifting your weight around you'll be able to move around on screen and believe it or not this actually works that isn't saying much though considering how much more effort it takes to move compared to using your thumb and what's funny is you need the NES controller plugged in to use the other buttons so there's literally no reason to use this thing unless you're with some friends and want to goof off and play games with this hunk of plastic 18 Ultra Racer 64 the most impressive thing about this is they managed to cram all the n64 buttons into what's basically a glorified nunchuck the main reason to own this is to improve racing games with this little wheel and I do gotta say it's surprisingly accurate and moves very fluidly this felt on the outside helps a lot with gripping too there's also a trigger on the back in which you push down for a and push up for B all this is fine but there's not much of a way to move up and down so you're really stuck with just racing games with this controller and the d-pad buttons are way too tiny and barely usable I mean just look at this thing it's just a big cluster of buttons it's a Wii Remote gone wrong the ultra racer 64 is a neat idea in concept but it's kind of unnecessary and doesn't really need to exist 17 miracle piano it certainly is a miracle that a full-fledged piano is compatible with the NES this was a rather robust tool for learning how to play piano back in the day plus the one game it works with has actual minigames in it to make the learning more fun the keys feel like your typical piano keys and there's even options to change the volume and sounds with all that said it's really only good for one game and the piano is pretty darn spendy it originally retailed at 500 bucks and 2019 with it would cost almost $1,000 16 ddr action pad it still trips me out that this was created for a Mario game there's a lot of ddr pads out there and this is one of the better ones the material feels nice it's fairly light and full 12 and the overall design looks pretty solid the pad buttons are responsive too is I had no issues with the controls or anything of that nature while you can't technically play other game q games with this it doesn't have all the same input so it's gonna be a little wonky or just straight-up unplayable it's really just for ddr mario mix so that does limit its use but it's perfect if you're craving that kind of game 15 quick shot trackball here's an NES controller that's supposed to be used for trackball games like Marble Madness so you'd expect this giant ball to move in 360 degrees but it's just a joypad you can push it around in eight directions and that's it the a and B buttons are kind of cool they're fairly large and fun to click but this trackball is just horrible there's suction cups on the bottom to try to prevent the controller from moving but I found they suction pretty poorly the quick shot trackball does work with every game but there's so many better options out there 14 Zoomer okay so here we have a flight stick for the NES the entire stick is the d-pad and you can push and pull it to move up and down the top of the stick has the a and B buttons and you can also increase or decrease their sensitivity in to my surprise moving around with this was kind of comfortable and accurate and the grips feel pretty good as well here's my question though how many flight simulator games are there on the NES besides Top Gun nothing else really comes to mind the main issue is that this controller moves when you're trying to turn which can be disorienting there is suction cups to try to remedy that but they just aren't strong enough this seems like another silly controller that didn't need to be made but at least it's something fun to bring out for parties 13 ultimate super stick was this compressed NES advantage truly ultimate well kind of I do like the way this looks it kind of reminds me of a spaceship in a way at first I was confused why there was a and B buttons on both sides until I realized that they're accommodating for right and left hand players which is pretty rare to see the suction cups to keep the snail down doesn't really work though Oh like I've been saying it's probably just the age of this controller my only true gripe with this is unfortunately the most important part the joystick it's way stiffer than it needs to be it doesn't feel that great to move around with I think people love the NES advantage because the joystick is really fluid and this is the complete opposite o12 Guitar Hero Wii controller this is by far the most nostalgic third-party controller for me over a decade ago music games were the big craze and Guitar Hero 3 came to the Wii with this fancy guitar it has five front buttons a strum bar a whammy stick as well as a joystick in a couple of buttons there's multiple versions of this guitar and people tend to prefer the Guitar Hero 3 in Guitar Hero 5 variants these are by far some of the most durable controllers out there I've really had issues with them besides the Webby bar breaking over several years of use the only true issue is that its intent for guitar hero and rock band games only and they don't really work for anything else despite its limited game selection you could easily spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing and mastering all the songs out there eleven GameCube Joy cards one glance at these will catch anybody's attention they may look like a smash broz players dream controller but unfortunately there's a barrage of issues firstly the joysticks are the same ones as the regular joi cons and looking closer you'll see that the analog gates are rotated incorrectly but guess what that doesn't even matter because the joysticks don't even reach the gate which means they incorrectly added the gates and they're just for show next we'll talk about the buttons the clicking is feeling is fine but the buns themselves aren't tall enough and for some reason the rumble is way more powerful than it needs to be just listen to this what the hell like why is it so strong now people love the pressure-sensitive shoulder buttons on the GameCube controller but this doesn't have that at all it's just basic buttons I know I've criticized this controller Alliance so I will say that the d-pad is pretty decent although not a hundred percent responsive and I do really like the ergonomics on the sides they're definitely more comfortable to hold in the regular joi cons the addition of a charge port on the controllers is nice too although they were put on the sides which is a little weird and they don't have a door protect us from getting in and unlike most third-party controllers it does have an NFC reader and motion controls these Gamecube joy cons are an awesome idea I just think they need to be tweaked and revised a bit 10 switch 8-bit do light if you ever missed the virtual boys double D pads then this might be for you this has to be the weirdest new controller out there the battery life is around 18 hours which isn't too bad but it's also missing motion controls Rumble and the NFC reader so it's pretty bare-bones on futures on the flip side this is third parties so it works with a switch as well as other devices that utilize bluetooth and it's pretty cheap sitting at 25 bucks this is meant primarily for 2d games only and after trying things like tetris 99 Celeste and a few NES titles the deep pads and buttons hold up really well the controller is a bit on the small side but my hands didn't really cramp up when playing I will say though that tiny ZL and Zr buttons are in a horrible spot and might cause cramping from long periods of play another downside is the L 3 and R 3 buttons you push down on the d-pad to activate them but it doesn't really work well in its super clunky feeling 209 super pad + 64 this is by far the most Awkward controller I've ever seen the right side feels fine to hold but the left is too big like why is the scaling so different the joystick is better than the original but that isn't much competition to beat and it feels a bit slippery the analog gates are rotated wrong as well although that didn't really impact gameplay at all the buttons feel really nice though and the d-pad is pretty solid too there's also a slow and auto button if you ever wanted to use those I am so conflicted on the super pad plus 64 because it functions better than the original n64 one but it also goes out of its way to be shaped so bizarrely for no good reason 8 and 64 arcade shark every console gets some sort of arcade controller here's the n64 now the one that I have is honestly in really bad shape the d-pad is almost torn out of place and some of the buttons have stickers that say winning is everything it's not but ok even though my controller has been heavily used it still works pretty well the buttons have a satisfying click to them the joystick movement is very fluid and there's also a slow and you can even hook up a rumble pack on the top which is super weird but pretty neat the best future of the arcade shark is that you can interchange the joystick by simply unscrewing it if you're into fighting games it can find a well kept up arcade shark this might actually be worth picking up o7 re4 chainsaw controller you know you've got a good game when an entire controller is created for it I technically have the ps2 one and not the Gamecube one both are very similar outside of the plastic coloring in the button placement wow this looks like a mess it's actually somewhat comfortable to play games with the main face buttons are right on the front with the joysticks and r1 and l1 are attached to both of the handles the only bad button placement is r2 and l2 just because they're so far away from everything else here's something really cool about this controller though it has 2 pause buttons there's this one that's a normal button and this is the second one [Applause] that's right the pulley pauses the game with sound effects and lights that is just awesome oh six turbo touch 360 I gotta say a touch-based d-pad for the NES sounded like a horrible concoction but then I tried it out in a holy crap it's actually pretty darn amazing moving around is just as easy and simple as with a normal d-pad heck I'd almost consider this better to use when trying to roll your thumb around now the easiest comparison to this type of d-pad is using a touchscreen on a phone without haptic feedback it's not gonna feel right or be accurate but there kind of is feedback because of the plastic barrier on the outside which helped set boundaries for your thumb the only issue I found is that the buttons are a little sticky but that's likely just from aging oh five GameCube madcatz controller this is by far the most popular third-party controller for the Gamecube it seems like everybody had one but nobody ever wanted to use it it's roughly the same size to the regular controller but now there's these side grips they seem a little unnecessary I'm not getting a firmer grip or anything the best way to solve the Mad Catz is that it's the same thing but with slightly cheaper build quality the original is like eating chick-fil-a and the Mad Catz as McDonald's the joystick feels kind of slippery the start buttons a bit mushy and the face bugs don't have the most solid feeling clicks I mean the Mad Catz functions perfectly fine as an alternative it's not really bad but you might as well just use a regular controller for GameCube ASCII keyboard controller this isn't just a controller you could wield this as a sword and battle if you wanted so obviously this hilariously large controller has a full keyboard built in it has all the English keys but also Japanese hiragana and Latin characters well I don't have a way to test the functionality of the keyboard I can already say that it's a little on the small side my hands felt squished when typing I mean look how tiny the space bar is the buttons though feel pretty much the same as the normal controller although I noticed the joystick is a bit looser feeling that doesn't hinder me playing them now this was made for one game Phantasy Star Online and unfortunately that's about it so even though you can't really use the keyboard I honestly really enjoyed using this as a standard controller it's much lighter than you'd expect it to be and it grips really well in your hands three bbong cool switch pro controller I know this looks like some weird place they should knock off but this is a surprisingly solid alternative to the regular pro controller my favorite thing about it is the grips they feel downright mesmerizing the build quality is really impressive too I'm not sure how long the durability will last but as of now it works perfectly the buttons feel great including the shoulder ones and it even has gyro controls and Rumble added in the playstation inspired d-pad is surprisingly responsive I was able to play platformers and Tetris at ease in fact I would say this is more accurate than the pro controllers d-pad I'm not joking I also tried this with splatoon and believe it or not I forgot I was using a third-party controller when playing that's how much I enjoyed this the only small downside is there's no capture button and what's strange about that is this minus button seems like it would be used for capturing but it just doesn't function half the time and the charging port isn't USBC either but that's not that big a deal - and 64 Hori pad mini it's pretty rare that a third-party controller so drastically improves over the original but the holy pad mini is one of those cases the biggest upgrade is of course the joystick it looks and feels exactly like the one from the Gamecube it's much better than that dinky nub from before the Z button is also been improved as it's put on the left and right side next to the shoulder buttons the start button feels better - heck even the rumble pack more snugly fits in than the originals does which is kind of crazy the only negative thing here is the high price and the d-pad is a touch too close to the a and B buttons if you're playing a game that relies heavily on the d-pad your thumbs might get in the way of each other and one qalander Wii U pro controller well it's not the most interesting looking controller from this video it's by far the most functional the design is identical to the regular Wii U pro controller outside of a few differences when rotating the joysticks they feel a smidge rougher and not as smooth the buttons also feel a touch more mushy but honestly you don't even notice these differences when playing everything functions flawlessly I actually prefer the sync button on the calendar because it pops out a little bit more making it a bit easier to press but it still won't get pushed accidentally if you aren't interested in owning authentic controllers I'd highly recommend getting this over Nintendo's because it's a little bit cheaper well that was quite an experience you wouldn't think controllers could get so ridiculously wonky but it turns out they can and it's really interesting to see what succeeded in what failed over time but with that I hope you enjoyed today's video and thanks a bunch for watching I hope you have a great day and I'll speak with you all soon [Music]

Channel: Nathaniel Bandy

Views: 2,254,549

Rating: 4.8740649 out of 5

Keywords: Third Party Controllers, Third Party, Mad Catz, Nyko, Bad Controllers, First Party, Nintendo Switch Controllers, Gamecube Controllers, Nintendo, Ranking Every Nintendo Controller, Ranking Third Party Controllers, Wii, Wii U, N64, Nintendo 64, SNES, Power Glove, Worst Controllers, nathaniel bandy

Id: adu5L0rD3to

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2019