7. Wiimote and Nunchuk
Love it or hate it, the Wiimote was one of the most innovative controllers by miles. Featuring full motion controls which were enhanced with the Wiimotion Plus, the possibilities for this controller were limitless. Everyone remembers playing Wii Sports to see what it could do, but it was capable of so much more. Games like No More Heroes made joyfully clever use of the gyroscope and built-in speaker to have Travis answer his phone by holding the Wiimote up to their ear. Titles like Monster Lab pushed the Wiimote to its full potential with a wide variety of mini-games. Nintendo put a lot of tech into its controller, and while it persisted into the Wii U, it still feels like an underutilized piece of innovative brilliance.
6. Dualshock 4
PlayStation knew they hit gold with their original controller on the PS1, as ever since then they have only made slight refinements to the model as opposed to Nintendo’s idea of scrapping a controller entirely and starting from scratch each generation. The Dualshock 4 was Sony’s answer to Xbox’s controller and one that looked to step up their game that much further. Smaller and with a familiar button scheme, the Dualshock 4 features pressure-sensitive triggers, lower profile joysticks, a more ergonomic D-pad, as well as the touchpad at the top of the controller and the Share button which allows for instant access to post screenshots and videos to social media and streaming services. It lives by the moniker “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and it certainly isn’t broken.
5. Joy-Cons
Speaking of Nintendo’s innovation and wasted potential, the Joy-Con controllers for the Switch are arguably one of the most impressive pieces of tech on the market and they are being criminally underused by developers up to this point. When the controllers were announced we were greeted with information not only about the built-in camera that can recognize shapes and distance, about the advanced gyroscope and accelerometer, but also the HD Rumble which has been utilized in one demo on 1-2 Switch or the more impressive density shift feature in which the controller was supposed to be able to make itself feel heavier. These are mind-blowing innovations that everyone seems to have forgotten about as no developer is using them. Add to the fact these features are packaged into tiny controllers which double as their own basic controller and have a ridiculously high battery life, I cannot believe these have been as underused as they have been. The Joy-Cons are a pinnacle definition of innovation and as such they simply aren’t being used.
4. The Oculus Touch
I have used the Oculus Touch controller. I have been absolutely floored at what it is capable of in a VR game. The only reason we don’t talk about this more is that VR is still very much a niche market due to its thin library of AAA titles and its rather high price point. The Oculus Touch consists of two controllers each not unlike the Nintendo Nunchuk, however, the controller is surrounded by a ring of sensors to pick up your individual finger movement. I cannot describe how cool it is to need to interact with a control panel in game and actually extend your fingers to hit the buttons. These controllers are so comfortable it’s easy to forget you are holding anything, which makes immersion that much more intense in VR. Individual finger triggers also help you effortlessly interact as you can’t simply look down at your controller to find the right button; it was intuitive and beyond comfortable to say the least. I wish this control scheme was more readily available in gaming as it is truly groundbreaking.
