time wasting

[egypturnash]

I decided to buy a Gamecube.

This took longer than I expected, because Circuit City did not know just which games were on the list of ones i could choose to come "free" with it. I asked; they had no clue. They were able to extract the product numbers out of the machine, and then, after several minutes of what I presume was tedious grovelling through the database, give me a list of titles.

Mario Party: well, that might be nice, if I ever had, like, people over and had a desire to buy more controllers.
Metroid: Peggy + FPS = bored Peggy.
Starfox Adventures: Rehashes of ugly Argonaut character designs, combined with ugly Rare designs, and reports of legendarily tedious gameplay.
Zelda Windwaker: The winner by default. Plus it's flat-shaded.

Plus Ikaruga which I got last weekend in case it vanished, plus the demo disc. I will not be going anywhere at all Sunday, I suspect.

But a few hours of Zelda already have my fingers aching. Those tiny controllers are not for giant she-beasts such as myself.

Comments

[protocat.livejournal.com]

You are the first person I know who said the pads were too small. I've had friends who have bought smaller pads. o.o

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

You have friends who are midgets. *grin*

My hands are long and slim. Plus I have long fingernails. I've actually encountered controllers in the past (not stock ones shipping with any machines, thankfully) that I could not use because the way the shell was shaped meant my thumbnail would have to pass through the plastic in the proces sof pressing the buttons.

[hydra-velsen.livejournal.com]

The best controller I ever owned was the old NES MAX controller. It fit my big white-boy hands like a glove. Seems like all these controllers now are made to fit little japanese hands.

Just looking at my XBox controller disgusts me. There are 20 contact points on the controller. That's 8 buttons and three 4-contact pads or joysticks. Enough is enough!

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Don't knock the tiny hands. :D Some of us testoterone challenged white folk have stubby fingers too.

[zrath.livejournal.com]

I was never happy with any Japanese console controllers until the PlayStation came out.
That's my favorite design right there. And the X-Box S Controller uses the same button layout.

I worked of Activision and playtested Tony Hawk 2 for both PSX and Dreamcast extensively.
Of the two controllers, the PSX one only gave me a sore thumb.
The Dreamcast controllers gave me honest-to-goodness hand cramps!
They're too narrow for my meaty Kzinti paws!

Gamecube controller? Hate it. Hate the layout. Hate the size.
Really hate the layout. It seems haphazard.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

The stock Dreamcast controller is really hideous if you have long nails, too. I have an adapter that lets me use one of my PS controllers with it. Seems there are such things for PS2 controllers on the Gamecube, as well... I may have to get one.

I think the Playstation controller is one of the best designs out there right now. It's open, so it fits big and little hands; it has a lot of buttons in easy reach, with not much force required (the GC's L and R buttons require way too much effort to press...), and it's pleasantly symmetric.