This is a tough one, but I think the people who are trashtalking about the N64's controller A. don't understand history and can't see the advances it brought to the table B. can't get over a few flaws to see it as a damn decent controller or C. Are just Nintendo/N64 haters in general.
First, the classic Atari stick: it *was* a true classic. Back in the day, someone wrote that with its simple and elegant design "it's the only controller you wouldn't be ashamed to have seen sitting on your desk". In fact, for the old
pixeltime site's "technology" section, I made a little 45x45 pixel tribute to it, included here.
It was also cool how it set the standard for many 8bit machines, C=64 and Atari 8bits used it directly and the Colecovision and the Genesis built on it. Plus, it could be rewired for lefthanders...
That said, it was only so-so as a stick. It was too hard to press, it wasn't fast, it wore down and broke, it was slow. Third party sticks, from the ones that came with the Coleco Gemini (known to me as the Columbia Home Arcade) to the tiny Amiga Power Sticks to the amazingly wonderful Epyx 500XJ all put it to shame.
The N64 was a true innovation:
* The re-appearance of the Analog stick. This hadn't been around since like, the vectrex and went hand in hand with the innovation of Mario 64. (and just like the first PSX sticks barely improved on the SNES pad, the Dual Shock ripped off the idea of analog sticks, 'til finally they became standard)
*A lot of buttons, but very intelligently grouped. A vs B buttons were untuitive and not mixed up. Yellow C buttons formed an optional second crosspad, like on the SNES. Z and the shoulder buttons felt right as well.
* 4 ports on the console without a multitap made it THE multiplayer system of the late 90s.
* its expandability, while a little kludgey, allowed later developments like the rumble pack
It wasn't perfect. The analog stick would get worn down a bit, and the top could hurt your hand (especially during the infamus "rotate the analog stick" boards on the first Mario Party). Idiots got confused by the 3 prong design. I don't think not being able to use the crosspad while in 'analog' mode was too big a deal though...there were enough buttons that the crosspad would only be needed for secondary functions.
I don't think any other controller in history raised the bar so much, or had so many features blatantly copied as this controller. Both the Atari and the N64 were innovations, but the N64 got to benefit from 15 years of (largely Nintendo driven) advances in game controllers.
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