5.  Virtual Boy Controller

It likely comes to no one’s surprise that one of the worst controllers ever comes from one of the worst systems ever.  Long before the days where dual thumbsticks would become an industry standards, Nintendo rather uniquely tackled the issue of moving around in a three dimensional space.  To navigate the once-promised 3D realms of the Virtual Boy, Nintendo added a second D-pad to the controller.  The idea was that each D-pad would control movement across a particular plane.  To begin with, this concept is vague since we’re really dealing with 3 planes when we’re talking 3 dimensions.  Furthermore, it would seem that only 2 additional directional buttons would be required to move along the third axis instead of a complete D-pad.

Whatever their thoughts may have been, the Virtual Boy never really evolved enough to make any practical use of both D-pads.  On the rare occasions that both were needed, movement was a confusing and clumsy affair at best.  Though I believe in the wealth of raw potential of this set up, the Virtual Boy tanked, the industry headed in a different direction, and alas, the world will never know.

Written by The Cubist

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