Best of all, it didn't require a line of sight connection, so long nights of playing Super Smash Brothers Melee weren't interrupted every time your friend crossed in front of you to grab a soda. The WaveBird for the Nintendo GameCube introduced us to a low-latency wireless controller that didn't try to be more than it offered - a wireless version of the already great GameCube controller, with a little more weight to it. And while not every attempt has been a success, Nintendo’s first attempt at a wireless controller became an instant classic. Nintendo GameCube WaveBirdNintendo is known for its outside-the-box approach to controllers, and that’s already been shown on this list.

As more developers designed games around Nintendo’s new pad, the L/R bumper setup would eventually set the standard for how gas and brake pedals would be mapped to console controllers for decades to come.

Games like Super Mario World perfectly used the new button configuration to enable players to sprint and jump at the same time, while the L and R buttons doubled as paddle shifters and drift control in racers like Top Gear, F-Zero, and Mario Kart. Gunpei Yokoi’s groundbreaking Game & Watch/NES D-Pad design returned alongside the familiar Select and Start buttons, but it was their combination with a diamond-shaped face button layout and left and right shoulder buttons, and the versatility of play all those new buttons brought, that would define game controllers. While Nintendo’s NES controller deserves all the credit for ushering in the more modern gamepad revolution, the rounded, more ergonomic Super Famicom (SNES) controller took everything that worked before and improved it.

Ps1 controller button layout