We have all been there. You sit down to play games over at a friend’s house, they take the good controller, while you get an unworldly abomination that makes you want to vomit as soon as it graces your fingertips.
Over the years, companies have tried multiple variations of regular controllers and unique peripherals that attempt to enhance immersion, but end up falling flat on their faces.
Although we have been blessed with some great controllers in recent years, the past is filled with confusing attempts to come up with unique ways to control our favorite games.
Here are the 10 worst gaming controllers of all time:
The Kinect
When the Kinect was first introduced to the world under the codename Project Natal, it opened everyone’s eyes as to where gaming might be headed.
Playing shooters with nothing but your body, speaking and emoting to an AI that responds to your facial expressions, and much more seemed like it was too good to be true, and it was.
It wasn’t until we finally got Kinect in our hands (or should I say our body?) that we saw just how disappointing the final product was. What was once pitched as the future of gaming quickly became an exercise in frustration at the highest level.
As it turns out, attempting to control games using nothing but your body is a bad idea. Outside of a few dancing games, the Kinect collected dust for anyone who was unlucky enough to purchase it.
When you finally got the Kinect to respond in a half-decent way, it felt more like a miracle than an intended result. Games such as Star Wars Kinect and Sonic Free Riders were shining examples of how the Kinect was a failure from the beginning, landing it as one of the worst controllers of all time.
Tony Hawk: RIDE Skateboard Controller
Have you ever wanted to learn how to skateboard without all of the hassles of actual skateboarding? Well, you might want to look elsewhere.
Tony Hawk: RIDE was not only one of the worst skateboarding games ever created, but the controller needed to play the game was an unresponsive hunk of plastic.
Just take a look and have a laugh at how embarrassingly bad Tony Hawk himself looks as he attempts to sell this thing during a Los Angeles Times interview on YouTube:
By using sensors on the side of the board and gyroscopic controls built within the board, you were meant to perform tricks and control the onscreen character by leaning forward and backward.
Needless to say, it did not work as intended and became not only one of the worst controllers of all time, but one of the biggest failures in the Tony Hawk brand of video games.
The Power Glove
The Power Glove was mainly used as a marketing gimmick for the movie called The Wizard, where they unintentionally, but correctly, labeled the Power Glove as being, “bad, so bad.”
The Power Glove promised lifelike control in a virtual reality like setting by allowing the player to use the glove to do things like punch their opponents, or drive a car by simply performing the motion in real life.
Instead what we got was a mind-bending and confusing peripheral that rarely worked and was inaccurate at best. Attempting to play any game with this thing required you to rewire your brain to simply understand the most basic of moves.
On top of that, in order to use the Power Glove on other games, you needed to type in a unique code using the number pad on top of the glove for each game you wanted to play. Although Nintendo has made some great peripherals in the past such, the Power Glove remains as one of the worst controllers of all time.
The Sega Activator
The Sega Activator was Sega’s attempt to get players more immersed in games by controlling the game with their bodies. Think of this controller as the Kinect before the Kinect was ever conceived, but even worse.
While the Kinect was somewhat responsive, the Sega Activator was a giant piece of junk that required players to remap their brains to an oversized plastic circle covered in sensors. By moving your arms or legs over certain parts of the Activator, it would “activate” a different button.
This controller was so mind-boggling to use that Sega had to put out a training video on how to properly use and assemble the controller, showing that not only was it horrible, but was also overly complicated to use.
The U-Force
If you have never heard of the U-Force, consider it a blessing. It was created by a company named Boderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Rather than using your entire body to use the controller, you simply wave your hand over the laptop-like shaped device in order to emulate different button presses. Hovering your hand over the top right may have your character jump, while hovering over the bottom left may be a different ability.
The U-Force’s slogan was “so hot, no one can touch it.” It is probably best that no one can touch it because it was one of the worst controllers ever created.
The U-Force used IR sensor panels that reacted to the user’s hand, but rarely operated properly. The gimmick was that it’s using the “force” to control the game, when in reality, it mostly did nothing at all as its sensors hardly worked and failed to properly work in several games.
The Atari Jaguar Controller
In a last-ditch effort to save the company, Atari released the Jaguar in 1993, the only “64-bit” console on the market at the time. Unfortunately, not even 64-bits could save the console and its abomination of a controller from its inevitable doom.
The Jaguar Controller is a massive unit that was incredibly awkward and painful to hold in a person’s hand for long periods of time, making it one of the least ergonomic controllers ever designed.
In an attempt to future-proof their device, they opted to add not only three face buttons, but 12 extra buttons in a Numpad fashion below the face of the controller. Atari’s idea was that companies would release swappable faceplates to cover up the buttons and show the user what each press would do.
Unfortunately, by 1995, the Atari Jaguar would bring the company’s revenue down by half, leading to mass layoffs and Atari’s eventual exit from the console manufacturing scene.
Phillips CDi Controllers
You may have heard of the Phillips CDi and its partnership with Nintendo to release not one, not two, but three different Zelda games on the platform, as well as a Mario game called Hotel Mario.
These games have a notoriously bad reputation, and it is well-deserved. But their awfulness is amplified by the fact that you had to play using one of the worst controllers of all time.
First, the regular Phillips CDi Controller was more like a DVD Remote, with a couple of awkwardly placed buttons on each side of the d-pad which sat in the middle. So although you could play most games with only one hand, your other hand was left available to rip your hair out while you suffered through some of the worst games ever made.
The other horrible abomination of a controller created for the Phillips CDi was the Phillips CDi Touchpad controller, and when they say touchpad, boy do they mean it.
Just take a look at the size of that joystick! What human on this planet has a thumb long enough to reach the top while your other hand operates the buttons? This confusing piece of hardware still boggles the mind after all these years and only adds to the complete failure that was the CDi.
Intel Wireless Series Gamepad
No, that isn’t a travel pillow, its the Intel Wireless Series Gamepad. This gamepad was meant for PC games that allowed for “full-tilt gaming action.” The only thing full tilt about this is how “on tilt” you will be when you actually try to use it.
Although the controller isn’t a pillow, you may find yourself falling asleep as you try and connect it to your PC as it also required you to own the Wireless Basestation in order to connect it.
The game came bundled with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for PC, but even a great game like that could not save the Intel Wireless Series Gamepad from making the list of worst controllers of all time.
Its awkward shape and massive size remain a confusing choice for anyone who attempts to actually use it as a gaming controller.
The Duke (Original Xbox Controller)
The Original Xbox was Microsoft’s first attempt at a home gaming console, and although they got a lot of things right that ended up spearheading their gaming division to the behemoth it is today, their first controller was a travesty.
Although some people may have nostalgic feelings for the controller, nicknamed “The Duke,” its massive size required hands that were so big that even adults had a hard time handling it.
Its complete lack of ergonomic design and gigantic exterior makes it laughable in comparison to what we enjoy today.
Although it is still serviceable as a controller, its massive size alone lands it on our list as one of the worst controllers of all time.
Boomerang 64 Controller
While the Nintendo 64 controller took awhile for users to get accustomed to with its revolutionary three-pronged design, the Boomerang decided to forgo the middle prong and enlarge the entire thing so that the buttons would all fit.
The Boomerang 64 Controller is oddly shaped and less than ideal for gaming. Its lack of comfort, awkward button placement, and massive size make for a good laugh, but not a great peripheral.
Using the Boomerang forced you to hold it with both hands and twist your wrists in such a way that it begins to hurt only after a few minutes of use. Although the original N64 controller was odd at first, this controller takes the cake when it comes to oddities.
Just be careful when you throw it out of rage that it doesn’t come back and hit you in the face.
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