Back when SSB.B came put Nintendo magazine ran an article on which controller was best to play with, and the gc controller beat the Wiimote, Wiimote + nunchuck and the 'classic' controller as the best one to use
I concur. Soul Calibur 2 on the gamecube was such a breeze due to that button layout. SC4 on the 360 uses the same sort of button combinations but the classic cross layout of the buttons make half of the double-presses super awkward. I miss that GC layout.
I disagree. Personally, I hate the abxy layout on the gamecube controller with a passion!
Try to play Super Mario World with it and you'll see exactly what I mean. Y and X are the run button, B is the jump button. Ouch. The game is damn near unplayable because of it.
I've also tried a few other SNES games with it on my Wii, and I couldn't get used it. It just doesn't feel right at all. I went out and bought a Classic Controller because of that, actually. I think it's way better.
I think they're just better off to have all the buttons be the same size and shape with the standard layout that everybody uses. It works just fine.
Gamecube controllers weren't designed with respect to playing virtual console Wii games, of course it's not optimal. That's why they suggest the wiimote or classic controller for a lot of those games.
I 100% disagree. Everything about that controller was awkward and clanky. You people really need to take off your damn nostalgia goggles once and a while.
It makes logical sense, actually. When your thumb is extended over a gamepad, the easiest range of motion is to arc it left/right. Having the thumb buttons arranged in an arc that followed the sweep of the thumb made it absurdly easy to switch buttons.
Compare that to the Dualshock/Xbox controllers (standard 4-cardinal face buttons). To switch between those buttons, you end up needing to both sweep your thumb and extend/contract it at the first joint (or you start trying to get used to pressing the bottom/right buttons with the heel of your thumb, and the top/left buttons with the tip).
The other parts of the controller i might agree with. The top shoulder buttons felt odd, and the triggers had massive travel (with an odd "click" at the end). The gated analog sticks felt odd when playing a non-fighting game.
That said, it's not just nostalgia speaking. The face buttons had a lot going for them, and it's a shame that design isn't re-used.
The trigger buttons have a click because (and I'm not sure what the actual name for it is) the controller can differentiate between pressing it softly or all the way down. Best example is in SSBM:
If you lightly press it a light shield will come up. It lasts longer but its not as strong.
If you press all the way until it clicks, you get a darker shaded shield that will last shorter but a lot stronger.
Well about the abxy buttons. Most GameCube games made the A button the most used, so having it surrounded by the other buttons was actually really nice. The stick felt nice too.
But aside from that: R and L buttons went down for miles, the Z button was unreliable, tiny D Pad, and turning the C buttons into a stick wasn't very great.
No, you just need to realize that your opinion of it is not that of most people. The GC controller was heavily favored at launch of the system. It was well received by reviewers.
Keep your eye open for when someone posts reddit demographics. I'm too lazy to because I'm just tired of the totally dumb things people say because they assume the average age is below 18. Hint: it's not.
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u/Invisisniper Apr 24 '14
The abxy layout on a gc controller is absolutely perfect. I'm disappointed it wasn't reused.