I have a friend who says the Gamecube controller is one of the worst of all-time.

[sph3re]

To be fair - having a controller with one less, pretty important button, probably hurt third party support in some capacity.

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At best, I could concede the point about third-party support, but the fact that it didn't have a DVD player--because of its insistence on using mini-DVDs no less--greatly hampered its success.

The controller didn't help. It's great for Smash, though.

 

[Tiamat]

Thé best for GameCube Nintendo games.. maybe
But not for the rest

 

[MisterLuffy]

Everyone has there personal preference. For smash, I'm more comfortable using gamecube controller than others controllers.

 

[RavFiveFour]

Every time you turn on the GCube it automatically delivers

 

[Euphoria]

It's a good controller for Smash. Outside of that your friend is correct. It's really not that good of a controller.

I'm using my two GC controllers for Smash Ultimate.

 

[AztecComplex]

Your friend is not wrong, OP. The GC controller is good for Smash but it's terribke for almost every other genre. That tiny ass Dpad, the low quality Z button and C stick, lack of Select, clickable sticks and second shoulder button make for a terrible gamepad for general use especially for modern games.

Hell it was already a problem during the GC days, I remember having to push Start + A and Start + B for Pause and Codec respectively on MGS Twins Snakes. Can you imagine playing a modern FPS on that thing?

It's not THE worst first party controller but there is a reason why the WiiU Pro and Switch Pro Controllers looks so much like Xbox controllers. The GC design wasn't good.

 

[AztecComplex]

To be fair - having a controller with one less, pretty important button, probably hurt third party support in some capacity.

Click to shrink...

Make no mistake, the GC controller didn't lack one button, it lacked four! No Select, second shoulder button and no clickable Left and Right analog sticks. That was a lot back in 2004 let alone 2018.

 

[Nessus]

GameCube, 360, and Wii Classic Pro are the most comfortable controllers I've ever held.

 

[AztecComplex]

GameCube, 360, and Wii Classic Pro are the most comfortable controllers I've ever held.

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Comfortable? Yes. Functional and future proof suitable for all genres of games? Hell no!

Like I said, there is a reason why the WiiU and Switch Pro Controller a look like Xbox 360/One controllers and not GC controllers. Even Nintendo knows this.

 

[Undeniablybiased]

For games that were built specifically with it in mind it's great. Otherwise.... not so much. It doesn't cover those all purpose needs that lots of games like multi platform games would need because of its lacking right stick, unique face button layout, and lacking the extra shoulder button. But for first party GameCube games it was great.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

It is comfortable

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It's incredibly uncomfortable if you have large hands. The deep curves in triggers force my fingers into unholy angles. I don't play smash, but i was in agony playing Metroid Prime.

 

[Musubi]

Its a garbage controller even for smash pro controller feels better. I'd say it rates as one of the worst designed for sure.

 

[UltimateHigh]

It's been a long, long time but I do remember the controller being quite comfy.

I didn't play a ton of games on that system though, mostly just some first party stuff.

 

[Fisty]

Gamecube controller was alright, its basically a redo of the N64 abomination.

 

[Lentic]

The GameCube controller is like if you took early 00s UI design and turned it into a controller. It's a hideous, unpractical monstrosity.

 

[ThEoRy...]

Game Cube controller is shit tier. Not sure how anyone played Soulcalibur 2 on that thing. Giant A button surrounded by oddly shaped buttons and a shitty micro Dpad. I tried to give it a try but it was just horrible. I'm sure it worked well for Nintendo developed content that was designed to be used with it or vice versa. But it's gonna be a no from me dawg. I'm a claw player with large hands. It was just an uncomfortable, unintuitive mess for me.

 

[DonMigs85]

It's good for Smash, platformers and Rogue Leader but the lack of clickable sticks and missing shoulder button kinda hurt it. Plus the tiny dpad

 

[Tahnit]

So i got a gamecube controller to play smash and I think im gonna take it back immediately. The left stick feels too slippery under my thumb and my hand feels cramped. Also rumble doesnt seem to work so i think im just gonna give up on gamecube controllers for smash. maybe it was a nostalgia thing but I thought it felt better than this.

 

[Professor Beef]

The Duke exists.
The Jaguar controller exists.

Gamecube controller isn't bottom 3, but it ain't great I can say that.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

He's 100% right.

 

[Vert1]

Gamecube has the best analog stick in gaming. Here's a fun excerpt on it in a review:

Gameplay: 7/10
Here is where the ball was dropped (once again, pun intended. Laugh it up.) On the first easy stages you won't notice any difference between this and the Gamecube versions. Everything seems fine. But when you get to the more advanced levels you start noticing that you have far less precision in your control than you do on the Gamecube. At first I thought it might be because the Gamecube analog stick is superior to the Xbox analog stick. But now I'm not entirely sure, though I haven't ruled out that cause. When you try to make minor adjustments to the left and right, there is a bit of a dead zone in the controls. By the time you move the stick far enough to get the monkey to turn, it starts turning way too fast because the stick has been moved so far. As such it is impossible to navigate some of the more advanced levels that require precise, God-like control. This doesn't seem to be much of an issue when tilting forward and backwards, though. This probably won't be a huge issue for most people because most people suck at Monkeyball and other significant aspects of life. But it is a big deal for me since I am the Super Monkey Ball KING! However I was still able to defeat the story mode fairly easily, and the minigames do not seem as affected by the control debacle. Anyway, you get stages from SMB1 and 2 as well as 40-some-odd new stages. You don't select whether you want to play SMB1 or 2. Instead they are all combined into the main game and their stages are interwoven into the SMB2-style presentation. SMB1 stages have also been given names (they had none in the original game). The story mode is extremely stupid, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the game you are playing. Oh well, it is fun anyway. The minigames are all unlocked from the start and are presented well. Monkey Target is still the best! You can unlock more Monkeys per continue, and some other crap that doesn't matter. But since the control was ruined for the main game, I can't give it as much praise as the Gamecube versions. It makes the upper levels absolutely impossible. For shame! After playing the Xbox version for awhile, I plugged in the Gamecube version. It was like I was paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair for life and all of a sudden I was up sprinting around freely with my own legs!

Click to shrink...

 

[Notaskwid]

It's not worse than the N64 one, but it's up there in the bottom, your friend is not wrong.

 

[CO_Andy]

its the best and worst controller at the same time

it's missing so many features, but my gawd is it the comfortable controller i ever held in my hand

 

[Bishop89]

It is an awful controller. Your friend isn't wrong

 

[icyflamez96]

I don't think it is a super popular opinion, but I definitely don't think it's nearly as loved irl as it seems to be on the internet

 

[dock]

I love the GameCube and I even own three wavebirds and the official component cables. I agree that the controller is bad.

Precisely what is it about Smash that needs the GameCube controller? Has this been explained anywhere?
I can well understand people wanting arcade sticks or precise d-pads for 2D games, but the GameCube's analogue stick isn't special.

 

[Notaskwid]

I don't think it is a super popular opinion, but I definitely don't think it's nearly as loved irl as it seems to be on the internet

Click to shrink...

Only weird internet Smash fans love that thing.

 

[DanteSparda504]

I cannot stand the Gamecube controller. It boggles me till today that it has somehow stayed a common standard on asmash. Tome it's not comfortable aat all, and the button lay out is just off. Clearly I am in the minority, but I agree that Gamecube has one of the worst controllers I have ever used.

 

[dock]

GC controller does suck generally, but it's incredible for the small handful of games that were designed around it.

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Any examples? I own about 60 GC games and I've never played something that felt like this. Monkey Ball plays fine with any good analogue stick (or a banana 🍌)

 

[Vert1]

Monkey Ball plays fine with any good analogue stick (or a banana 🍌)

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Eh? Scroll up and read my post.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

GCN pad is so good I played games like Rocket League with it. Original GCN pads sell for hundreds of dollars online too.
It was the original super comfortable controller, and I dont think its been topped in that regard yet.

 

[lord_of_flood]

It has its place in Smash for sure, and I do feel it's a great controller for Celeste thanks to its octagonal gates, but otherwise, it definitely has its faults (C-stick isn't good for camera control, D-Pad is too small, and lacks a second shoulder button).

 

[Aters]

I never owned a GC, sometimes the Internet gives me the impression that GC only has one game, which is Smash.

 

[dock]

Eh? Scroll up and read my post.

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The Xbox has a sloppy analogue stick, but we've had better analogue sticks than GameCube.

 

[Kyuur]

Octo gates, primary (A) button prominence and triggers are great.

C-stick and D-pad, Y/X buttons aren't great.

I think that modern dual-analogs are more universal and adaptable to more control schemes. I would say the GC controller is like KBM and it feels better for certain types of software.

 

[Deleted member 42484]

I love the GameCube controller. Mostly for the analog stick, button layout with unique shapes, and the analog triggers with the click.

If they fixed the c stick, added a second z button, and added gyro and HD rumble and NFC, it would be the GOAT controller imo.

The button layout is really intuitive and I much prefer it to a traditional four button layout. For each movement in a game to be associated with a unique shape, in my opinion, connects myself to the movement in a more intuitive way than pressing the same shape in a uniform pattern. In a game like Smash Bros or Metroid Prime it just made sense.

 

[Chaosblade]

I think it's fine for games that are designed around it, but otherwise it's a bit limiting. Along with the missing shoulder button B is so far away from Y and X it can make some control schemes awkward, especially when changing the button mapping isn't possible. I do think it's comfortable though.

Amusingly, I do feel like Ys vs Sora no Kiseki almost feels designed for a GC controller despite being a PSP game. That's the only non-GC game I've ever played where I was like "man I want to use a GC controller for this."

 

[Vylash]

worst of all time is a bit much when the n64 controller exists, but I do think it's pretty awful and I never really got the intense adoration for it

 

[Etain]

It's a great controller for games designed around its layout, decent-to-awful for everything else. I think something like the Jaguar controller is worse but it's kind of poor as a general purpose controller.

 

[pixelation]

NES controller?... bad ( that pain on the fingers, those sharp corners). SNES Controller?... that one was good for the time it came out, buttons were rounded and so were the controller edges. N64 controller?... simply one of the weirdest, ugliest, most uncomfortable controlllers ever. Gamecube controller?... It felt weird, like a fisher price controller with the colors and the buttons having different shapes and colors and asymmetric analogs... it just felt plain weird in my hands. Wii controllers?... they were cool for the novelty factor, but after it wore off i came to dislike them because they felt disjointed, commanding the analog with one hand and ( most) action buttons on the other just felt weird and unnatural to me ( don't even get me starting on all the controller shaking). I can't mention the Wii U because I never played it. And the Switch... well the controls are very similar to the Wii's ( in that their two parts, only difference is that you can combine them into one) and the buttons were made for elfs, they're 'effin tiny. I guess what I am trying to say is that personally speaking Nintendo doesn't have the best track record with their controllers in my honest opinion. I would say that their best controller was the SNES controller ( for its time) I don't think its a coincidence that the first ever Playstation controller looks a heck of a lot like the SNES controller.

 

[Deleted member 12186]

Why do the analog triggers feel so good? Why are the sticks perfectly tensioned and in the most ergonomic one high one low layout? Why is the A/B/X/Y layout so intuitive? Why does the A button feel so good?

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My glass half full guy <3. Together we have a full glass. A holistic view of the gamecube controller.

 

[Pargon]

• It's tiny.
• The sides are straight rather than being ergonomic.
• It has too few buttons.
• The face button layout requires you to move your thumb to hit all of the buttons; e.g. alternating B/X.
• The analog sliders and z-button are mushy.
• It has that c-stick instead of an analog stick.
• The sticks are gated for 8-way movement.

It's far from being the worst controller though. If you think it is bad, you haven't used many. But it's not great either.
The Wavebird is worse. It's even less comfortable to hold, and makes too many compromises for the sake of battery life (no rumble, sleeps too aggressively).
The only people that seem to love it are Smash players for some reason (I don't play Smash, so I have no idea why).

 

[MysteryM]

I still have 4 genuine gamecube controlers and two wavebirds. They were comfortable controllers but never amazing, and yet they are overhyped like crazy.

I preferred the original xbox duke from the same time period compared to the gamecube controller, and it definitely is not to GOAT controller - we have the xbox one controller for that.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

• It's tiny.
• The sides are straight rather than being ergonomic.
• It has too few buttons.
• The face button layout requires you to move your thumb to hit all of the buttons; e.g. alternating B/X.
• The analog sliders and z-button are mushy.
• It has that c-stick instead of an analog stick.
• The sticks are gated for 8-way movement.

It's far from being the worst controller though. If you think it is bad, you haven't used many. But it's not great either.
The Wavebird is worse. It's even less comfortable to hold, and makes too many compromises for the sake of battery life (no rumble, sleeps too aggressively).
The only people that seem to love it are Smash players for some reason (I don't play Smash, so I have no idea why).

Click to shrink...

I agree with all of this except the gated analog stick. I actually prefer that and wish more analog sticks were like it. Makes it easier for precision with a stick. Playing Super Monkey Ball without a gated stick isn't the same.

 

[Deleted member 45261]

I love it. I just bought the fourth one for Smash multiplayer. The gc controller fit in my hands very well. My friends love it too. I admit we are strange, we like n64 controller too.

 

[TheGhost]

I mean your friend wouldn't be wrong, it's the reason why it was the first Nintendo system I ever skipped. It just looked weird. Though I doubt you'll see a mass majority of enthusiasts saying that here during the height of smash season. That was my thought when I saw it and after I used it at a friend's.

 

[Habino]

Friend is right

 

[Fizie]

Well it wasn't great - MS really set the standard with the Xbox S controller

 

[c0Zm1c]

Unfriend him!

 

[undecided]

I will agree that it is one of my least favorite controllers ever. The button layout deviates too much from the superior standard. I believe that was pretty common opinion when it came out.

The smash crowd's continued obsession with it being most people's most vivid memory will make it hard for an accurate appraisal.