My Design for a Video Game Controller

My first console was the Sega Genesis and I always wondered why games never used the X, Y, Z buttons. Bullshit, right? Actually, no! Look at this thing, it's actually pretty cool.

Note: This is actually the Saturn controller, but little difference from the Genesis.

6 Buttons on the front. What are you going to do with them all? I don't know! You know what it looks like, right? The same controller Nintendo used in it's next gen controller.

What do you guys think? Appropriation or coincidence? Were all these yellow buttons used that much anyway? I remember they were used in Zelda 64 for different things you could program yourself and it was actually handy. In Smash Bros however, they all did the same thing and were actually excessive. Nintendo also got rid of the Select button. I think I want it back. Oh, and lose the middle handle. That's bullshit.

Now, here's something peculiar.

My poor fucking right thumb!

People at Microsoft must have mutant thumbs. Pretend you're holding a controller right now and move your right thumb across imaginary buttons in a horizontal arrangement like the Genesis or the N64.

It works, doesn't it! Now, try moving your thumb up and down across an imaginary controller shaped like the original XBOX controller. What the fuck! When I was a teenager playing XBOX for the first time, I could not get over this! I feel vindicated that they have since changed it! Their d-pad sucks too. What else? If you try to press start or select with your right thumb, the right toggle is in the way! Can those buttons be any lower on this controller! It's a stretch to get your right thumb to that start button! I still hate everyone who ever defended this thing, argh!

Microsoft redeemed themselves though. I've been told that the new XBOX controllers were ergonomically designed. Here's the XBOX One contoller.

I like this! It looks sleek and comfortable. The Start and Select buttons are in good places, the D-Pad is perfect, but wait, where did the shoulder buttons go? I've never held one of these, so I don't know what it's like. An earlier incarnation of this controller had a shoulder and a trigger button on each side, but I guess that was excessive. If you're going to pick one over the other, I guess the trigger will do.

What's odd about this too me is the X,Y, A, B buttons. Only four? Well, in some ways the right toggle can be another set of 4 buttons. That means this controller technically has not lost any buttons from the PS controller or N64 buttons. Same number, and I guess the Sega controller with 6 buttons means your thumbs have to move around a lot if you have a function for every button. This is conservative and efficient.

So, what kind of controller would I design? This one.