Resident N64 pad defender here. It’s fine to dislike the controller, but I’m never really sure if the “I don’t have three hands!” complaint is a joke or just based on people who never played any N64 games or what.
You’re not supposed to use all three prongs, ever. It’s just a hedge-betting controller. Nintendo was afraid people wouldn’t like the new, 3D style of game control and would demand a return to traditional D-pad input.
The N64 controller was their solution: if 3D movement is just a fad that dies out, well, move your hand over a couple of inches and forget about the analog stick. Now you’ve basically got a SNES pad with six face buttons and better ergonomics.
Obviously, 3D took over that whole generation and there’s probably less than 10 games that need D-pad movement, so it ended up being fairly pointless in hindsight. But I can’t argue with anybody who starts their design process with “What if gamers hate this new style of input?” because when don’t they.
Resident N64 pad defender here. It’s fine to dislike the controller, but I’m never really sure if the “I don’t have three hands!” complaint is a joke or just based on people who never played any N64 games or what.
You’re not supposed to use all three prongs, ever. It’s just a hedge-betting controller. Nintendo was afraid people wouldn’t like the new, 3D style of game control and would demand a return to traditional D-pad input.
The N64 controller was their solution: if 3D movement is just a fad that dies out, well, move your hand over a couple of inches and forget about the analog stick. Now you’ve basically got a SNES pad with six face buttons and better ergonomics.
Obviously, 3D took over that whole generation and there’s probably less than 10 games that need D-pad movement, so it ended up being fairly pointless in hindsight. But I can’t argue with anybody who starts their design process with “What if gamers hate this new style of input?” because when don’t they.