10 Most Innovative Gaming Controllers Ever Made

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Without innovation, gaming would’ve never reached the heights it has. It’s the most valuable industry in the entertainment sector, dwarfing the likes of movies and music in terms of the revenue it generates. From the days of Atari’s rise (and fall) to the current three-pronged charge led by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, the gaming industry has seen numerous developments that have shaped the memories of millions. While there’s a growing sense of resentment at the lack of innovation in modern AAA game development, this homogenization has arrived after years of research and playtesting, with developers trying to figure out the best way to let players enjoy a sense of control in their games.

Naturally enough, this has led to controllers becoming quite similar across consoles as games try to appeal to a player’s sense of familiarity. Innovative controllers are largely a thing of the past, although there are glimpses of brilliance in modern designs that show what a manufacturer can achieve when they aim to do something special. Controllers that nail alternate designs that have never been tried before or enhance the immersive qualities of this peripheral usually end up on the right side of history.

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most innovative video game consoles of all time, using a hybrid layout that helped it appeal to both portable and home console enthusiasts. Given this unique design, a controller had to be designed that worked in both docked and portable mode. This led to the debut of the Joy-Cons, an innovative piece of machinery that locks onto the console from both ends to look like a wider Wii U remote. This also doubled as a convenient way to charge the controllers. Meanwhile, players who’d prefer gaming on a bigger screen can unlock these controllers and use them as a standard controller. There’s even a separate Joy-Con Grip to help it morph into a regular controller, albeit a slightly clunky one.

The best part is that each individual half of a Joy-Con can also work as one single controller on games with simpler control schemes. This essentially gave you two controllers with one purchase and made it the best console for couch multiplayer sessions. Sure, the dreaded Joy-Con drift was widespread and unacceptable, but the controller itself made huge steps in innovation around a time when the two-pronged gamepad design had become so ubiquitous. The newer iteration of the Joy-Cons for the Switch 2 is largely similar, although the addition of a mouse mode that used this new model’s magnets was yet another great innovation to add to the mix.

The Nintendo 64 is a beloved console, bringing us classics like “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,” “Super Mario 64,” and “GoldenEye 007.” All of these games felt great on the first-ever controller to add an analog thumbstick to the main body. The fact that every gaming controller in sight does the same should make it clear just how important this single piece of design was. As convenient as D-pads were for most 2D games, the N64 was ushering in the 3D era. Moving around in all eight directions would’ve been clumsy with directional buttons, which is why the thumbstick was such an integral part of the N64 controller.

The Nintendo 64 is also the first-ever controller to add rumble functionality to its controller, although it did so in a roundabout way. Players needed to purchase a separate Rumble Pak accessory and attach it to the controller. Since it was an optional accessory, not every developer added vibration support to their games. Still, you could expect most of the console’s mainline titles to make the most of the Rumble Pak, and the introduction of this accessory proved that haptic feedback could play a great role in enhancing the player’s immersion.

“Dance Dance Revolution” was a hit in arcades in the late 1990s, but its impact on home consoles would’ve been diminished without its iconic control scheme. As a result, every copy of “Dance Dance Revolution” on the original PlayStation came with a soft dance mat to emulate the same. The result was astounding, with these dance mats becoming a niche gaming peripheral that’s still popular to this day. The modern “DDR” games use these mats, alongside open-source rhythm games like “StepMania.”

If you want a dance pad to play these games — and even try out titles like “Crypt of the Necrodancer” with alternate controls — then a soft dance pad can be purchased for under $30. Higher-quality dance pads require more of an investment, with L-TEK’s premium dance pads costing more than $400. While rhythm games that use a dance pad are a rare breed, the fact that these alternate controllers exist to this day makes it clear that the DDR Dance Pad did something special. If nothing else, you can use this gaming peripheral to get fit, as dance games are certainly physically demanding.

There’s a reason why “Duck Hunt” has etched its name in the annals of video game history. This game came packaged with an NES peripheral that used an innovative piece of design to help you feel like you’re shooting down ducks (or clay pigeons) to avoid the frustrating disapproval of a dog. The NES Zapper uses a photodiode that senses light, which helps it register whether you made a hit or not whenever you shoot a bullet at the target.

Let’s take a look at how “Duck Hunt” actually worked. The entire screen flashed black when you pressed the trigger, barring a single white spot where the duck was at that moment. If the diode in the Zapper senses a bright patch of white light — as opposed to the darkness on the rest of the screen — then it registers a hit. This happens in the blink of an eye and makes the most of the rapid speed at which a CRT’s electron beam lights up an image. Meanwhile, modern LCD and LED TVs are slower at illuminating pixels in comparison, which is why the Zapper will never register the white box in time.

At this point, it should be clear that the most innovative controllers make it a point to prioritize immersion. Such is the case with the numerous guitar-shaped controllers that came with copies of “Guitar Hero.” This rhythm game may not enjoy the same heights of popularity that it used to back in the day, but that takes nothing away from the cultural impact of these titles, as players got their hands on unique controllers that helped them feel like a rock star as they nailed the button inputs for their favorite songs.

The original Gibson SG Guitar Controller released with “Guitar Hero” on the PS2 is a legendary peripheral that started this trend. “Guitar Hero II” came with a cherry red Gibson SG on the PlayStation 2 and a Gibson Explorer controller on the Xbox 360. The release of “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” is when the franchise exploded in popularity, selling more than 16 million units and helping “Guitar Hero” attain the record of being the most popular rhythm game series of all time. It helped that the Gibson Les Paul controller that came with this title was wireless, making it easier to rock out. The buttons, strum bar, and overall build quality also took things a step further, letting players immerse themselves as they strove to get the highest score in this game’s toughest tracks. We’re looking at you, “Through the Fire and Flames.”

The Dual Analog Controller for the PS1 is notable for adding two analog sticks to a controller for the first time (it’s kind of in the name). The fact that this control scheme is replicated in every single controller to this day is a testament to how Sony’s innovation helped shape the very landscape of the gaming industry itself. However, there was one piece of the puzzle still missing from the overall package, and Sony managed to finally make the perfect video game controller after it realized the importance of vibration feedback for a player’s immersion. As a result, the DualShock came to be.

Instead of the clumsy approach Nintendo took with the Rumble Pak, Sony added rumble feedback to the DualShock controller itself. This made it feel more natural and compelled developers to add support for the DualShock’s vibrations to their video games. The most notable example is “Metal Gear Solid,” a legendary entry in Kojima’s action-espionage series, where a boss named Psycho Mantis used his telekinetic powers to make the controller move on the ground by triggering its rumble. It has gone on to become one of the most iconic moments in video game history and wouldn’t have been possible without the DualShock’s innovation.

The NES controller was simple yet efficient, using a D-pad and two buttons to great effect. Most video games at the time weren’t complicated enough to require more button inputs, but it was clear that the 16-bit era would usher in slightly more complex games that required a more robust control scheme. Enter the SNES controller, which added two more face buttons while using a dog-bone design to make the controller more comfortable to hold. However, while these inclusions were smart in their own right, it’s one particular innovation that helps the SNES stand out as one of the best video game controllers of all time.

The SNES controller also added two shoulder buttons to the mix, which ended up being a stroke of genius that has been replicated in every video game controller since. It ended up being a very natural inclusion that players got used to almost instantly. The PlayStation eventually expanded on this concept with two additional trigger buttons (L2 and R2) alongside these shoulder buttons, and the rest is history.

Nintendo intentionally designed the innovative Wii Remote like a regular TV remote to appeal to casual gamers. Motion controls were in their relative infancy, and the Wiimote needed to do something groundbreaking to let players enjoy this control scheme without getting frustrated by misread movements and the like. An accelerometer gauges the remote’s angle and movement, while an infrared camera placed on top of your television helps the Wii Remote figure out where the controller is pointing relative to the screen. The controller’s motion input was so precise that numerous accessories were released to capitalize on this movement and heighten a player’s immersion, including a steering wheel, fishing rod, boxing gloves, zapper, and even a helmet, though that last one was a joke peripheral put out by ThinkGeek.

However, the most important Wii attachment came with the box itself. As great as the Wiimote was for motion-controller games, titles with traditional control schemes required a setup similar to that of a regular gaming controller. By attaching a Nunchuk to the Wiimote, you could use its analog stick for movement and use the buttons on the Wiimote to control actions in-game. If you’ve used the Switch’s Joy-Cons separately in each hand, then you’ll get a basic idea of how it works. The Nunchuk also came with motion-sensing capabilities of its own to make it useful for certain games, with the Archery minigame from “Wii Sports” being a notable example of the same.

While PlayStation’s DualSense retained the traditional look and feel of modern gaming peripherals, the innovation of this controller stems from its integration of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. The former localizes the vibrations of the controllers to its various regions, making it so that you can hold down a button and feel it vibrating underneath or sense the pitter-patter of rain as various small areas on your controller vibrate weakly to emulate the feeling of raindrops falling on a surface. It seems simple, but it’s clear that a lot of engineering trickery went into making this localized haptic feedback feel so natural.

Meanwhile, the adaptive triggers add vibrations, feedback, and resistance to the L2 and R2 buttons. The impact of this can be felt instantly in shooters, where the trigger will jerk back and forth when held down to simulate the recoil of a rapid-fire weapon. It’s just one of the many ways that these adaptive triggers heighten the DualSense’s overall immersion.

Just like the Joy-Cons, the DualSense also showed a tendency to drift far sooner than other controllers, which can be hard to digest for a controller that costs a pretty penny. It seems that the price for innovation in modern controllers is a flimsy build. This controller is compatible with PC, although you’ll need a wired connection to enjoy its haptic feedback and adaptive trigger goodness.

There’s no denying that the Kinect was loaded with problems from the get-go. The idea of hands-free motion technology sounds great on paper, but Kinect didn’t nail the execution of this concept. It was simply too unreliable, making it a tough sell for titles where you could get a Game Over out of nowhere even after following the on-screen prompts. Without any buttons to speak of, complex game mechanics were a nightmare to integrate for Kinect titles. As a result, almost every major developer dropped any notion of developing Kinect games, with Ubisoft and its “Just Dance” titles being the only high-profile developer to continue supporting Microsoft’s failed initiative.

However, to say that the Kinect wasn’t innovative would be selling it short. The Apple Vision Pro uses a similar kind of hand-tracking technology, albeit one that feels far more refined. Perhaps being too far ahead of its time is why the Kinect is dead right now, but its spirit still lives on in VR devices, provided this industry doesn’t die off — a reality that seems dangerously imminent, given how VR game support is also dwindling in a similar manner to what befell the Kinect.