Wish they would go back to that design.  I much prefer the feel of the raised analog stick to the slide pad.  I can understand the slide pad on the 3DS because the device needs to fold clamshell-style to remain easily portable, however that is not a necessity for a home console controller.

I expect an even more modified version of the controller at E3. Nothing major; just some slight arrangement changes.

I really want the raised analog sticks back to come back, and having Select/Start (or +/-) over on the right side makes a ton of more sense, too.  No clue why that was changed at all. It just makes it harder to reach for those buttons. And raised sticks makes sense, because Nintendo has GOT to incorporate the "click" feature of the sticks so that ALL 3rd party games have the ability to cross over without any doubt of fail.

The changes made in the newest design are ridiculous.

I was never a fan of the analog stick click but it makes sense to include for the sake of parity.

Does the tablet controller have analog triggers? It should (and the digital click).

It's got triggers, but I don't believe that they're analog. That's gotta be corrected, too.

Are they literally the same pads as the on the 3DS?  The Gamecube had a rinky dink borderline useless d-pad because Nintendo used the same one as the GBA, likely to save money as they only needed one part to serve two systems.  Of course they later changed the GBA d-pad when the SP came out so the Cube ended up with a sucky d-pad for essentially no reason.

Having analog triggers and clicky analog sticks to match the competition is a good idea but I highly doubt Nintendo is even considering such a thing.  The execs at Nintendo have probably never held a non-Nintendo controller in their hands.  They don't associate themselves with what the rest of the industry is doing.  Not that many games use the analog stick click so if Nintendo doesn't have it, it won't really matter that much.  I'm just fine with something close enough to be 90% compatible.  With Nintendo that's about all you can ask for.

I can see them adding the analog triggers because the GCN controller and the classic controller both had them. Well, the classic controller had analog shoulder buttons but that's besides the point.

I really wish they had stuck with real analog sticks instead of the weak circle pads from the 3DS.  Nintendo probably used the circle pads on the 3DS because it needed to keep the form factor down for better portability.  I tried out a 3DS demo unit a while back, though, and the things just don't feel "right" to me in terms of responsiveness and degree of control.  There's no reason to be concerned about the Wii U tablet's ability to fit in your pocket, because it won't.  It should be using real analog sticks like the original design had.

I remember reading impressions stating that the tablet controller circle pads feel more like actual analog sticks than the one on 3DS. I assume there's a greater range of motion which is my only real issue with the 3DS slide pad. I'm used to raised analog sticks and it would probably be easier if Nintendo stuck with them but as long as the range of motion is negligible between the 2, I don't mind.

Circle Pads > Analog Sticks

Gotta give credit to the PSP for the first one ...

I'm glad they changed it. So when I watch a video of people playing SSB4 on the Wii U, I won't have to the analog sticks' annoying clicking sound.

My tastes may not be as discriminating as the rest of the individuals here; but when I play RE: Revelations, SM3DL, and Mario Kart 7, the circle pad works just fine for me. I guess maybe I’m enjoying the games too much to realize the circle pad isn’t the paragon of control mechanisms that Nintendo should be manufacturing. Let’s only hope that with Wii U, Nintendo as a company with 25+ years of experience in developing game controllers has any idea what feels right, and don’t turn a cold shoulder to the developers that actually have the console and are giving them positive feedback.

This is correct.

I didn't like the Circle Pad at first, but after playing through Mario 3D Land, I'm quite adept to it now. It always take a while to get used to a new form of control... after all, it really wasn't that long ago that analog sticks were the new thing.

No, it WAS long ago.  Almost 16 years ago.  Instinctively it still seems like a recent thing to me but after thinking about it I realize that for over half my life analog sticks have been standard in videogames and I'm 30!  There are 20 year old adults who don't remember a time where analog sticks were not a standard part of videogames!

It's interesting... I believe the circle pad/slide pad that was first on the PSP and has been massively upgraded on the 3DS is head and shoulders above an "analog stick."  So much so that I would think eventually these pads would become the new standard since they allow the same precision but work ergonomically with THUMBS, as opposed to sticks which were originally designed for an entire HAND to control, and were merely shoe-horned on to game pads.

However, I think there is potentially some kind of do or die association that some segments of the game population have with analog sticks.  Particularly "dual analog"... it's like a badge of honor to be a "dual analog" gamer, or a "twin stick" gamer.  I think they feel it was the first time they could really have something tangible to point to and say "see? my mom can't handle this but I can! I'm a serious gamer!"

I noticed this when first person shooters that used the wiimote were considered inferior to dual analog controls.  To think that pointing and pulling a trigger could be a worse replication than moving a joystick with your thumb and pressing a button? It was really astounding.  But, just as wiimotes required learning to live with split-second lag, dual analog users had to learn to overcome the obtuse inputs and they did - they REALLY did.  They MASTERED it.... thus, anything else they pick up for the first time will be "crap" and gets thrown away or dismissed as something "serious gamers" would never touch.

Just seems interesting especially considering that the PSVita essentially abandoned the awesome circle pad they invented to go with a more "dual analog" set up.  Granted, that initial PSP circle pad was more awesome in idea than execution since it was much too small and did not contour to your thumb the way the 3DS' does.  Regardless.... very interesting indeed.....

You seem to be assuming that people liked the PSP's analog nub (stop calling it a "circle pad", btw) to begin with. I tolerate it, but it's still a far cry from a proper analog stick.

Thanks for reminding me how old I am. I'm gonna go yell at the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn now.  ;)

In MY day we didn't have 360 degrees of control! We made do with UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT!

If the entire world was dual analog, I would seriously be the FIRST to get eaten. I really would. As it stands, I am so mal-adapted to that control scheme, I have to "pretend" to be left-handed just so I can even move my camera around in Halo.

@broodwars

@Kairon

Cool. What control style(s) do you prefer?

Ergonomically, the GC controller was my favorite controller of all time. I'd have loved to see it carry on in future consoles, but the failure of the GC pretty much has sealed its fate. That said, I agree the D-pad could have seen some improvement. It also would have been nice if there were clickable analog sticks as well. Those are the only major gripes I have with it.

The lackluster D-Pad on the GC wasn't really a huge deal though, because it wasn't something a lot of games used prominently. If you were to play NES or SNES games with that controller it would be an issue, but with most GC games the D-pad was used as a set of auxiliary buttons to do things like change your weapon and stuff like that, so it didn't see heavy use most of the time and therefore it wasn't a big deal.

I don't know how much money Nintendo saved by sharing the same D-pad between two systems, but we are only talking about a cheap little piece of plastic that might cost them 2 cents, so if they saved anything by sharing it I doubt it was much. Do people complain about that same D-pad on the GBA? I had an SP so I have no experience with it, but I would figure if it sucked on the GC controller it must have really sucked on the GBA where it would be in use constantly.

I would actually prefer a d-pad similar to the one found on the NES controller to be used with the uMote controller.

I'm doomed because I play every dual-analog FPS shooter like it's Turok 2. My right thumb is "digital", and so is my concept of movement in an FPS most of the time, so I want movement to be on my right and only forward, back, strafe left, and strafe right, with nothing else to get in the way. That can be via buttons, or the GC c-stick as well (love those little angular nooks you can just jam that nub into!).

My fine control is infinitely better with my left thumb, which can think analog, and which I use to look around and do small corrections with. As another legacy of Turok 2, I sometimes try to get the left trigger to fire my primary weapon, which makes sense if my left thumb is doing the aiming.

This is one of the reasons I have to pretend I'm left-handed ("Southpaw") for most dual analog shooters: I absolutely fail at switching those two functions, I cannot understand why they moved aiming, which requires finer movements, to the right thumb when historically the NES and SNES both required finesse on the left thumb while the right thumb just jammed down buttons really hard and fast.

However, i have no problem with using my right hand for mouse control, or for Wii Pointer control. It's only when it comes to thumbs on a controller that my left becomes the only way to aim halfway decently.

Kairon, most FPS games do have options to let you change the layout. Sometimes its not always perfect, but there are times where an optional layout will be more to your liking than the default.

Yeah, I know, hence the fact that I lie to the games and say I'm left handed since that usually gets the controls halfway to where I want 'em. But I rarely if ever get fully comfortable with a control setup, and it's a highly frustrating experience for me. I doubt I'll EVER be able to play at 100% with dual analog controls because part of my brain is doing all that re-wiring of my instincts, and of course in FPS' every twitch counts.

Every millisecond counts in an FPS game, and that is especially true in multiplayer. One thing you may want to try is using a shotgun because with that you don't really have to aim. Just get in close and let the cloud of lead do its thing. ;) There is still a challenge involved, because you have to find a way to get in close without getting killed, but at least it isn't so much a matter of reflexes.

After all this now I'm worried about playing Wii U... If at all possible I intend to keep using my Wiimote and nunchuck, but I doubt that option will be widely supported going forward, argh!

and hopefully this sort of thing will continue to be the future.

worry not, brotha! the Wii U will support all your wiimotes.  ain't no way they're going to abandon that option for Wii U.  at worst, it will be like all the games that supported both wiimote and GC control options this generation.  but really I think the wiimotes and the tablet will work completely in tandem next gen.

I really don't play enough FPS games to consider dual-analog a major factor in my opinion of analog sticks.  I actually think more about games like Mario and Zelda since I associate them with the N64 and thus the whole concept of analog sticks in general.  I just think that on the Gamecube and Wii Nintendo has made a really comfortable and functional analog directional control.  I'd say it's the best in the industry.  So to throw that out and go with a circle pad, well, it better be obviously superior.  Not just equal or comparible, it has to be better.  Why should anyone have to get used to something new if it provides no advantage over the old?

im thinking they might be kinda like the saturn joysticks. Which im fine with because those weren't bad.

I disagree. I find that sticks are easier to use since they provide me with tactile feedback. What I mean by that is, the tilt of an analogue stick lets me know how far in one direction I'm pressing the stick, so it's easier for me to discern what is, say, the halfway point without looking at it. Also, Nintendo's sticks are set inside an octagon, making it very easy to feel out the 8 directions. The slide pad offers no such feedback, so I have to go by what's happening on screen to determine how I'm pressing the slide pad, and that takes longer.

In any case, I don't think it's a matter of one being better or worse than the other. They are both essentially the same thing. One is designed for a handheld, and the other, a home system. There's no reason to switch them.

I recall hearing that too. Hopefully that means that they offer some tactile feedback akin to what I described above.

There is some feedback, the amount of resistive force against the direction you're pushing.

If that is true then it isn't enough for me to notice it.

There is a lot of resistance in the 3DS pad compared to the first controller I know with that scheme which was the NES Max.  It feels like more then most of my controllers. It just doesn't have that grid that clicks you in place.

@ Mop it up

Sure, sure.... I just don't think the minute level of tactile feedback is worth the balancing act PS3/60 analog sticks require.

I do, however, agree that the octagonal base is nice and that ...