What makes a Game Controller Good?

I’ve reviewed a whole bunch of controllers recently, so I thought now would be a good time to go over what actually makes a controller any good. What to look out for, what’s worth extra for, and what to avoid like the plague. By the end of this video you should know enough to make an informed decision on your next controller purchase, so let’s dive straight in with the most important part, the joysticks.

Joysticks are the primary input for controllers – sure, they are some controllers that don’t have any, mostly old NES and SNES style controllers, but you won’t be playing most games with those – and how they feel and function is crucial to a good gaming experience. You may have heard folk like me talking a lot about “hall effect” or “TMR”, in short, normal joysticks use potentiometers which have a physical wiper that wears out and rather easily starts drifting, and then fails outright. That’s really annoying. Hall effect and TMR sticks use magnets and a little sensor instead of the potentiometer, so they never drift, and almost never fail outright. You want HE or TMR sticks. The difference between the two is that generally TMR is better – a little more accurate and power efficient – but realistically it doesn’t make that much of a difference. Either will do a good job for you. As for feel, while that mostly comes down to personal preference, there are some features that can adjust the feel. Most decent controllers have smooth glide rings around the edges for a nice feel, and some even have metal stalks (or stalk sleeves) to make moving on the edge feel great. Some can even adjust the weight of the stick, which can alter the feel a lot too. 

The other thing that is increasingly becoming hall effect are the triggers – those too normally use potentiometers, and while it’s more rare to find a trigger drifting or failing, it isn’t impossible, so, hall effect improves things. Although, if you use a controller for FPS games, the feature you should be looking for are trigger locks. Ideally the kind with microswitches. Basically these are little toggles on the back of the controller that let you not only lock the trigger to a very small range of movement, the best kind actually slide a microswitch in there so you get a clicky button for excellent tactile feedback. This limited travel is great for FPS games as it gives you a more responsive feel, lets you act quicker, and especially with a microswitch feels amazing. Some controllers come with locked triggers only – Scuf, for example – while my preference is for the ones that have the toggle to make the controller much more useful for any genre of game, not just FPS games. 

Speaking of tactile buttons though, that’s another thing the fancier controllers offer. Razer offers a few styles, from actual tactile mechanical switches, or their “mechatactile” switches, basically a clicky button that feels a lot nicer, actuates a little faster, and should be a little more reliable long term too. Anything but mushy buttons. That goes for the D-Pad too, a nice tactile feel with good directionality can make a big difference to your experience for sure. Some controllers also come with extra buttons, mostly paddles or buttons on the back, although some do have a few up the top too for claw grip players. Those can vary quite a lot too, both in design and feel. Some controllers have back buttons that are just frustratingly easy to hit while just holding the damn thing, while some are almost out of reach for most people’s hands. That also kinda comes down to personal preference though.

Since we’re talking about design, it’s worth talking about the overall controller design and layout. Obviously we have the two main layouts, Xbox or PlayStation, or in other words, offset sticks or inline. Generally speaking anyway, Xbox style controllers are best for PC gaming, with the notable exception of the Hyperkin The Competitor controller I checked out recently, which is a PS shape controller, but is actually an officially licensed Xbox controller! That’s a fun one. Obviously which you prefer comes down to personal preference too, although there are some controllers that allow for customisation of the layout – that’s a rare one though. Thrustmaster has a lineup that lets you pop out the sticks and D Pad to change between Xbox and PS layouts, which is pretty sweet. Actually, since we’re talking interchangeable parts, that concept is a lot more popular than you might think! ZD Gaming’s controller has interchangeable joystick modules – even though the default is some really nice TMR sticks that should outlast the rest of the controller! A bunch of controllers have interchangeable joystick tips – some for customisation’s sake, like the Hyperkin one that offers both PS domed tips and Xbox concave tips, or Razer with their taller tips for pincer grippers – and some are more for performance, like the Nacon’s slip ring weights. You’ll often find interchangeable D-Pad plates too, in a few different styles to suit your preference.

There’s also a collection of extra features we haven’t yet mentioned, from frivolous like RGB lighting you can’t see because it’s in your damn hands, to extreme like the Nacon’s built in screen and mini OS. The trigger locks we mentioned already, extra buttons, and even stuff like remapping functions – either on the controller itself, or in a configurator software separately. It’s also worth noting the connection mode – some are wired only, like the Hyperkin, whereas I’d say most are wireless as well, although many have special features only available when running wired, namely a higher polling rate. In short, USB peripherals send packets of data to your system (or console) on a timed basis. Consoles cap those packets to every 4 milliseconds, or 250Hz, but PCs can take as many as you can give ‘em. Mice are now regularly 8,000Hz, or 0.125ms between packets, and controllers are starting to offer higher polling rate options for PC, mostly wired only, but occasionally over wireless too. That’s a lot more rare. The higher the polling rate, the faster your inputs will be registered, and the smoother joystick movements should be too. That is quickly becoming a really popular feature too, not just 1000Hz, but 2 or 3,000 – like the ZD Gaming controller I tested recently. It’s also worth adding that even if they do have wireless connectivity, some especially cheaper ones can be really flaky, so keep an eye out for cheap dongles as that’s often a give away that the wireless sucks.

Oh, and we can’t forget vibrations! Some controllers have better vibration motors than others, and some people prefer to turn it off fully, so again the level of customisability and control can be quite important. Some controllers – again the Scuf’s of the world – actually remove the motors entirely, although again I prefer to be able to tweak it as and when I want, rather than have it yanked out for good. It is also worth mentioning the actual build quality too. Some controllers – even cheap ones – can actually feel pretty nice, but equally a poor build quality can really detract from your experience regardless of features.

A truly great controller then will have HE or TMR sticks, HE triggers with trigger locks, tactile buttons, a few extra well placed buttons, good customisability and repairability (like swappable joystick tips, as those are basically consumables anyway), a high polling rate option ideally over the wireless connection, good build quality, and of course a decent battery life. At least, that’s what I’m looking for anyway.