I always felt Nintendo was rather innovative or at least took risks. Shoulder buttons with the SNES controller. The thumbstick and rumblepack with the N64. Wireless with the wavebird on the GameCube. Motion controls with the Wii. Touch screen with the DS and WiiU.
A lot of these are common sense now but at the times they were introduced they were awesome.
Before then, Nintendo literally invented the crosspad which has been a mainstay we take for granted on game controllers ever since (except for the decade when they had it patented, which is why the directional pads on the Master System, Genesis, PS1, 3DO, etc., etc., from that era are such shit). Even as something as simple as that can be innovative.
Imma let you finish, but the Genesis controller was not bad at all, especially for fighting games that required quarter/half circle inputs it was always reliable for hitting diagonals
I always felt Nintendo was rather innovative or at least took risks. Shoulder buttons with the SNES controller. The thumbstick and rumblepack with the N64. Wireless with the wavebird on the GameCube. Motion controls with the Wii. Touch screen with the DS and WiiU.
A lot of these are common sense now but at the times they were introduced they were awesome.
Before then, Nintendo literally invented the crosspad which has been a mainstay we take for granted on game controllers ever since (except for the decade when they had it patented, which is why the directional pads on the Master System, Genesis, PS1, 3DO, etc., etc., from that era are such shit). Even as something as simple as that can be innovative.
Imma let you finish, but the Genesis controller was not bad at all, especially for fighting games that required quarter/half circle inputs it was always reliable for hitting diagonals
Yes, but it was only reliable for hitting diagonals.
I guess that probably helped for Snake Rattle and Roll, and possibly Marble Madness as well.
The genesis was an arcade powerhouse. Arcades used to use the big ass joysticks so it makes sense their d-pad is good for hitting diagonals.
Interestingly, the Dreamcast had a Nintendo-esque d-pad, but didn’t violate the patent as it worked differently internally.