The Nintendo Controller

Today I had to make a trip to my local Goodwill store to drop off a couple of boxes of the random things that tend to accumulate in my house. After visiting the donation side, I figured that I would walk through the store to see what it had in stock. Hidden away in a small box on the back wall was a treasure trove of various video games and accessories from years past. There were NES games, Gameboy games, and several PSOne titles; but they were not what caught my eye. That honor belonged to the bright blue N64 controller stashed away at the bottom of the pile. With a sticker price of a mere $0.99, I would have been a fool not to snatch it up.

When I made my way home I plugged it into my aging system, and sure enough, it worked like a champ. Actually, I think that it works even better than my other three controllers. That doesn’t come as a surprise to me; my brothers and I invested countless hours into our N64 and nearly wore out all of our controllers. They have had soda spilled on them, experienced sudden shocks from our ill-tempered bashings (against the floor, usually in fits of Mario Party-induced rages), and a plethora of other near-disasters. I’m slightly shocked that any of them continue to work at all, let alone maintain the performance that they have through the years.

Nintendo may have had flaws and flops through the years, but one thing that they always seem to get right is the controller. Sure, people may not like a specific example because it might not “feel right” in their hands. I totally get that; I personally felt that way about the original Xbox controllers (I always thought that they were too bulky for me). But you certainly can’t fault Nintendo for the durability of their controllers. My original NES controllers are still working like the champs that they have always been, and they were thrown around in endless frustration.

I’m curious to see what the future has in store for the controllers of all three of the major manufacturers. Twenty years from now, will I still be able to hook up the N64 gem that I found in Goodwill today? I certainly hope so, but only time will tell.